Guernsey’s .gg internet domain is marking 30 years of continuous operation, having first entered the internet’s root system on 7 August 1996.
The domain, now widely recognised internationally through its use by gaming communities and platforms, was established by Dr Nigel Roberts (pictured) and Alderney’s Laurie Brown.
At the time, the Channel Islands were initially expected to use the UK’s .uk domain rather than receive their own country codes.
Dr Nigel Roberts said: “We were told that all three Crown Dependencies were to be lumped in with the UK under .UK – and that was that. The absurd part was that some uninhabited British territories – rocks whose only residents were penguins and the occasional visiting scientist – already had internet codes of their own. The Channel Islands did not.”
The pair made their case to Professor Jon Postel, who was responsible for the internet’s naming system at the time, drawing on sources including the CIA’s World Factbook, Germany’s national standards body and international postal codes.
.gg was added to the internet’s root on 7 August 1996, with Jersey’s .je following a day later.
In the early years, registering a .gg address involved faxing an application, receiving an invoice by post and paying by cheque.
The domain later gained an unexpected international profile through gaming, where ‘GG’ is commonly used to mean ‘good game’. Discord uses discord.gg for server invitations, while other gaming platforms, teams and studios have also adopted .gg addresses.
Dr Nigel Roberts said: “We didn’t plan any of it. The gaming world simply adopted us – and now, at every moment somewhere in the world, someone joining a game is routing through a system run from a small island in the English Channel.”
There is also a personal link to the history of online gaming. While at the University of Essex in the late 1970s, Dr Nigel Roberts was part of the team behind MUD, described as the world’s first shared virtual game world and a predecessor of modern online multiplayer games. The university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2020 recognising both areas of his work.
Chris Disspain, founding CEO of AU Domain Administration, the manager of Australia’s .au domain, said: “.gg is a classic example of how the infrastructure of the internet and particularly country codes should work. It seamlessly, quietly and reliably represents Guernsey on the internet whilst being open to innovators and users around the world for whom the 2 simple letters ‘gg’ mean something entirely different.”
Dr Nigel Roberts added: “There are thousands of domain endings now — .xyz, .biz, .top, you name it.
“And yet a place-based identity like .gg still holds its own, carrying Guernsey’s name out to the rest of the world every single day.”
