(I have written this article first time at Namepros at Feb 2017 – here is an updated version with little modifications). Enjoy the reading!

Why new gTLDs rule in usability.

Dealing exclusively with new gTLD names, I noticed several facts, which are maybe obvious for gTLD enthusiasts, but not so much for the rest of domain community. Here is what will happen, when we consider possible modes of use on different platforms.

As example, lets take new gTLD name enjoying.life, and its .TLD counterpart, enjoyinglife.TLD, where TLD can be .com, .net, .org, .us, .co.uk, etc..hundreds of different names possible as we have hundreds of TLDs.

Here is what can we do with these domains:

1. Use the domain name for a website: you can create websites www.enjoying.life, and www.enjoyinglife.TLD

.TLD names are more known to people at the moment, .life name is shorter, but some people can at first glance at it in surprise as it is something new to them. If company or business will be named “Enjoying life”, enjoying.life would be shorter possible version (exact mirror) of the company name, while enjoyinglife dot TLD (where TLD can be .com .net, .org, .us, .co.uk, .de, .be, .fr, etc) will be usually geo versions of the company name (with .be meaning the site is meant for Belgium, for example). Thus enjoying.life is most universal point of access to internet available to the particular company named “Enjoying Life”

2. Use of the name for email address: with .life name, you can create email addresses like Iam@enjoying.life, or Robert@enjoying.life. With .TLD version, your email will look like Iam@enjoyinglife dot TLD … not bad, but from semantic point of view, .TLD is redundant there.
3. Twitter use : limited originally to 140 characters, and now to 280 characters, shorter domains are MUCH better for tweets, which make gTLD names rule on the platform.
4. Facebook – we can create subdomains pointing to individual people’s facebook pages, like Robert.is.enjoying.life or Sara.is.enjoying.life…We can do that also with enjoyinglife.TLD names, it will be Robert.is.enjoyinglife.TLD…and this is worse, as .TLD is simply redundant there.
5. Instagram: unmarketed phrase enjoying.life has over 1.7 million tags on Instagram. Nothing similar exists for its .TLD couterparts, as tags at Instagram are phrases describing content of the photo. Sees like lot of potential to use new gTLD names in connection to Instagram!

6.Billboards and stylized logos/slogans : enjoying.life can be displayed at billboards in form of stylized logos/slogans, which is not possible for .TLD version of the name.

So just few points to prove, that new gTLD names can be very useful for media agencies/brands/marketing/viral campaings, with potential modes of use, which can be only partly achieved by names with suffixes, like .com, .co.uk, .de, etc.

What are your thoughts ? Does that make more clear why so many of us start to like new gTLDs?