Are you ready for the new gTLDs domain name extensions?
A butt-load of new domain name extensions are going to be released soon and look to be some serious game changers. On one hand, it looks like this land grab could bring some pretty pennies. At the same time, with this many extensions hitting the market, it will drive down the demand of the perfect .com, not to mention the importance of the .com as users grow much more accustomed to non-traditional domain name extensions.
One domain name extension really grabbed my attention
.church
Here’s a full list of the upcoming gTLD’s:
.academy | .ads | .airforce | .app | .arab | .art |
.associates | .auction | .auto | .baby | .band | .basketball |
.berlin | .bid | .bike | .blog | .blue | .book |
.broadway | .budapest | .business | .buy | .bzh | .cab |
.cam | .camp | .capital | .career | .careers | .cars |
.casa | .center | .chat | .church | .city | .clothing |
.cloud | .coach | .codes | .company | .construction | .contractors |
.coupon | .cpa | .cymru | .dance | .data | .deal |
.deals | .delivery | .democrat | .dental | .desi | .design |
.diamonds | .diet | .docs | .dog | .durban | .earth |
.eco | .engineer | .equipment | .estate | .fashion | |
.film | .fishing | .flowers | .food | .furniture | .gallery |
.game | .gay | .gifts | .gmbh | .graphics | .green |
.gripe | .guide | .guru | .health | .help | .helsinki |
.hiv | .holdings | .home | .hosting | .hotel | .how |
.immo | .immobilien | .insurance | .kim | .kiwi | .koeln |
.land | .lat | .law | .lawyer | .lease | .live |
.llc | .love | .ltd | .management | .media | .melbourne |
.memorial | .menu | .mobile | .mov | .music | .news |
.now | .nyc | .online | .paris | .party | .pets |
.pictures | .pink | .pizza | .play | .plumbing | .poker |
.property | .radio | .realestate | .realty | .red | .reise |
.reisen | .review | .reviews | .rugby | .salon | .school |
.shop | .singles | .site | .ski | .solutions | .soy |
.sports | .spot | .surgery | .swiss | .systems | .tattoo |
.tech | .technology | .thai | .theater | .tickets | .tour |
.trading | .university | .uno | .ventures | .versicherung | .vip |
.vodka | .voyage | .web | .webcam | .wed | .wedding |
.wiki | .wow |
Impressive, right!?!
These will be released in the coming months, so keep your eyes-peeled. 😉
What effect do you think this will have on domain name ownership and prices?
Blessing Mpofu says
i the cost of domain will come down as more alternatives are available… however, i’m not too sure of the practicality in terms of length of some of the ltds… guess only time will tell.
Eric Dye says
True story!
Paul Clifford (@PaulAlanClif) says
I’ve been looking for a “short url” so I don’t rely on bit.ly and the cheap three letter domains with two-letter extensions are either taken or pretty random. If the price is right, I might settle for an abc.123 configuration.
Paul
DJ Chuang says
There are over 1,000 new gTLDs approved already, so the list of new domain extensions is much much bigger. The bigger impact will be felt by non-English language users, because there will be domain names with gTLDs entirely in Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and other non-Latin scripts! Also note, in addition to .church being in the works, there’s also .BIBLE and .FAITH that would appeal to Christian organizations, churches, and ministries.
Eric Dye says
True story!
How have you gone about being notified when some of these domains are released?
DJ Chuang says
The definitive place for the latest news on new gTLDs is http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/announcements-and-media/latest
Eric Dye says
Awesome! Thanks!
Curtis says
What? No .temple .mosque .synagogue .wat ? What year is this, 1968?
Eric Dye says
Ha! Good point.
Marcus Williamson says
very cool
Eric Dye says
word
Brendan says
Any idea how this is coming along? I signed up to receive notification from LifeChurch.tv if/when they were approved, but haven’t heard anything.
Eric Dye says
I have not heard, either. I also signed up for on LiveChurch.tv and I follow the RSS feed for ICANN.
Brendan says
LifeChurch.tv just emailed the folks who had signed up for updates regarding the new .church gTLD.
The short of it is that LifeChurch.tv won’t be stewarding the domain but .church will become available in the future via Donuts Inc. (they snatched up a ton of new gTLDs).
I’ve been looking into this process recently. The timeline for .church hasn’t been released yet, but it will start with a “Sunrise period” as a rights protection mechanism for trademark holders before registration by the general public becomes available. There is more info about that process here, http://www.donuts.co/sunrise/sunrise-overview. It looks like it will be around 120 days from beginning of the Sunrise to beginning of open registration.
Here is what the email from LifeChurch.tv said…
————-
Some time ago, you signed up for updates on LifeChurch.tv’s progress in securing the global top-level domain registry for .church. To refresh your memory, we applied to become a registry for a few reasons:
To create a clearly identified namespace for churches and religious organizations, which would make it easier for people to discover, connect with, and share those ministries
To ensure the .church domain would be widely open to churches around the globe and not limited to one group or special interest
To make .church domain names available to churches at an affordable price
Since you expressed interest in .church domain names, we wanted to update you first about a recent development. Another organization, Donuts Inc., also applied for the same name. Since only one organization is allowed to be the registry, we’ve been involved in a process to determine who that will be. We recently wrapped up that process, and Donuts Inc. will be the registry for .church.
While we’re disappointed we won’t be able to steward this resource, we’re pleased that the initial objectives above are likely to be achieved with the new registry.
Because we won’t operate the registry, we are not aware of plans regarding availability or timing for .church domain names. Please direct any questions to Donuts Inc.
We believe the use of .church will ultimately be a win for the global Church and we’re looking forward to seeing how ministries are going to leverage this new space.
Thank you for your interest and support!
The LifeChurch.tv team
————-
Eric Dye says
Yes! Thanks for sharing! 😀
thanksforsavingme says
One thing to keep in mind is that not all registrars will carry all domains, and some may wait to see what kind of interests an extension generates before getting accredited to carry it so check with multiple providers or you might miss out on some great domains.
For example .red is a great option for Canadians who can’t get their ideal .ca name, but some registrars don’t carry it because they don’t think colors will have much of a market.
Eric Dye says
Good point!!!
DJ Chuang says
Dates are announced for .CHURCH domain names -> When can .CHURCH domain names be registered? http://bibletld.org/blog/post/when-can-.church-domain-names-be-registered