Every enterprise will make an important decision related to how their business will be "seen" on the 'Net: they will choose a domain name, and today they have more options than ever before.
The .COM extension, of course, has been the digital standard since the inception of the commercial Web and it is positioned to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Verisign, the administrator of the .COM and .NET registries, recently released its latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief on Q1 2016 and it confirms .COM's absolute dominance in the digital name space today. Total domain name registrations worldwide, according to the Verisign report, reached over 326 million at the end of the first quarter - an increase of 12 million from the previous quarter (and a 3.8 million increase in registrations over the past 90 days). Year-over-year, there was an increase of 32.4 million names or approximately 11 percent.
The .COM extension clearly remains the option of choice, of course, but things are (slowly) beginning to change. One of the most interesting findings revealed within the recent Verisign report was that 4.9 percent of all current registrations represent new gTLDs (over 16 million). Expect that total (and percentage of total share) to grow as additional extensions are introduced like .WEB (which Nu Dot Co, LLC, won the auction for at a record price of $135 million, wsm.co/notcomrise).
With a greater inventory of descriptive, keyword-rich domain extensions available, it is Web professionals looking to differentiate the experience they provide that are driving adoption (there might also be some minor benefits to search and social marketing campaigns, wsm.co/tldserps).
This month's edition of Website Magazine's TOP 50 highlights the current most utilized new generic top level domain name extensions in order to showcase the myriad options available for those ready to make a decision about their next domain name extension.
WHERE TO REGISTER New Top-Level Domains
Now that you know what domain names are most appealing to today's enterprises, where should you register them? Check out Website Magazine Top 50 Domain Registrars for 2016.
1. .XYZ
2. .TOP
3. .WANG
4. .WIN
5. .CLUB
6. .MOBI
7. .SITE
8. .VIP
9. .LINK
10. .BID
11. .ONLINE
12. .XIN
13. .REN
14. .RED
15. .LOAN
16. .CLICK
17. .SCIENCE
18. .GDN
19. .DATE
20. .SPACE
21. .WEBSITE
22. .TECH
23. .KIM
24. .RACING
25. .TRADE
26. .REVIEW
27. .LOL
28. .PARTY
29. .WORK
30. .DOWNLOAD
31. .NES
32. .NYC
33. .REALTOR
34. .ROCKS
35. .PUB
36. .WEBCAM
37. .FAITH
38. .CLOUD
39. .LONDON
40. .ONE
41. .GURU
42. .BERLIN
43. .LIVE
44. .OVH
45. .EMAIL
46. .TODAY
47. .HELP
48. .SOLUTIONS
49. .ACCOUNTANT
50. .TOKYO
