I get that some instances use the domain + TLD to make a word, like lemm.ee or to an extent, sh.itjust.works. But I’ve seen so many TLDs I had no idea existed, like .world, .zone, .social, and yes .works as well.

Is there any real reason for that? Trying to look cool or kinda underground-y? Cheaper and more varied domain options? Something actually kinda functional?

Interestingly, I started on vlemmy.net because I was a scared Reddit refugee and the .net TLD gave me comfort. Then it vanished a few days later without a trace. So here I am on lemmy.world

          • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
            3·
            10 months ago

            One of the teachers at my faculty has his academic website, including course materials, on an .xyz domain.

          • DrQuint@lemm.ee
            3·
            10 months ago

            For me, that was .dance and .moe.

            And then there’s .ninja which so far has been strictly small web animations.

            I really wish Randall Monroe acquired xkcd.xyz tho.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            2·
            10 months ago

            Oh, there is a website where somebody created Doom with CSS and that’s a .xyz but that tracks, because it’s 3D

        • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          5·
          10 months ago

          I’m on lemmy.zip, has been swell.

          The whole zip malware hype never came to be. Try it out, your Outlook isn’t replacing xyz.zip with a link.

          I guess you could manually create a link, but those have never been safe before either as the text can be different from the URL.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            4·
            10 months ago

            I think the complaint is it’s just needlessly confusing and ambiguous.

            Like everyone would obviously have an issue with it if they introduced a TLD of .txt or .jpg so why is this acceptable?

            • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
              3·
              10 months ago

              It really doesn’t matter in my opinion.

              If you get an email and there is a link that just says “myfile.zip”, you wouldn’t click it, right? Email doesn’t support links for attachments, so it would be a web link either way. And behind that link it can be whatever, like “https://malicioussite.com/download/virus”. Actual email attachments have their own spot in your email client.

              On top of that, any URL can download a file. If you go to https://fakegoogle.com it doesn’t even have to be .zip or .jpg, the moment you get there I could start a download in your browser.

              • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
                2·
                10 months ago

                No it’s not that URL will download a file it’s that a URL can pretend to be a file download.

                Then all I need to do is build a website that looks like a word or something, and ask users to fill out their personal address form or something.

                It’s about the lowest common denominator, and the public are the very most common denominator. Why make life easier for scammers?

                It’s not like there’s a legitimate reason for a .zip domain

                • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
                  4·
                  10 months ago

                  No it’s not that URL will download a file it’s that a URL can pretend to be a file download.

                  Every URL can pretend to be a file download…

                  I can give you https://mydomain.com/photo.jpg and then deliver you a webpage instead of a .jpg file. The web server decides what you get in return.

      • DrQuint@lemm.ee
        5·
        10 months ago

        Yeah, that domain screams scam emails to me.

        here, mr boomer target, click this file

        it’s a link that redirects to something else

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
          5·
          10 months ago

          I was surprised it took almost an entire day before appleinvoice. zip got snatched up🤣 I wonder how much appleinvoice or microsoft agreement is worth to some scammer.

          Probably not as much as something more generic like “invoices”, “emails”, “communications”

          Edit: I didn’t mean to make it a link lol… I actually have the domain blocked until I need a use for it.

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        10 months ago

        There are people who use (regex) blocking for the zip TLD and that other one that google released with it, for the reason that they can be very deceptive.

  • InfiniWheel@lemmy.one
    83·
    10 months ago

    “Weird” TLDs tend to be cheaper. .social is also supposed to be made for this in the first place

  • 1984@lemmy.today
    65·
    10 months ago

    The real reason is because it’s expensive to get a short and good .com name and also because it’s very corporate and boring.

      • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
        26·
        10 months ago

        There is an entire industry “domaining” that trades domain names like baseball cards. It usually boils down to two things:

        • People register pdrq.com because they hope someone will have a wonderful new product named PDRQ later and will pay $10,000 for a domain that cost them $11.

        • Even if there’s no direct buyer, there are services that will run low-quality ads on the page. and you can more or less estimate traffic and revenue from typos or dead links pointing to the domain. A three character domain, all letters, will get more than 12 characters with random digits mixed in. If you get $12 a year of random clicks seeing ads for “hot singles in your area offering PDRQ”, you’re ahead and can justify holding it as part of a portfolio.

        • loobkoob@kbin.social
          12·
          10 months ago

          Which really illustrates how much of a bubble waiting to burst online advertising is. Ads on pages like those don’t translate into any real-world value for anyone. The advertisers are paying out but they’re not actually gaining any sales/users for their money at all because no-one is mistyping a website name, then clicking an advert on the crappy-looking page that comes up, and then deciding to buy/use a product/service from that advert.

          • ___@lemmy.ca
            15·
            10 months ago

            Based on my discussions with some domainers I’ve met, the ads themselves haven’t been profitable for the past 5+ years. Their renewals are done at a loss until they make a sale, which covers a few year’s worth of renewals on all their domains. It’s not as profitable as it used to be with all the new gTLDs out there

  • moreeni@lemm.ee
    44·
    10 months ago

    They look better and more quirky than the “usual” ones. Also, sometimes they might be even cheaper

      • bluefirex@lemmy.world
        26·
        10 months ago

        Definitely not. Some examples (actual prices I pay for my various domains):

        • com: $18/y (gTLD)
        • net: $19/y (gTLD)
        • de: ~$5/y (ccTLD)
        • re: ~$5/y (ccTLD)
        • design: $49/y
        • tech: $55/y
        • blue: $23/y
        • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
          4·
          10 months ago

          I think this depends largely on the domain name … So I’m not sure this data is all that enlightening out of context.

          • bluefirex@lemmy.world
            1·
            10 months ago

            My data just serves as a counter point to the argument “new domains are always cheaper”. Of course it depends on the domain and how greedy a particular NIC is to create a text file on a server.

            • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
              1·
              10 months ago

              I guess it’s a matter of semantics on the word “always”. You are technically right, it isn’t 100% of the time. But 99% or even 90% is still good enough for conventional wisdom, which might be the other interpretation here (especially in contrast to the assertion of it’s “sometimes” cheaper).

        • _pete_@lemmy.world
          6·
          10 months ago

          I think I got my .fun for about £2 from names.co.uk usually price for a .com is £30.

          I’ve found most weird TLDs are cheaper than classic ones, but there are some exceptions (.app and .io comes to mind)

  • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
    38·
    10 months ago

    Cost of domain name tends to be cheaper with more obscure Top Level Domains (TLDs). .com .org .net TLDs are expensive because they are popular and high in demand. You have to rent them out most of the time. Many are already claimed so you either have to buy the owner out or wait till they stop paying and it expires if you really want it, .xyz is very cheap and uncommon on the other hand thus pennies on the dime per year to rent. Also depending on where you live and your occupation you can actually get a domain name for free through registering with specific services that actually for real own the Top Level Domains. If you are a citizen of a certain country you can get a .us or .cad or .eu .ml domain ect either for free or very very cheap.

    Check out this list for all TLDs and if you qualify for one for free. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

    Heres a free domain name registar thats quite promising from the looks of it, most likely the one that lemmy.ml uses https://www.freenom.com/en/index.html?lang=en

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    36·
    10 months ago

    Why does ICANN allow so many weird domains to begin with? Domains used to be a good way to tell if you were going to the legit website.

    .com - commercial entity .gov - government only .edu - educational entities only .net - network providers (ISP) only .org - non profit only

    Those days are gone.

    Now there’s Startrek.website and Startrek.com — how does the user know which one is owned by Paramount/Star Trek?

      • skulblaka@kbin.social
        25·
        10 months ago

        That one in particular is a bomb waiting to blow. Is this link to a webpage or to a malicious download? Who knows! Guess we’ll just have to click on it and see if anything starts downloading.

        Using file extensions for your TLD should be a big no-no for a lot of reasons, that being one of them.

        • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
          14·
          10 months ago

          Using file extensions for your TLD should be a big no-no for a lot of reasons, that being one of them.

          That is what I said about .com.

          • TitanLaGrange@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            10 months ago

            huh, Windows still distributes a handful of .com programs. Neat.

            I liked .com back in the day because it was easy to write assembly and dump it through the MSDOS ‘debug’ program to create an executable.

            • BarrierWithAshes@kbin.social
              3·
              10 months ago

              At one point it time. Back in the early Windows days it was how applications were distributed. These days it’s all .exe files.

        • danielton@lemmy.world
          7·
          10 months ago

          .com was a common file extension for MS-DOS executables, which was still in common use when the Internet started taking off.

        • xigoi@lemmy.sdf.org
          4·
          10 months ago

          Are you aware that opening any webpage, regardless of TLD, can cause a file to start downloading?

    • Corroded@leminal.spaceEnglish
      21·
      10 months ago

      I feel like that’s been the case for a while now. You pretty much need a search engine and some sort of bookmarks tool to use the web.

      I don’t know immediately if The Verges website URL contains a “the” or if BBC uses a .com or a .uk. I search both when looking for news at work so I don’t accidentally end up on porn.

    • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
      7·
      10 months ago

      Hasn’t .com always been the commerce/business. Would a Google search for Star Trek actually bring you to Startrek.website? It seems like anyone with half a brain would know the difference. Legit companies/entities are going to stick to known domains.

    • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      That’s not how the internet works. Any schmuck can buy those domain names except for .gov and .edu

      I’m not an ISP, but I can get any .net domain for $11 a year. And then put ads and malware on the site. If someone else hadn’t snatched it already I could even register disney.net if I wanted to. There is zero guarantee that Disney is behind a Disney domain.

      You’ll also find a hundred other Disney domains that are not owned by Disney. Big companies usually register a handful of domains for countries they do business in. And darn, some guy already registered disney.world :)

      • Eavolution@kbin.social
        4·
        10 months ago

        .ie is another one, you can’t get them from a lot of registrars and have to prove you’re genuinely based in Ireland.

        • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          It didn’t. I can’t find a single reference that .net registration was ever restricted to networking companies at all (it might be the intention of the name, but there was never a requirement for it). Same for .com, you could just register them back in the day too.

          Hell, .net was even free to register at first before they started charging for domains.

    • MooseLad@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 months ago

      Well one is a forum with a little mouse at the top and the other one is a website with official logos, branding, a shop, and news.

      You’re not gonna get recommended startrek.website unless you’re specifically looking for it or a star trek lemmy instance in general.

  • rar@discuss.online
    24·
    10 months ago

    New gTLDs have been released constantly since ICANN dropped the restriction. Also consider that a lot of Lemmy instances are run by individuals as a side project. That means they’ll reuse or nab whatever cool sounding domain they can get to spin up their new instance as quickly as possible. Corporate websites might pause and consider a more “marketable” domain.

    Personal theory of mine is *.itjust.works meant to stand for “It Just Works” until they decided to give this Lemmy thing a go.

    • Taival@suppo.fi
      12·
      10 months ago

      Personal theory of mine is *.itjust.works meant to stand for “It Just Works” until they decided to give this Lemmy thing a go.

      Yep it’s referencing a meme that originated almost a decade ago. https://youtu.be/nVqcxarP9J4

  • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeoEnglish
    18·
    10 months ago

    Registration and renewal cost plus more availability, most shorter names are taken on the older tlds.

    I came up with mine by scrolling through tldlist comparing prices and going with the first idea that popped in my head.