April 2026

As April turns to May, I’m sending my seventh clipping from the garden: a collection of what I’ve been writing and reading since December. And before that, if I could quickly break the fourth wall: reply to this email if you wouldn’t mind. I’m sending from a new address, and replies help build its reputation so that future email won’t be condemned to spam. (Or you can of course unsubscribe at the bottom—no hard feelings.) Writing Yesterday, April 30, the application window opened for the 2026 top-level domain round. That means from now until August 12 companies can apply to own and run new .words (the part of a domain to the right of the dot). If it’s anything like the first time this happened in 2012, we can expect hundreds of applicants competing for thousands of new words. In other words: domainia. The big, public “Reveal Day” will likely be on October 7. All that buzz makes this year a fun one to be researching and writing about domains. Here’s a selection of writing from the…