The question seems to be asking about the top-level domain (TLD) “.cooking.” However, it’s important to note that “.cooking” is not an established or recognized TLD as of right now.
TLDs are the suffixes at the end of Internet addresses, like “.com,” “.org,” or “.edu.” They were established to categorize and manage different types of entities on the Internet, and are regulated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). For example, “.com” is meant for commercial businesses, while “.edu” is designated for educational institutions (source: ICANN). In recent years, there’s been a significant expansion in generic TLDs (gTLDs), which are not connected to specific countries or types of entities. Some examples of these are “.xyz,” “.app,” and “.blog” (source: ICANN).
ICANN launched a New gTLD Program in 2011, which allowed for the creation of over 1200 new TLDs, including much more specific TLDs like “.pizza,” “.photography,” and “.clothing” (source: ICANN). The process for applying to create a new gTLD is quite extensive and costly, and requires clearance from trademark and intellectual property rights holders.
As of now, there is no “.cooking” TLD, according to the official list of TLDs provided by ICANN. There are, however, TLDs that might be of interest to those in cooking or food-related fields, such as “.recipes,” “.kitchen,” or “.catering.”
Creating a “.cooking” TLD would likely be of interest to websites related to recipes, cooking tools and techniques, cooking schools, and food blogs. It could potentially help in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), making these websites more visible to people interested in cooking. However, it would require someone, whether a cooking-related business or an entrepreneur interested in domain registration, to go through the process and costs of applying for a new gTLD through ICANN.
As a side note, while TLDs can potentially play a role in SEO, the major search engines like Google have stated they treat new gTLDs like old TLDs in terms of search rankings. So, while a “.cooking” TLD might be more appealing or memorable to human users, it wouldn’t have an impact on search engine rankings (source: Google).
In conclusion, the “.cooking” TLD does not currently exist. However, with the continued expansion of gTLDs and the integral role of the internet in cooking and food-related content sharing, it’s possible we may see it in the future.
Sources:
-ICANN: Understanding the Domain Name System
-ICANN: New Generic Top-Level Domains
-Google: General Guidelines on gTLDs
