New ‘.pizza’ domain names open to general public

Dec. 18, 2014, Canada – Pizzerias can now up their branding
game by purchasing their own website with the ".pizza" domain name.

Dec. 18, 2014, Canada – Pizzerias can now up their branding
game by purchasing their own website with the ".pizza" domain name.

The ".pizza" generic top-level domain, or GTLD, this
month joined other existing top-level domain extensions such as
".com," ".ca" and ".org" already in use.

The extension “.pizza” recently finished its Sunrise phase
and is now open to the general public (General Availability phase).

This is good news for pizzerias, as it will now be easier to
acquire memorable web addresses like www.pizzeria-name.pizza.

Although some of the more generic names are already taken,
pizzeria owners can still register their own names with the new extension, for
example, www.petes-pizza.pizza.

How does it work? You go to a registrar authorized by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) such as Hostpapa.com or
UnitedDomains.com (based in Germany but international), type your desired name
in the search box and see if the name you are interested in is still available.
If has not been purchased, you can buy it for a yearly fee. A typical fee might
be $50/year.

“With dot-coms there are so many names out there right now. They
are taken and owned by other people,” said Solomon Amoako, chief sales officer
with domain marketplace Sedo, speaking with Canadian
Pizza.

“ICANN came up with this whole way of coming up with
extensions that will really resonate and focus on particular subcultures and
groups of people. It’s much more focused on the actual item or food. It really homes
in on what the domain name is trying to do.”