Overview
- .office is a brand gTLD applied for and managed by Microsoft as part of ICANN's New gTLD Program.
- The string is intended to reflect the Microsoft Office brand and related products, services, and communications.
- ICANNWiki lists Verisign in the registry field while the application material states Microsoft as the gTLD manager/registry.
History
- Application and reveal: .office was applied for during the New gTLD Program (application details revealed in June 2012).
- Name collision process: In November 2013 ICANN identified .office among strings not eligible for the alternative path for name-collision mitigation and required further mitigation before delegation.
- Delegation: The .office string was delegated to the DNS Root Zone on 23 June 2015.
Usage and Audience
- The TLD is focused on Microsoft Office system products and services and the broad audience that uses them.
- Target audiences include businesses, organizations, IT professionals, and consumers who use Microsoft Office for creating, editing, collaborating on, storing, and sharing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, email, calendars, and related content.
Registration Rules
- Registration is restricted: all .office domain names will be registered to Microsoft Corporation or one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
- The applicant's stated policy explicitly limits registration to Microsoft and its wholly owned subsidiaries; no public/open registrations are provided for other parties in the application text.
- Other technical details (allowed characters, minimum/maximum registration periods) are not specified in the provided source material.
SEO and Brand Impact
- The applicant described the mission of the .office registry as providing a more secure and authentic experience for consumers and businesses interacting with Microsoft through the .office gTLD.
- The TLD is positioned primarily as a brand-protection and brand-extension tool to promote the Microsoft Office system and to protect the Microsoft Office brand in the DNS.
Notable Cases or Examples
- The provided material does not list public or third-party examples of .office usage; all domains are designated to be held by Microsoft or its subsidiaries.
Operator
Microsoft Corporation
Whois
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: OFFICE
organisation: Microsoft Corporation
address: One Microsoft Way
address: Redmond WA 98052
address: United States of America (the)
contact: administrative
name: Cole Quinn
organisation: Microsoft Corporation
address: One Microsoft Way
address: Redmond WA 98052
address: United States of America (the)
phone: +1 425-706-3546
fax-no: +1 425-457-2511
e-mail: registry@microsoft.com
contact: technical
name: TLD Registry Services Technical
organisation: Nominet
address: Minerva House,
address: Edmund Halley Road
address: Oxford Science Park
address: Oxford OX4 4DQ
address: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the)
phone: +44.1865332211
e-mail: registrytechnical@nominet.uk
nserver: DNS1.NIC.MICROSOFT 213.248.219.132 2a01:618:403:0:0:0:0:132
nserver: DNS2.NIC.MICROSOFT 103.49.83.132 2401:fd80:403:0:0:0:0:132
nserver: DNS3.NIC.MICROSOFT 213.248.223.132 2a01:618:407:0:0:0:0:132
nserver: DNS4.NIC.MICROSOFT 2401:fd80:407:0:0:0:0:132 43.230.51.132
nserver: DNSA.NIC.MICROSOFT 156.154.100.3 2001:502:ad09:0:0:0:0:3
nserver: DNSB.NIC.MICROSOFT 156.154.101.3 2001:502:2eda:0:0:0:0:3
nserver: DNSC.NIC.MICROSOFT 156.154.102.3 2610:a1:1009:0:0:0:0:3
nserver: DNSD.NIC.MICROSOFT 156.154.103.3 2610:a1:1010:0:0:0:0:3
ds-rdata: 9475 8 2 8193e9e63984c0eebac5e602c134ca712c7843002bcddef3c08a199ac9d4308d
ds-rdata: 16229 8 2 274a1641ddcc58b8fa48db227dd26a8785b201363bb99a9ede5b5d2693b15def
whois:
status: ACTIVE
remarks: Registration information: http://www.office.com
created: 2015-06-04
changed: 2025-05-01
source: IANA
