KIRKLAND, Wash., Sept. 21, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rightside® (Nasdaq:NAME), a leading provider of domain name services that advance the way businesses and consumers define and present themselves online, today congratulates Apple®, one of the most innovative companies in the world, for utilizing .NEWS domain extension as a major component of their Apple News platform. Apple.NEWS perfectly marries the Apple brand with the descriptive and memorable .NEWS new domain extension to instantly and accurately associate any piece of content published, shared or utilized by the Apple News platform with its brand.
"The take-away here is that there's now a broad movement among leading brands, as well as the biggest companies in the world, toward these simple, yet powerful, branding tools called new domain extensions," explains Taryn Naidu, Rightside's CEO. "This is just the start, but Apple.NEWS is the most significant use of a new top-level domain (TLD) yet, and I am very excited at the promise and potential that this development signals. Whether they're used as a complementary domain, content-sharing links (bit.ly, but with branding) or a simple re-direct, new domain extensions have a real and important place in every company's overarching brand strategy today."
For example, The Hunger Games movie series now utilizes a new domain extension to promote its films (www.thehungergames.movie); McDonald's in Austria recently used a .ROCKS domain name to support a product promotion (www.bigmac.rocks); and even Lady Gaga is now using a new domain extension to rebrand her non-profit charitable foundation (www.bornthisway.foundation).
Customers can now easily distinguish between what they should expect to see going to www.Apple.com (their main ecommerce site) and www.Apple.news (their news platform). There is nothing easier to remember than a simple, meaningful domain name.
Adds Bill Glenn, Rightside's Vice President of Marketing, "These bottom-line tools can help modern marketers further personalize their companies' online identities. This, in turn, helps to better control and drive the brand by solidifying more precise connection with target audiences."
Another key benefit of new domain extensions is the fact that they work across every platform and create a means to deep link, no matter where brands engage with their audiences -- online, mobile or apps.
Rightside has recently seen the growing popularity of new domain extensions among big brands. Earlier this summer, for example, Rightside launched .NEWS, and it became the company's most successful new domain extension 14 days into General Availability and has already accumulated nearly 20,000 registrations since mid-July.
In addition to Apple, other high-profile established leaders including Amazon, Chrysler, Dow Jones, Fox, Gannett, Goldman Sachs, LinkedIn, London Stock Exchange, Major League Baseball, Microsoft, Oracle, T-Mobile, UnderArmour and UPS have chosen to embrace these new domains.
Adds Naidu: "And the best news is that this is just the beginning. Apple's use of .NEWS for its news platform, coupled by Google's recent decision to use a new domain name extension to brand its new company, Alphabet, further validates that new domain names are going mainstream."
A Brand Bundle of Domain Name Extensions
The leading provider of domain name services that help businesses and consumers harness the vast power of the personalized Web, Rightside offers an impactful brand bundle that includes a series of new domain extensions, including:
.SOCIAL
.ROCKS
.VIDEO
.NEWS
.GIVES
"Our view," explains Naidu, "is that having multiple domain names expands brand marketing power, presence and performance while sharpening brand marketing precision."
Deploying New Domain Names as Part of a "Branded Navigation" Strategy
Rightside also believes that the vast majority of companies and consumers are much better off using a series of new domain names like .SOCIAL or .NEWS as part of a "branded navigation" strategy.
Branded navigation helps marketers guide end-users where they want them to go. It's a simple, flexible, pinpoint-control tool that makes it easier for marketers to connect target audiences with their content -- regardless of where the content is, or how small the device screen is. Within a company's own website, there are multiple opportunities to creatively brand content. For example, www.yourcompany.sale could direct consumers to a product sale page, www.yourcompany.gives could refer to content about your company's philanthropic efforts, www.yourcompany.news could link to your company blog or newsletter. This also ties in well to the way that people naturally search. "Your company" + "video" or "your company" + "news" are some of the precise search terms people might use to find a company's content.
Put another way, says Glenn, "Branded navigation is a strategic marketing weapon with a clear call to action, and it's a necessity -- rather than an alternative -- especially given the continuous cycles of tumult and transformation on the Internet today."
About Rightside
Rightside® inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company, with its affiliates, is a leading provider of domain name services, offering one of the industry's most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, usage, and monetization of domain names. In addition to being a new gTLD registry operator, Rightside is home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom and Name.com. Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside has offices in North America, Europe, and Australia. For more information please visit www.rightside.co.