Overview
- .blog is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) introduced as part of ICANN's new gTLD expansion and intended for use by blogs.
- The gTLD is sponsored/operated by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com) and managed via its registry entity/brand "Knock Knock WHOIS There" (my.blog).
- DNSSEC is enabled for the TLD.
History
- Late 2013: Progress on .blog (and 24 other proposed gTLDs) was halted by ICANN due to concerns about name collisions.
- 2015: Automattic won the auction for the .blog application, paying an estimated US$19 million for the string (acquiring it from Primer Nivel/Primer Nivel's application).
- April–May 2016: ICANN approved reassignment and the string was delegated/activated in May 2016 as part of the root zone delegation process.
- 2019: Automattic announced a backend registry provider change for .blog from Nominet to CentralNic to access further tools and services.
Name collision and delegation path
- .blog was among applied-for strings flagged during ICANN's name collision assessment; it was not eligible for an "alternative path" to delegation in November 2013 and had to await further mitigation and review before delegation proceeded.
Usage and Audience
- Intended audience: bloggers, publishing platforms, and entities wanting a blog-focused namespace.
- Sponsor/operator: Automattic/WordPress.com implies a close alignment with the WordPress blogging ecosystem.
- Registry presence: managed through my.blog (Knock Knock WHOIS There), Automattic's registry arm.
Former applicants and application notes
- Multiple applicants originally applied for the .blog string during ICANN's application round, including Radix, Top Level Domain Holdings (Minds + Machines), Top Level Design, Afilias, BET Inc., Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.), Donuts (Corn Shadow, LLC), and Merchant Law Group LLP.
- Some applicants received GAC Early Warnings during the evaluation process (notably Google for concerns about exclusive access to a common generic string; Radix received warnings related to other application issues).
Operator
Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: BLOG
organisation: Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC
address: 60 29th Street
address: San Francisco CA 94110
address: United States of America (the)
contact: administrative
name: Head of Business Development
organisation: Knock Knock WhoIS There, LLC (KKWT)
address: 60 29th Street
address: San Francisco CA 94110
address: United States of America (the)
phone: +1.8772733049
e-mail: welcome@my.blog
contact: technical
name: Fury Registry Services
organisation: Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)
address: 979 Bank Street, Suite 400
address: Ottawa Ontario K1S 5K5
address: Canada
phone: +1-613-237-5335
fax-no: +1-613-237-0534
e-mail: support@fury.ca
nserver: A.NS.NIC.BLOG 185.159.197.9 2620:10a:80aa:0:0:0:0:9
nserver: B.NS.NIC.BLOG 185.159.198.9 2620:10a:80ab:0:0:0:0:9
nserver: C.NS.NIC.BLOG 2a0e:dbc0:0:0:0:0:0:101 45.142.220.101
nserver: D.NS.NIC.BLOG 185.159.199.9 2620:10a:80ac:0:0:0:0:9
ds-rdata: 6766 8 2 65581cc0c38868bb708cb1c981f61b8d332c201a9a25b71dcb91ae9959443c32
whois: whois.nic.blog
status: ACTIVE
remarks: Registration information: http://nic.blog
created: 2016-05-12
changed: 2025-05-28
source: IANA
Registrars
