It’s all about the lulz: Google wants .lol top level domain

By Andy Boxall Published June 1, 2012

It was back in April that reports of Google’s plans to purchase a series of new top level domains first appeared, and none of the suggestions were particularly surprising, as they consisted of Google-owned brands, such as .YouTube and the obvious .Google.

Google has now spoken out about some of the other addresses it’s hoping to grab in ICANN’s domain sale. Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf, wrote on the company’s blog that they have applied for the aforementioned trademarks, plus those relevant to its core business, such as .docs, and those which have “interesting and creative potential.”

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So what does Google define as interesting and creative? It gives one example: .lol. We’re sure the irony hasn’t escaped you that Google, well-known for innovation but rarely for lulz, has chosen arguably one of the least creative phrases on the Internet to illustrate its intentions.

What joys could we expect from .lol sites then? Google doesn’t expand beyond the name, but we can imagine a cats.lol being near the top of the list, or a dedicated comedy network called, and we shudder at the thought, lol.lol, perhaps? The jokes just write themselves.

However, there’s always a chance Google has fallen into the same trap that people over a certain age have done in the past, and thought LOL stood for “lots of love,” leading to many sincere messages conveying unfortunate news being completely misunderstood.

According to Bloomberg, if the .lol domain is popular it could cost Google more than $1 million per year to maintain, which under normal circumstances isn’t to be lol’d at, but we’re sure Google’s bank manager has lol’d at larger amounts before.

Google doesn’t say when it expects these domains to go live, but according to ICANN if the sale goes through, we should start seeing them from January next year. We can hardly wait.

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Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…

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