Trade group snags a top-level domain, becomes a case study for ICANN
Last fall, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced that they had procured the rights the .REALTOR top-level domain (TLD), allowing their members (and members of the Canadian Real Estate Association) to obtain their own .REALTOR site and soon, Associations and brokerages will be able to scoop their domains up as well. It is already the sixth fastest growing top-level domain in history, with actual sites in use (not domains squatted upon like other top-level domains) and over 100k domains already live.
The trade group has spent the last eight years in the application process through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which coordinates domains and IP addresses globally, overseeing thousands of new (and future) TLDs like .jobs, .cars, .ninja, and the .MLS and .realestate TLDs also under NAR’s administration.
How this program is history changing
We’ve talked about this program for months now, but most don’t understand exactly how history-changing it is. You see, .REALTOR is actually a case study for ICANN. That’s right.
The reason for this pedestal is because NAR offers something most can’t – the NRDS. The National Realtors Database System is where all member data information lives, and every member has a unique ID number. When applying for a .REALTOR domain, it is tied into NRDS, and only active members may obtain a .REALTOR URL – active being the key word, as they trade group holds all members to a Code of Ethics. Consumers will eventually know what they’re getting as this goes mainstream which takes time, but on behalf of the industry, NAR is ahead of their game…
