Google Launches .app Top-Level Domain ⇥ blog.google

I completely understand the arguments for giant internet companies having their own top-level domains, but it seems like a disaster waiting to happen for them to own generic domains as well. Chrome is the world’s most popular web browser; as Ben Sargent points out, it seems like only a matter of time before they could launch a TLD that only works with Chrome. Or Google could own a TLD that forces websites to carry tracking scripts.

It may be hard to understand today why Google could take these actions. But we should be more cognizant of handing control of whole sections of the web over to for-profit companies, especially those that are behavioural advertising companies.

Update: A better example of something Google might do is rank .app addresses higher in search, like they do for AMP websites.