.shorts
Is .shorts a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.shorts is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Google.
A clear word for short-form video, but creators live on platforms, so few would make a .shorts address their main identity.
short-form video creators and studios, short-film makers and festivals, and apparel sellers who want the literal word, with a secondary pull toward anyone building around short-form content formats
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.
Both are plain generic nouns for a moving-image content format, bought by the same class of buyer - creators, channels and platforms putting their primary identity on the medium they publish in rather than on a brand or a place.
Same bet of taking a colloquial video-content word whose currency comes from platform vernacular and registering it as an open category string, so its value rises or falls with how long that platform vocabulary stays the default word for the format.
A craft-and-format noun for screen work, and the long-form counterpart to a short, whose buyer is the producer identifying by the kind of thing they make - the same identity bet, but anchored in an established profession rather than a newly named format.
What a .shorts domain is
.shorts is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .shorts domain extension real yet?
.shorts 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 .shorts domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .shorts name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .shorts was .video, delegated on 25 December 2014.
Is .shorts a real TLD?
Not yet. .shorts is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .shorts is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Google · first recordedICANN
“CRRI2564-T46967 · Charleston Road Registry Inc. · primary”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited. The string is a short, instantly understood everyday word with at least three real meanings (short-form video, short films, the garment), and short-form video is a large and still-growing content format, so registrations at some volume are plausible over the next 5 years. It is not in the 50-69 band because the natural buyers, short-form creators, build their identity on the platform handle, not a domain; a .shorts address would mostly be a redirect or a vanity layer rather than a primary identity, and by analogy with video-themed generics such as .video, .film and .movie (flagged as analogy), which have found modest use but no meaningful aftermarket, the resale signal is expected to be thin. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is generic, not a joke or a narrow event term, and short-film makers, festivals, content studios and apparel retailers have genuine, if small, end-use cases. Applicant facts from the record, stated neutrally: the sole application on the record is from Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.), status confirmed, filed as a standard application rather than brand, community or geographic; Google's operation of other generic strings suggests (by analogy) competent registry operation and distribution reach, which raises adoption likelihood somewhat but does not by itself create primary-identity demand. Main market uncertainty: whether the registry connects .shorts addresses to short-form video distribution or creator identity in a way that makes the domain functional rather than decorative; without that, demand is likely price- and novelty-driven, and the aftermarket stays shallow.