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I'm curious about a few things with regards to TLDs and their allowed/semantic usage. I'm in the wine business and I currently own a .com domain. However the main domain name is quite long; not really suitable for phones/maximizing QR code scannability. So I've been looking into shortened URLs - but I need permanent shortened URLs, not just temporary ones. I need the domain to be mine, not another service (to instill some level of implicit trust).

Looking at how Google shortens their URLs, they use the .gl TLD (Greenland).

Question #1: are there semantic issues with using a TLD for which the 'native language' isn't what would normally be expected

Question #2: are there technical latency issues with using a TLD that represents a country outside of the one which physically hosts my server? I'm not totally versed in how DNS routing at the top level works, so I apologize if this question seems stupid.

On another related tact: Let's say I wanted to use the .wine TLD (custom TLD). Is that TLD owned by someone and would I have to enter into some sort of contract with them or is registration/ownership law exactly the same as it is with historical TLDs like .gov, .com, et. al.

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  • For question one, it does have SEO implications. You'd want to use Google Webmaster Tools to remove the geographic association that comes by default. support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en
    – ceejayoz
    Oct 14, 2014 at 17:15
  • You do not want (and probably couldn't even if you wanted) to administer a TLD. These are jobs for big companies specialized in that kind of business. But you could register a domain in the .wine TLD once the sunrise is finised (or even before if you are willing to pay more and can provide the required information). Some registrars currently allow to create reservations for this TLD. Another SF question covers this particular topic: serverfault.com/questions/243316/…
    – NaeiKinDus
    Oct 14, 2014 at 20:37

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Question#1. No real issues (SEO snakeoil/voodoo non withstanding) since lots of places use TLDS associated with other countries, etc. Such as .io -- (British Indian Ocean Territory), .tv -- (Tuvalu), .to, -- (tonga). Most spiders tend to look at use doctype/codepage to determine language anyways.

Question #2. Not really Since the the DNS hierarchy, needs to be traversed, regardless of the tld. and all start at the root-servers. Depending upon which .tld you choose, there might be a bit of delay is the TLD doesn't have great DNS servers providing their mapping, but most of them are run by big players, with globally diverse infrastructure (quick tests show goo.gl, resolving faster than google.com here, but they are totally arbitrary and non scientific (Basically dig +trace).

.wine TLD is coming soon, supposedly Q1 2015. This is part of the ICANN's new gtld program (http://newgtlds.icann.org/) that allows companies to register their own gTlD. They need to meet a bunch of requirements, and have to provide services. For the most part each one has about the same sort of requirements as existing .tlds.

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