Can a ninja help your site kick ass?
On April 1, Domain name giant GoDaddy dropped a giant ninjutsu chop on the Internet, beginning the registration period for the stealthiest of domains, .ninja. When the new top-level domain (TLD) goes live on May 28, URLs ending with .ninja will live alongside .coms and .nets in the databases that make the Internet tick – and embarrass all other websites with their coolness.
“.ninja is not fully out in general availability yet, but it is purchasable,” GoDaddy Senior Vice President and General Manager of Domains Mike McLaughlin told Digital Trends.
You’re damn right it is. I just picked up ama.ninja, after all.
I know, the link won’t work now. But it will soon.
“There’s great availability, tons of room for personal expression, and instant recognition. Nunchuks not included.”
“There’s great availability, tons of room for personal expression, and instant recognition. Nunchuks not included,” reads a Name.com page entreating you to sign up.
A technical contact listed on the site of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA.org) for United TLD Holdco LTD, parent company of Demand, did not answer the phone. But it’s not the only throwing star in the basket here. GoDaddy is eager to sell you your own personal .ninja as well, casually entreating me to buy buy buy in a monthly account summary / spam: “Beat the rush to stake your claim – .REVIEWS, .NINJA, .SOCIAL and .ROCKS are coming soon. Pre-Register TODAY!”
Sure, .rocks is cool and .reviews is handy, but .ninja? That’s ridiculous. Picture “ima.ninja” or “cellphone.ninja” – or even “WorldsBest.ninja” (many of those are currently available on the site).
Pre-registration is available for $24.99, although some URLs are unavailable, and the cost of others seems astronomical. You can’t get sexy.ninja, for example, and hot.ninja will set you back a cool $1,499.99.
“Think of it as buying a DVD or video game before it comes out, placing an order in advance,” McLaughlin said. Pre-registration lasts through May 19, when the land rush begins. Any new .ninja sites won’t actually go live for another nine days, however.
“That’s when the names actually work and will turn into websites.”
GoDaddy has created a page with detailed information on the .ninja domain for the curious, even going so far as to create a logo for the new TLD, replete with intense ninja eyes staring from behind a stylized mask.
“.Ninja is a fun choice for web developers, game designers, software engineers and anyone looking for a domain name with attitude,” the company’s web site advises.
It’s just one of about 1,400 new TLDs that will be unveiled over the next few years, McLaughlin explained, each with their own timetables for release and target audience. Some are brand specific — .nike for example. Others are for professions, such as .dentist or .lawyer. Still others reflect special interest groups: .photography is the current number two seller, he noted.
.Ninja will likely prove popular with the tech crowd, but it’s not the most interesting name in GoDaddy’s eyes.
“My personal favorite from the ‘who knows where this will lead dept.’ is .wtf,” McLaughlin said. “We’ll see where the market takes this.”
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