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What?! Do you really have to reserve a .xxx domain?

Yes, you've read that right. We're talking about the porn industry here - never thought we'd need to post on this!

We've gotten some questions about the industry's new domain, .xxx. As you can probably guess, this is a domain created for adult-only content.

But, before it goes live, there is a pre-launch “sunrise” period for federal trademark owners outside the adult entertainment industry to secure .xxx domain names. Then on November 8, the adult industry will have access to buy up domain names. We've gotten questions from a few folks wondering if they should buy a .xxx domain to make sure their domain remains out of the hands of the adult industry.

Don't panic.

Before you run off to to buy .xxx domain names, consider this: Is there any reason why anyone would go to, say, JonesForCongress.xxx by accident? There are hundreds of country codes and custom suffixes, like .md, .tm, .tv, .name, .info, etc? Other than making sure you've got .org and .com, we don't recommend grabbing all these variations.

After all, people aren't randomly guessing at domain names like they used to. Most folks just go to Google, type in a search and let Google figure out it out for them.

So, save yourself some money. Don't sweat the .xxx thing. (And besides, what does it say to your supporters if you did reserve a .xxx? Not sure that's a message you want to send, right?)

Posted on October 4, 2011 | See full archives

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