Every day, it seems like more and more startups and companies launch on, or move to, .com alternative domain name extensions. Some do this out of necessity because the matching .com is unavailable or too expensive, and others do it for branding or other marketing purposes. In my opinion, if a company uses an alternative extension such as a new gTLD or ccTLD, they need to embrace the extension in their branding.
Google is the company that operates the .App domain name extension. On the Google Developers Twitter account earlier this week, the company posted a link to a YouTube video where the founder of a startup called Fluz discussed why he chose the Fluz.app domain name for his business.
In the video, the founder mentioned two options that were initially considered: Fluz.com and FluzFluz.com. Fluz.com is listed for lease via Venture.com. FluzFluz.com was registered by the Fluz startup, and it forwards to the company’s Fluz.app website.
The video seems at least partially like an infomercial for .App domain names, but assuming the founder is genuinely sharing his rationale for why he chose .App, I think it’s worth a watch:
This afternoon, Donuts announced that there would be a price drop on 1 million domain names it considers premium. The reduced price domain names are available at Name.com, a consumer-friendly domain registrar owned and operated by Donuts. The news was announced via Twitter:
#Domain #Investors—Over 1 million #PremiumDomains will drop in price on Nov 5th at @namedotcom. Register or preorder now to enjoy lower renewal rates for life: https://t.co/C44CG14tpk. pic.twitter.com/rnFjv5GCld
— Donuts Inc (@DonutsInc) October 7, 2019
Brandsight announced it will be hosting a webinar featuring a discussion I think will be quite interesting. The webinar is called, New gTLDs – The Past, Present and Future. Brandsight’s Matt Serlin and Elisa Cooper will discuss the state of new gTLD domain names, and discuss how the landscape has changed along with what they expect to see in the future.
Apple is the operator of the .Apple extension, but to this day, the company has not registered nor done much with .Apple domain names. According to Dofo, there are just 16 .Apple domain names registered, with the 3 most recent registrations being ApplePay.Apple, Wallet.Apple, and AppleCash.Apple. It doesn’t look like any of those domain names resolve, and Wallet.Apple is the only one that really makes sense to me as a marketable domain name.
According to my morning Registrant Monitor alert from DomainTools, it looks like Apple registered 5 new .Apple domain names within the last week. The domain names that Apple created / registered are:
The .NYC registry team led by Neustar is hosting its annual Best of the Boroughs contest for .NYC domain name users. The contest aims to highlight and award five websites that use .NYC domain names. One winner from each of New York City’s five boroughs will be selected. The winner from each borough will received a $5,000 cash prize.
Here’s more information about this year’s contest:
