Tag archive
tld
61 articles
.capital Names Financial Positioning—Not Dictionary Premium Theater
Delta Mill→Binky Moon→Identity Digital, ~35.6k zone (Jul 2026), ambition.capital at $9,888—and mid-2026 HTTP checks that split live GP roofs from venture.capital iframes and shriram.capital fiction.
.money Is Colloquial Cash English—Not Banking Trust Theater
Outer McCook→Binky Moon→Identity Digital, ~21.5k zone (Jul 2026), open.money at $25,000—and mid-2026 HTTP checks that split live fintech roofs from bank.money Atom landers and save.money fiction.
.finance Names Financial Services—Not a Banking Charter
Cotton Cypress→Binky Moon→Identity Digital, ~33.6k zone (Jul 2026), spark.finance at $70,000—and mid-2026 HTTP checks that split live DeFi roofs from finance-magazin.de fiction and invest.finance parking.
.shop: GMO's $41.5M Bet on the Word "Shop" — 10M Cumulative, 4.3M in Zone
GMO Registry paid $41,501,000 at ICANN's January 2016 auction—then outran .store on registration scale. Mid-2026: ~10M cumulative (GMO), ~4.34M in zone (nTLDStats), W3Techs ~0.4% web share. Verified: nike.shop → nike.com, etsy.shop → etsy.com, mobileweb.shop (GMO case). Delete the old guide's "~1M registrations," unverified $100k sales, and AIO shopping-engine fiction.
.link After Uniregistry: Ownership Confusion, Zone Fiction, and the Shortener Tax
Who really runs .link in 2026, why registration counts flatter the namespace, and why a TLD that means “redirect” carries a reputation cost most roundups skip.
.network Is Not .net: Identity Digital's ~111k Names, Web3 Infra Roofs—and a 1985 History That Never Happened
~111k names on Identity Digital's Nomulus stack—not 1985, not millions. Trixy Manor/Donuts delegated Aug 2014; GA day 3,055. Oct 2025 wholesale +12.39%. Verified roofs from pocket.network to contour.network—and why the old guide's speedtest.network, fake NameBio comps, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.world Sells Global Scope You Still Have to Prove: ~677k Names, world.org Skipped the Suffix, and hello.world Is a Lander
Identity Digital's Binky Moon runs ~677k .world names—not Donuts without dates. Fix delegation (Sept 2014), GA (Jan 14 2015), poker.world $75k, oec.world & genki.world as live roofs, and trash the old guide's April 2015 timeline, estimated sales, and AIO semantic-TLD fluff.
.studio: Identity Digital's Workshop Label—~194k in Zone, Seven Verified Roofs, Broker Mad Libs Dead
Dog Beach/Identity Digital since June 2021—not Registry Services or Rightside as operator—~194k zone names (bgp.he.net Jul 2026) vs the old guide's wrong registry stack, verified roofs from design.studio/Further to cube.studio, model.studio at $24k (Nov 2025 NameBio), and why lumen.studio plus Network Solutions Mad Libs failed audit.
.media: Fortune Media Skipped the Industry Noun—airport.media Proves Mid-Market Agency Roofs
~130k names, Grand Glen/Donuts sole applicant after Tucows buyout, verified roofs from airport.media to maya.media—and why the old guide's fabricated NameBio sales, Mad Lib notables, and AIO semantic-TLD boilerplate failed audit.
.digital Puts Transformation in the Hostname: Identity Digital Canonicalized It, ~539k Names, and tech.digital Is a Broker Lander
~539k names, Binky Moon/Identity Digital on its own Nomulus stack, sole Donuts applicant with no auction, verified roofs from identity.digital to business.digital—and why the old guide's 60B-query ISO fluff, xtrategy-only notables, and AIO semantic-TLD boilerplate failed audit.
.agency: Identity Digital's Service-Firm Label—~120k in Zone, Five Verified Roofs, Six Brochure Names Dead
Binky Moon/Identity Digital since 2018, ~120k zone names (bgp.he.net Jul 2026) vs passive-DNS ~192k, Porkbun $3.60→$25.23 renew after Oct 2025 wholesale hikes. Verified: oliver.agency, brandon.agency, gale.agency, bakery.agency, raindrop.agency. Delete barkley/olivine Mad Libs, invented NameBio tiers, and AIO entity-classification boilerplate.
.mobi: The Mobile TLD Tim Berners-Lee Warned About — 964K Peak, Identity Digital, and a Namespace Responsive Design Killed
ICANN's 2005 mobile-only gTLD peaked at 964,115 (Sep 2008), sits near ~322K resolving (Jul 2026), and lost its sponsored mobile standards in 2017. mTLD → Afilias → Identity Digital; Tim Berners-Lee called it harmful; responsive design made it redundant. Verified roofs: ferrari.mobi, amazon.mobi redirects. Delete the old guide's unverified Fortune-500 list, "mobile-first TLD" pitch, and AIO boilerplate.
.biz: The Business gTLD Nobody Picked — 2M Peak, GoDaddy Registry, and a Zone Still Shrinking
ICANN's 2001 "business-only" gTLD peaked above 2M (June 2008), sits near ~1.2–1.5M in 2026, and Harvard's six-month audit found 74%+ empty and ~25% defensive. NeuLevel → Neustar → GoDaddy Registry (not Identity Digital—that's .info). Verified roofs: gamesindustry.biz. Delete the old guide's unverified $35k sales, AlexMakeup.biz filler, and AIO boilerplate.
.cloud Puts Infrastructure in the Hostname: Aruba's Registry, wp.cloud's B2B Canonical, and Why Engineers Still Pick .io/.dev
~760k names, Aruba PEC S.p.A. on Tucows backend, private 2014 contention auction, verified roofs from wp.cloud to food.cloud—and why the old guide's duplicate sales/sites list, "real estate" investing fluff, and AIO CTR boilerplate failed audit.
.name: ICANN's Personal Namespace That Never Scaled—and Verisign Is Ending the firstname.lastname.name Era
~96K names under Verisign management (2026), down from 232K in 2012; $6.60 wholesale; third-level registrations and legacy tiered WHOIS slated for discontinuation. Verified roofs: cavin.name, lemire.name, jarekq.name. Delete the old guide's about.me fiction, unverified NameBio sales, and AIO boilerplate.
Domain Hacks: When the Dot Is Part of the Word — and Who Actually Owns the Suffix
From del.icio.us to instagr.am: how domain hacks work, why .io and .tv are ccTLDs (not gTLDs), what Google’s generic-ccTLD list changes for SEO, and the registry risks most naming guides skip.
.ai: Anguilla Owns the Letters, Identity Digital Runs the Register — and ai.com Is Not the Same Thing
1.28M names, ~$85M in 2025 registry revenue (~47% of Anguilla government income), Identity Digital migration January 2025, $140/year wholesale with a mandatory two-year term — plus why the old guide's $70 pricing, 500K volume, OIS-as-operator line, and SEO/AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.com Is Verisign's Monopoly Rent on the Internet's Default — 166.6M Names, a 7% Cap, and $10.97 Incoming
166.6M names per DNIB Q2 2026—not "160M+." Wholesale $10.26 today, $10.97 from November 2026. Verisign's $1.66B revenue, 600B DNS queries/day, ICANN's price-cap debate, verified aftermarket ceilings—and why the old guide's 37% share, 70% survey, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.net Is Verisign's Shrinking Sidecar: 12.5M Names Stalled While .com Grows — and Wholesale Now Costs More
DNIB Q2 2026: 12.5M .net flat for three quarters while .com hit 166.6M. Peak was 15.0M (Dec 2014), not "~16M in 2015." Wholesale $11.66 since Feb 2024—above .com's $10.26. Same Verisign DNS stack, opposite momentum—and why the old guide's AIO boilerplate and "Plan B" brochure failed audit.
.org Is a Trust Lease Without a Price Ceiling — 12M Names, a Blocked $1.135B Sale, and $11 Wholesale
~11.96M DUM per PIR dashboard—not "~10.5M." Wholesale $9.93 until June 2026, then $11.00—first hike since 2016, caps removed in 2019 RA. Ethos Capital's blocked $1.135B deal, $360M debt, Fadi Chehadé, ISOC's $61M cut—and why the old guide's 10% cap fiction and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.app Was HTTPS-Mandatory Before Your First Visit — HSTS Preload Baked Into Chrome, Not a Checkbox
~1.2M active names, Charleston Road Registry (Google) still on Nomulus—not GoDaddy Registry—$25M ICANN auction, TLD-level HSTS since October 2017, and why the old guide's figma.app/notion.app roster, AIO boilerplate, and thin SEO paragraph failed audit.
.art Is Infrastructure, Not Instagram: WHOIS Provenance, Real Museum Roofs, and the Renewal Cliff
UK Creative Ideas won one of ICANN's most contested strings, built Art Records on Getty Object ID™, and hosts Harvard and EPMA on live .art roofs — but the old guide's $5 renewals, museum.art Mad Libs, and "AI engines cite .art" lines were fiction.
.asia Is a Charter Gate, Not an SEO Shortcut: DotAsia, CER Rules, and What Google Actually Does
DotAsia's nonprofit sTLD, 329k names at end-2024, the 2017 CER simplification, verified adopters like startupjobs.asia and avpn.asia—and why the old guide's geo-targeting SEO, 2012 peak, and "AI engines associate .asia with APAC" lines failed audit.
.blog Puts the Genre in the Root Label
Automattic’s $19M stealth auction, ~555k mid-2026 names, tim.blog and github.blog as live publishing roofs—and why wordpress.blog redirects to wordpress.org/news, not a brochure fantasy.
.cc: Verisign's "Next .com" That China Read as 商业公司—Not Cocos Islands Commerce
eNIC/Verisign stack, Google gccTLD status, ~2.8M passive-DNS census vs the old guide's 600–800K fiction, May 2016 $8 wholesale cut (not a 2018 hike), 2015 China 17-yuan promos—and why co.cc spam, unverified SOE Mad Libs, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.club Is Membership English That Platforms Borrow
Walmart bought .samsclub, not sam.club. Celebrity launch landers died, Clubhouse briefly rented the suffix, GoDaddy paid ~$80M with .design—and mid-2026 ~878k names still sell belonging as a word.
.co Is Colombia's ccTLD Selling Itself as .com's Missing Letter — gccTLD, Typo Tax, and the 2025 Registry Handoff
3.3M names migrated to Equipo PuntoCo in October 2025, 96%+ registered outside Colombia, gccTLD treatment that is not "identical to .com," the one-letter typo tax—and why the old guide's AIO boilerplate and unverified startup Mad Libs failed audit.
.de Wins Germany's Free-Choice Poll—After .cn Took the Volume Crown
DENIC's 18M milestone, Ipsos 72% free-choice preference over .com, the 2018 residency repeal, €892,500 kredit.de—and why the old "world's largest ccTLD" and "consumers distrust non-.de" lines were wrong.
.design Is Not Identity Digital: GoDaddy Runs the Registry, Ant Design Sets the Ceiling
Registry Services (GoDaddy) since August 2021—not Identity Digital, not Porkbun as registry—~114k zone names vs the old guide's unsourced 180–240k bracket, verified roofs from ant.design to spline.design, canva.design debunked, and why AIO entity-classification boilerplate failed audit.
.dev Was HTTPS-Locked Two Years Before You Could Register It — HSTS, Localhost Collisions, and the Engineer URL
~642k active names, Charleston Road Registry on Nomulus, Chromium HSTS preload since September 2017 (before GA February 2019), the local-*.dev breakage story, verified roofs from web.dev to github.dev—and why the old guide's AIO boilerplate and "created for developers" tagline failed audit.
.eu: Europe's Eligibility-Gated ccTLD—After Brexit Deleted 81,000 Names and Google Calls It a gTLD
EURid's 3.8M Q2 2026 milestone, Regulation 2019/517 nexus rules, the Jan 2021–Jan 2022 Brexit deletion pipeline, €4.60 registry wholesale—and why the old "Google geo-targets .eu to Europe" and "$500–$5k premium" lines failed audit.
.fm: Micronesia Rents FM Radio Nostalgia to the Podcast Era
~17K tracked names (not 150K), BRS Media + CentralNic since 2016, $68–$100+ shelf renewals, verified roofs from last.fm to qingting.fm—and why the old guide's podcast Mad Libs, are.na confusion, and PodcastSeries AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.fund Names the Vehicle—Not the Campaign
John Castle→Binky Moon→Identity Digital, ~21.9k mid-2026 names, abc.fund and adventure.fund as live roofs—and why give.fund-style fundraising Mad Libs are landers, not proof.
.gg: Guernsey Owns the Letters, Gamers Own the Meaning — and Google Still Treats It as a ccTLD
~54K tracked names, Island Networks Ltd (not CIIS), $50–55/year at competitive shelves, discord.gg as invite infrastructure—not a gccTLD like .io/.tv/.ai—and why the old guide's $60–120 pricing, FaZe.gg roster, and generic-ccTLD SEO line failed audit.
.in: NIXI Crossed 4 Million Names—Google Locks India Geo, and Domain Hacks Are the Side Quest
NIXI—not IRINN—runs .IN Registry; 4.07M names (Mar 2024), 4.2M+ Tucows migration (May 2025), ₹500 wholesale, mandatory eKYC, DNIB top-10 ccTLD—and why the old guide's flipkart.in primary-domain fiction, Baidu SEO line, and unsourced hack list failed audit.
.info Promised Information, Delivered Spam: 7.6M Peak, Identity Digital, and a Reputation That Never Recovered
ICANN's 2001 "informational" gTLD peaked at 7.63M (Oct 2012), troughed near 3.96M (Dec 2024), rebounded to ~5.56M on promo churn—and Interisle lists .INFO in the top phishing cohort five years running. Afilias → Donuts → Identity Digital; wholesale $21 → $23.50 Jan 2027—and why the old guide's Mad Lib notables and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.io Rents Silicon Valley From a Sovereignty Dispute: Chagos, Identity Digital, and the Sunset Clock
1.72M names, ~$42M/year registry revenue, the May 2025 Chagos treaty shelved in 2026 after US opposition, ISO/ICANN five-year sunset mechanics—and why the old guide's "no UDRP" line and formulaic startup checklist failed audit.
.la: IANA Says Laos, www.la Says Los Angeles—and google.la Proves Both Meanings
LANIC/LA Names/CentralNic stack, Google gccTLD status, ~133K passive-DNS census vs ~47K active tracker vs the old guide's unsourced 50–100K bracket, $25 competitive floor (not $30–55 alone), verified roofs from google.la to mzl.la—and why gril.la typos, entertainment Mad Libs, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.live Is Present-Tense English That Expires
Rightside’s 2015 launch, Donuts→Identity Digital handoffs, go.live’s $75k lander arc, immerss.live and live-commerce roofs, ~1.11M mid-2026 names—and why urgency English dies when the stream ends.
.ly: English "-ly" Hacks Rent DNS From Libyan Sharia Law—and vb.ly Proved It
~12K tracked names (not 300K), GPTC/NIC.LY/LTT registry stack, Google does NOT treat .ly as a gccTLD, $75–$130+ shelf renewals, verified roofs from bit.ly to visual.ly—and why the old guide's generic-ccTLD line, two-year-minimum myth, and formulaic shortener checklist failed audit.
.me Is Montenegro's ccTLD, Google's gccTLD, and Telegram's t.me — Not a Personal Branding Brochure
~1.1M names on Identity Digital backend, €114M+ registry revenue since 2008, a 2023 contract expiry the old guide ignored, verified roofs from t.me to about.me — and why timbl.me, wave.me, and AIO Person-schema boilerplate failed audit.
.online Is the Loanword Radix Industrialized
Private-auction birth, ~3.84M mid-2026 names, $0.98 promos vs $400k betting.online—casino.online, course.online, radiate.online as live receipts, and why a connectivity adverb attracts both category killers and coupon burners.
.page Locks HTTPS in the Root Zone—Not in Your Headers
Charleston Road Registry's fifth open TLD, ~62k mid-2026 names (half at Squarespace), TLD-wide HSTS you cannot opt out of—and mmm.page, front.page, byline.page as live roofs, not janedoe.page Mad Libs.
.pro: Licensed Professionals Only Until 2015 — Identity Digital, ~1M Names, and Few Real Roofs
ICANN's 2002 credential gTLD peaked near ~1.02M zone names (Feb 2026), opened unrestricted 16 Nov 2015 after a decade of verification theater, and shares Identity Digital's $21 wholesale (→ $23.50 Jan 2027). Verified roofs: dorian.pro, poker.pro, video.pro. Delete the old guide's 300–500k fiction, European-freelancer Mad Libs, E-E-A-T AIO boilerplate, and invented premium tiers.
.sh: Four Thousand Islanders, Three Thousand DNS Names—and a Shell Extension the World Borrowed
~3K delegated names (not 11K brochure), ICB/Identity Digital registry stack, Google does NOT treat .sh as a gccTLD, $30–70 shelf renewals, verified roofs from brew.sh to nah.sh—and why the old guide's generic-ccTLD line, Railway.sh/Warp.sh/curl.sh brochure, and formulaic shell-script checklist failed audit.
.site Is a Blank Noun Landlords Prefer
Google’s dead business.site factory, Square’s square.site redirect, ~3.1M mid-2026 registrations, and why a TLD that only means “website” suits platforms more than brands.
.so: Notion's Real Hostname—and a Mogadishu ccTLD the Old Guide Called "Generic"
SONIC/NCA registry stack, Cloud Registry backend, Google does NOT treat .so as a gccTLD, ~20K+ registry count vs crawl ~47K, $57+ shelf renewals, verified roofs from notion.so to now.so—and why the old guide's generic-ccTLD line, frame.so/raycast.so brochure, and ignored 2015 freeze failed audit.
.space Is a Homonym With a Price Tag
Radix’s .space means desks, orbit, and cheap English inventory at once. Mid-2026 zone size, real sites, promo math, and why fake notables like city.space belong in the trash.
.store Finishes What the Microphone Starts
Radix beat Google and Amazon for the string, ~3.66M mid-2026 names, mrbeast.store and emirates.store as live cart roofs—and why brand.store Mad Libs and “AI shopping engine” SEO are brochure fiction.
.tech Is the Word in the URL: Radix Beat Google at $6.76M, CES Canonicalized It, and IQM Went Public on It
~783k names, Radix Technologies (not XYZ Registry) on Tucows backend since March 2026, ICANN last-resort auction economics, verified roofs from ces.tech to iqm.tech—and why the old guide's mit.tech / viva.tech / disrupt.tech list and AIO CTR boilerplate failed audit.
.to: The 1997 ccTLD That Invented Instant Global Registration—and Still Revokes Shorteners
~17K delegated names (not 200K), TONIC Domains Inc. registry stack, Google does NOT treat .to as a gccTLD, $21–$100 shelf spread, verified roofs from cr.yp.to to g.to—and why the old guide's generic-ccTLD line, notion.to brochure, and 100–200K volume failed audit.
.tv: Tuvalu Rents Two Letters to the Streaming Era—After Verisign Walked Away
~386k names, A$12.6M projected in Tuvalu's 2025–26 budget, Verisign's $25M/year registry line vs ~$5M to Tuvalu—and why the old guide's 600–800K volume, broadcaster Mad Libs, and VideoObject/AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.uk: Europe's #2 ccTLD After the .co.uk Handoff—and Nominet's Membership Revolt
Nominet's 10.45M May 2026 stats, the 2014–2019 Right of Registration, £3.90 wholesale frozen to 2027, PublicBenefit.uk's 2021 EGM—and why the old "world's 5th ccTLD" and unsourced $50k–$1M aftermarket lines failed audit.
.us Drops Below 1.9M: NTIA's Nexus-Gated ccTLD With Mandatory Public WHOIS
Registry Services' 1,899,773 May 2026 DUM (−34.1% YoY), renewal rates collapsing to 32.35%, NTIA nexus codes C11–C32, the WHOIS privacy ban—and why census.us, unverified shorteners, and unsourced aftermarket tiers failed audit.
.vc Rents Venture Capital From a Caribbean Registry — Saint Vincent, Identity Digital, and the gccTLD Gap
~76k names, Tucows→Afilias→Identity Digital lineage, WIPO lists no UDRP—and mid-2026 HTTP checks show `tiny.vc`, `hack.vc`, and `cherry.vc` as live fund roofs while `accel.vc`, `greylock.vc`, and the old guide's `a16z.vc` proof points collapse.
.ws: Samoa Delegated It, GDI Sold "WebSite," Google Genericized It—and MLM Volume Still Defines the Zone
GDI/Carlsbad registry stack, Google gccTLD listing (unlike .to or .vc), passive-DNS ~361K vs ~54K tracked vs the old guide's unsourced 200–350K bracket, $6.48 promo floor, verified roofs from samoagovt.ws to cnnne.ws—and why SiteSell confusion, symmetric fit matrices, and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
.xyz Splits the Room: Alphabet's abc.xyz vs the $1 Churn-and-Burn Economy
10M registrations, XYZ.COM LLC / Daniel Negari, CentralNic backend, abc.xyz and block.xyz on one side — Interisle cybercrime share, Spamhaus abuse rates, and $0.99 1.111B Class promos on the other — plus why the old guide's ai.xyz $8M claim and AIO boilerplate failed audit.
Top 10 Domain TLD Trends for 2026
Verisign Q4 2025: 386.9M total registrations, 161M .com. .ai crossed 1M with ~95% YoY growth and $70M AI.com—here's what the tape says, not hype.
The .ai TLD in 2026: 1M+ Registrations, $90 Wholesale, and Who Actually Wins
Anguilla earned $85M+ from .ai in 2025—47% of government revenue. Here is the registry economics, startup adoption data, and what to verify before you pay premium prices.
Brand Name vs Domain Name: When Exact Match Fails (2026 Framework)
Only ~46% of VC-backed startups get exact-match .com. Stripe, Notion, and Linear prove alignment beats identity—here is the decision tree for legal name, product name, and URL.
Popular Domain Extensions in Mid-2026: What the Numbers Actually Say
Registration volume, brand signal, and aftermarket hype are three different questions. Here is a mid-2026 map of the TLD landscape using Verisign, registry, and ICANN data—without the inflated figures.