In the last few years, the number of Top Level Domains (TLD) has exploded.  What’s a TLD?  It’s the part of a domain name like .com or .net or .org that you’re already familiar with.  Some are restricted, like .gov.  We can’t register yourcompanyname.gov for you because you’re not a government agency.  There is an entire system set up to make sure you’re an actual agency before you’re awarded a .gov domain.  Similarly, you can’t use a .us domain if you’re not living or working in the United States.

So there are country-specific TLDs like .us and .fr (France) and .de (Germany) and there are generic TLDs like .com and .net.  But those are the old gTLDs!  There are now hundreds of new gTLDs.  Here’s the first of about 500 known new gTLDs:

So, should you get a new domain name using one of these gTLDs?  Generally, the answer is “no”, although as a disclosure we own BlueCrab.software, and TakomaPark.directory.  Many of these new gTLDs are owned by individual organizations (i.e., the top level domain), so you may not be able to register your own name at all, or if you can register, you have to find the registrar.  Blue Crab can register some of these new names for you, but not all, and they will all be much more expensive.

There are also no advantages in Search Engine Optimization if you get a new domain that is highly descriptive.  These new gTLDs rank the same as the old ones like .com and .net.

Our recommendation is that you consider this only when you feel your current domain name is not what you want.  If so, give us a call and we’ll look up your name for you and perhaps point you in the right direction.  If you register a domain yourself, you’ll have to set the DNS pointers to your website; we do all that for our clients, and we can tell you what the numbers need to say, but you’ll have to make the actual entries yourself if you self-register.