Domain search progressing, but still not ready for fresh top level domain names
Registrars are slowly improving their search results to show fresh top level domain name options, but the experience is far from ideal.
Earlier this month I wrote regarding how domain name search at major registrars wasn’t ready for fresh top level domain names.
I admitted it was early, as Donuts’ domain names had just come on to the market. It represented the first batch of English-language domains to become available.
Now a few weeks later and over 100,000 fresh TLD registrations made, is search any better? Let’s take a look.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy has made strides in search. On February 5th it didn’t show any suggestions related to the terms used in the search. Nor did it list any fresh TLDs in its suggestions.
Now the registrar is showing relevant domain names. Today I searched for “PlumbingGuru”. PlumbingGuru.com was taken, but here are the first four suggested alternatives:
I couldn’t replicate these types of suggestions with .photography and .lighting.
GoDaddy also isn’t “spanning the dot” with its suggestions. When I searched for “Fun Holdings”, one suggestion was FunHoldings.holdings, but not fun.holdings (which is available).
The search also has some difficulty parsing words to suggest fresh domain options. This is an age-old challenge that’s not unique to fresh domain names.
eNom
eNom appears to be more on top of things than other registrars.
Last time around it was showing decent suggested alternatives, although its highlighted options at the top of the page seemed to be hardcoded. Today I got the impression that these top results were somewhat based on the search term.
1&1
If I had spent $50 million on ads promoting fresh TLDs ahead of they even launched, I’d sure as heck make it easy for clients to place orders on the day they launched.
Amazingly, 1&1 made it difficult to do so. If you searched for one of the fresh TLDs in the search box, you were told they were unsupported:
Now you can search for the domains on the main search box rather than going to a special fresh TLD page.
The user experience is a bit mixed. When I searched for “Baseballgame.guru”, 1&1 returned this:
It acknowledged the domain I was searching for. I’m searching from Texas, but I’m a bit confused as to why I’m being pitched .mx domain names for Mexico.
1&1 doesn’t appear to be considering search terms in suggested domains yet. When I did the PlumbingGuru and FunHoldings search, neither .plumbing nor .guru domains were offered.
Another interesting thing regarding their domain search: you can have any spaces. I see domain search moving from a string such as PlumbingGuru to terms such as “Plumbing Guru”. 1&1 returns an error message when you search like this.
Hover
Hover only appears to return fresh TLD options if you search for them, e.g. fun.holdings. “Fun holdings” did not suggest .holdings domain names.
Network Solutions/Register.com
Web.com’s registrars fall in to the bucket of “yeah, we aren’t ready for fresh domain names yet.” Much like 1&1 on the first day, the only way to register a fresh domain at NetSol or Register.com is to do it through a special fresh TLD page.
It’s as if some registrars had no idea fresh TLDs were coming.
