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Search engine giant Google plans to launch the “.new” top-level domain (TLD) next year. This TLD’s introduction comes with a unique proposition that would affect how domain names are used moving forward. The company hopes to release .new domains to a select customer base by the first quarter of 2020.
“Google Registry plans to launch the .new TLD with a usage-based restriction in its domain registration policy that requires that all domain names be used for action generation or online content creation,” the organization said during the evaluation process with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
“Action generation” and “online content creation,” seem to be critical criteria for choosing who gets to use the .new TLD. The use case should likely follow how Google employs its proof-of-concept (PoC) TLDs.
Typing “doc.new” on Chrome’s address bar, for instance, shall open a new word-processing document if a user is logged in to Google. In the same manner, typing “slides.new” would direct to a new presentation while “spreadsheet.new” makes a new spreadsheet available for use.
Google’s .new zone file shows that it plans to expand this concept in hopes of going beyond Office-style applications. It also plans to ease bug reporting, emailing, form creation, and website creation with the launch. At present, the services are live but are currently unavailable for public use.
Once the company opens the .new TLD to third-party registrants, we’d likely see new use in the most popular networks. Typing tweet.new in Chrome’s address bar, for instance, can instantly open a new Twitter composition page for users. A blog.new domain, meanwhile, could allow users to create a new blog post without opening their content management systems such as Medium or WordPress.
For now, Google has been declining to give out specifics regarding its .new TLD launch plan. Its revelation during the ICANN Summit, however, has intrigued experts and led to much speculation. Although Google didn’t elaborate on the use of .new domains, it did constantly iterate that the domains would focus on “action generation” and “online content creation.”
Google’s program manager for domain products, Stephanie Duchesneau, also addressed ICANN summit attendees last May, stating their plan to make .new publicly available to albeit with strict usage-based restrictions. That means anyone can register for domains in the .new space, but they would need to conform to specific rules.
Google is looking forward to operating the .new TLD within a Limited Registration Period (LRP) based on ICANN rules. As such, hand-picked registrants get the opportunity to test the .new TLD. The company also asked the ICANN through a Registry Services Evaluation Policy (RSEP) request if an authentication system could be deployed for .new. This system, it said, would be based on RFC 8495, the same policy tied to LRP rollouts.
For domain experts, RFC 8495 is still rather new and deals more with domain allocation instead of use. So far, therefore, it doesn’t seem like Google’s request would be granted. According to the RSEP, Google also hopes to “seed” the gTLD space with several .new domains that would adhere to the same usage concept they laid out.
Although set to push through in the first quarter of 2020, ICANN has yet to see Google file for the new TLD’s registration. Without this, the exact launch date remains unknown, especially since ICANN LRPs don’t last for the same amount of time. Some take longer than others.
Stakeholders who want to be first in the registration line, for this, as well as hundreds of other gTLDs and ccTLDs, have two options: scan for updates by scouring news sites daily or get instantly alerted through domain monitoring tools to its availability minus the manual scanning.
About the author
Jonathan Zhang is the founder and CEO of Threat Intelligence Platform (TIP)—a data, tool, and API provider that specializes in automated threat detection, security analysis, and threat intelligence solutions for Fortune 1000 and cybersecurity companies. TIP is part of the WhoisXML API Inc. family, a trusted intelligence vendor by over 50,000 clients.
