new gTLDs do not function correctly in Safari?
For those of you who don't know, there is a big change going on with internet domain names (website addresses). Instead of just a few generic Top Level Domains (TLDs) like .com, .net, .org there will be hundreds and eventually over a thousand of new TLDs like .tips, .guru, .photography. etc This will help with finding unique and memorable names, and is a groundbreaking change in the way we will enter addresses into the address bar of browsers. The popular names on the existing .com, .net, etc have been flooded for years now and it has been near impossible for awhile now to find a decent domain name to use for your website. The good news is that the new TLDs will change all of this (at least until they start filling up like the original gTLDs) giving website developers a chance to utilize unique and easy to remember names once again on the internet.
Ok so the first wave of these new generic TLDs (gTLDs) have started being released to general availability since January of this year, but the problem is they are not working in Safari! Obviously this is a big deal since these extensions are not going anywhere and they need to be functional in Safari especially since this is one of the most widely used web browsers today. I have personally registered a few of the new gTLDs and they do not function in Safari as they are supposed to - instead they redirect to a google search! It should be a simple fix for apple to implement that anything following a dot (.) should be treated as a gTLD. So when someone enters www.xyz.tips or xyz.tips it will direct the user to the http://www.xyz.tips website and not a google search. I don't know of any other reason (other than entering an ip address) someone would be entering a dot or period (.) into the address bar other than to specify a domain name so this should be something that apple can implement quickly to insure users can access websites utilizing the new TLDs. The logic would be pretty simple to allow a qualified IP address string to still work as usual while allowing pretty much anything else following a dot (.) to be treated as a gTLD. Has anyone else tried contacting apple engineers about this issue and what responses have you received? I thought for sure Apple would already have been on top of this in time for the new gTLD launches but I was disappointed to see the weeks come and go with no solution to this problem! Please help Apple!
FYI entering http://www.xyz.tips or www.xyz.tips/ will function properly in Safari, the problem is that most people don't type http or add a slash at the end of a website address when typing it in the address bar so we need to have xyz.tips and www.xyz.tips working in Safari just like xyz.com or www.xyz.com would fuction in Safari.
Thanks for your feedback guys. Maybe someone who has a developer account can pass this along to the Apple engineers?
There is another forum discussing this same issue on MacRumors:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=18927514#post18927514
