Taylor Swift buys 'TaylorSwift.porn' before trolls get the chance
Companies are buying their namesake .porn and .sucks websites before new domains go on sale to public
American sweetheart Taylor Swift is now the legal owner of TaylorSwift.porn.
But don't worry,Swifties the pop star's URLpurchase is not part of an attempt to shake off her wholesome image. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
CNN reportsthat Swift's team is part of "a select group of people and companies" that have been given access to some ofICANN'smore controversial new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) before they're released to the public.
Snapping up TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult before anyone else can simply minimizes the chanceof trolls doing somethingunsavourywith a domain name bearing the singer's name.
Taylor's swift in buying up .porn & .swift domains to keep the trolls out. #TaylorSwift #HATERSGONNAHATE pic.twitter.com/SLvEyaeZtz
—@ClippetNews
The non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers famouslywon the rightto expand the web's offering ofgTLDsin 2011, and hundreds of new suffixes havebeen added to the original crop of .coms, .orgs and .nets since.
According toICANN'smost recent statistics, the number of domain endings online has grown from 22 to nearly 550 since January 2014.
That number is eventually expected to rise to more than1,000 asprivate companiescontinue to shell out big bucks (approximately $185,000 a pop) on applicationsforgTLDSlike.pizza, .android., .dad and .mormon.
Related:
- 1,000+ new domain suffixes set to expand the internet
- New domain name suffixes could lead to buying frenzy
- ICANN embraces new internet domains
While many of the domain endings approved to date have been relatively innocuous, a handful of newgTLDsscheduled to be released soon are attracting more attention than usual (likealmost everything elseon the internet with the word "porn" in it.)
As of June 1, anyone with the cash and the desireto buy a website ending in .porn, .sucks or .adult can do so if the domain name they desire is still available after trademark holders go shopping.
ICANNhas openedup the saleof domains on the abovegTLDSto those who it determines may need to protect their brands againstcybersquattingor trademark infringement.Called a "Sunrise period," this month-longpre-salewillendApril 1.
StuartLawleyofICMRegistry, which owns and operates the .porn and .adult top-level domains, told CNN that Swift and Microsoft were among the parties who'd already registered domains on bothgTLDs.
It has not been revealed how much Swift's team or Microsoft paid for the .porn and .adult domains, but trademark holders will pay approximately $2,500 for a .sucks address when sales begin on March 30, according toVoxPopuliRegistry, which owns thegTLD.
Looking to get into the domain gameyourself? You can find apublic list of all pending and delegated new gTLDs onICANN'swebsite.