The big new gTLD story today was that Google reportedly paid a hair over $25 million to win the rights to operate the .App new gTLD extension (via DNW and TheDomains). There was 13 applicants for the .App extension, and Google prevailed over companies like Amazon, Radix, Donuts, and several others with deep pockets.
I would imagine Google has a lot of faith in .App domain names. Its .How extension has only sold 2,367 .How domain names to date (according to nTLDStats.com), and I presume Google is confident there will be more interest in .App domain names. I would guess that will be the case since I see more utility with .App domain names.
Since domain investors tend to buy domain names in the more popular extensions, I am curious if you plan to buy any .App domain names. Personally, I have no plans to buy any, but I suppose that could change if I see a good opportunity.
Please vote in the poll below and share your thoughts in the comment section if you’d like to expound:
Thanks to Teddy for posing this question on Twitter.
GTLD’s are not for domainers, unless they cost less than $10. I think Google will be smart enough to BLOCK domainer type buys with high pricing, and a selective process for registering generics. The reserves will be large, so don’t think google will be pulling a .science for free so some guy can spend all night trying to register thousands of domains in hopes of dropping them all next year.
It all depends how we can use this gTLD and how much it costs.
It may be that Google will hand these out, perhaps limiting users to one freebie or price them so high that only deep pockets will be able to afford them, thus, pretty much limiting them to in-house use (I’m just speculating — no inside info here).
I do think they have a major plan for it.
I don’t think Google will sell .app domains, at least not right away. More likely they will give them away or somehow allocate them to app developpers. But would I buy a .app domain? Ofcourse, I’ll take game.app, video.app, photo.app, chat.app, messenger.app, search.app, map.app ….
There is a reason Google paid this enormous amount of money to buy .APP
They’re smart there’s a reason and I love to know their plan.
The fact that domainers have no inkling about what they are thinking tells me that it will soon end up in the gtld graveyard, along side all of the others. Lately, gtlds have become mini-sequels for “Gtlds: .dumb and .dumber”, one retarded tld after the other. Google is not immune to failure. It is bound to happen here, just stay tuned.
I see no need for a .app nor do I see a need for any of the gtlds at all. I too agree that it will be a .totalfail
Gtlds are all dead to me.
.TotalWasteOfMoney for both Google and end users alike.
Here’s da thing. The gtlds were a bad a idea. Yes, this particular one was a very expensive bad idea and this particular one was Google’s, but the fact remains that gtlds are still a bad idea. A dead end. A bridge to nowhere. A cesspool lake.
Without hesitation, I predict it to be yet another failed gtld.
There have been some every creative uses of new gTLDs. It will be interesting to see how Google plans to use .app. If it becomes generally available it think there will be value in this TLD.
I’m not an app developer but I have some domain name ideas I think will be good for .app names. I’ll invest in .app if registration isn’t limited.
Ray
Dry Creek Domains