App-Domain – a new Domain is born

Apps make the mobile world go ‘round, and now they have their own more secure home on the web: the App-Domain, the most relevant domain extension for mobile apps.

You can use your App-Domain to showcase a unique and trustworthy destination, as a relevant download link, for deep linking, or for sharing screenshots, release notes, and reviews. Get your App-Domain now to start sharing your app with the world.

Here are the start dates for each launch phase of the App-Domains:
March 29th: Sunrise
May 1st: Early Access Period
The "Early Access Period" works like a "dutch auction". Each day you pay less for the access to the registration environment. Please contact us by secura@domainregistry.de to get more information about the Early Access Period.
May 8th: General Availability

The Sunrise Period of App-Domains has started on March 29, 2018. During this period, only companies that have registered their trademark with the Trademark Clearinghouse will be able to register. It is still time to register the trademark with the Trademark Clearing House and subsequently register preferred App-Domains.

But even for those without brands, it is time to act. Many ICANN registrars, such as Secura GmbH, accept pre-orders for App-Domains. The principle of greyhound racing also applies at the level of registrars: "First comes, first serves".

Key points about the TLD:
The App-Domain is an open TLD with a focus on improved security. The entire .app TLD has been added to the HSTS preload list, which means registrants will have to provision and set up SSL certificates in order for their content to be loaded in modern browsers

The App-Domain is a secure namespace, meaning that HTTPS is required for all .app websites. You can buy your App-Domain now, but in order for it to work properly in browsers you must first configure HTTPS serving.

The relationship between a better ranking in search engines and new top-level domains has already been proven in a study of Searchmetrics for .berlin domains. Websites with .berlin domains often rank better with regional searches in Google than sites with .de domains and .com domains. The result of the Search Metric study can be summarised as follows:

»In 42% of searches, .berlin domains rank better locally.«

Another study by Total Websites in Houston shows that the results of the Searchmetrics study are in principle applicable to all new top-level domains, including the new App-Domains. Total Websites notes that Google sees the domain extensions of new top-level domains as an important criterion for the evaluation of a domain and, therefore, concludes that:

»It’s clear that the new top-level domains improve the ranking in search engines.«

Marc Mueller

http://www.domainregistry.de/… (English)
http://www.domainregistry.de/… (German)