The .Blog registry announced that since beginning the Sunrise Phase on August 18th, more than 1,000 .blog domain sites have been activated. The number is higher than the expectations of the registry and is “signaling growing interest and enthusiasm for our Top Level Domain (TLD).”
Yesterday marked the end of the .blog Sunrise Launch Phase, a period where trademark owners could make their domain claims. .Blog had about 600 domain name registrations in the first few weeks of sunrise.
Thus far, interest has been particularly high among major tech companies, but spans brands across industries, from banks and automobile manufacturers, to hotels and household consumer products.
The registry said “What we are hearing from early subscribers is that .blog is valuable because it means something without explanation. It’s short, it’s easy to remember and easy to say. .blog provides a solid foundation to build something that can grow and be shared independently regardless of what’s happening in the social space.”
The next phase of the .blog TLD launch will be Landrush, open to everyone where early adopters can reserve domains freely from November 2nd through November 9th at a slightly higher price. Following Landrush, General Availability for all will begin on November 21st when the domains are offered on a first-come, first-serve basis at standard prices.
The pricing for .blog domains that I’ve looked up is an absolute joke. .Blog is owned by WordPress and the point of the extension is supposed to be for blogs. I’ve seen the regular price of a .blog as high as $149,000. This is one of the (if not the) priciest extension that I’ve come across. Insane. Exactly the reason why gTLDs need to be regulated. It’s the wild west, a cash grab, and I hope that all the extensions that have this insane pricing fail.
30$ @ hexonet
I’m talking about the quality keywords.
Sale.blog at hexonet, $105k with $105k annual renewal.