- Joined
- Nov 29, 2010
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Hi all, David Ray here. I’ve been in domains for a while, mostly .com and some ccTLDs, but https://www.onlineclock.app is my first .app. Most .app talk here is about resale value, so I figured I’d share what it’s like to actually build on one.
A few weeks ago I got annoyed that the Windows taskbar clock is too small to read from across the room, and decided to build a free big-screen clock site. The .com I wanted had been registered since 2010, so I tried .app for the first time, and I’m glad I did.
What I’ve noticed so far:
HTTPS is built in. The whole .app extension is on the browser HSTS preload list, so a .app site only loads over HTTPS. You can’t launch one without a certificate. For a tool site that’s a quiet trust signal, and one less thing to configure.
People read it as “a tool”, not “a brand”. With .com, the name has to explain itself. With .app, visitors seem to expect something they can use right away. For utilities, calculators, timers and converters, the extension does part of the explaining.
It’s Google’s registry. .app launched in 2018 and is run by Google Registry. I’ve seen no sign it’s treated differently in search. Rankings come down to content and links, same as any TLD.
Registration costs a bit more than .com and varies by registrar, so check renewal prices, not just year one.
Where I’d put money as an investor: keyword .apps that describe a tool or an action (timer, invoice, convert, track, scan) look much more buildable to me than brandables. An end user can picture the product the moment they see the name.
The site is free, no signup: clocks, timers, world time, time zone converters, plus a history-of-timekeeping section. I’m not selling anything. I’m sharing it because it’s a working example of a keyword .app put to use.
Question for the group: has anyone here sold .app names to end users? I’m curious which kinds of keywords actually move, and whether buyers were building products or just protecting a brand.
A few weeks ago I got annoyed that the Windows taskbar clock is too small to read from across the room, and decided to build a free big-screen clock site. The .com I wanted had been registered since 2010, so I tried .app for the first time, and I’m glad I did.
What I’ve noticed so far:
HTTPS is built in. The whole .app extension is on the browser HSTS preload list, so a .app site only loads over HTTPS. You can’t launch one without a certificate. For a tool site that’s a quiet trust signal, and one less thing to configure.
People read it as “a tool”, not “a brand”. With .com, the name has to explain itself. With .app, visitors seem to expect something they can use right away. For utilities, calculators, timers and converters, the extension does part of the explaining.
It’s Google’s registry. .app launched in 2018 and is run by Google Registry. I’ve seen no sign it’s treated differently in search. Rankings come down to content and links, same as any TLD.
Registration costs a bit more than .com and varies by registrar, so check renewal prices, not just year one.
Where I’d put money as an investor: keyword .apps that describe a tool or an action (timer, invoice, convert, track, scan) look much more buildable to me than brandables. An end user can picture the product the moment they see the name.
The site is free, no signup: clocks, timers, world time, time zone converters, plus a history-of-timekeeping section. I’m not selling anything. I’m sharing it because it’s a working example of a keyword .app put to use.
Question for the group: has anyone here sold .app names to end users? I’m curious which kinds of keywords actually move, and whether buyers were building products or just protecting a brand.
