In a new video posted by the .GOP registry, they boast about it being the only new gTLD owned by a political party and of course that is true, as the other political domain names, .Democrat, .Republican. .Vote and .Voting are owned by for profit non-affiliated registries.
The .GOP gTLD is owned by Republican State Leadership Committee, Inc. an affiliate to the republican party.
The video’s most talked about site is StopHillary.Gop which is being forwarded to a .com; a site under GOP.com which is collecting names on a “pledge” to stop Hillary Clinton from being elected as the next President.
Right now there are just over 100,000 people who took the pledge, even with a promise of a free bumper sticker, which is not particular impressive in my opinion.
The .GOP registry smartly reserved the first and last names of its top Presidential Candidates but none of them own their matching .GOP domain.
CarlyFiorina.GOP, TedCruz.GOP and JebBush.GOP, RandPaul.GOP, MarcoRubio.gop, ScottWalker.gop, ChrisChristie.gop, MikeHuckabee.gop are either reserved by the registry or registered by Minds + Machines to protect the domain.
Many first names and Surnames are similarly registered by Minds + Machines or reserved, like Walker.GOP, Jeb.GOP, Ted.GOP.
The question becomes why don’t those candidates own those domains and why are they not actively using them?
Over the last few weeks we have read hundreds of stories on Presidential candidates and the domain names they own and don’t own.
Wouldn’t this be the perfect time for a candidate like Carly Fiorina who was under attack for being the “Tech Candidate” who let the matching .Org domain slip by her (which she did own at one time) just come out and say (well she did say it) that there are too many extensions, you can register them all but I’m just going with the .GOP?
When she appeared on the Seth Meyers show she could have given herself and .GOP a huge boost by saying I don’t own the .org don’t need to because I have the .Gop.
But she didn’t say it and she doesn’t own the domain.
I can only come to two possible conclusions:
1. The .GOP registry didn’t reach out to the candidates to offer them their matching .GOP domain, which would be a failure of epic proportions.
2. .GOP offered the domains to the candidates and they declined to take them even possibly for free.
To borrow from Godaddy tag line; “it’s go time” for .GOP and for that matter all the new gTLD political extensions.
If the New G’s want some high-profile adoption this is a perfect opportunity.
However if this election season comes and goes without major candidates adopting these new domain extensions for their campaign its going to be a lost opportunity since the next President election doesn’t roll around until 2020.
Here is the .GOP video:
