.Dev domain in general availability, free domains for I/O — Google launches

Google releases its latest top level domain name.

Google’s .dev top level domain name entered general availability today following a Dutch auction early access phase. Most registrars are offering the domains for $15 or less.

Over 2,000 .dev domains were added to the .dev zone file yesterday, bringing the total through sunrise and early access to just shy of 5,000 as stated by nTLDStats. Regarding half of the domain are registered through Google’s own registrar.

The firm is giving .dev domains away for one year to everyone who applied for a ticket to Google I/O 2019. The firm declined to disclose to DNW how many domains this possibly represents.

I expect .dev to be popular with individual developers and development teams within firms. I don’t expect it to take off like .app did, though. .App right now has 370,000 domains in the zone.

.Dev uses HSTS preloading so all .dev domains need an SSL certificate in order to resolve. (Learn regarding HSTS preloading in this podcast with Google.)