Vint Cerf releases some details about company’s new TLD strategy.
Google today announced limited details about some of its top level domain applications.
The announcement fittingly came from former ICANN Chairman and current Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf.
Cerf said the TLDs the company applied for fall into four categories:
1. Trademarks, e.g. .google
2. Domains related to core businesses, e.g. .docs
3. Domains “that will improve user experience, e.g. .youtube (I’m not sure why that doesn’t match trademarks as well)
4. Other general domains, e.g. .lol
Cerf also reiterated that Google wants “to make the introduction of new generic TLDs a good experience for web users and site owners”, but in a different context than the search engine. The context was as a registry, including providing rights protection mechanisms.
I wonder if .search is one of the “core business” domains for which it applied?
I reached out to Google for comment on additional domains. Unsurprisingly, they said they aren’t commenting further at this time. But AdAge reports the company applied for over 50 TLDs.
John UK says
As I have said before, and I will say it again, I think the biggest problem may come from companies/persons who own trade marks on the TLD itself ,not so much the domain name. Even though the TLD’s may be generic and may not pose a problem in the USA, they will have problems in Europe (if Europe still exists that is) and also when the domain is added the mere presence of a dot will not stop it infringing a trade mark. Will be interesting to see what happens but that is my prediction. I also think these new TLD’s are total waste of time and will confuse people who will be racking their brains to think what the tld they want to visit is.