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Top-Level Domain .App Is Now Open For General Registration (googleblog.com)

Christina Chiou Yeh, writing for Google Registry: On May 1 we announced .app, the newest top-level domain (TLD) from Google Registry. It's now open for general registration so you can register your desired .app name right now. We begin our journey with sitata.app, which provides real-time travel information about events like protests or transit strikes. Looks all clear, so our first stop is the Caribbean, where we use thelocal.app and start exploring. After getting some sun, we fly to the Netherlands, where we're feeling hungry. Luckily, picnic.app delivers groceries, right to our hotel. With our bellies full, it's time to head to India, where we use myra.app to order the medicine, hygiene, and baby products that we forgot to pack. Did we mention this was a business trip? Good thing lola.app helped make such a complex trip stress free. Time to head home now, so we slip on a hoodie we bought on ov.app and enjoy the ride.

2 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Done by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With https://f.app/ the internet is now complete.

    I wonder if cr.app is taken yet...

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  2. Re:Nope. by nine-times · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I understand what you're saying, but on the other hand, I could see some possible value from increasing the number of TLDs.

    One of the problems with the domain naming system is that there are a lot of squatters. For a long time, there's been a land-grab to gobble up every desirable .COM domain and hold out for a big payday. There are a lot of companies that go to buy a domain that matches the company name, only to find that [company-name].com is taken, and so are most of the variations that they would want. They end up paying hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the domain that they want, from someone who isn't using it and doesn't even want it. There are actually cases where domain names went on sale for tens of millions of dollars.

    There are various ways to try to solve this problem. One part of the reason the land-grab works is because there's so little land being sold for such small amounts of money that it makes a lot of sense to buy as many potentially useful domains as you can, and sit on them until you find a buyer. One way to try to address that is to increase the cost of a domain, such that sitting on unused domains is less profitable. However, that also creates a big barrier to people who want to start a website without spending a ton of money.

    Another approach is to drastically increase the amount of land. If there are nearly infinite combinations of domains, then it becomes much harder (or at least more expensive) to monopolize all of the memorable combinations. As a result, domain squatters have less leverage-- they may have the exact domain that you want, but you should be able to come up with some other acceptable variation.