.about
Is .about a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .about in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Suffix named .about as a backup string for its .this application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Intercap named .about as a backup string for its .profile application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A clever word for personal or explainer pages, but it reads oddly as an address and few serious projects would make it their main name.
individuals and small creators wanting a personal "about" page, plus a few domain-hack buyers (all.about, learn.about) and defensive brand registrants
Nobody has applied for .about in its own right.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .profile application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .this application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet as .about: an everyday English function word with no industry, no community and no customer segment attached, where the registry is wagering that the word's grammatical role in a phrase (how.x / x.about) creates demand nobody has yet proven, rather than selling membership in a category.
Also a website-navigation page noun rather than a business category, so both bets rest on the same premise — that a word people recognise as a standard page label on a site can be lifted up into the site's identity — with no natural registrant class that would call itself by the word.
The nearest parallel to the identity-page reading of .about: a short self-description word whose primary registrant would be a person or organisation publishing who they are, so its success depends on people wanting a self-presentation address rather than a trade or topical one.
What a .about domain is
.about is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. Nobody has applied for .about in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .about domain extension real yet?
.about is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .about domain?
You can’t yet. A .about name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .about was .how, delegated on 16 August 2014.
Is .about a real TLD?
Not yet. .about is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .about as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“IRI2679T-T41306 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .profile · Deactivated SI2639T-T10771 · Suffix Inc. · replacement string of .this · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/narrow). The string is a common English preposition, which gives it instant readability but a weak identity signal: 'name.about' reads as a fragment rather than an address, and the natural uses (personal bio pages, 'about us' style explainer sites, domain hacks such as all.about or learn.about) are shallow and mostly novelty-driven. By analogy (flagged as analogy), personal-identity TLDs like .me and .bio found a real but modest audience, and .me worked partly because a possessive pronoun reads as a sentence with the second-level label; .about lacks that grammatical fit, so I expect it to perform below those. It is not in the 30-49 band because I do not see volume or price-driven registration at scale without a dominant registrar push, and the brand signal is weaker than word-TLDs that name a category (.shop, .app, analogy). It is not in the 1-9 band because a memorable English word with obvious about-page and domain-hack uses has a realistic if small market, and the verified record shows two separate parties applied for the string before deactivating (Intercap, primary string .profile; Suffix Inc., primary string .this), which suggests some registry-side belief in a personal-pages positioning. Main market uncertainty: whether a personal-page or link-in-bio style platform would adopt .about as its default namespace; platform bundling has been the main way such word-TLDs reached meaningful use (analogy), and absent that, demand stays a trickle of hacks and vanity registrations. Known real-world demand today: unknown; no registration, pricing or usage figures appear in the verified facts.