Aussies will soon be able to fly their digital patriotism high with the launch of new ‘.au’ URLs that will be removed with the trusted ‘.com.au’ domains.
auDA, the organization that manages Australian domains has launched the new product, which is available to register from Thursday, March 24, after years of consultation.
Instead of registering for example www.thelatch.com.au, the shorter and punchier www.thelatch.au will now be available to anyone who wants it. Which reminds us, we should probably grab that one.
Domain names ending in .au can only be registered with auDA if the person or organization registering can prove that they have a connection with Australia.
This means proving that you have a “verifiable Australian presence”, such as being an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or having an Australian business number.
This is in contrast to .com addresses managed by the American Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Because the rules around .com sign-ups are much more relaxed, there is a whole subgroup of people and businesses established to sign up for any domain name you can think of, squatting the address until someone comes along and tries to buy them. These people will then sell these domains to the people they want to own at massively high prices.
auDA said that anyone who already has a registration in another domain format (like .com.au) will be able to apply priority access to the newly opened .au address equivalent for the first six months after launch.
As of March 24, 2022, you can sign up for this new .au website name. The names will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. A number of pre-approved domain registers have been licensed for those registering who want the new address and a complete list of these registrars can be found here.
There are of course a number of limited .au domain names that have been reserved for official use. Things like olympics.au will not be available to register to reduce domain squatting of unscrupulous parties.
This new land grab will undoubtedly cause brand strife and brand problems as competing brands and organizations sharing the same name seek to get the .au address of their business. adDA has an application and appeal process that can sort out these disputes but it is possibly a lengthy process that has the potential to cause some headaches.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.
Add Comment