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Google has big, innovative plans for .new

Kevin Murphy, August 5, 2019, 08:47:18 (UTC), Domain Registries

Google is set to launch .new next year with a innovative value proposition that changes how domain names are used.
The company plans to slowly release .new domains to a carefully controlled customer base, starting in the first quarter 2020.
In a Registry Service Evaluation Process request filed with ICANN last week, the company said:

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 phrase “action generation or online contention creation” is key here, repeated across multiple Google documents.
What it means is that registrants will have to commit to use their .new domains in much the same way as Google itself is using its own batch of proof-of-concept names.
If you type doc.new into your browser address bar today, you’ll be taken to a fresh word processing document hosted on Google Docs, assuming you’re logged in to Google.
The same goes for domains such as spreadsheet.new, slides.new and a few others.
Looking at the .new zone file, it appears Google has plans to expand the concept beyond Office-style online applications into areas such as email, bug-reporting, support-ticketing, forms, reminders, and web site creation.
These services appear to be live but currently restricted to authorized users.
When Google opens up the .new space to third-party registrants, it’s easy to imagine domains such as tweet.new taking users directly to a Twitter composition page or blog.new immediately opening up a new post on something like WordPress or Medium.
Right now, Google is declining to comment on the specifics of its launch plan, but we can infer some details from its activity in the ICANN world.
I get the impression that the company does not want to be overly prescriptive in how .new domains are used, as long as they adhere to the “action generation or online contention creation” mantra.
Stephanie Duchesneau, Google program manager, told attendees at an ICANN summit this May that .new will be a space “where anyone is able to register, but the domain name has to be used in a certain way”.
While that may eventually be the case, at first Google plans to operated a Limited Registration Period under ICANN rules, during which only hand-vetted registrants will be able to grab domains.
Its recent RSEP request (pdf) asks ICANN permission to deploy an authentication system based on RFC 8495 to handle the LRP roll-out.
To the best of my understanding, RFC 8495 is a newish extension to EPP designed to deal with domain allocation, rather than usage, so it does not appear to be the means by which Google will enforce its policies.
The RSEP says it is Google’s plan to “seed” the gTLD with a bunch of third-party .new domains that adhere to the usage concept it has laid out.
This is due to happen some time in Q1 next year, but Google has not yet filed its TLD startup information with ICANN, so the exact dates are not known.
Under ICANN rules, as far as I can tell an LRP can run more or less indefinitely, so it’s not entirely clear when .new will become available to the general registrant.


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Comments (3)

  1. Buzzard says:

    .new is Now! While we are nagging about gun control many are napping at the wheel, its happening under our collective nose. Steering us from our G4 to tomorrow. Tomorrow is Now available to a few but soon. Not just Google or Microsoft’s techies but YOU and me. It is not overstated to say it is not unlike the Industrial Revolution itself because it is most likely the most profound impact upon us and our world as anyone has witnessed in their lifetimes. The future of cloud computing power will rocket us into what was described as The Brave New World… You’ll see we have arrived but our work has just begun.

  2. DoctorBuzzard says:

    .new is Now! While we are nagging about gun control many are napping at the wheel, its happening under our collective nose. Steering us from our G4 to tomorrow. Tomorrow is Now available to a few but soon. Not just Google or Microsoft’s techies but YOU and me. It is not overstated to say it is not unlike the Industrial Revolution itself because it is most likely the most profound impact upon us and our world as anyone has witnessed in their lifetimes. The future of cloud computing power will rocket us into what was once described as The Brave New World… We will all will see we tomorrow is not just .new but an exciting new day.

  3. wanker says:

    I guess no one is using their .new domains so they thought if more people started marketing them they would see some use. What a joke these new gtlds are turning out to be.
    also when is domainincite getting an ssl cert? this is not 1999.

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