If you have anything to do with software development, Google wants you to sign up to use its new .dev domain. The developer-friendly web address is now available to everyone, the company said Thursday. Last week, Google let people and companies sign up for .dev addresses at premium prices. But now the prices will drop to, for example, $14 a year from a partner, GoDaddy.
Google requires all .dev websites to use encryption to keep communication with web browsers secure.
“Our primary goal for .dev is developer adoption and usage and creating more secure websites,” said Google Chief Information Officer Ben Fried.
The new virtual real estate is part of a massive expansion of Internet addresses, commonly called top-level domains, or GTLDs. This offers new options for shorter addresses for websites and emails and allows companies to use their brands even if they have been taken by more well-known top-level domains like .com and .net.
But at the same time, this can be annoying for some companies trying to defend their trademarks. Indeed, GoDaddy is trying to incentivize companies by saying “register for .dev before someone else does.”.
So what is Google's plan for the site?
“We envision .dev becoming the home for developers. From tools to programming languages to blogs, .dev is the best place for all the amazing things you build,” said Adam Seligman, a Google vice president, in a blog post. “We’ll be releasing some exciting things to .dev in the coming months.”.
Google itself has begun using its .google domain, starting with brand-related sites such as diversity.google, sustainability.google, and about.google. The transition to a new domain is difficult, as a number of links need to be updated and some pages may be demoted in search results.
New gTLDs aren't so strange anymore, Fried said. "People are much more knowledgeable than they were a few years ago and they trust different domains," Fried said.
Google and some partners already use .dev addresses: Women Who Code, JetBrains.dev for the programming tools of the same name, and web.dev for website developers. And newer addresses are coming as Google prepares flutter.dev for mobile app development, tfhub.dev for its TensorFlow AI software, perfetto.dev for its performance monitoring tool, and v8.dev, which is the JavaScript it uses inside the Chrome browser.
