.college

Status:	Active
Registry Provider:	XYZ.COM & CentralNic
Type:	Generic
Category:	Education
More information:

.College is an active generic top level domain (gTLD). It is operated by XYZ, which also operates .xyz, .rent, .security, .protection, .theatre .cars, .car, .auto, and .storage. The purpose of .College is to provide an unrestricted generic platform for colleges, people, and organizations to have a memorable industry-specific name, to build out personal sites, and to have learning resources for their business.

.College domains have been registered in 70 countries as of March 9, 2016.

Registry Details

XYZ.COM LLC, which is the sole applicant for .College, is the company is owned by domain name investor Daniel Negari who also applied for the strings .now and .xyz. CentralNic will provide back-end registry solutions. XYZ.COM began offering preregistration for .College on June 27, 2013.

History

There were originally two applicants for .College, XYZ.COM LLC and Donuts, but XYZ.COM won the contention set in a private gTLD auction for an undisclosed amount. It was auctioned off in the first round of such auctions held by Innovative Auctions in June 2013.

Uses and Goals

.College aims to be the serve not only accredited educational institutions, but also any individuals or organization that may benefit from a reputable and recognizable extension that is linked to the educational sphere. Intended registrants include colleges, students, professors, college preparation companies, employee training companies, online tutorials, and many others. According to XYZ.COM's application, the gTLD will "will provide communal organizations and educational organizations with a wide range of domain names they can use to communicate, self-identify, offer products and services, and build community. "

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"Contrary to the stringent restrictions of the .edu registry, the TLD respects all constructions and usages of the term “college,” and is committed to providing descriptive domain names to all organizations that seek such identification, from credible, reputable educational organizations previously barred from educational recognition in the online space to religious groups, who are not seeking academic accreditation, but desire to form religious instruction institutions, such as a seminary or yeshiva."

"In an era where the availability of high-value industry-relevant names are increasingly diminishing and financially unattainable by the majority of domain registrants, multitudes of respectable communal and educational organizations are relegated to the realm of irrelevant domain names cluttering the online landscape."

"The TLD will provide increased consumer choice opening up a wide array of new industry-ranging domain names, a reduction in the price spent on obtaining domain names (circumventing the exorbitant fees charged for valuable domains in the traditional TLD space), and improved user experience, allowing consumers access to a greater array of business resources and services within each industry."

"The .college TLD will be open to all individuals and groups related to educational organizations, such as parents, students, teachers, professors, schools, universities, as well as to communities of individuals joined by a common cause or dedicated to unconventional educational endeavors, such as religious organizations seeking to form instructional groups. Each of these entities deserves the opportunity for identification and recognition in the online space. The TLD .college will constitute an all-inclusive, open TLD where sharing of information is free and uninhibited."

Contract Signed

On 16 January 2014 XYZ.COM LLC received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .college after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.college was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 10 April, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

Top-Level Domain