Automattic, the company which owns WordPress, has secured all the required rights to manage the sale, renewals and registration of .blog domains. Expected to be available soon, the new domain will be suitable for bloggers who spend the whole day creating beautiful content. Release date for the .blog domains will be taking place in the autumn.
As a blogger, you will be able to buy a .blog domain directly from WordPress.com or through domain registrars like GoDaddy. That being said, the .blog domain will be available to every individual irrespective of which site you will host.
In August 2016, the company will throw open the gates of .blog domain for select trademark owners. After that, in October 2016, bloggers will be able to register new domains after prior approval from the company on an application basis. The .blog domain will be available for public consumption in November 2016.
Part of a top-level domain extension, the .blog will create a personalized landscape for all your blogging activities. It will help you to capture a prime spot among all bloggers since you will be able to create a customized name and web address for your site.
As you can see, .blog will make your web property clear and accessible. You can make use of any name to identify your .blog domain as long as it is available for registration. We estimate that prime names will be taken up immediately in August itself during the sunrise period.
According to Automattic, a .blog domain gives you a better domain name and specifically created for bloggers. However, we feel that the company should have done this few years back itself. This is because many individuals have already established their blogs and creating a new blog from scratch will take time in the competitive world.
As of writing this, you will not be able to register a .blog domain, but you can sign up on the official website to get automatic notifications of all updates. You will be required to provide a topic of interest followed by your email ID to receive updates.
While the standard names will be available for a minimum charge, customers will have to shell out more cash to obtain premium names.