Google Now Identifies .Ai As Top-Level Domain

To coincide with generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools becoming a part of our everyday life, Google has announced that it now identifies the .ai domain as a generic top-level domain alongside .com and .org.?

The .ai domain has generated a lot of buzz around the growing AI sector. In fact, GoDaddy has seen a huge spike in .ai registrations in recent months.

That said, the .ai domain is geo-specific to Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. But given the mammoth potential of the .ai domain for the rapidly-growing AI industry, it comes as no surprise to hear Google announcing that it will NOT default the .ai domain to Anguilla.

Understanding How Geo Specific Domains Work

Google determines the locality of a website through several factors, one of them being the country-code top-level domain names (ccTLDs).?

These ccTLDs are tied to a specific country. For example, co.uk is linked to the UK and .de is linked to Germany.

However, Google now treats a handful of ccTLDs as generic top level domains (gTLDs). This is because a growing number of website owners are using these ccTLDs for generic, rather than location specific purposes.?

With .ai, Google noticed that there are more websites that are related to AI rather than the country of Anguilla. Plus, with the rising adoption of AI technologies, many AI startups will be keen to use the .ai as their domain.

Previously, other notable ccTLDs that are now classed as gTLDs are .co and .io. The .co domain is the country code domain for Columbia and the .io domain is the country code for The British Indian Ocean Territory.??

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How Google Determines The Difference Between AI and Anguilla?

Gary Illyes, an Analyst at Google, who made the announcement on LinkedIn, mentioned the best way for the search engine to determine if your .ai website is country-specific or generic comes down to how you write for your audience.?

For example, if you have a .ai website that sells a product or service in Anguilla, then your content should reflect this. If your .ai website is geared towards an AI product, again, this needs to be shown in your content.?

Google’s search algorithm has come a long way since it was launched back in 1998. Back then, the search engine’s algorithm was primarily focused on keywords on a page. But now, Google is looking at the context of those keywords and assessing whether the content matches the searcher’s intent and answers their question.

In fact, Google made a huge update last year called the Helpful Content Update, which determines if a piece of content is helpful or not.?

Are We On A Verge Of An AI Boom?

In short, yes.

Open.ai, the parent company of ChatGPT, have had a head start with this domain, and we fully expect other AI startups and larger, more established organisations to follow suit.?

Speaking of large organisations, Facebook recently purchased facebook.ai and are already using it to showcase generative AI projects they’re working on.?

Beside adapting the .ai domain, we’re also seeing big tech firms incorporating AI or a type of automation into their product. It's an exciting time for the AI sector as we fully expect to see all kinds of innovative AI products and services emerge in the near future.?