.XXX domains go live in 8 hours, malware free via McAfee

Posted Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 5:33 pm by Jason Cartwright

In around 8 hours from now, the land rush for .XXX begins. The new adult entertainment top-level domain (TLD) will be allocated in a first come, first served basis. While this TLD is receiving widespread attention due to its adult nature, any time a new TLD is introduced it’s an important milestone.

Anyone who has tried to register a domain name in the past few years knows that there’s very few short, memorable dictionary word domain names left. Only time will tell how successful the .xxx domain will be. In theory it allows ISPs to filter all .xxx domain names to prevent adult content from being seen by minors.

The problem with .xxx and filtering is that it’s optional. This means the valuable and highly trafficked .com domain names will remain and continue to serve adult content. So while .xxx is recognisable, it wont replace .com.

There is one incentive that could see demand grow for .XXX over more traditional and popular domains, that is security. .XXX domains will all receive daily malware scans via McAfee which is said to protect both site operators and consumers. This is the first domain type in the world to receive this treatment.

It’s clear demand, or interest in this release is high with the www.buy.xxx website is achieving almost 1 million visitors per day. The domain registrar linked to from the official website is GoDaddy, but should be sold through many others. Just in case you wanted to shout us a Christmas present, the domain techAU.xxx will set you back A$102.01.

Thanks to @Mr_Internet for the heads up (wait, that probably sounds bad).

For more information and to watch the count down, head to http://about.xxx or watch on twitter #dotxxx