Research

Interviews, books, articles, blogs, documentaries, podcasts, specs etc. form the foundation of dot com et al.

I've listed some burning questions just below that keep resurfacing in my head. If you have thoughts on those, or any domain stories, opinions, resources, or even questions to share please email hello@dotcom.press.

Burning questions

1. How important is dot com (versus alternative TLDs) now and into the future?
2. Is free market domain investing fair? (Or should there have been rules against domaining for purely financial gain)
3. Is it a problem that ICANN's biggest financial backer is Verisign? Does ICANN have other incentive problems?
4. Why did Google really sell Google Domains?

Interviews

I'm interviewing lots of people for the book, so I may publish a list of who all I interviewed (with permission, of course).

Books¹

• The Domain Game: How People Get Rich From Internet Domain Names, David Kesmodel
• Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee
• This Is for Everyone, Tim Berners-Lee
• Declaring Independence in Cyberspace, Milton L. Mueller
• How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone, Brian McCullough
• How DNS Works, Julia Evans

Technical specs, documentation

• RFC 1035
• ISO 3166
• IANA: Retirement of a Country-code Top-level Domain (ccTLD)
• IANA Root Zone Database

Documentaries, talks

• .TV
• From yu to me
• How One Typo Destroyed Thousands Of Computers
• Is the US Giving Up Control of the Internet?, Chris Mondini

Podcasts

• The million dollar mystery behind Milk.com, Planet Money
• Episode 661, Morning Brew Daily
• The Taliban Stole My Domain, syntax.fm
• Where to Register a Domain, syntax.fm
• Buying and Selling Domain Names, syntax.fm
• Domain Management, syntax.fm
• The Domain Name Game, syntax.fm
• The TLD Game, syntax.fm
• Rob Schutz - Domain Brokerage, Venture with Grace
• Rob Schutz - Revolutionizing Domain Acquisition with Snagged.com, The Casey Adams Show
• From naming brands to selling domains, DNW Podcast 551
• The challenges of misspelled brand names, DNW Podcast 550
• Domain name nerve center, DNW Podcast 549
• Catching up with Dynadot, DNW Podcast 548
• Real domain sales results in 2025, DNW Podcast 547
• This year's top domain sales (so far), DNW Podcast 546
• AI is changing the domain business, DNW Podcast 545
• Domain investing on a small budget, DNW podcast 544
• ICANN82 Recap, DNW Podcast 526
• Chess.com, DNW Podcast 518
• Snagging great domains, DNW Podcast 514
• My 2024 domain sales results, DNW Podcast 512
• 20 things startup founders should know about domains, DNW Podcast 511

Articles, blog posts

• A Call for .Com-petition - Reining in Verisign’s Monopoly Over The Internet’s Most Popular Top Level Domain
• AI ‘Friend’ Company Spent $1.8 Million and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name
• AI-Powered Creation is Redefining the Web — and the Domain Industry With It
• Amazon is celebrating its 25th birthday. Here's how the e-commerce giant got its name.
• Battle of the Domain Investors - $500, 1 Year, Who Wins?
• Billions Registered, Josh Quittner
• Buying a domain for $85K, Justin Duke
• Domain Name Goldrush Part 1—The Rules of Play
• Domain second thoughts, Tom MacWright
• Google Domains to shut down
• Google Impact - Team Internet lays off 200, revenue plummets
• Google is shuttering its URL shortening service, goo.gl
• Google reveals how much it paid the guy who bought Google.com last year
• Google Security Rewards - 2015 Year in Review
• HOST.TXT (Naming Computers)
• How does one connect a country to the internet?
• How I Got the Chess.com Domain Name
• How New TLDs Are Making .COM Domains Even More Expensive
• How sheer luck made this tiny Caribbean island millions from its web address
• How To Buy And Sell Domain Names
• How to Secure a Premium Domain - (Escrow, Brokers & Creative Tactics That Actually Work)
• ICANN’s Accountability and Transparency - A Retrospective on the IANA Transition
• IO domain names aren’t going away
• List of most expensive domain names
• Maybe Friend wasn’t crazy for spending $1.8M on a domain after all
• Molly.com - How an Owner Leveraged Lease to Own
• Private equity firm is buying Namecheap in deal that values company at $1.5 billion
• Record breaker - Voice.com domain name sells for staggering $30 million
• Removal of the .YU domain formerly representing Yugoslavia
• Renewing Verisign’s Contract Would Hike Domain Name Prices at 2X Inflation Rate, New Economic Liberties Paper Reveals
• Setting the Record Straight – Myths vs. Facts about .com
• Taliban Shuts Down 'queer.af' Domain, Breaking Mastodon Instance
• The Disappearance of an Internet Domain, Gareth Edwards
• The ‘queer.af’ Mastodon instance disappeared because of the Taliban
• The creator of WordPress on why .blog was worth $19 million
• The End of the Internet?
• The Hidden Cost of a Bad TLD - Why Your Domain Impacts More Than Just Branding
• The Perils of an .xyz Domain
• The Story of bob.com
• The Unfinished Business of a Yugoslav Internet
• Top 10 Domain Extensions for 2025 - Which TLD Should You Choose?
• Tuvalu is a tiny island nation of 11,000 people. It’s cashing in thanks to Twitch.
• Universal Acceptance is the first-mover advantage that may be worth billions, Chris Mondini
• Verisign announces .com price hike to $10.26
• Verisign under fire for increasing .com prices each and every year it can
• What’s the Best Domain Extension for Startups? .com vs .org vs .ai vs .io vs .co vs .xyz
• Whitehouse.com for sale as owner gives up porno biz
• Why Business Must Take The Lead In Protecting The Global Internet
• Yugoslavia's Digital Twin

Reddit threads, forums, etc.

• Ask HN - Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?

Publishing resources

I also read and listened to a stack of resources on publishing. If you are a first time author, Jane Friedman's book is the place to start.

• The Business of Being a Writer, Jane Friedman
• Crafting "Crafting Interpreters", Bob Nystrom
• 640 Pages in 15 Months, Bob Nystrom
• How My Book Launch Went, Bob Nystrom
• Zero to 353 Pages: Bringing My Web Book to Print and E-book, Bob Nystrom
• The publishing world is changing. Jane Friedman tells us how, Grammar Girl
• Blog Your Way to a Book Deal of Bestseller with Jane Friedman, Published
• Be A Non-Fiction Author with Jane Friedman, UFJ Podcast
• Is Print-on-Demand a Class Issue? with Jane Friedman, A People's Guide to Publishing
• Jane Friedman: The Work of a Writer-Entrepreneur, Simply Write
• Jane Friedman — The Publishing Industry is Changing
• How successful self-publishers share their excerpts

The fine print

(1) Books include Bookshop.org affiliate links, so if you buy one I'll earn a 10% commission on the profit (but regardless of my affiliation, Bookshop.org is a terrific Amazon alternative and way to support independent bookstores).