Dive Brief:
- As of Wednesday, companies and brands looking to use web domains outside of .com, .net, and .org will have new options.
- The first to roll out new domains will be web registrar Donuts, who applied for 300 names with ICANN, and the first weekly batch will be .bike, .singles, .clothing, .guru, .holdings, .plumbing, and .ventures.
- Other brands that have applied for the new domain names include Apple, Microsoft, Macy's, Wal-Mart, and Google, with names like .lol and .android.
Dive Insight:
The new domains could have a huge impact for big and small brands alike. Big brands will now have the ability to take up even more Web real estate with the new names, while smaller brands — which may not have been able to score the address they wanted with the original set of domain names — will now have more options. This rollout will also likely come with issues of cyber squatters and a host of potential security concerns that will have to be addressed.