Make no mistake about it - veteran domain investor and educator Page Howe loves his hometown. The Los Angeles native (who was profiled in our August 2008 Cover Story) is now combining his passion for both LA and domains by opening a new office in Los Angeles to promote the .LA TLD. A building on Hollywood Boulevard will be his base in the real world while Howe's ILove.LA website carries the flag online.

While several new geo TLDs like .berlin, .london, .vegas and .nyc have been released this year as part of ICANN's new gTLD program .LA has been around for a long time. The extension was created as the country code for Laos, but was later re-purposed under a marketing agreement to serve as a designation for Los Angeles - in the same way that Montengro's .ME and Colombia's .CO were re-purposed to have different meanings. 

The latter two TLDs have enjoyed a good bit of success and Howe believes the massive Los Angeles market offers a similar ripe opportunity for .LA.

He Loves .LA!

Below: ILove.LA
Founder Page Howe

In a press release announcing his new office today Howe said, "Local is everything in online marketing. The time is right for companies and inside and outside Intellectual Property advisors to consider adoption in the .LA extension in advance of wider publicity and relaunch in 2015. Los Angeles is unlike any city in the world and a .LA domain allows a company to market to the tastes and styles found in Los Angeles." 

Howe said plans are also in the works for a "Rancho" Founders Program to help websites, companies and causes/initiatives with additional advertising and promotion across the .LA network, adding "Opportunities also exist to acquire discounted premium names in exchange for joint promotion and publicity."