Because this indicative of the direction things are heading. The prices of many TLDs are inching upwards. It's not just gTLDs doing it, but also the ccTLDs.

The .org takeover attempt was recent. We've had bad .com leadership with Verisign. Domain registrars themselves can be pretty scummy.

In an effort to outperform the squatters, many gTLDs are pre-allocating "premium domains" and charging $500, $2500/yr for them.

There's lots of greed in domain names. Or opportunity. Depends upon what your perspective is.

Google charging higher for shorter domains or hey.com charging higher for shorter email handles is still way better than having to buy it from a squatter or lost-for-ever to a squatter who is unwilling to sell

Agreed - as long as Google doesn’t become the squatter themselves and charge exorbitant prices.

I got my dream domain because I paid a premium for it to Google. I have to pay the premium every year, which I am fine with unless it increases too much, but I can imagine squatters said no to it because it’s hard to make a profit when you have shell out so much each year for the domain (whereas with .com it is just the starting price + nominal reg fees each year).

> How is a $4.18 price increase worthy of millions of HN readers’ attention on Christmas?

Because, personally, I was already bit in the ass by these price hikes from a gTLD. I started a personal website with a gTLD (.site) that I registered for about $1, and when it was close to expire suddenly the registrar demanded about $30 for it. I decided to jump ship to another gTLD and let the old one expire, to not support this kind of extorsion.

Since then I've been monitoring the state of the old domain name. Oddly enough my old domain name was parked as a premium domain, being on the market for close to $22, while other domain names from the same gTLD are sold for about $1.55.

In my opinion these gTLDs have been managed through extortion tactics, and I welcome any chance of discussing the subject.