Many applicants for new top level domains have not realised the effort that is required in submitting applications, said Richard Wein, General Manager at the Austrian registry, nic.at, at the Domain Pulse conference in Hamburg, Germany, Monday.

Many of the new TLDs will also have an uphill battle, especially the smaller ones that want the public to buy their domains, to get registrars to sell domains for new TLDs as it will require some expense in introducing the new TLDs into existing registrar systems said Thomas Keller from German registrar 1&1 AG. And for many registrars, it will be difficult to persuade them of the benefit of providing shelf space for more than even just a few of the new TLDs.

One advantage of the new TLDs Wein noted was that when an internet user clicks on a .VERSICHERUNG (insurance) or .REISE (travel) domain name, they will be reassured they are clicking on a website that is involved in the relevant industry. So it is quite possible in this situation new TLDs will not necessarily cause confusion as some are claiming, but rather increase consumer confidence.

As for services offered by any new TLDs, previously Adrian Kinderis of ARI Registry Services has previously talked of his despair at the lack of innovation and new ideas with TLD applicants and he has wondered where the thirst for innovation went.

These views were reflected in comments by Wein who suggested there will need to be new and novel ideas developed. Wein believes a me too approach following existing registry models will probably not work.

But Andreas Schreiner of InterNetWire Communications believes differently, saying innovation will remain an exception for new TLDs and they will probably be used for more profound purposes such as branding, and that innovative concepts may not be their main interests.

Schreiner also believes in countries such as Germany, where there are going on 15 million registrations for the .DE ccTLD, that a scarcity of available names could be a reason people will use choose to register domain names with new TLDs including the city TLDs of which there are probably more proposals that have been made public for German cities than any other country.

But a successful TLD offering registrations to the public will require one key aspect - great marketing, said Keller. The experiences of .CO where they were successful in marketing the relaunched ccTLD, and driving high numbers of registrations, should be a good lesson.