Google's push for brand-specific top-level domains has garnered industry attention.

Google recently shared its experience operating the .google top-level domain (TLD) on its official blog, encouraging more brands to consider applying for and launching their own TLDs (.brand). In the post, Google used its own site migration as an example to illustrate the potential benefits of brand domains in terms of security, SEO migration, and trademark protection.

Since acquiring the .google domain in 2012, Google has gradually migrated some of its sites, such as about.google and blog.google, to the .google domain. Google stated that brand-specific domains offer greater control and trust, particularly in terms of cybersecurity and phishing protection, effectively reducing the risk of third-party misuse of brand names. Furthermore, through redirection and optimization measures, the migration process did not result in any loss of search rankings.

Unlike publicly available domain extensions, .brand domains are reserved for brand-specific use, allowing each brand to build a fully controlled domain system. Google believes this model helps promote brand consistency and simplifies user identification. However, industry insiders point out that the operation and migration costs of such domain names are high, requiring significant resources for technical deployment, SEO monitoring, and internal system adjustments. Aside from Google, the companies that have applied for .brand domain names globally are primarily large multinational corporations.

Google's announcement is also seen as a warm-up for the next round of top-level domain application openings. According to ICANN, the next round of gTLD applications is expected to open in 2026, at which time major brands will have the opportunity to register their own unique suffixes. In a blog post, Google stated that it hopes to leverage its experience to help more companies avoid pitfalls in this process.

Overall, Google's promotion of .brand reflects a trend among brands to strengthen their digital asset sovereignty. However, from a practical perspective, this model is currently more suitable for large enterprises with global operations and technical resources. Whether .brand will become the next step in the digital transformation of mainstream brands as the new round of domain name expansion progresses remains to be seen.