If you clicked on this domain by mistake

This shouldn't be allowed to happen. You might have been tricked into clicking this, assuming that the .zip in the URL was a filename. This is, of course, how it's been for decades. .zip isn't a valid part of a domain name! Except that Google has changed that.

What's the issue?

There are two main issues with the addition of the .zip and .mov TLDs. The first is very simple: Plain old phishing, where the owner of the URL specifically attempts to fool you into clicking on it. Examples can be as simple as this URL (financialstatement.zip) but can become incredibly complex thanks to various features that are built into all web browsers. Unicode support in particular, along side tricks like passing in a username that looks like a full URL, can make this hard to spot for even trained professionals on first glance.

Pop quiz, which of these are valid URLs? You might be able to tell, but your CEO might not.

The secondary issue with this, however, is probably not going to be felt immediately. Lots of common software will try and take URLs you type and format it to being a full-blown link for ease of use. Everyone knows that when you type google.com, you probably mean google.com. The downside of this now is there is a very common set of filenames that, when typed, might be converted by software into an actually functioning link to an externally controlled website.

On the design mistake of the .zip and .mov TLD

Throughout the 2010s, Google has easily been one of the most insidiously corrupting forces on the internet, rivaled by none. Its takeover of the modern web through utter domination of the search engine market, chokehold over web standards, and near complete monopolization of web browsers has rendered much of the world beholden to it.

As of May 3rd, Google has also decided to add a whole new dimension to the layers of evil and/or incompetence. You can now purchase .zip and .mov domain names, like the one this page resides on! Isn't that just fun for the entire family? And by entire family, I mainly mean poor ol' grandma, because in what universe will people less versed in this news expect for a link ending in .mov to actually take them to a website? There is nearly no way for the average person to learn this, outside of finding out the hard way.

As it stands, this is certainly not one of the most egregious things Google has done as of yet, but it is telling of just how bad we as a society have allowed things to get. The people who care are asleep at the wheel at best, some aren't with us anymore, and ICANN has failed all of us by allowing this to happen. For decades engineers have been working hard to try and make the internet less susceptible to phishing attacks, look-alike domains, etc., and now money men have decided to unravel that work so somebody can purchase anyword.zip as a domain name.

There is only one correct solution to this. It's to completely remove any and all of these egregious filename extension TLDs with no questions asked, and punish the people who pushed for this. I'll only consider this problem solved whenever this domain becomes completely unreachable and non-usable.

Shame on @google, and if they had any trace remembrance of the idea of shame before profit, they would stop registering new .zip domains. I may sound like a ghoul but maybe you do not understand the fundamental undermining this seemingly simple incursion has on user expectation. - @SwiftOnSecurity