New TLDs means .photography, .camera, .lighting, .photos websites up for grabs
posted Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 3:14 PM EDT
If you're a photographer, making yourself easy to find online is a surprisingly big part of the job. You need a website, Facebook page, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, and probably more. Now, a whole suite of new top level domains (TLDs) have been announced, including a number that are directly relevant to photographers. Which means that you can now grab a .photography website if you want—but that you'll also to try and stop someone from grabbing the one you want first.
The new domains were awarded Donuts Inc. who are currently rolling out a set including .CAMERA, .EQUIPMENT, .ESTATE, .GALLERY, .GRAPHICS, .LIGHTING and .PHOTOGRAPHY. Later this month will see even more, including .PHOTOS.
On one hand, that means that if you've ever wanted to use yourname.photography, you now have the chance to—which is especially nice, if there's someone else already sitting on yourname.com. However, many have seen this as a cash grab, forcing companies and people to aggresively buy relevant sites in advance to protect their own copyright. You can bet that Nikon quickly grabbed Nikon.camera, and Apple has already been on a buying spree.
To grab one of these domains, you need to go through a domain name registrar, of which there are many—and depending on which you go with, you may end up getting a very different price.
We want to know if you'll be getting one of these new domains—or do you just see it as a grab for cash?
(via Reddit)