Amazon makes .bot domain names easier to register

Bot no longer required for registration.

If you surveyed new top level domain name proponents about which of the big applicants has been the biggest disappointment, I’d bet Amazon would top the list.

The company applied for 76 top level domains but has done very little with the strings it won.

And even when it launched domains, it made some of them difficult to register.

Consider .bot, which the company launched in 2017. It’s a good (if not limited use) extension that should have done well with advances in chatbots.

But Amazon threw hurdles in front of registering the domains. You had to have a bot to register the domains. Few registrars (and registrants) wanted to deal with this.

So .bot languished.

This week, Amazon belatedly removed the restrictions for .bot. Now, anyone can register one.

During the first day of restrictionless registration, domains in the zone grew from about 1,300 to over 2,000. This is despite limited distribution.

While .bot will never be a huge extension, this is progress.

If you’re interested, .bot domains will set you back about $70 at Namecheap, 101Domain, and Encirca. Encirca, which worked with Amazon during the initial launch, has about 1,000 .bot domains under management.