Funny as they sound, domain names such as .porn .adult and .sucks will be up for sale starting June 1, 2015. In 2011, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit organization, had decided on expanding the number of generic top-level domains (gTLDs). These included.com and .net. They were just 22 domains at that time, but now they have increased to more than 547, with new suffixes released almost every month.
CNN Money reported that before June 1, a select group of companies, brands and celebrities were allowed to buy the .porn, .adult and .sucks domains in advance. This is before it is made public for anyone to buy their domains under the titles. Microsoft has already opted for microsoft.porn office.porn and office.adult domains before the release of the domain names to public. Singer Taylor Swift has also gone ahead to adopt the taylorswift.porn and taylorswift.adult in her name.
According to CNN, there is currently a ‘sunrise’ period for stars and brands to opt for the domain names at reduced prices. This could help them redirect their present sites or prevent trolls from squatting on them, posting undesirable content or even making money from the association.
The Telegraph reported that the .sucks domain has also been set up for criticism, as well as premium sites including life.sucks and divorce.sucks.
The domain names .sex, .porn, .xxx, .adult, etc are highly searched keywords on the internet (almost 300 million times a month). You can buy a one-year .xxx registration for as little as $12.99.
Image credit: ICM Registry
