There were a total number of 197 billion mobile app downloads in 2017 (Source: Statista) and that number is continuing to grow year over year as trends show a push towards mobile-first users.
Google’s .App Domain Extension
Breaks All Records after First Days of General Availability.
Google wins the rights to the .App extension for a whopping, record-setting $25 million.
Google Tech Lead Ben McIlwain disclosed the number during a talk at Google I/O, that 30,000 domain names, ostensibly pre-registrations, were registered within the first three minutes of general availability.
Over 100,000 .app domain names were registered after less than a day in general availability.
Over 200,000 .app domain names were registered after the first few days in general availability.
Now, nearing 350,000 registrations, .App is closing in on a top 10 spot on the overall registration list of all new extensions, many of which had a 4 year head start.
It can sometimes take years for companies to roll out new platforms and marketing campaigns, but there are already a lot of big brands and organizations embracing .App, with a lot more to come...
A BRIEF HISTORY of
DOMAINS & NEW EXTENSIONS
The first Domain name was registered in 1985. The big boom of acquisitions happened in the mid 1990s, when you could actually reserve a domain and pay the bill later, and by 1996, nearly every industry-defining name was taken, many to be resold for millions, even tens of millions of dollars in the years to come. While .net has served as an alternative extension for those that could not afford the .com, and .org became known for non-profits and causes, .gov for government sites, etc, .com has remained the most desired and most recognized extension, and thus, the prices for the best .com domains quickly became astronomical and unattainable.
Before 2014, hundreds of extensions were already available, but only a very select few ever gained credibility. In 2014, over 1,000 more extensions were about to launch. While some like .horse and .soy don't have large appeal, others like .club and .rentals can be appropriate for specific genres, and more generic extensions such as .top, .xyz, .vip, .win, etc. have been successful by large registration numbers, they are not as successful by large-scale actual use metrics by major companies. How often do you actually see these less meaningful extensions used by big organizations? With very few exceptions, these extensions simply don’t have the formidable appeal or recognition to be taken seriously. Finally, to meet the demand of our app-centric world today, in May of 2018, Google launched the much anticipated, game-changing .App extension.
The .App launch was record-setting, and it just makes common sense in addition to the science that it is becoming a globally recognized extension to match .Com and a very few other original extensions.
.App is generic, relevant, and meaningful.
.App looks / sounds formal and official, because it is.
.App broke all early records, because it is desirable.
Within the first few weeks, some of the biggest companies and apps already adopted the new .app extension. Dig into the facts, info, articles and stats to learn more about the history and science behind .app. We'll share with you here the bullet-points...
Other than the OBVIOUS, What Else Makes the .App Extension Unique?
Record setting registration numbers and solid early adoption, $25 million for the extension, what else:
Aside from being well-positioned as an obvious choice for anyone in the modern app-centric world, including any progressive companies developing any sort of application, as well as app developers, .App is also one of the TLDs Google added to the HSTS Preload list last year, meaning that it will be HTTPS only. HSTS or HTTP Strict Transport Security is a mechanism that ensures a web browser only makes secure HTTPS connections. This is important, because it eliminates a couple of attack vectors that could allow someone to strip a connection or hijack a session.
HSTS is done with an HTTP header though, which means that there’s still a tiny window where a user is vulnerable upon the very first connection with a site, before downloading the header. The HSTS Preload list solves this, it is a running list of websites with HSTS headers that comes pre-downloaded on popular browsers and forces a secure connection the very first time.
With .App, Google has saved site owners a step and just gone ahead and added them to the preload list at the TLD level.
Why did Google add the entire .App TLD to the HSTS list?
Google – and the rest of the browser community – is pushing for a completely encrypted internet. In fact, starting in July with the release of Chrome 68, Google will mark any website still being served over HTTP as “not secure.”
So, it makes sense that Google would want any TLDs under its control to be HTTPS-only. And don’t look for this trend to stop with Google.
That’s GREAT NEWS for the internet—a phrase you don’t get to say all that often.
The Perfect Domain Name with .App
can now mean a shorter name, an exact-match, industry-defining or a category-killer domain for better than what will ever be available or affordable in .Com.
We must no longer think of an 'app' as simply an individual downloadable app to our mobile phone, or any mobile device for that matter, but as any applications operating within any system on the Internet, because they are all becoming one and the same. Obviously, .App domain names can be used simply to promote and link to existing apps as we commonly know them today, but they are the Perfect choice for the digital address of any product or service in the mobile space, etc. Domain names are a necessity, the digital address of companies large and small, and industry-defining domains within the .App extension are still priced in the infancy as were .Com addresses more than 20 years ago.
Website engineers, App developers and Mobile designers all know the value of the best domain name. Domain names help your brand get discovered whether it’s a perfect match domain for your brand or an industry-defining url that engages your audience with relevant and memorable information on your services, product, platform and apps.
GOOGLE TECHNICAL INFO
SSL support for your App Engine app goes above and beyond basic SSL by offering globally-distributed SSL endpoints and built-in load balancing to serve your app securely, reliably, and quickly to a worldwide audience.
By default, HTTPS connections on your custom domain will be enabled automatically using managed SSL certificates. Once your custom domain is mapped to your application and you have configured your DNS records,
App Engine provisions a managed SSL certificate. App Engine then handles renewing the certificate before it expires and revoking it when you remove the custom domain from your application.
Use this page to learn how to verify SSL has been set up for your custom domain, upgrade to managed SSL certificates, or use your own SSL certificates.
https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/securing-custom-domains-with-ssl
CLICK THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE A FEW OF THE MANY LIVE .APP SITES.
or Google search:
Because the vast majority of private domain sales are never reported, its hard to know the extent of the early aftermarket for .App, or other new extensions for that matter. While rumors surfaced that Gay.app was sold for a cool $1 million, what's certain is that it is now forwarding to the largest global gay dating site that has received over a hundred million dollars in funding. While there have been several other confirmed 5 figure sales for modest quality .app domains, automatically reported through public sales venues, the vast majority of domain sales, especially to larger organizations, are kept private.
Acquiring an industry-defining .App domain is an investment into the mobile future, the app-centric world we are embracing more and more every day.
At the end of the day, it is important to simply use common sense. .Com is here to stay as the most powerful and most desired extension. But now, .App is the new, extremely powerful and meaningful extension, arguably the best and most relevant extension of our modern times after .Com. While still in its infancy, .App is steadily growing and has been fast to become adopted. Still though, prices for the very best .App domain names are still only a small fraction of what their .Com counterparts have sold for.