ICANN will release its full list of applications for the new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) at the end of the month. At that point, we will be able to see all the brands going this route.
According to a report, we’ll see Google on that list. AdAge spoke with a spokesperson for the company, who didn’t provide any details, other than to say that Google did apply for some top-level domains.
“We plan to apply for Google’s trademarked TLDs, as well as a handful of new ones,” the spokesperson is quoted as saying. “We want to help make this a smooth experience for web users — one that promotes innovation and competition on the internet.”
AdAge reporter Jason Del Rey goes on to say that it’s “likely” that Google will be getting .google and .youtube. “Google also wouldn’t comment on how it would use its new TLDs, but one could see using ‘.YouTube’ as a way to mark a brand’s YouTube channel destination — for example, www.AdAge.YouTube,” he writes.
It will certainly be interesting to see if Google applies these to channels and/or personal accounts. Could Google profiles become name.google? Could I get “Chris.Crum.Google”, for example? Perhaps Google will offer .Google Google Sites, and become the new TriPod/Angelfire/Geocities.
It will also be interesting to see which all TLDs Google is actually getting. The company has a lot of products, obviously, but at the same time, they’re working to tie them all together as one big Google product, for all intents and purposes.
Google’s move to snatch up gTLDs could be more of a defensive strategy than anything. Perhaps Google is just making sure they have them, whether they’re planning to use them or not.
Registration for gTLDs closed on March 29. At the time, ICANN said there were only 839 registered users in the application system as of March 25, but that the number would be updated.
We’ll see how many of Google’s competitors are getting gTLDs once the list is revealed on April 30. Could we see .Microsoft? .Bing? .Facebook? .Apple? .Amazon?