New top-level domains will not affect search results

New top-level domains (gTLDs) will not receive priority in Google search results, according to Google's search engine team.

One of the reasons market participants are interested in new gTLDs is the desire to boost their search engine rankings. Traditionally, top-level domains carry more weight in search engines. Therefore, when registering a new gTLD, one might hope that the new domain would gain an advantage.

Google explained that such hopes are in vain.

"Google will try to rank new top-level domains accordingly. But I don't believe the new top-level domain will have any initial advantage over .com, and I wouldn't expect it to in the foreseeable future," Matt Cutts, an engineer on Google's search quality team, wrote in a blog post.

As a reminder, the deadline for accepting applications for new top-level domains is April 12 of this year.