Automattic, the very same company behind the WordPress blogging software, and WordPress.com – the remotely hosted blogging service – has recently acquired the new gTLD .blog for $19 million! Granted that’s quite a staggering number, and Automattic did beat out Google in the auction, the more interesting news is what Automattic will do with it in the coming years.
- Will WordPress.org users get an incentive or discount towards a new .blog domain name for their blog?
- Any sign of a premium, fully managed WordPress hosting solution in the future?
These are the questions going around in my mind as I read Matt Mullenweg’s post announcing the identity of Knock Knock Whois There LLC, the company which was used for the .BLOG purchase. Surely the purchase will lead to some interesting things moving forward – and with the widespread popularity of WordPress combined with how many webmasters already use blog as a subdomain or subdirectory for their blogs – there’s plenty of opportunity.
In the meantime, you can reserve a .blog domain name here. Companies with a trademark can register a .blog starting in August, and then October is the land-rush period.
