Trollio wrote:
There's a good chance that a lot of names that were previously locked up might become available as people realize that the web boom is not what it was.
That's part of it. About 30,00 to 40,000 names hit the "drop" list each day. This is the first year that the overall number of active domains has gone down, but there are still huge numbers of domains being parked and registered each day.
No one is paying really big money for domains anymore,
Not unless it's a premiere name or very, very short, or a dictionary word. Those still command a high price but not like it used to be. I have a few 3-letter domains that would be worth something but the real value is in developing a domain. People aren't as "name-focussed" as they used to be, hence the rise of domains like flikr, floogle, etc etc. In the "olden days" (pre-2000) a lot of sites gained popularity by word of mouth. Now sites are spread primarily through links so it doesn't matter what the name is or how it's spelled.