Guru domain extensions are popular

Since the dawn of the domain age (the first one was registered in 1985), man has searched for the perfect domain name. This name was said to be short, easy to remember, and full of meaning. COM was the first to fit that bill; NET and ORG and everything else were afterthoughts. Well, COM finally has some competition. Several hundred new domain extensions have been launched on the Internet. One of the most popular is GURU.

What does the word Guru mean to you? Before the 1967 Summer of Love in San Francisco (be sure to wear flowers in your hair) it wasn’t a word Americans used often, if at all; you can’t even find it in my old Funk & Wagnalls from the late ’50s. A Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”, guru is found in the earlier Indian language of Sanskrit as “one to be honored”. Its first popular usage in American English was in reference to the Canadian theory of communications philosophized by Marshall McLuhan in 1966. Considered the first “media guru,” McLuhan was the man who famously said “the media is the message.” Today, the word is often defined as a leader, expert, and authority in some field; or a charismatic or spiritual figure who attracts a devoted following. Or some combination of the two.

Today, the term is applied to anyone considered an expert in their field: media guru, management guru, literary guru; the list includes all human efforts, however humble or exalted. With that in mind, the domain registration division of the investment group Donuts applied to ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for the right to create the new generic top-level domain extension Guru. Donuts, by the way, has requested several hundred different extensions: from dot.agency to dot.zone and everything in between. ICANN granted this request and dot Guru went online in November 2013, allowing anyone and everyone who considers themselves an expert in their field to call themselves an online gurus.

Since the inception of .Guru, the extension has become one of the most popular new generic top-level domains. For the first quarter of 2014, more than 30,000 Guru domain names were registered. Tech titan Apple bought several, including (big surprise) iPad dot Guru, iPod dot Guru, iPhone dot guru, and mac dot guru. It’s easy to see why Guru is so popular. It is one of the most recognized and understood terms in English. Teacher, leader, expert, teacher, professional all come to mind when we hear the word Guru. And yet it is not a pompous term; when someone refers to himself as a Guru, we take it to mean that he is not taking himself too seriously and that we mere mortals can approach him without fear of looking foolish.

I like to say that this spate of new domain extensions means “it’s 1985 all over again,” and everyone gets a second chance at the domain they need. That’s true, but just like 1985 it means they have to “strike while the iron is hot” or they will come up empty.

Guru is a great extension for any domain name; As well as significant, but a non-scientific analysis by this writer found that APPLE wasn’t the only big, memorable company buying up one-word names. If Guru sounds like your extension, you better continue to claim it.