Rush for ‘luxury’ domain names continues | New York Post: "... [Monica] Kirchner, a former COO of Lehman Brothers, told Julie Earle-Levine that she and her partners won an auction for the domain rights and are selling them to companies. Tiffany, Armani, Four Seasons, Bitcoin, Berkshire Hathaway and Hermès are among 1,250 companies that have signed on to dot-luxury and will use the luxury domain extension instead of, or together with “.com.”..." (emphasis added)
As of December 7, 2014, here are the results from just checking ICANN's WHOIS and testing whether each cited company domain name (in the .COM and .LUXURY extensions), "resolves" to an actual web page--
tiffany.com (real website--authentic)
tiffany.luxury (resolves to blank page)
armani.com (real website--authentic)
armani.luxury Go Daddy Parked Page
WHOIS: Original Query: armani.luxury
Registrant Contact: individual in Barbados (Caribbean Island)--no apparent connection to the Armani brand
fourseasons.com (real website--authentic)
fourseasons.luxury available at Namecheap for $488.88
bitcoin.com (real website--authentic)
Registrant Contact Name: individual in Santa Clara, California
bitcoin.luxury Go Daddy Parked Page
Registrant Contact Name: individual in Australia
berkshirehathaway.com (real website--authentic)
berkshirehathaway.luxury available at Namecheap for $488.88
hermes.com (real website--authentic)
hermes.luxury "work in progress" (under construction page)
None of the dot Luxury domain names cited in the New York Post story above are being used "instead of, or together with “.com," while two are "available for registration" and more than one is registered by a registrant with no apparent connection to the "named brand company."
Note to all the new gTLD proponents, hucksters, whatever--if this is the best the new gTLDs can do, they are in deeper trouble than even I imagined! As they say: Get Real, get honest, or go home!
As for Ms. Kirchner, she might want to consider hiring a PR firm with a "fact checker."
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