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

 

[Nazz]

Laughable.

 

[Dnbolt]

Desperate Registrar and founder

 

[HotKey]

Desperate Registrar and founder

That may be, but they have a monopoly.

 

[DnEbook]

I think you can do them at name as well?

 

[HotKey]

I think you can do them at name as well?

You used too..don't know now. They all show as taken..when they aren't.

 

[CJ6]

You used too..don't know now. They all show as taken..when they aren't.

Maybe the Chinese got them all.
(Ok, this may be my pathetic attempt to start a rumor.)

 

[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!

 

[DnEbook]

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. We have a fair amount of work to do in terms of 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!

Yes please do keep this thread updated, thanks

 

[VB Domains]

No, it couldn't take over domain names, especially not soon.

 

[Jon Roig]

Yes please do keep this thread updated, thanks

Sure... I guess you guys are the guys who want to talk about emoji domains, and I sure could use people to talk to about 'em!

 

[Jon Roig]

Sorry... screwed up with my earlier post... it's been awhile since I used a proper forum! Darn you social media!

Obviously, I welcome share my thoughts on emoji domains. I'm Jon, a Developer at GoDaddy, but... of course, these are purely my opinions, not at all that of my employer.

I'm a big believer in the inevitable future of emoji domains, but there are definitely challenges ahead.

1. Emojis are everywhere. Even this forum system has a special emoji input. My day job is working for a team that provisions Office 365 accounts and even Office 365, primarily intended for business users, has emoji input.
2. Emoji domains transcend language. As we move to a global internet culture where companies like mine support many different tongues, an emoji domain could be a natural fit.
   
3. I didn't invent emoji domains at all, but I did, finally, demonstrate their value in a way that is simple to understand. It's one thing to use an emoji domain as a forwarding tool, but it's another to build an application on an emoji domain. I see emojis primarily being used in mobile, although the prospect of a new emoji keyboard on the MacBook is interesting... and will probably be widely copied. As mobile apps start to move away native Android and iOS, maybe hosting them on a emoji domain makes a lot of sense?
4. People need to start seeing emoji domains, recognizing them as valid domains.
5. Emoji domains are not supported everywhere... it breaks all kinds of regexes in all kinds of applications. Surprisingly, though, they also just work a ton of places because full unicode support is starting to become the norm. If someone knows somebody I can chat with over at Facebook, let me know.
6. We need to get native display of emojis in the address bar into Chrome and Firefox.
7. How long will it be before ICANN approves emoji domains for gTLDs? How does that process even work? Right now, only a handful of ccTLDs support emoji domains... while that number might increase, dotcom would bring a lot of legitimacy to the concept...

Anyway... that's a good start.

I'd certainly love to hear any thoughts anyone has...

I'm also curious about the aftermarket for emoji domains. What's that like?

Also, any cool examples I can pass along of great emoji domain uses, that'd be helpful...

Thanks!

 

[CJ6]

I believe that one day, emojis can be used as a domain name and be common place. I'm not a developer, but I believe all it would take is some new code in all the different browsers to allow the emojis to show up correctly and be useful. Once this happens, the emojis are little more than a curiousity. Can you imagine what will happen when Pepsi or Coke can have their logo as an emoji? I don't know if it would ever happen, but I bet they would love to have that domain and either build a website or forward to their main site.

Unfortunately, emojis as a commonly used domain name will not happen UNTIL browsers (including on desktops) and keyboards support it.

Frankly, in the domain world, it seems like whatever the Chinese want, becomes the next must have item. Maybe we need the domainers or Web administrators in China to start adopting emojis. Then the rest of the world might follow. If possible, I plan on keeping a few, just for fun. I *think* I picked up a couple of the newest approved unicode...kind of hard to confirm since I primarily use an old Samsung phone that doesn't have them in its library.

 

[CJ6]

Actually, I want to change my view... what is needed is not domainers, but regular users. If there was a 4x4 emoji, I'd be all over it. I would use it and try to build a website. (CJ6 is my username, but also my Jeep.)
That might help drive emojis to being commonplace. If a news agency woods use the news emojis (I think there are 2). That would help.

 

[HotKey]

Hi Jon, and welcome to the forum. You sure make an entrance!

The aftermarket for emoji domains is not big, probably safe to say non-existent. They are mostly seen as a hobby or collector's domain, obviously due to their limitations. To me, I think they are truly unique, and underappreciated.

I haven't kept up with the Kardashian's newest protocols, but I thought ICANN had killed any further progress for emoji support? Dot-ws is the one of the only registries that have held on to an older IDNA protocol, thus allowing them to still support the resolution of emojis via IDN to our browsers.

Emoji use has grown exponentially, as you have seen. This could only translate into good things for emoji domains, but it has to change at ICANN level. We have to see it in the url bar.

What you are working on, registrar-level, and browsers with a unified emoji code, awesome! I'm on board to where this goes..

 

[CJ6]

Jon is here! Woohoo! Thank you for your website. Great job!

(I think I have the cartwheel registered.)

 

[erwin.groen]

I must say you did a great job over at GoDaddy Jon.
Being a photographer I can see how a picture tells a thousand words & I'm currently using one myself for URL forwarding. I can definitely see a future for them in promos & advertising.

 

[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.

 

[bloggydreams]

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!

I'm not a domain investor but I really really like the idea of an emoji domain. I am already slightly addicted to them and registered about 10 of them ...for absolutely no reason. I'm going to register one more once I figure out which one I want.
What I find interesting is that all the most popular 100 emojis have already been registered (most around 2015). I just can't wait until we are able type the emoji in the address bar and then it resolve without showing the punycode.

 

[pablohc86]

Maybe they could be good for some mobile marketing campaign. They also will help .ws to be more known among normal people. It could be good for some people that have 1word. Ws with all the Chinese hype around I would not be surprised to see some high sales for very simple emojy domains

 

[elevator]

Once this happens, the emojis are little more than a curiousity. Can you imagine what will happen when Pepsi or Coke can have their logo as an emoji? I don't know if it would ever happen, but I bet they would love to have that domain and either build a website or forward to their main site.

Coke already launched their emoji's website for advert since 2015.


http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/coca-cola-spreads-happiness-online-first-emoji-web-addresses-163044.

 

[elevator]

I must say you did a great job over at GoDaddy Jon.
Being a photographer I can see how a picture tells a thousand words & I'm currently using one myself for URL forwarding. I can definitely see a future for them in promos & advertising.

Show attachment 42982

The challenges facing emoji domains are that some of the emojis looks alike and that can be used for phishing. For example yiur emoji looks very much like that of coke.

 

[HotKey]

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

Awesome, man. How about it, pioneering emoji domains for real. Great job on the site.

.... and we're trying to figure out how to take this to the next level. The next step, legitimizing emoji domains...

If this happens, how would this affect emojis with dot-com? Would the doors reopen for registration? Or still just limited to dot-ws. It would mean dot-ws could never adopt new protocols should they continue to exclude emoji validation.

I took a look at some of the most recent documention from ICANN and Unicode. I'm not versed in most of the technical lingo, but deciphered what I could. Unicode's IDNA Mapping Table show emoji either "mapped" or "valid" in their IDNA Mapping Table, yet ICANN seems to exclude the keys in their most recent list of valid characters carried over from IDNA 2003. Maybe there's a difference? Just because it's valid Unicode doesn't necessarily mean ICANN will allow it in your url. Akin to punctuation marks, symbols..etc

Then there's IETF. In their RFC 5892 document it shows symbols and emojis as invalid.

How do they all tie together? Who runs what and where are they running to? Will they ever marry into one big, happy family?

The challenges facing emoji domains are that some of the emojis looks alike and that can be used for phishing. For example yiur emoji looks very much like that of coke.

Perhaps that mean browsers could misinterpret them as well..although every character has specific Unicode data that seperates it from the next.
Latin characters can be taken advantage of too, eg Il (capital i, lowercase l) - I've seen a doIlar floating around the forum..

 

[Brands.International]

I love emoji domains idea
I am sure they will be loved among young generation, will look super cool on facebook, but also on other social media.
Once more TLDs will support this, I am going to develop my emojis.vip website

 

[Jon Roig]

Lots of good comments here...
... and I think you're all right, of course. There are definitely phishing concerns, as well as just basic confusions between emojis. (Think about all the different smiles.) There's even a problem of how to say them: "So... I'm the white strong looking arm dot ws"

Email delivery is an interesting issue too, although I'm not sure if that's a make it or break it issue, at least not at first. I've begun a little bit of experimentation with emoji domains and Office 365 and it does work, but yeah, some services won't accept delivery of those emails.

I should say here that .ws does ban certain characters from registration. I'm not sure how they arrived at the subset of emojis they support, but they made some sensible decisions. For instance, they don't allow ascii-like characters.

I'm still finding my way around the domain world, so I appreciate your thoughts. My sense is that ICANN hasn't really engaged with emoji domains. Maybe it hasn't been on their radar? I'm not sure... I can say that emoji domains, while they're not new, weren't really widely known, even within GoDaddy.

To succeed, we're left with a bit of dilemma for where to begin, in terms of gaining legitimacy. Do you start with the browser? With ICANN?

One thing I'd definitely say, the more emoji domains which go into active use, the better the case for inclusion in the address bar of Chrome and Firefox.

 

[DnEbook]

If only cctld's can support emojis perhaps spain should rebrand ....... .es (emoji sites)
~
With emojis appearing on the new apple keyboards ... a game changer?

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/apples-new-macbook-pro-brings-emoji-to-your-keyboard