Just a note: Those .bit domains are Namecoin domains. You will need to install a plugin for your browser (either Firefox or Chrome) for it to resolve .bit domains. Your site visitors will also need to do the same.
.bit domains can actually be registered for much cheaper than $1. However, the process for doing so is very complicated and involves downloading a copy of namecoind or Namecoin-Qt and the NMC blockchain. Namecoin is pretty cheap right now and 1 NMC can pay the registration fees for many domains. Unfortunately, it also means that many domains in the .bit namespace are already taken.
Does it mean that .bit domains will never be available on normal browser like .com ? If that is the case, then it will turn into another heaven for underground sites like .onion.
No browser currently supports .bit domains out of the box and to the best of my knowledge, none have any plans of doing so. Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Opera, and Apple could choose to make their browsers support .bit domains by default if they wanted to but this would only really happen if Namecoin becomes more popular. I guess it's a bit of a catch 22 situation.
.onion sites are useful because they exist on the Tor network. Because of the way the Tor network is designed, it is difficult for authorities to shut down the servers which host Tor sites and identify their owners. .bit domains don't have their own network. The Namecoin blockchain is really just a distributed public database containing DNS entries. You can choose to point these entries to anywhere you want, whether it be a website on Tor or one that is hosted on a traditional web hosting provider such as HostGator.
If you are so much interested in free extensions domains, why not try out
https://getdotbit.com/You will get your first .bit domain for free and then $1 afterwards for all domains, ain't that a nice deal?
Also, these domains will look much better as compared to the ones you mentioned.
Has getdotbit.com been operational ? I can see the site is running and found bitcoin.bit is already taken. But, when I tried to reach bitcoin.bit through my browser, it failed.
I searched for facebook.bit! It told "The domain is available"!
And when I clicked "Add to cart", it said "The domain is already taken!"
Did you guys have any problems like this?
If you want to see which .bit domains are available and which ones are taken, try this website:
http://www.dotbit.me/It's weird nobody know about
http://www.domains4bitcoins.com/I heard it's very popular, even when you search "bitcoin domain" that site will show up at second place
They don't seem to offer web hosting though. After registering a domain, the OP would need to find another company to actually host their website. This shouldn't be a big deal however since it's recommended to keep your domain and web hosting providers separate anyway.
