Ever since the dawn of the domain era (the first was registered in 1985), man has searched for the perfect domain name. This name was said to be short, easy to remember and full of meaning. COM was the first to fit into that bill; NET and ORG and everything else were afterthoughts. Well, COM finally has some competition. Several hundred new domain extensions have been launched on the Internet. One of the most popular is GURU.
What does the word Guru mean to you? Before the Summer of Love in 1967 in San Francisco (be sure to wear flowers in your hair) it was not a word Americans used often, if at all; it can’t even be found in my old Funk & Wagnalls from the late 50’s. A Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”, guru is found in the earlier Indian language of Sanskrit as “one to be honored”. Its first popular use in American English was in reference to the Canadian communications theory philosophized by Marshall McLuhan in 1966. Considered the first “media guru”, McLuhan was the man who famously said “the media is the message”. Today the word is often defined as a leader, expert, and authority in some field; or a charismatic or spiritual figure who attracts a devoted following. Or some combination of the two.
Today the term is applied to anyone considered an expert in their field: media guru, management guru, literary guru; the list includes all human endeavors however humble or exalted. With that in mind, the domain registration division of investment group Donuts applied to ICANN (International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for the right to create the new generic top-level domain extension Guru. Donuts, by the way, has requested several hundred different extensions: from dot.agency to dot.zone and everything in between. ICANN granted this request and dot Guru went online in November 2013, allowing anyone and everyone who believes they are experts in their field to call themselves online gurus.
Since the inception of .Guru, the extension has become one of the most popular new generic top-level domains. For the first quarter of 2014 more than 30,000 Guru domain names were registered. Tech titan Apple bought several, including (big surprise) iPad dot Guru, iPod dot Guru, iPhone dot guru, and mac dot guru. It’s easy to see why Guru is so popular. It is one of the most recognized and understood terms in English. Teacher, leader, expert, teacher, professional all come to mind when we hear the word Guru. And yet, it is not a pompous term; when someone refers to himself as a Guru, we understand it to mean that he is not taking himself so seriously and that we mere mortals can approach him without fear of looking foolish.
I like to say that this flood of new domain extensions means “it’s 1985 again,” and everyone gets a second chance to get the domain they need. That’s true, but just like in 1985 it means they have to “strike while the iron is hot” or they’ll find themselves empty-handed.
Guru is a great extension for any domain name; as well as significant, but an unscientific analysis by this writer found that APPLE wasn’t the only memorable big company buying one-word names. If Guru sounds like your extension, you better keep claiming it.
