As ICANN prepares to open the next new gTLD round in 2026, more marketing leaders are actively exploring gTLDs — ICANN’s latest global survey shows that 92% see clear potential in them once they understand how they work.

A “.brand” is one of the options to get direct control over naming, routing, and digital identity.

Brand TLDs — '.brand' — promise tighter brand control and cleaner digital ecosystems — but they also demand serious investment, technical capacity, and long-term commitment.

For most companies, the real question isn’t “can we get our own extension?” but “does it actually move the needle more than using existing TLDs?”

Explore when a brand TLD makes strategic sense, and when your budget is better spent elsewhere ↩️

There were 6,729 DNS hijacks over just six months, according to Vercara — that’s about 38 incidents a day.

This is when attackers break into the account where you manage your domain, change the settings, and quietly send visitors to a fake website instead of the real one.

Keep registrar logins behind unique passwords and 2FA, limit who has access, and review your DNS and account activity on a regular basis.

AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity now summarise the web instead of listing links.

See 7 GEO tools that help brands stay visible when models choose what to show ↩️

When the internet first went online in 1985, there were only six main extensions: .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, and .mil.

Now there are over 1,200 generic extensions, which is why naming today is all about strategy and finding a perfect fit.

Christmas sales, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are prime time for scam domains.

Check Point Research reports that in October 2025, 158 new Black Friday–related domains were registered, with more than 330 more in the first 10 days of November — and about one in eleven flagged as malicious.

For brands, those seasonal peaks should be part of your annual domain protection strategy.

This year marks 40 years since the first .com name, symbоlics.cоm, was registered back in 1985.

It’s a small reminder that a simple, memorable domain can stay in use for decades — much longer than most tools, apps, or social platforms.

ICANN is updating its String Similarity Evaluation Guidelines for the 2026 new gTLD round so that new extensions cannot be easily confused with those that already exist.

For example, if someone applied for an ending very close to .shop – such as .shops – it could be rejected because many users would likely mix them up at a glance.

If you’re thinking about applying for your own gTLD, it’s worth reading the updated rules ↩️

Picking a domain for a new business is more than “is the .com free?”.

➡️This guide walks you through using ChatGPT as an AI domain name finder — from writing better prompts to refining ideas, testing different extensions, and exploring .it.com options.

Atom’s study found that 87% of US consumers trust real words in domain names more than invented ones — for example, “BrightОffice.cоm” usually feels clearer and more reliable than something like “Brghtоffx.cоm”.

And shorter, single-word names also build credibility quicker.

Some extensions can become the meaningful part of the domain name — think classic examples like аbоut.mе or dо.it.cоm.

This is called 'domain hack'. This way the address becomes a tiny slogan: easy to remember and perfect for bios and ads.

Read how to cleverly use all the elements of a domain name and zone ↩️

The first .com — symbоlics.cоm — was registered back in March 1985, with early neighbours like bbn.cоm and think.cоm following soon after.

Almost 40 years and many internet waves later, these and many other first .com domains are still online — a reminder that a strong name can outlast any trend, from viral fads to decade-long tech waves.

People don’t talk to AI the way they talk to search engines.

➡️This guide covers how to research real prompts for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), how it differs from keyword research, and why “query fan-out” inside tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity matters for your visibility.

In Q3 2025, total domain registrations hit 378.5M across all extensions, up 4.5% year on year.

As more startups, tech projects and small businesses emerge, competition for simple, memorable names quietly grows with them.

We’re excited to share that it.com Domains has been officially listed by ICANN as an Evaluated Registry Service Provider (RSP) for the upcoming round of the New gTLD Program ⬅️

This means our company is authorized to operate the technical backend for new top-level domains — such as managing registrations and ensuring their stability and security.

it.cоm Domains is listed in the Main registry services category and provides Internationalized Domain Name support, enabling registry operators to launch both ASCII and non-Latin script TLDs. For DNS and DNSSEC services, we are working with Netnod, a long-established operator of critical Internet infrastructure and a strategic partner already fully integrated into our registry architecture.

With the next New gTLD application window expected to open in April 2026, With the next application window expected in April 2026, we are now actively working with applicants to ensure a smooth and predictable path toward delegation of their strings.

it.cоm Domains ranks #1 among the 11 new TLDs Namecheap launched in their portfolio for 2025. With 76,101 registrations — according to Namecheap’s 2025 Domain Insights & Trends Report, also highlighted by TechRadar.

Another takeaway from the 22M+ domains analyzed: .com still leads overall, with 4.6M registrations in 2025. Even as the namespace diversifies, the “default choice” behaviour is still strong.

➡️Worth a read if you pick domains for brands, products, or portfolios: the report shows what’s actually being registered, and where growth and attention are shifting.

Do you know what Punycode is? It’s a technical way browsers write domain names that use non-Latin characters by converting them into a simple “computer-friendly” format. That way, the internet’s domain system that routes you to the right website can read them reliably.

Scammers can abuse this by using look-alike letters (for example, a Cyrillic character that resembles a Latin one) to create URLs that look like real brands for phishing. Browsers may surface that risk by showing the xn-- prefix — which is a punycode.

If it’s a login or payment page and you spot xn-- (or letters that look “almost right”), don’t click — go to the official site directly via a bookmark or by typing the address yourself.

According to Similarweb’s global ranking for December 2025, the most visited websites are Google and YouTube, followed by Facebook and Instagram.

Notably, ChаtGPT.cоm takes the #5 spot, already sitting alongside the biggest platforms people use to start their online journey.

Takeaway: if you’re building a brand or a site, people are increasingly discovering you through these gateways — search, social feeds, AI assistants, and big communities — not through classic search results.

it.cоm Domains has crossed the milestone of 150,000 active domains!

Expanded distribution via 50+ ICANN-accredited registrars and the official integration with the Italian registry, Registroit, helped drive +50% growth since October 2025.

Details ⬅️

Email newsletters are still one of the most controllable marketing channels: you own the audience, the cadence, and the data you learn from every send.

This guide breaks down what email campaigns actually need, and maps those needs to six widely used tools — from beginner-friendly to automation-heavy options.

If you’re building a newsletter from scratch or upgrading your stack, this is a must-read ⬅️