The new gTLDs

 

You may, or may not, be aware that last year the principle authority in domain name regulation ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) authorized the creation of nearly 2,000 new TLD extensions. TLD stands for Top-Level Domain - examples of these are .COM and .CO.UK.

The new TLDs, also sometimes referred to as gTLDs with the g standing for 'generic', range from the truly generic (.LOVE, .SHOP, .APP), to the brand-specific (.GOOGLE, .BMW, .AOL) and the geo-specific (.LONDON .PARIS .NYC, ). Whilst the brand-specific trademark extensions will not be available for purchase by individuals most others will be freely available.

These new TLDs are being approved and released over the next two-years. The first releases are expected to go live early next year.

 

Why should you care?

Some of the new gTLDs are likely to become the default/first choice extension in a number of specialist interest areas; .MUSIC .FILM and .ART for instance.

The new gTLDs also provide a chance to get a better, shorter or more relevant domain name. If your site serves a number of different audiences or provides a variety of services it will help SEO to have a specific domain and landing page for each function / user group.

Geo-specific gTLDs will allow search engines to use the fact you have, for example, a .LONDON domain to include your site when someone searches for your kind of business or service in London.

The TMCH (Trademark Clearinghouse) will accept and validate records of registered trademarks and to add them to a central trademark database. This is intended to discourage cyber-squating (the process where another party registers a domain name using a trademark or brandname and attempts to then sell it on to the trademark holder). So you can probably forget about registering disney.film for instance! If you want to protect a brand yourself, you must first register it with the TMCH.

Some extensions have been applied for by multiple registries. Extensions with no objections and only one application will launch first. Of course once a new TLD has been approved by ICANN, it does not necessarily have to launch immediately.

 

Recently Approved Extensions

Some of the more interesting extensions in the first tranche of releases include:
ads, art, blog, business, buy, career, center, city, deal, docs, dot, eco, email, film, food, gay, green, guide, guru, help, hotel, how, lifestyle, live, management, menu, mobile, news, now, online, pictures, site, sport, study, systems, talk, tech, theater, vip, voyage, webcam, wiki, amsterdam, berlin, brussels, cologne, paris, scot, wales...

You can see a full list of the proposed new TLDs here.

If you are interested in registering a domain name, or names, using the new domain extensions please contact us. We will pre-register the domain names on your behalf. We will do this with three of our partner domain registrars, who we hold accounts with. We will also pre-register the domain directly with it's controlling registrar where possible. This will maximise your chance of securing your desired domain extensions. If we are successful in securing registration rights for the domain and you decide to go ahead with the registration we will transfer the domain to your control. Our admin charge for a successful registration and transfer will be equivalent to one years registration charge for the relevant TLD*. In the event of our being unsuccessful in securing the desired extension(s)on your behalf there will be no charge.