A little more than three years ago Google bought the .APP domain extension, which everyone thought was going to be a hit. Then it, well, didn’t come out and those who were looking forward to it have been left in suspense.
“The Internet’s naming system is expanding beyond the traditional domains like .com and .org — and this week Google paid $25 million for “.app” in an auction.
Google beat out a dozen competitors, including Amazon, for the rights to .app. Ultimately “Charleston Road Registry,” the name Google uses for its domain registry, won the .app domain for a cool $25,001,000.” (Source – NBC News)
Now the release date of .APP has been released, and it’s just around the corner. With such a big chunk of change being spent on .APP I think we can expect a pretty solid marketing budget to follow, especially given that three years has passed since Google bought it. I learned about the release date for .APP on popular domain name blog Domain Incite:
“Google has finally released its launch timeline for the could-be-popular new gTLD.
.app will go to sunrise March 29, the company said last week.
Trademark holder exclusivity will end May 1, at which point a week-long Early Access Period will kick in.
There will be an extra fee, so far undisclosed, for EAP buyers.
Finally, on May 8, everyone will get access to the domain as it goes into general availability.
Registry pricing has not been disclosed.”
(Source – DomainIncite.com)
If I were to guess I’d say we should see ad campaigns starting to hit in April and going strong this summer. On top of that we’ll of course start to see .APP domains get used in the wild and if Google doesn’t have some kind of connection between .APP and their own Play Store I’ll be surprised.
While I’ve mostly stayed away from investing in new gTLDs I do think I will end up buying some .APP domains, this is one of the extensions, along with .WEB and a few others, that I think are going to see widespread adoption over the next 5 – 10 years.
What do you think? Is .APP going to be a hit or did Google overpay for this long-awaited new domain name extension? I want to hear from you – comment and let your voice be heard!
