If you attended the ICANN Dublin meeting or if you have been following along with the reports from the meeting, chances are good that you know about Dublin.Pub. If you have not heard about Dublin.Pub, go have a look. The website was created by Rightside in conjunction with Basekit and Tapastreet.
I wanted to learn more about the Dublin.Pub website, the partnerships with local pubs on related micro sites, and the objectives of launching Dublin.Pub. I reached out to Bill Glenn, Vice President of Marketing for Rightside, and he shared some information about this website and its purpose:
“The idea for Dublin.Pub was to connect a distributed ICANN community and bring them together in Dublin. It was also to show the beverage industry (and in this case specifically the local pubs in Dublin) the potential to make the social experience of their customers, much more accessible. Rightside partnered with Basekit and Tapastreet to help develop the website and incorporate social media and user generated content.”
Rightside’s Registry operations is based out of Dublin. Part of the Dublin-based team worked with local pubs to sign them up for the Dublin.Pub website and ecosystem. Each pub received its own unique .Pub domain name and microsite at no charge. The micro sites were set up to share photos, location information, and a bit of other basic information (have a look at Toners.Pub for an example).
Rightside promoted the Dublin.Pub website in marketing materials and socially during the conference. ICANN-related meetings and events were publicized on the Dublin.Pub website and on the individual pub websites.
I thought it was a very good way for Rightside to illustrate how their .Pub domain names can be used, and it can also be used to show other registries how they can promote their extensions to specific audiences. I asked if Rightside has plans to do something similar with other extensions, and it looks like it could be done in the future. “We have the opportunity to offer this portal to other event organizers outside of ICANN that plan to host live events in Dublin, and we think that could create a unique, social and fun experience for any event organizers and attendees,” Glenn told me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see NamesCon do something like this with .Vegas or something along those lines.
I was told the pubs are able to keep their domain names (and websites). The advantage for them is that their .Pub extension may be more relevant to tourists than some of the ccTLD domain name extensions they previously used. These new websites were created to be mobile friendly, and I imagine that is beneficial to businesses like these.
I think building and promoting Dublin.Pub during the ICANN meeting was a smart move for Rightside. It showed people in the industry a way they can promote their own extensions to prospective buyers, and it helps to illustrate the value of the new gTLD domain names to prospective end user buyers.
Really great idea and execution. Thanks for sharing.
how much free stuff do they have to give away before the new G’s catch on?
I think this is only .000001 of necessary energy to MAYBE get things going in a direction that changes behavior.
I found the Dublin.pub site a great example of some innovation happening on both sides of the dot. The use of a map, geolocation and social walls to provide instant and community content is spot on and engaging for the SLD. It’s a good idea for many sites regardless of which TLD one uses. The use of the TLD .pub fits perfectly, isn’t forced, and is probably the most appropriate ending out there for the site’s purpose.
Did you guys see neighborhoods.nyc launched last week?
I think this is much better example of using gtld and technology, when the local government behind the idea.