Does anyone actually use or go to services on super-generic TLDs like that? I can't think of any billion-dollar businesses that exist at <genericword>.com. I can't imagine they're as valuable as people make them out to be, because businesses have brands that aren't generic words like "money" or "drugs". There's "amazon" but the business has nothing do with rainforests, so it's not like they're benefitting from traffic from people wishing to learn about the rainforest (much like we might imagine money.com would offer a financial service, or drugs.com pharmaceuticals).

> Does anyone actually use or go to services on super-generic TLDs like that?

Well, I occasionally read CNET, which has the domain "news.com".

But, the fact that domain points to CNET rather than something more well-known (and general-interest) is itself great evidence of the unimportance of general domains.

Also, CBS Interactive bought CNET more than a decade ago, and the news.com domain with it. CBS has kept the domain pointed to CNET rather than, say, having it point to cbsnews.com.

The only one that comes to mind is booking.com.

facebook.com maybe as well although it has given the word a new meaning.

I work for the owners of vacation.com , but to be honest the owners have never managed to leverage the domain into a great funnel. They're a multibillion dollar business but not thanks to the domain name.

I’m still waiting for the $45 million spent on color.com and colour.com to pay off...

> Does anyone actually use or go to services on super-generic TLDs like that?

I don't, because those names are almost always used by major corporations and the like, and I almost never am interested those websites.

DIY.com is the website for B&Q, the largest UK retailer of diy tools, turnover £4bn (owned by Kingfisher).

weather.com

Disney still uses go.com

Go.com has basically the same header as disney.com, and the main body content is just a list of web assets owned by Disney-- surprised to see FiveThirtyEight listed next to more traditional Disney content, didn't feel very cohesive. I would speculate this site doesn't get a ton of traffic since A/B testing could likely yield a higher level of conversion for whatever they're trying to achieve here.

pets.com

Redirects to a major retailer for pet and animal products.

Am I really getting old enough to where modern developers know nothing about the dot com crash?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pets.com

Ha, I know that. But my point is, you don't see petsmart.com 302'ing to pets.com. You see the opposite. Which furthers the point that <genericword>.com's aren't that valuable. Since Pets.com didn't last all that long, it might not be fair to characterize it's short-term existence and high-market value as a sustaining, legitimate billion-dollar business.

> Someone wanted a couple $K for the .com variant but there were several other useful variants completely unregistered.

Probably because those extended TLDs are shunned by many users. I know that I tend to avoid sites that use them, because such sites tend to be ones that I prefer to avoid.

There are a few such sites that I'm comfortable with, of course, but those TLDs are a bit of a red flag and sight unseen, I assume they're not for me.