It’s been quite a long time since we’ve heard anything about .web domain names. Nearly 10 years ago, Verisign, via a company call Nu Dot Co, won the auction for the .web extension, as noted by the BBC. For quite some time, there were legal battles related to the auction. Wikipedia has a page with some background about .web.

It appears that .web domain names will finally be coming to market this year, according to a press release from Verisign that was published last night. The two most notable sentences in the press release were:

“The delegation of .web follows the successful resolution of all previous disputes related to the generic top-level domain (gTLD), the details of which are confidential.”

and

“Verisign plans to begin offering .web domain names through its channel partners later this year and will share further details about the planned launch in the coming months.”

So much has changed online in the last ten years. One thing that hasn’t changed much is the demand for domain names. People and companies are still buying domain names, and I suspect there is going to be considerable interest in .Web. Personally, I think “web” is a bit of a dated term, but I still think there will be many buyers who are willing to use it for their website.

As someone with a marketing background, I am looking forward to seeing how Verisign markets .web domain names, the price at which .web domain names will be sold, and I am also very interested to see how to company treats and prices its “premium” .web domain name inventory.

With the next round of new gTLD applications upon us, the launch of .web will bridge the gap between the last release of new domain names and the next round that should see some interesting options.