report .app/.com cross-zone analysis

[Kate]

In this exercise we are going to compare .app registrations against .com.
The same exercise can be applied to other nTLDs.

Materials needed:

• .com zone file
• .app zone file

I used today's zone files.
The counts are as follows:

• .com: 133051790 unique domains
• .app: 198097 unique domains

The goal is simple. For every .app domain registered and found in the .app zone file, let's find out if the .com 'counterpart' is registered. For the purpose of this analysis the counterpart means this: domain + 'app' + .com
For example if abc.app is registered, we check if abcapp.com is registered. We could also check if abc.com is registered, as there must be a few domains registered in .app that are available in .com (and other extensions)

I will spare you with the scripting here, and cut to the chase.
Out of 198097 .app domains, 45876 'counterparts' are found in the .com zone file. That is 23.16%.
The difference is 76.84%. So that means that three quarters of all registered .app domains are not registered in their .com 'equivalents', if only for defensive registration purposes.

In my humble opinion, it is not a good idea to register a nTLD while leaving the .com counterpart unregistered. Why: bleeding traffic, defensive registration etc.

Also, buying something.app when somethingapp.com is not even registered suggests that it is a dubious investment in the first place, because the demand for the combo does not even exist in .com.
Again, just imho.

Besides, the vast majority of registered domain in .app probably don't make sense, and are not really usable for any practical purpose.

 

[Iam_leun]

Also, buying something.app when somethingapp.com is not even registered suggests that it is a dubious investment in the first place, because the demand for the combo does not even exist in .com.
Again, just imho.


I agree with this @Kate

 

[bluemeteor]

Some TLDs will have more of a purpose. For .app, you need to agree that you will use https. Because apps will run on .app. It’s not just about marketing your “app” on .app. TLDs are designed for function, for resource location.

Look at the address bar, there is a https before namepros.com.

 

[DnEbook]

Could anyone apply them? Free?

That's why spamming is so easy ..... want website development ?

 

[bluemeteor]

That's why spamming is so easy ..... want website development ?

lol. getting those every day. wondered how they knew I registered a name the next day.

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

I'm happy that 50% of my .app purchases are also registered in the .com as "domain"app.com
while the other 50% are registered in the "domain".com format.

Sometimes adding app to the end of a domain name makes it unwieldy and that seems to be the ones where is is only represented in the "domain".com format. Where it is a singular word domain, the domainapp.com is registered.

I think this is possibly a part of the reason for the large registration discrepancy between the two and possibly one that warrants further investigation.

 

[Jonathan MacDermid]

Thank you for this detailed work. Really useful to get a handle on things like this.

 

[Kostas]

@Kate Can you report how many "...app.com" domain names are in the .com zone file? It would be interesting to find out the ratio "...app.com" to "....app" and maybe compare it to other ...tld.com/....tld of tlds with natural growth (mostly donuts owned).

 

[Lawismything]

Does anybody else hear those crickets...?

Hahaha it’s okay, wish I could hop on the .net garage sales for $10 you do on these forums.

 

[Lawismything]

No no, don't do that. Stick with boasting about fictional sales. That's all the rage on the forum these days.

No need to be fictional. Instagram is a platform where brands and users make use of the most used social app by teenagers.

A little research by you would back my claims up.


Anyways Kate, that’s alot more interesting. So only 3% are unmatched which could possibly be containing words that are foreign for countries like Sweden, Egypt, UAE, Germany and so on. And others could be very specific to apps or the use of a saying for example I’ve noticed people get “theweed.app” as a saying vs theweed.com and a lot of them could just be very weak investments for their own reasons and dumb buys as every tld may have.

 

[Lawismything]

Would love to look into it some more if you could give us the facts of the sale... We could all benefit from that kind of expertise and experience. Which accounts did you sell? Who owned them previously? What steps did you take to sell them? Who purchased them?

I think .app is likely to be another in a long line of disappointing gTLDs, but sales of actual accounts within social media apps is something that has always interested me. Enlighten us.

Feel free to PM me, I don’t disclose information like this publicly as it wouldn’t be fair to buyers. Social media “.com’s” have been hot for years and continue to thrive. I’ll be surprised if .app doesn’t have momentum over next two years.

Only gTLD I’ve ever invested in that’s worth it. The others I feel are completly useless in terms of mainstream adaption.

 

[Vimal Kumar]

How are they going to do this when there are no restrictions on who can register the TLD, or on how it can be used?



I've always found apps very easily on the Play Store or the App Store. Those platforms are both safe and easy to use. I don't understand how, as an app user, I'm going to benefit from looking up apps via Google, which will redirect be toward various .app sites, which will in turn redirect me toward the established platforms for downloading apps... Where's the user experience in adding all those extra steps?

.

@Joe Nichols I am unsure what do you mean by "...finding apps very easily on Play Store..". If you open Play Store and search for 'Live Soccer', you will find atleast 30 apps titled exactly 'Live Soccer'. How do you know which one needs to be downloaded? If a friend had recommended you to download 'Live Soccer' app, which one will you download of the 30+ apps?

 

[anantj]

That's why spamming is so easy ..... want website development ?

The zone file does not contain whois information!

 

[Vimal Kumar]

And how would that experience be made better thanks to .app...??

IMO Google should plan to give results based on .app extension. Eg, if keyword 'Live Soccer' is being searched, livesoccer.app should appear first, followed by other apps closely matching the keyword. This is a structured way results should throw up. .app should be the way an app is identified. Similarly, there are lakhs of apps which are tough to find as they have similarly named apps. This is a big opportunity for Google to systemize it.

 

[Vimal Kumar]

It wouldn't be very useful, because livesoccer.app is probably owned right now by a domain hoarder.

Update: YUP! lol
Show attachment 88093

lol. What we are discussion is the opportunity Google has to streamline its app. If the keyword domain is not acquired/ developed, then the next closest match results would throw up. Will Google do this? I dont know. Can Google do this? yes it can. There is an issue and there is a likely solution

 

[Premiums]

Similar New
Domain Extensions
.app | .mobile | .phone | .mobi

 

[Dave]

The zone file does not contain whois information!

The logic at work here is differentiation of the zone file on a day to day basis. You can determine newly registered domains and automate crawling WHOIS information to retrieve the registrant email address.

 

[rafaelo0]

This reminds me when apps started, most would say "applications are the future of the computing industry" and “This is the future of digital distribution for everything: software, games, entertainment, all kinds of content.”.

They did make a big impact but they weren't the future of the computing industry. I think it's the same with .app to much high expectations.

There will probably be some kind of a market for them but won't be a game changer and certainly won't be the future for the app market.

 

[-EM-]

Search.app is different with searchapp.com
In other words generic/keywords.app are not the same with generic/keyrowrds/app.com
The analyse comparison isn't the great, but it can still be used.
Good work

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Doesn't Google own the .WEB extension too?... waiting to see what they do with it!!

Nope, Google don't own .WEB

 

[JamieHines]

I'm currently listening to 'Bawitdaba' by the great Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid Rock! So do Google have any real plans for .app? I've heard little since the launch and I tried to listen to their boring conferences on the matter, but I fell asleep... twice. Well, hopefully .app will keep Russia and their .ru and .pro popups at bay. DON'T VISIT PORN SITES KIDS.

 

[Rhythm8]

What I see clumsy attempts to justify the existence of a TLD.

Then I reckon you really need to stop with the clumsy attempts to justify the existence of .com

 

[Premiums]

app.wow
or wow.app?

 

[Rhythm8]

I was inspired by this thread to make some research. Thanks @Kate

I checked all .app registered domain names to see how many of them have free .com alternatives

For Keyword.app domain name

160 733 KeywordApp.com domains are available to register
view full list in Google Sheets

5 364 Keyword.com domains are available to register
view full list in Google Sheets

5 258 Keyword and KeywordApp.com domains are available to register
view full list in Google Sheets

Keywords?

List is full of mostly garbage.com and gibberish.com

 

[Rhythm8]

Oh and what about if an app does not have the matching .app domain but is really really well designed with high quality official live feeds, no ads, no malware and uses a brandable name with no live or soccer in it's name itself. It should not show up at all right?

Why build a mansion in the middle of nowhere unless you want nobody to visit

 

[Vimal Kumar]

Kind of sounds like going back to the days of giving too much strength to EMDs. Want to rank for an app about Honey Roasted Barbecue Peanuts? All you have to do is register HoneyRoastedBarbecuePeanuts.app and you'll rank #1. Kind of a step backwards for Google...

The way .app sites would be ranked would be the same as any other site: based on quality content and backlinks. And in that case, it doesn't matter if you own a .app, .com, .net, or .beer... if you have the best site authority, you rank #1. And so the best and most efficient way to find an app you want to download is still... wait for it... the App Store!

Let me put it this way.
1) If you are a pure App based company having no interest on being on the internet but still need a homepage to showcase to customers and investors, would you prefer an long domain name in other TLDs or a short crisp name under your business domain TLD?
2) Apply the above similar scenario for lakhs of other App developers. If there were to adopt different TLDs to showcase themselves, it would be chaotic with each squandering for different TLDs. Thus, having a standerdized TLD will help in quickly identifying that its an APP and searches are made more easy.
3) Now considering App developers make .APP their homes in huge numbers. What stops google to make a seperate .APP search section to make app searches more easy/ streamlined. ( similarto seperate search options given to Images, News, Maps, etc)
4) For your given example, HoneyRoastedBarbecuePeanuts.app could throw up exactly the same domain on the top of the search results or, a similar domain/ APP with better quality content and backlinks. That,is for Google to decide based on their user search pattern and preferences. However, having that APP DOMAIN NAME showing up in the search result ( on the top or, somewhere down) gives confidence to the user that the APP recommended by his friend is infact that same APP, as the friend could have given that distinct APP DOMAIN NAME to download. He does not need to browse endlessly to find it ( if more apps have exact similar names as is currently)