May we suggest… a TLD?

The new gTLDs are here, and how – over 200 launched already this year, and with over 540 to choose from, how will you choose?

While choosing a domain name is a very personal matter, and should be done with planning and thought (and maybe some beer) the choice of a TLD is perhaps less obvious. In some cases you can choose a new gTLD that is perfect for you (like .HIPHOP for your slammin’ dance studio), but in other cases it might not be so obvious. .INK? .CLUB? Why not take advantage of the big data thing that everyone is talking about to find out what is popular? Well, now you can!

As you may know, Gandi acts carefully and tries not to collect or disclose any more personal data from our customers than is strictly required, such as when the ICANN contract or applicable law mandates it. We do, however, have a lot of anonymous data that we can to use to make your life easier, and our data scientists have used it to create an algorithm that will help you in choosing the best TLDs for your needs.

How does this work? Let’s try to make it clear. While we don’t use any of your personal data to sell you more stuff, nor track your behavior on our website as such, we are able to use the anonymous behavior of customers to make projections based on:

• the place you are connected from,
• the language you are using,
• the TLD you are looking for,
• and, if you’re searching while logged in, the contact type of your handle (individual, company, association, etc).

That’s the only information we use that comes from your profile, and it’s useful when sorting through hundreds of TLD.

We designed the algorithm to learn continuously and evolve to keep up with global trends. Our algorithm will hand you a list of TLD suggestions for your domains, based not upon your specific behavior, but on our global domain names sales history, taking account of the factors we list. For example, we can guess which TLDs would be the most interesting for someone with an individual-type handle who is based in France, using our website in English. We also use semantic distance analysis to suggest some neighboring TLDs (like .photography if you are looking for a .photo domain). Of course, you can still be a trendsetter and pick whatever TLD you want, we won’t stop you. In fact, you can even register your domain name in every appealing extension at the same time. That makes us very happy indeed! 🙂

If you’re into that kind of thing, we’ve published our formulas and process, so you can see how we work with the anonymous data we collect.

As always, we are here to help if you need it, and we welcome your input at feedback@gandi.net.