.SEXY? .TATTOO? Now Live in DNS? Welcome to the World of NewgTLDs

Home / Blogs

.SEXY? .TATTOO? Now Live in DNS? Welcome to the World of NewgTLDs

	By Dan York Author and Speaker on Internet technologies - and on staff of Internet Society
	November 14, 2013 Views: 11,311 Comments: 2

As I wrote last week, ICANN is proceeding along with “delegating” the “new generic top-level domains (newgTLDs)” and while last week’s .GURU may have provoked some chuckles, this week’s block of 11 newly “delegated” newgTLDs brings us:

.BIKE
.CONSTRUCTION
.CONTRACTORS
.ESTATE
.GALLERY
.GRAPHICS
.LAND
.PLUMBING
.SEXY
.TATTOO
.TECHNOLOGY

Yes, you read that correctly. Whenever these domains go into “general availability” sometime in early 2014 you will indeed be able to register a domain along the lines of “mywifeis.sexy”. Or “joes.plumbing”. Given the amazing amount of creativity that is shown daily out on the Internet, I can only imagine what gems people will come up with. (Actually, I’m rather sure the really “creative” names will be well beyond anything I can imagine!) Now, being the DNS geek that I am, I did have to verify this news when I heard it:

$ dig +short nic.sexy
208.87.35.124
$ dig +short soa nic.sexy
ns.uniregistry.com. ops.uniregistry.com. 2013111401 3600 300 604800 3600
$ dig +short nic.plumbing
69.64.147.243
$ dig +short soa nic.plumbing
dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2002050701 10800 3600 604800 3600

Yep… they’re live. In the DNS root.

Welcome to our brave new world of the NewGTLDs!

And while some of us who have been around for a while may cringe at some of these names… this is where the domain name space is going! Hang on for what should be a fascinating ride!

P.S. And with this article I think I’ll conclude my tour of these initial releases of the newGTLDs, at least for a while. My understanding is that each week ICANN should be issuing new delegations in similar quantities. Those of you curious to keep up with the releases should in theory be able to watch ICANN’s list of “Delegated Strings”, although at the time I am writing this article it has not yet been updated with this week’s releases.

By Dan York, Author and Speaker on Internet technologies - and on staff of Internet Society

Dan is the Director, Online Content, for the Internet Society but opinions posted on CircleID are his own. View more of Dan’s writing and audio here.

Visit Page

Filed Under

Comments

Huh? Andrew Gardner – Nov 15, 2013 1:33 PM

.guru provided chuckles?

I predict .guru will be the most successful domain out of that bunch. It’s certainly the most generic. Certainly more useful than .tattoo

# 1 Reply | Link | Report Problems

Yes Dan York – Nov 15, 2013 5:14 PM

Andrew,
Yes, multiple people laughed when I mentioned .guru, largely because it was so different from the other names in the first batch and also because some of the folks I was communicating with view anyone calling themselves a “guru” as being a bit pompous/arrogant. (In fact, one person noted that this would provide an easy way to figure out which consultants not to use.) Having said all that, I do see that many people may find it an interesting TLD to consider. The challenge of all this, quite frankly, will be to choose among so many different options.

Thanks for commenting,
Dan

# 2 Reply | Link | Report Problems

The Weekly Wrap

More and more professionals are choosing to publish critical posts on CircleID from all corners of the Internet industry. If you find it hard to keep up daily, consider subscribing to our weekly digest. We will provide you a convenient summary report once a week sent directly to your inbox. It's a quick and easy read.

I make a point of reading CircleID. There is no getting around the utility of knowing what thoughtful people are thinking and saying about our industry.

VINTON CERF
Co-designer of the TCP/IP Protocols & the Architecture of the Internet

Home / Blogs