.XXX Open for Registration

[grynge]

According to Godaddy .XXX is now open for registration.

General Availability is OPEN! If you're a member of the adult community and are ready to promote your adult entertainment website, or you simply want to block your domain from being registered as a .XXX, now is the time to act. Visit our .XXX page to get started.

Apparently you can also defensive register a domain to stop anyone else registering it.

Can I block a domain name if I don't have a registered trademark? Yes. If you are outside the sponsored adult entertainment community and do not have a registered trademark or intellectual property rights, you can apply for a defensive registration to block a domain name from becoming a .xxx domain name. For more information, see Registering .xxx Domain Names.

Prices are pretty steep to start with $99 per year.

You also need membership to the ICM Registry before your domain can go live. But if you plan on doing a defensive registration and not have a live site no membership is required.

[KenW3]

One of the advantages to the XXX TLD is that it will clearly identify adult sites.

Stuart Lawley, the founder and CEO of ICM Registry, the company behind XXX, argues that the designation will help parents keep their children away from adult content.

Article: Man behind XXX domains says they'll help parents protect kids

There is also a podcast interview with Lawley available at this link.

[benitez17]

Apparently you can also defensive register a domain to stop anyone else registering it.


Prices are pretty steep to start with $99 per year.

You also need membership to the ICM Registry before your domain can go live. But if you plan on doing a defensive registration and not have a live site no membership is required.

It must be nice to be able to legally extort businesses for $99 per year to "defensively register" a domain.

[benitez17]

One of the advantages to the XXX TLD is that it will clearly identify adult sites.

Article: Man behind XXX domains says they'll help parents protect kids

There is also a podcast interview with Lawley available at this link.

Do you really think many adult sites will exclusively use .xxx? I'm sure things like sex.xxx will get snapped up, but I don't see the adult industry taking part in some sort of voluntary sequestering from the rest of the Internet.

[KenW3]

Do you really think many adult sites will exclusively use .xxx? I'm sure things like sex.xxx will get snapped up, but I don't see the adult industry taking part in some sort of voluntary sequestering from the rest of the Internet.

I don't expect any established, monetised sites to change their SLD.TLD after they've built traffic to it. This TLD is just another tool. For people looking, a .XXX may answer the question for type of content to expect. If I'm going to Sandwich.com, I have a different expectation than I would going to the same name with the xxx extension. For type-in traffic, the extension is useful.

A lot of the new TLDs coming out are attempting to segment the internet by niche. The .music, .hotel, .bank, etc. clearly identify what people may be looking for. This could end up as a SE ranking advantage also. If I am looking for Chase.bank, I know what would be there. Chase.film would lead to different expectations and would be easy to build out.

[Clinton]

Anyone remember the original logic behind .org and .net?

How many .orgs do you know that are actual organisations?

Starting new TLDs is simply a money making racket!

[grynge]

Anyone remember the original logic behind .org and .net?

How many .orgs do you know that are actual organisations?

Starting new TLDs is simply a money making racket!

In the beginning they were for registered NGO's and NPO's and the .net were supposed to be for networks/isp's etc, Once they laxed the rules they become open slather for anyone. A lot of countries still have fairly hard rules governing their .org etc

It's only going to get worse with the new range of gTLD's coming online later next year. Really only serious single word or common phrases are going to be worth any money and the more gTLD's that come online the more I think .com's will probably stay the same value and maybe lose some value over the long haul. With every new gTLD there becomes an opportunity to own hotel.gTLD travel.gTLD etc etc.

[grynge]

According to MarketingVox business and education have been grabbing their domain names in an effort to preserve their brands.

.XXX, has been available for sale for only a short period of time, but based on anecdotal reports it is clear that a significant number of non-adult entertainment companies are snapping up the domain name to preserve their brand. Several universities have spent thousands of dollars acquiring .XXX domain names related to their own names.

I have to wonder if they thought of that business opportunity when they initially decided on opening up .XXX In reality they are pretty much forcing (extorting) companies, schools etc.. to buy domains that they will probably never use (except maybe as a redirect) you could say well the company doesn't have to purchase the domain but really if you were disney would you want "Pron on Ice" disney.xxx to be a porn site? or yale university "The Coeds from Yale" yale.xxx

[Clinton]

you could say well the company doesn't have to purchase the domain but really if you were disney would you want "Pron on Ice" disney.xxx to be a porn site? or yale university "The Coeds from Yale" yale.xxx

I see their problem.... but in those examples the bad guys will always win. 8 out of 10 Goog results for "young babysitter" are porn sites.

Will chat to you when you return from searching

[crabfoot]

In reality they are pretty much forcing (extorting) companies, schools etc.. to buy domains that they will probably never use (except maybe as a redirect)

"Never use" is the case - you can't redirect them without registering with ICM and getting a PIN to unlock the domain. To register with ICM you have to be in the Adult Entertainment business, or providing services to the Adult Entertainment business. Anyone can register an XXX domain, but unless they have an ICM PIN that domain will remain unusable and unresolved.

Mind you, it is easy enough to get registered - tell them you are an Adult Domainer, you can get on the register for providing a service to the industry ...