Ask HN: Who wants the .app TLD | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Who wants the .app TLD

15 pointsAshMokhberi17 comments

Me and some friends have been discussing the idea and awesomeness of having a .app TLD . After doing some ( very ) preliminary research we decided that it might be worth pursuing as a project on Kickstarter. First we thought we would ask how many others felt this way, how much you would pay and if you would contribute to a kickstarter project.

Given our early research ( read: limited knowledge ). We would love it if people could give some insight into the process of applying for and running a TLD.

We know this is a very speculative idea, but think it's well worth doing for the tech community.

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You need over $200K (probably more like $500K) just to apply, and then you'll need to beat the other inevitable applicants. If .app ends up being auctioned, you'd need millions.

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

This is where seeing points on comments would have been useful.

I work a lot with non technical people. The only domain endings they know is .com and our country specific .de (Germany) some may know .net but often times they will try to enter .de or .com first. For many users a .com at the end is treated the sameway a www. is at the beginning. I don't think you without a .com domain you can reach a big portion of the internet.

Sorry if this is not how you do polls on HN I couldn't figure it out.

For future reference, you can create polls after a certain (low) karma level by going to http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

I did find out in the end on the HN blog. Thanks for the info though. I will try that method next time.

Would you back a Kickstarter project

Yes

Why would this be awesome?

We are quickly running out of .com and other TLD's that are clearly represent what we do. Many web/mobile apps are now resorting to somenameapp.com as a way to use a TLD for their given choice of name. having a TLD means it's easier for a start. But also when running a TLD you can stipulate the rules for purchase and use. Allowing us to prevent domain hogging, and keep the space clean for applications only.

The cost of screening apps manually will make it prohibitive in cost as a TLD. It's a catch-22, speculators actually make the registries a ton of cash. They love speculators. From a registry perspective, speculation IS a business model.

How much would you pay ?

$10

$20

$50

$50 +

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