The arrival of the new top-level domains (TLDs) .zip and .mov introduced by Google has not been warmly welcomed by critics. According to them, these extensions could easily lead to abuse, as reported by Ars Technica.
Google recently added eight new TLDs, including .zip and .mov. These two domains have been met with the full brunt of criticism, as they could potentially cause confusion among end users. .zip is an archiving extension, while .mov is a video format from Apple.
Malware Concerns
Critics are worried that these domain extensions could appear in emails or social media posts, becoming clickable links. This could be exploited by malicious actors to link to malicious websites and/or install malware.
Google’s Response
In response, Google has indicated, according to Ars Technica, that the use of the TLDs in question is still acceptable. However, the tech giant will monitor whether the new TLDs are being misused for malicious purposes.
Google has provided evidence that abuse is prevented by Google Safe Browsing. Additionally, “well-known” extensions have been used for TLDs in the past, such as .command, which could have caused confusion but ultimately did not lead to any problems.
Continued Suspicion
Currently, there are 2,753 domain names with .zip registered. Only two of these domain names are known to be potentially malicious. Nevertheless, critics remain skeptical about using .zip and .mov as TLDs and are considering trying to remove these extensions from the public suffix list (PSL).
Also read: Phishing and malware sites with .nl domain often offline within 24 hours.
