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We laughed when they released .zip, we cried when they released .mov. Now I think a facepalm is really the only acceptable response to .ing becoming a th.ing. (th.ing, incidentally, has already been parked by some useless opportunist, and is currently being offered at the low low price of $37,500).
I don’t think I’ve been shy about my distaste for these idiotic vanity URLs, and I am absolutely looking askance at Google for releasing more and more of them. The question, dear reader, has to be asked: Will it ever be enough money for these greedy sociopaths? And the answer, of course, is no.
This program is an ‘alpha release’ of the .ing names, meaning that you have to pay Google to even bid on these names you’re just going to turn around and resell. Mind you, every time some TLD becomes available, tens of thousands of companies are forced to play defense and buy up either brand-adjacent or brand-mockery sounding names. It annoys me to no end that this is a thing.
And I’m annoyed-er, I guess, that it’s profitable and therefore is going to CONTINUE to be a thing. Annoyed.er, by the way, is not available, as .er is not a valid TLD… yet.