Internet Governance & Policy

Brands and Facebook: A gTLD Love Story?

author portrait

November 22, 2011

By jbourne

By now, consumers are used to seeing domain names appear in traditional advertising spots like print ads, billboards, television commercials and the like. If they’re anything like the staff here at FairWinds, they actually seek them out. But since social media juggernaut Facebook started offering “vanity URLs,” we have seen more brands including Facebook URLs instead of their own domain names. For example, the new Visa commercials promoting the chance to win tickets to this year’s Super Bowl end with Facebook.com/VisaNFL in place of a Visa.com domain.

Now, we do not know for sure whether or not Facebook will apply for a .FACEBOOK new gTLD – the company has made no official statements either way – but many people have been buzzing about how it would be great for users to be able to have personalized .FACEBOOK domains, like JohnDoe.Facebook or SueSmith.Facebook. Here at FairWinds, we have been thinking about how great it would be for brands to also be able to use .FACEBOOK domains.

Right now, brands have the ability to customize Facebook domains in a three-part URL, but with .FACEBOOK, they would have the chance to customize a two-part domain, making a stronger impression that is more easily recalled by consumers. Offering brands customized .FACEBOOK domain names could also provide Facebook with a revenue stream. Given how fervently many brands have adopted social media, it’s not unreasonable to assume they would be willing to pay market rate (if not a bit more) for the chance to have one of these vanity domains. Here at FairWinds, we can confidently say that if we had the chance to use FairWinds.Facebook, we’d jump at it.

And of course, if Mark Zuckerberg wants to talk over the pros and cons of applying for .FACEBOOK, our lines are always open.

Share on Social

Author portrait

About jbourne