.maps
Is .maps a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.maps is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Google.
A clear, useful word for mapping and location projects, but most will still default to .com, so it stays a niche address.
mapping, navigation, GIS and location-data products, plus tourism guides, trail and transit projects, and local-discovery apps wanting a descriptive address
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.
The same bet in the singular: a bare generic noun for a universal navigational/reference utility, whose registrant must either own the consumer product the word already evokes or defend the category word against everyone who makes one.
Also a short generic noun that doubles as the colloquial name of a mass-market software product, so the string's value rests on a product-identity claim over a word nobody can be stopped from using generically.
A plural generic noun for a digital content type that both a platform could brand and an open registry could sell to makers of that content, the same dual-purpose bet, but with a large self-identifying professional base that mapping lacks.
What a .maps domain is
.maps is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Places. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .maps domain extension real yet?
.maps is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .maps domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .maps name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .maps was .map, delegated on 29 June 2017.
Is .maps a real TLD?
Not yet. .maps is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .maps is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Google · first recordedICANN
“CRRI2564-T55261 · Charleston Road Registry Inc. · primary”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a plain, globally understood English word with an obvious use: anything that draws, serves or sells maps, routes or location data. That gives it real end-use utility for geospatial and navigation projects, and left-of-dot names (city.maps, trail.maps, transit.maps) read naturally. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy with other descriptive generic TLDs aimed at a place-or-direction theme (.earth, .place, .city, .directory style strings), such namespaces have tended to see modest registration volumes and little evidence of serious products choosing them as primary identity over a .com or .io; the mapping category is also dominated by a handful of large platforms whose brands are already fixed, leaving a long tail of small projects as the realistic buyer pool. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is not a joke or an event: it names a durable, commercially active category (GIS, logistics, travel, local search) in which a descriptive suffix carries genuine meaning, so sustained low-volume demand is plausible rather than purely vanity. On the record the sole application is from Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.), filed as a standard application rather than a brand application; by analogy, operators with large consumer distribution can lift awareness of a TLD, but how the string is positioned (open generic versus product-tied) is unknown from the facts and is the main market uncertainty here: an open, affordably priced generic reaches the long tail, while a tightly product-aligned or restricted namespace would compress both registrations and any aftermarket. Aftermarket expectation is thin: resale value for word-TLDs of this kind has, by analogy, concentrated in a small number of one-word left-of-dot names with little depth beneath them. Over the next 5 years the most likely outcome is a recognisable but secondary namespace within the geo/location category.