With Google’s recent announcement that its new parent company, Alphabet, would be using a popular .XYZ domain, many people asked if this was the time that these “not-com” web addresses would break into the mainstream consciousness.
Now Apple, that other formidable tech giant, is giving them some light, too.
Recently, the company responsible for the iPod, iPad and iPhone launched News, a different kind of service found at apple.news, making use of a dedicated web address for the company’s hot “News” app. The app collects the latest news from various sources and displays them all in one place. News is only slightly newer than the .news web domain, but it’s already putting to rest any accusations that serious companies aren’t using new gTLD addresses.
Why .NEWS?
From beacon fires to jungle drums, town criers to broadsheet-selling street urchins, news has always travelled as fast as technology permitted. The printing press, the telegraph, radio, and television have all competed in the race towards live news, but it was is internet that truly gives us as-it-happens reporting.
The newly released .news domain is made exactly for times like these. The .news stands for the old media and the new From major outlets publishing in-depth investigations to grassroots rapporteurs spreading the word through social media, everyone in the business of reporting wants to know what’s happening, right now in this very moment. You can bring in a bigger audience with a more professional and industry-specific web address.
A (dot)APPLE Address
Apple’s foray into new domain names doesn’t seem to end with .news, either. Last month, TheDomains.com reported Apple had applied for their own .apple TLD, and been spotted registering some interesting new web addresses.
Among the 29 new names bought by Apple were AppleMusicApple.com, iTunesStoreApple.com, and AppleWatchApple.com. Reporter Jamie Zoch explained the logic of the strange-sounding registrations, saying they appear to be intended to anticipate misspellings.
“The above domain names somewhat look ‘odd’ just looking at them, because they all end in ‘Apple'” Zoch said.
“What makes sense to me though and seeing these, if you replace Apple.com at the end with just .apple they make more sense… Since the new gTLD extension are “new” and .com has been around for so long… it is pretty common nature for people to type .com”
What does this mean for you?
The biggest takeaway we can get from this is new domains are here to stay. While undoubtedly some will sink and some will swim, with the weight of the likes of Alphabet and Apple behind them, we’re going to see these names coming up in the news more often. You may even see .news in the news.
Like with Alphabet, there are lessons learned here. Apple are reinforcing positive messages about protecting your brand against typos or customers who get confused, they’re also speaking volumes about the importance of a relevant web domain.
