Google has purchased the website domain .app in an auction held by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) – the organisation which oversees the running of the net. The firm’s winning bid for $25,001,000 is believed to be the highest so far.

Icann is currently rolling out new customised web names and auctioning them off. Other web address endings sold so far include .baby, .tech ,and .VIP. The suffixes are known as generic Top Level Domains (gTLD).

In its bid application, Google-owned company Charleston Road Registry says its plan is that the domain will be used by developers of apps.

“The proposed gTLD will provide application developers with the ability to customise domain and website name application offerings to signal to the general population of internet users that .app websites are indeed related to applications and application developers,” the firm writes. “This specialisation makes it clear to internet users that this is the authoritative and designated space where they can find applications and information about developers accessible via differentiated and streamlined web addresses.”

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