news Emoji could soon take over domain names | CNET

[News]

The internet domain registrar and web hosting company is making it easier to search for and register available emoji-based domains. On Friday, the company launched a search engine for emoji domains. People can visit the site on their phones, type in a string of emoji and see if the domain is available.

As more of the world increasingly uses the internet on phones and other mobile devices, a flood of emoji-based domains seems inevitable. Heck, even the Touch Bar on Apple's new MacBook Pro will let you type in emoji, something that's difficult to do with a traditional computer keyboard...

Read More on CNET and DomainSuccess

 

[Jon Roig]

Hi guys... I'm Jon, the guy who created ❤❤❤.ws for a 24 hour hackathon at GoDaddy.

I've really enjoyed reading through this discussion... I've been a GoDaddy employee for awhile, but I've actually been working on email infrastructure and whatnot for the last eight years. So, it's been an interesting crash course on domains, ccTLDs, etc...

We've actually sold a fair number of emoji domains in the last two weeks.... and we're trying to figure out how to take this to the next level. The next step, legitimizing emoji domains...

Anyway, not sure how often I'll drop by here to say hi, but if you've got thoughts, suggestions or other comments, twitter is probably the best place to find me: runnr_az

Thanks!

 

[briguy]

"All of the big name top level domains (.com, .org, .co.uk) only allow Latin characters in their domain names.

“Top level domains choose to do this to try and prevent phishing attacks on users,” explained Josh Farrant, a software developer and technology blogger who recently secured the domain .ws.

“Since, for example, there are several different characters which all look like a letter 'a', a malicious website could easily impersonate a genuine site by using one of these characters to try and trick users into giving them their sensitive information,” Farrant told me. To prevent this, top tier domains just flat out refuse non-Latin characters."

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/i-want-that-hair-flip-girl

 

[erwin.groen]

I registered to help promote my photography in a fun & visual way!
I do believe that sometimes thinking outside the box to promote a brand or service is the way to go!

 

[Jon Roig]

Hey guys... first of all, it's hilarious that this thread has stuck around for as long as it has!

Glad ya'll enjoyed the interview. Now you can conclusively see why they seldom let me out of the programming dungeon.... more fun than expected, too terrified to watch it myself, but at some point I'll force myself to listen to it so I can get a bit better at this kind of thing. Michael Cyger, pretty interesting guy.

This project has definitely exceeded expectations... and it's really cool that I'm starting to see people use Emoji Domains for various sites, using them a part of their brands and whatnot.

Thanks!

Got something new I'm cooking up... was hoping to release it a few days ago, but it's still hung up on some implementation details. I think you guys will find it interesting.... and I'll definitely share it once I get it working.

 

[Claim.Club]

Sold this month

.to $5,000
.to $525
.to $525

 

[Constantin S]

Don't worry, this will never happen.

 

[deez007]

Don't worry, this will never happen.

Lol.... yeah, highly unlikely it would take over the domain market but this emoji domain thing is an interesting concept, I gotta admit. At $5 a pop might not be a bad idea to grab a few good ones...

 

[DNaddicts]

Great thoughts everyone.

I'm the domainer who bought .com a few weeks back. FastCompany want's an exclusive, so I'm holding off on posting the one that I wrote for DNaddicts.com

I'll keep everyone in the loop..

 

[DT13]

.ws

just registered, there wasn't much left.

 

[Jon Roig]

Hi guys... since anyone still reading this thread is obviously like, really into Emoji Domains, I have something legitimately new to show you...

My project isn't live yet, so maybe keep this on the down low for a few days, but I'm looking for beta testers for my new project:
https://i❤️.ws
aka https://xn--i-7iq.ws/

Emoji + ASCII domains

For example: http://i❤️tacos.ws

Let me know what you think!

I'll redirect .ws to the new platform shortly, but of particular interest to you guys might be the Emoji Domain Marketplace:
https://i❤️.ws/marketplace/

 

[erwin.groen]

I think where many people get it wrong is they think it will overtake .com. Just think of emoji domains as complimenting your existing brand or service.

 

[StevenG]

My gem emoji

.ws sold to a lucky dude for a modest 2k recently.

I see value in them because the age-old adage "a picture is worth more than a thousand words" cannot be more defined but in an emoji.

I'm actually the guy that bought that! So I can confirm that price at 2k. I have to note though, that the sale was before Michael Cyger put out his guide to emoji domains and then had the interview with Matan and Jon Roig on DomainSherpa, so the prices were much lower then, they all seemed to have bumped up since.

I'm actually going to be the end user for this domain though! While most of the emoji domains I've purchased have been investments, this one is actually going to be launched as a business. I won't say what yet, but it's on it's way.

Also, I totally agree about the picture being world a thousand words. Emoji are compelling, and they aren't going away any time soon (if ever).

 

[CJ6]

@ZapNano I agree with you. But, it might be a good way to catch the eyes of potential customers and use it as a forwarder to company's main website. I picked up ⚘ which would be good for a flower company or a personal website for a love.

 

[Jon Roig]

If you're curious what's still available in single character emoji .ws domains, I ran a scan using the tools available at developer.godaddy.com. Took a little while to scan through 1789 emojis and probably isn't 100% accurate -- I may have missed some domains which are available -- but kinda neat, nonetheless.

I guess I haven't earned the right to post links to the forum, but for anyone interested, the file lives here:
slack-files.com/T02BHKTRC-F341ZEZAQ-7ccf87990c

It was generated last evening, 11/16/2016.

I had to look up lots of those characters in emojipedia to try and distinguish between them -- they're mostly variations of skin color of emojis which are otherwise taken, emojis which are hard to enter, and flags of somewhat obscure countries. (No disrespect to St. Vincent & Grenadines.)

 

[Dun]

 

[j.sats]

I wrote an article about how emoji are starting to see real traction in search. For example, when you type the watch emoji into google, you get real companies selling watches returning in the results. It's going to be interesting to see where this leads.
http://emojiname.com/-in-search-of-emoji/
2..ws

 

[HotKey]

Well guys sorry I had trouble laoding the emoji yesterday, I can't edit my first post any longer so I will try here.

The 6 Emojis Domain are a

.ws

. ws

If it's not showing they are:

All three "Earths/World + Star" as in the two main golden Stars in the emojis.

If you haven't guessed by now it can stand for a few t things but the main one I was aiming for is

"WORLD/STAR"

Boy, emojis will really catch on if this is what it takes..

j/k

 

[wot]

Be very careful with this one do not rush to register symbol domains.

 

[HotKey]

Cool! Always had a guilty pleasure for emoji domains. If the most recognizable brand on Earth jumped on board with these, I think it bodes well. Young mobile users love emojis. Good on the .WS registry for not implementing the latest IDNA protocols, which would render them useless.

Lol.... yeah, highly unlikely it would take over the domain market but this emoji domain thing is an interesting concept, I gotta admit. At $5 a pop might not be a bad idea to grab a few good ones...

Better get movin..these have gotten massively popular since 2014..I think single characters all gone.

 

[ZapNano]

"Who needs words, when you have emoji" Imagine having this " " for your company name?

 

[HotKey]

@ZapNano I agree with you. But, it might be a good way to catch the eyes of potential customers and use it as a forwarder to company's main website. I picked up ⚘ which would be good for a flower company or a personal website for a love.

Yes, this would be the only use for them ATM, because emojis can't be properly displayed in URL bar. More of a luxury than a necessity. But that doesn't mean they aren't picking up speed, with many people using them to connect users to their business, especially via mobile. Coca-cola is a great example of this.

By the way, nice grab with your ⚘ domain. You've got what's called a "symbol", not really an emoji. One of the classics from the days of dingbats and wingdings.

 

[nomen]

A brief history of emoji domains:

• 1995: ☃.com
  With incredible foresight, some random dude named Bob registered this domain back before the dotcom registry imposed their draconian crackdown on emoji domains. It is not for sale. I asked.

(https://xn--qeiaa.ws/#tlds)

So someone owns a snow man emoji .COM. That is something else.

 

[BrandChimp]

Can't belive 90's emoticons are a trend in 2016...


And this create confusion....

"It worked for me. The actual url is www.emoticoke.com but you can put in a number of different emotis "
"OMG this is sooo dumb. The only place that needs emoji is chat- noting more, nothing less. Even if they're trying to be creative and funny- this is completely dumb and stupid."
"
How are you supposed to do this on a computer without emojis
"

 

[HotKey]

Picked up the single character maple leaf emoji a couple years ago - I am Canadian after all - just to see if I could set up an email address using it. I thought my friends and family would get a kick out of receiving an email from an emoji. It was limited success, working on some email platforms, and not others. But the fact that it did at all was pretty cool.