If It Gets Them, Google May Open .Search, .App, .Blog And .Cloud gTLDs To The Public
If Google is awarded the right to manage the domain registrations for .search, .app, .blog and .cloud, there is now a good chance that it won't just use them for its own services and will open them up for non-Google properties, too.
Context & Ripple Effects
This report lands a year into ICANN's first expansion of the top-level domain space, where Google's application for more than 50 new domains — from .lol to .youtube — made it one of the program's biggest applicants. The scramble among Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others for strings like .app, .xbox and .book turned registry applications into competitive positioning, and Google had already signaled its interest in short URLs with its purchase of G.Co as an official shortcut for its products.
The claim that Google might open .search, .app, .blog and .cloud to outside registrants is explicitly unconfirmed — a possibility reported by TechCrunch and picked up the same day by the Wall Street Journal and CircleID, which is unusually broad syndication for what is still speculation ahead of any award decision.
First-order effects
- If Google wins management of these four strings and opens them, web publishers and developers gain new registration options beyond .com — but only after ICANN awards the rights, so nothing changes for registrants today.
- The report forces clarity on an open question every applicant faces: whether a corporate-applied-for gTLD runs as a closed brand asset or an open registry business.
Second-order effects
- Rival applicants like Microsoft and Amazon, holding their own contested strings such as .xbox and .book, would face pressure to match an open-Google model or defend why their namespaces stay closed.
- Registrars and the existing domain resale market would get new inventory to distribute, shifting competition toward whoever controls the registry layer rather than retail pricing alone.
Third-order effects
- If major applicants follow through on opening their strings, the namespace structurally shifts from a scarce .com monopoly to hundreds of privately operated registries, with search and platform companies acting as gatekeepers for whole categories of web addresses.
- Closed alternatives would push the opposite outcome — a two-tier web where brands own generic vocabulary like .search and .cloud outright — making ICANN's award decisions a de facto industrial policy for how the next generation of domains is governed.
The trend: The internet's namespace is expanding from a handful of legacy TLDs into hundreds of company-run registries, and whether giants like Google treat their strings as private assets or open platforms will define that era.