Google

According to nTLDStats.com, it looks like there are now more than 100,000 .Dev domain names registered. I can see more than 102,000 .Dev domain names in the zone file, and the number continues to grow.

The .Dev domain name extension is managed by Google, and .Dev domain names became available to register via the early access program on February 19. Since general availability phase began on February 28, the number of registrations has grown strongly. From what I can tell, it looks like there were about 5,000 domain names registered via the EAP, and in the last week and a half, over 95,000 domain names have been registered.

The Google Chrome Developer Relations team announced the launch of a new website on a new gTLD domain name. Like Google’s .New domain names I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, the company is using a non-.Google new gTLD domain name.

Here’s the tweet from yesterday afternoon mentioning the recently launched Web.Dev website:

🆕We just announced https://t.co/nDFBkP4gxa⚡️
It is a brand new site form the team behind this account✨Learn how to build for the web and measure if your site is meeting good practice goal❤️

It is open beta Today, so please give it a try & tell us what you think 🙂 pic.twitter.com/ZXZC9v1wvd

— Chrome Developers (@ChromiumDev) November 12, 2018

At some point, major companies launching websites on new gTLD domain names will not be newsworthy. From my perspective, Google’s usage of them is a tacit endorsement of the new extensions, and I think it is noteworthy. For what it’s worth, Google operates the .Dev registry, so it makes sense that the company would be using one of its own new extensions. This is also the case for .New.

Personally, I don’t think this moves the needle

Google is the operator of the .New domain name registry (Nic.new). Yesterday morning, the company’s Google Docs Twitter account shared how the company will be using a handful of its .New domain names:

Introducing a ✨ .new ✨ time-saving trick for users. Type any of these .new domains to instantly create Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites or Forms ↓ pic.twitter.com/erMTHOsdyH

— Google Docs (@googledocs) October 25, 2018

If you visit Docs.new, Sheets.new, Slides.new, Sites.new, or Forms.new, you can see a live example of how these domain names are being used.

Any time a company like Google promotes its new gTLD domain names, I think it’s a pretty big deal. Awareness is one of the most important factors in the life of the new gTLD domain names.

This is a neat shortcut, and it is neat to see Google using and promoting one of its off-brand new domain name extensions. It should also be beneficial to companies with a vested interest in the new domain extensions because more people will see and experience the new extensions.

That being said,