I received an email yesterday from a How a Car Works visitor who helpfully tipped me off that the domain name car.how is available. It’s a fantastic name, and a great fit.

The .how TLD is managed by Google Registry. This list of Google’s TLDs, and the accompanying blurb, looks like it’s lifted been from a 1999 NADAQ list of IPOs. Check out these Web 1.0 gems:

.DAD

Fathers know best - A home for ideas, products, services, and info about fathers and fatherhood.

.FOO

Developers welcome - If you know what “foo” means, you’ll find your web dev, prototyping, and beta sites here.

.MEME

Viral content - The term “meme” connotes the echoing of a cultural idea. This domain houses viral phenomena, from ideas to images to videos.

Unfortunately, and rightly, the car.how domain has been designated as premium by Google, so it costs $620 per year. To be clear, that’s an annual ongoing cost.

I wasn’t aware of this new pricing model for recent top level domains. Up to now domains cost a flat rate per year, so it’s $10 for toys.com and $10 for someobscurenameyoudneverwant.com. There’s a decent argument that this low pricing has led to high levels of domain squatting.

So I can appreciate the logic behind premium pricing set up at the registry level. It discourages domain squatters, and encourages productive usage.

I’m on the fence as to whether it’s worth registering and moving How a Car Works over. If it was a one-off cost I’d do it in a flash, but annualised I’m not sure. I’d be effectively paying rent and I don’t like that one bit. I doubt there will be any SEO benefit, and users might be confused by the unfamiliar format of this name. Plus I’d lose a keyword from the domain because visitors often search terms like how car brakes work.

For now it’s a no - the existing domain is good. And, as ever, I’m fearful of rocking the SEO boat.