Google wants you to bring the laughts with its new .meme domain
Memes, the Internet’s favorite way to spread culture and ideas, have a new home online thanks to the launch of Google’s new top-level .meme domain.
Google Registry recently announced that its new .meme domain will be publicly available starting December 5 for a base annual price.
Early adopters can secure a .meme domain before then as part of Google’s Early Access Period (EAP), but this will require an “additional one-time fee” that decreases daily until the domain launches publicly.
Early adopters meme business
As part of the announcement, Google highlighted six early adopters of the .meme domain. Partners include the meme trend website Know your memepremier meme clearinghouse License.Meme and (perhaps unsurprisingly) a host of cat meme sites, including Grumpy cat, Nyan KatAnd CAT.MEME.
“Memes are the embodiment of internet culture and have captured the eyes, hearts and minds of millions of people,” wrote Christina Yeh of Google’s Registry Team in a blog post announcing the news.
“Whether you’re sharing a relatable scenario, capturing a feeling that’s hard to express with just words, enjoying pure randomness, or even trying to spark a social movement, we can’t wait to see how you use .meme to express yourself.”
The announcement highlights the rise of internet culture as a commodity. It also follows broader industry trends to make website creation more accessible and customizable, marked by the growing popularity of drag and drop website builders and other recent domain launches including .ing, .dad and .esq.