non-standard domain names

Rather than "non-standard", maybe think of them as uncommon, but standard. The number of top level domains has become extensive, with more being added frequently. (.blackfriday should be up and running in plenty of time for next Christmas, for example.)

No, not all DNS servers are updated to handle them. The majority of them, barring a few vanity ones and dark web items, work the same as all the others.

That said, if you are trying to be found on the web, or have your website remembered when you tell it to people on the street, the more memorable (the less your readers have to remember), the better.

Well they used to have only a handful of TLD- top level domains .com, (commercial), org (non profit organisations), net (Networking tech), and country specific- co dot uk etc etc.
They then decided that .com was becoming too saturated, and wasn't all the descriptive, so a few years ago they opened it up and allowed anyone to apply for their own. This will make it a lot more intuitive and allow us to tell a lot more about a website by the TLD, and will also stop us having to create websites with weird names just because everything else is already taken. So instead of Joebrown dot com, we will have Joebrown dot author or joebrown dot doctor - which makes a lot more sense.

They will function 100% like any of the old TLDs. You will be able to register Yourname.author, or yourname.guru or yourname.novel and your email address will be name(@)yourname.author, just like any other email address.

You wont need any special software to make it work, and you don't need to do anything differently, and if you want to register your domain, you just need to go to any of the standard registrars.
I think it's a fantastic move, even if they may have over done it a little.

Williebee said:

That said, if you are trying to be found on the web, or have your website remembered when you tell it to people on the street, the more memorable (the less your readers have to remember), the better.

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It's the main point I think. As far as your domain name is understandable and easy to remember, it's fine.
I would use older TLDs but no problem should arise if you choose some new ones - they have to work similar to .com, .org, .info and other old ones.

They all work the same (except for some DNS servers that don't handle the newer ones yet).

But browsers default to .com**, and users have been well-trained to think of domains as .com first and foremost. So if you have a choice, register the .com; then if you really want to lock up a domain name, register the .net and .org, or the country-specific code. Because when you register something.notcom first, a squatter will immediately grab something.com, and there goes most of your future traffic (most or even all of the search-sourced traffic, and most other traffic that doesn't come from a link elsewhere). And then if you ever want the .com, you'll have to pay through the nose (a minimum of a couple thousand bucks) to rescue it from the squatter.

** That is, if I type just "something" into the address bar, most browsers will automagically assume and go to "something.com"

Also, when I see a .info domain, I know right up front that it's probably a scam or linkfarm site, because unfortunately that's what most of 'em are. There are a few legit ones, but they're not the norm. I expect this will become so for most of the 'new' TLDs.

Registering a TLD is not the same as a domain. I looked it up through the international association responsible for managing this. A TLD is EXPENSIVE. And if two or more organizations/people want the same one, it goes to an auction. The user guide for going through this process is 8 megabytes in size. There's a reason for that, and it isn't because it has pictures.

If you get a gTLD, you become the global administrator for that gTLD. Trust me, that's a lot of work, both in getting one, and then in running it.

If you want www.mywebsite.com, that's one thing. If you want www.writer.mywebsite, that's a whole new level of something else.

robjvargas said:

Registering a TLD is not the same as a domain. I looked it up through the international association responsible for managing this. A TLD is EXPENSIVE. And if two or more organizations/people want the same one, it goes to an auction. The user guide for going through this process is 8 megabytes in size. There's a reason for that, and it isn't because it has pictures.

If you get a gTLD, you become the global administrator for that gTLD. Trust me, that's a lot of work, both in getting one, and then in running it.

If you want www.mywebsite.com, that's one thing. If you want www.writer.mywebsite, that's a whole new level of something else.

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It's not just that it is expensive, it has to be "blessed". Just writing a check won't do it -- although we're well on our way to that point. In 2011 ICANN voted to allow commercial TLD extension and IDN (Internationalized Domain Names.) So, Coca-Cola can buy ".coke" and we'll see domain names in a variety of languages.

...said Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN, at a news conference today. “No one can say with any certainty where new gTLDs will lead us.”

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Williebee said:

So, Coca-Cola can buy ".coke" and we'll see domain names in a variety of languages.

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And they might have all manner of domains of the form something.coke, but no one will ever visit them except via a link from coke.com or some other site, because normal people won't even know the .coke TLD exists. To average users, the whole world is .com and nothing else.

Oh, just because they bought .coke, doesn't mean they want everyone to use it. If you own the TLD? I don't know that it means you MUST propagate it out to the world. (Yeah, I haven't read the whole manual yet, either.)

Could be you just put it on your corporate DNS servers to direct internal networking.

Or more often, the corporation registers it so no one else can use it (either maliciously or to mislead users). Kinda like why BigCorp usually buys up all the variations on BigCorpSucks.com. The more TLDs, the more variations a company is wise to snag in sheer self-defense... it's been pointed out that this is why adding new TLDs is more a money grab for registrars than a benefit to users, let alone to companies.

Didn't I see something about Taylor Swift bought Taylorswift.porn to keep it out of the hands of others?

Reziac said:

Or more often, the corporation registers it so no one else can use it (either maliciously or to mislead users). Kinda like why BigCorp usually buys up all the variations on BigCorpSucks.com. The more TLDs, the more variations a company is wise to snag in sheer self-defense... it's been pointed out that this is why adding new TLDs is more a money grab for registrars than a benefit to users, let alone to companies.

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As far as I can tell, TLD's aren't registered through normal registrars. I looked at three major providers, Register.com, Godaddy.com, and NetworkSolutions.com. None of them have links to "order" a TLD.

Which does not mean that you can't hire them as agents to carry out the process. Only that such services are not readily available from registrars. I think you have to go direct to ICANN themselves.

Well, of course not, that being the ICANN regulated part. What I meant is that when .biz was added, everyone had to run out and buy a name.biz same as their existing name.com, to keep squatters off it.

There doesn't appear to be a *.author yet. I'm considering [realname].moe for myself.

And of course (of course) there's http://walmart.horse, or at least there was last time I checked.

What I don't understand is how much they're charging for some of these domains. I thought I may register a .ninja just for laughs and discovered they cost $25 a year. Considering a com is $10 cheaper on the same site, what were they thinking?

calieber said:

There doesn't appear to be a *.author yet.

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Its coming, companies are just fighting over who is going to maintain it.

ave said:

What I don't understand is how much they're charging for some of these domains. I thought I may register a .ninja just for laughs and discovered they cost $25 a year. Considering a com is $10 cheaper on the same site, what were they thinking?

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Same as every other bleeding-edge tech anything offered at an inflated price: soak the early adopters.

But no need for a .ninja for laughs... frex, I own onlyonelatrine.com (really!) for no reason save I find it endlessly funny. Your easily-amused may vary.

[Bonus points if you recognise the reference.]

Here's a new one...

https://com.google/

(Yes, it's real. Great for folks who live in the mirror universe!)

I think there are now seventy or so, aside from country codes.

It is important to check both registry and hosting; not all registrars and hosts support all the names.

A number of the TLDs listed in the original post are legit country domain names (.ag, .tv, .co) and so have been around a long time. The .tv domain name is an important money-earner for the government of Tuvalu, which doesn't have too many other revenue options.

Hi
Most don't search for web sites , but just look for a site name or a product . To get on the first page of a Google search , you need to pay or have unique content . Google do give priority to a country , so a uk com should be come up first if the search is in the uk . There are over a billion web sites on the net , so the chances of someone hitting on yours ,regardless of the address, is a not as bad as some might sugest.

Here are some lists I found.

https://iwantmyname.com/domains/domain-name-registration-list-of-extensions
https://wwws.io/
http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt

There's even a .beer lol