Redirects are mainly used to direct visitors from an old business website to a new one.
But cloud.now is useless for redirects because redirecting links are not websites, hence they don't rank on Google. For the redirect to work someone has to type "cloud.now" into their browser, which is extremely unlikely to happen since most people don't know it exists.
We had the same thing for .ing a year ago. Now it's just one of those useless new extensions.
I'll be blunt and say that I think investors hoarding a ngTLD is bad for its adoption.
The reason .com is desired over all others is because of its adoption.
.ing doesn't have that, and because all the good ones were snagged early by investors there's no incentive by developers to adopt it. If they have funds to spend on a domain they'll just get a .com.
Same thing goes for the .now.
This is the downside possibility. There is no guarantee businesses pick up this extension or begin to build out their businesses using this extension.
However, I think you are a little quick here re.ing.
1- .ing just launched (Dec 2023). It takes time for businesses to adapt and change. There are sites using the .ing extension, including Scan, Design, Edit, Surf, Adapt, Go, Ink, Summarize, and many more,. I'm not suggesting this extension becomes the next .ai or .io - but clearly it needs more than 10 months before you write it's obituary.
2- "ing" is not a call to action.
3- .ing and is more limited than .now. When combing ing with words, oftentimes a spelling changes occurs
Nurse to Nurs ing, Bake to Baking. Make to Making, Write to Writing, etc. This makes the SLD not a dictionary word. Trying to explain to a customer go to "mak" dot "ing" is much more difficult than saying go to "make dot now" (or Make Now). It also reads better in marketing materials. Mak.ing is not as good. Bak.ing is worse than BakeNow. Nurs.ing Instead of remaining dictionary words, these become "hacks". Now hacks aren't inherently bad but they are not as good from a readability standpoint.
4- I would at least imagine since Google runs this registry even though Bak, Nurs, Writ, and Mak are not dictionary words - that they lend SEO credibility to the full word SLD & TLD - but I'm unclear on that point. Do you know?
In any event, it is unclear whether .now goes down the dustbin road or heads down the path of .io It'll be interesting to see.
Although only a few data points, I have spoken to 2 small businesses and they bought the .now immediately. Both are considering company rebrands to it - although it is unclear if that will (or should) happen. My point is simply to say that 2 sb owners saw the benefit immediately. .ing wouldn't have worked in either instance. It's not as broad.