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Comment by axus | Hacker News Reader

It sounds more official than discord.gg

It shouldn't really.

.gg and .io are being used for novelty value.

.io has been used as a sort of general-purpose tld to signal sort of… I dunno, hip, dev-focused sites, right? It is at least slightly less novel than gg.

Agree, but it’s important to point out that .gg grew popular in the gaming crowd because “gg” in gaming means “good game”. It’s used in-game in the chat by many players of online multiplayer games as a way of thanking each other after a match. It can be used sincerely or it can also be used sarcastically but in the latter case you’d typically say “ggez” as a taunt implying that the win was easy (“ez”) because you are more skilled than your opposing team.

And for .io of course that one is/was popular among tech companies because it looks similar to “I/O” (input/output).

.gg means "good game" so I can see why Discord would use it.

Definitely, it is a sort of quirky and fun use of .gg.

It is a little surprising given their field that they didn’t also grab the .io.

It's "winning" personal user data with ease. It fits.

It's definitely not just me but I only have a data point of one to use: Anytime I see something that isn't .com, .org, or .gov I immediately assume it's less than reputable at best and actively trying to scam/phish me at worst.

I got curious and decided to check which popular websites that I use are not on a .com / .org domain.

I found: kubernetes.io , sentry.io , codepen.io , itch.io , not to mention lever.co , elastic.co and last but not the least, notion.so .

It had been that companies that “made” it would eventually pick up the .com. But it seems like it is more common to stick with whatever TLD they had before.

The .so TLD, very dynamic.

With the obvious exception of sites correctly associated to the country of their domain.

A tourist attraction in Guernsey can very reasonably use .gg and maintain full credibility.

As an American I don't trust most things with a .us TLD. I wouldn't trust another country's TLD, either. But like I said originally -- this is just me. I'm sure others feel like I do but I am not trying to speak for them.

You can, of course, treat domains however you like, but it would be unfortunate to extend your approach worldwide. In many, many other countries the local domain is a strong signal of trust, often more so than a .com/.org.

Thinking through websites I use in Denmark, I struggle to recall one that isn't .dk.

Supermarkets (netto.dk, foetex.dk), public transport (dsb.dk, m.dk, cph.dk), newspapers/TV (politiken.dk, berlingske.dk, dr.dk), University (ku.dk, au.dk), local government (kk.dk), other retailers (computersalg.dk, proshop.dk, elgiganten.dk) ...

The largest grocery delivery company uses nemlig.com, and Ikea uses ikea.com.

As another example, if I'm applying online for a visa to Thailand, that site had better end .th.

Yeah, there's a difference between .com .net .org .gov and many of the country code TLDs when you're looking for non-local content.

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