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 much for domain investors, but it could slowly shift the pendulum a bit if others emulate Google and opt to use a non .com domain name for their projects. Some people look at Google for best practices, and they could think something along the lines of “if Google can use a new extension for its website, so can I.”
According to nTLDStats.com, there are just 37 .Dev domain names registered right now. I checked 101Domain.com, and it does not look like .Dev domain names can be registered yet.
You just said it: “major companies launching websites on new gTLD domain names will not be newsworthy…”. There will actually be a point where they won’t be newsworthy because new gTLD domain names will be commonplace. Not-coms will be so COMmon that you won’t feel the need to report on new gTLD launches.
Yes, but the key factor for people who invest in the new extensions is “when?”. The new extensions have been on the market for several years now, and from my perspective, they have not made good investments for domain investors. Perhaps some registries and registrars have done well, but I don’t see many notable sales regularly reported.
They’re definitely gaining strength, and it does help when companies like Google use their .brand and actually develop sites on .dev and .new, for example.
New gTLDs aren’t generally good investments for domain investors, they’re much better for investors who actually develop sites.
Spot on, Elliot.
New gtlds are a complete waste of time, effort and money. They will always leak traffic to the .Com and this will never change.