Google acquires .app web domain for $25 mn

Google hads acquired the website domain .app in an auction held by the organisation that oversees the running of the net, BBC reported.

The search giant bid $25,001,000 which is said to be its highest so far.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) will roll out new customised web names and auction them off. Several other web address endings had also been sold including .baby, .tech, .salon and .VIP.

The suffixes are called 'generic Top Level Domains' (gTLD).

Charleston Road Registry Inc, which is a Google-owned company said in its bid application that its plan was that the domain would be used by developers of apps.

"The proposed gTLD will provide application developers with the ability to customise domain and website name application offerings to signal to the general population of internet users that .app websites are indeed related to applications and application developers," the firm wrote.

"This specialisation makes it clear to internet users that this is the authoritative and designated space where they can find applications and information about developers accessible via differentiated and streamlined web addresses."

Johnson & Johnson, maker of a range of baby products acquired the ending .baby for just over $3 million, while a firm called Dot Tech LLC bought .tech for $6,760,000.

Nash Riggins of Wired commented though the idea of industry-specific Top Level Domains (TLDs) had always had its appeal, according to experts, it did not make much sense from a branding or SEO point of view.

However that would be tested with time with Google's latest acquisition.

Given that many companies were just generating content for the web in the hope it would somehow generate leads, in recent years the inception of new generic TLDs had provided new hope for those small business struggling to stand out.

From a branding perspective, the move away from .coms and .orgs made little sense. A lot of businesses were creating brand-specific domains but that did not necessarily help them stand out as most generic TLDs were just plain confusing for customers. Also a lot of users were simply too set in their ways.

Further, apart from brand confusion, it was also universally-acknowledged that TLDs did not do a thing for a company's SEO ranking.