Restaurants and bars now have their own domain names

If you're in the food industry, dotcom is so yesterday.

Bars and restaurants will now be able to clearly advertise their type of business with customized Internet domain names.

Released on June 11, ".rest" and ".bar" were opened to a “land rush” period where those wishing to purchase a new site can apply for a  custom domain name.

Punto 2012, a Mexico City-based domain company, announced the new categories in May at the National Restaurant Association Show. According to a recent press release, the company created the distinctive domain tags to offer “a more meaningful and better defined internet address” for associated industries and topics online.

During the initial land rush period, which ends July 10,anyonecan apply for one of the new domain names.  Punto 2012 believes that generic names such as “redwine.bar” or “FrenchGourmet.rest” will be in high demand and is encouraging potential owners to apply early. Some names may go to squatters, hoping to resell the domain at a later date.

After the initial period ends, domains with two or more applicants will auctioned to the highest bidder to determine who wins the right to actually register the domain.

Starting July 14, the .rest and .bar domain names will officially be open to registration for all businesses and individuals.

The wine industry is also getting in on the customized domain game. The NY Daily News reported that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers gave approval to the domains .wine and .vin earlier this week.