I’ve been thinking recently about generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). These are Top Level Domains (TLDs) that are not associated with a country such as .us (United States) or .co.uk. (United Kingdom). Here are some of my thoughts:

.musuem – a bit verbose; I love museums, but I never thought they would want or need their own gTLD. Why not bookstores or coffee shops? I can see it now: www.starbucks.coffee. But what is there to stop the proliferation of niche gTLDs? And is this the proliferation of niche gTLDs a bad thing? Not in my opinion.

.pro – bad idea, but only a bad idea becuase of its restrictive rules. I’m a pro at what I do. So are consultants, engineers, programmers, professors, construction workers, waiters, chefs and teachers. It’s presumptuous for these domains to be limited to lawyers and doctors and the like, if not insulting. This domain could have been the next .com in my opinion if its rules limited its use where less restrictive.

.jobs and .aero – Makes sense. Self explanatory.

.coop – for Co-ops. This TLD seems to have pretty good potential for creative domain hacks.

.cat – for Catalan related websites – seems fair as Catalonia is part of Spain. Will this inspire other groups in other countries seek their own TLDs?

And what about .dog?