Google's new .dev domain opens to all

Google's .dev domain is open to anyone today, less than two weeks after Google announced the new domain ending. The company envisions .dev as a dedicated space for developers and technology -- a way to showcase tools, programming languages, blogs and more.

To claim a .dev, all you need to do is sign up with your registrar of choice (Google, naturally, is an option). As a bonus, Google is offering a free .dev domain to anyone who applied for a ticket to the Google I/O event happening this May. The domains will be secure by default, as they all require HTTPS, and Google has already moved many of its own sites (including web.dev, opensource.dev and flutter.dev) to the domain.

The internet has come a long way from the days of .com, .org and .net. Now, you can get domains ending in anything from .cool to .ninja. And there's real value in unique domain endings. For starters, they can give visitors a better idea what your site is about, and as meaningful .com web addresses are gobbled up, new top-level domains open realms of possibility. Have you ever tried to claim yourname.com only to find it listed for sale at the bargain price of $2,000? Maybe yourname.dev would be a better (and more affordable) fit.