What’s the Deal with this .JOBS (Dot Jobs) Domain Extension?

If you have been noticing more websites coming up in your job searches ending in “.jobs” and thought it might be some sort of error, let me explain what is happening.  There is a relatively new TLD (Top Level Domain).  The TLDs you already know are the familiar .com, .net, .org, .gov, .us, .uk and a few thousand others.  The new .jobs TLD is different, however, since it has a very specific purpose.  It is designed to help job seekers find jobs. Here’s how…

Let’s say you are a journalism major and you have your heart set on working with CNN.  So you go to www.cnn.com to try to find their employment page.  Good luck!  Even if you know how to do a site specific search on Google or MSN, searching for “jobs” or “employment” on that gargantuan website, you will still have quite a challenge finding their jobs page.  That’s where the .jobs TLD come in!  All you have to do now to find a job at CNN is to type www.cnn.jobs in your browser’s address bar.  Voila! You will be instantly redirected to www.turner.com/careers/, which is the career website for Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., CNN’s parent company.  Pretty cool, right?

You can also find jobs at Microsoft by typing in www.microsoft.jobs or jobs at BMW by typing in www.bmw.jobs. However, if you want to work for Google or Apple, you can’t use that method, since neither of those companies have set up a .jobs TLD for their career pages – yet.  In fact, there are fewer than 1,000 active .jobs domains for company career pages.  Part of the reason the .jobs TLD has not caught on yet is that very few companies have even heard about it.  The other reason is that the cost of a .jobs domain name is about 10 times the cost of a normal .com or .net domain name. The cost is not prohibitive for large companies, but large enough that smaller companies may not find it cost effective.

Will it catch on throughout the Internet?  Who knows!  There are already companies online who are not following the established guidelines by using their domain for job boards instead of for their own company’s job openings. I’ll keep an eye on it and report back here when I notice any new trends.