.see
Is .see a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.see is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Link Freedom Group. ShortDot named .see as a backup string for its .core application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
One of the 2 is tied to a registry that runs TLDs today. Link Freedom Group and ShortDot filed 198 applications between them across the round.
Will names sell?
A catchy verb ending for slogans and campaigns, but sound-alike confusion with 'sea' and the letter 'C' limits serious brand use.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .see’s closest 2012 strings hold .read 2, .watch 22K and .show 19K.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .read, held 2 names, June 2026. .watch held 22,022; .show held 18,933. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet almost exactly: a short, ultra-common English verb owned by no industry, sold on being a universal call-to-action suffix rather than a category anyone puts their primary identity on.
Also a plain sensory verb played as an imperative string, but it carries a built-in commercial anchor (timepieces, streaming) that gives it a paying vertical the target's pure verb lacks.
Another everyday verb monetized as an expressive/utility string, though its noun sense pulls entertainment registrants in, making it partly a vertical bet where the target is purely expressive.
marketers, creators, and travel or visual-media projects who want a call-to-action name (a must-see, come-and-see framing) for campaigns and microsites rather than a long-term primary identity
What a .see domain is
.see is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .see domain extension real yet?
.see 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 .see domain?
You can’t yet. A .see 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 .see was .read, delegated on 5 December 2015.
Is .see a real TLD?
Not yet. .see is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .see is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- ShortDot · now deactivated backupICANN
- ShortDot · now abandonedICANN
- Link Freedom Group · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
“LFGL2683T-T43064 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary”ICANN
“LFGL2683T-T43064 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary NA2626T-T56898 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · replacement string of .core · Deactivated”ICANN
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.see · Lifestyle · “See what others miss.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). .see is a common English verb string, and verb TLDs have, by analogy, tended to sell on cleverness and price rather than identity: analogues like .watch and .video (flagged as analogy) found some registration volume but little primary-identity adoption, while .live (analogy) did better only because it anchored to a concrete category, streaming, which .see lacks. The string's core weakness is spoken ambiguity: 'see' collides with 'sea' and the letter 'C' when said aloud, which weakens radio-test performance and thus brand credibility; its core strength is call-to-action phrasing (come.see, must.see) and possible visual-content or travel positioning, consistent with the applicant's published 'Lifestyle' category and 'See what others miss.' tagline. It is not in the 10-29 vanity band because a short, universally understood verb plausibly sustains volume registrations and campaign use over the next 5 years, beyond one-off joke demand. It is not in the 50-69 niche band because no category exists today where .see is a plausible primary-identity default, and the homophone problem needs explaining away in nearly every serious use. The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the 2026 round and published its list ahead of Reveal Day; a large-portfolio applicant is a neutral fact here and informs only the likelihood of standard registrar-channel distribution rather than category-building investment, which adds uncertainty about positioning. Main market uncertainty: whether any visual-media or travel segment coalesces around .see as a campaign convention, versus it remaining a scattergun novelty string; registration and renewal behavior for comparable verb TLDs is unknown to me as a specific figure, so this is reasoned qualitatively.