At Freesource we are always doing interesting work with and for our clients. Recently, the subject of domain name endings (aka Root zones or Top Level Domains) has been flying around.
The question at hand is this: In 2011, how important is the .COM ending? If you are building a brand today, and think 3-4 years out, how important will .COM be then?
Most people would quickly say that it “depends” on a number of factors. In this case we are not talking about established, major brand names. Here we are looking at start-ups, companies that are starting today and might not have major recognition for several years.
Sure, SEO may be affected (could be good or bad) but in the case we are looking at here, Search Engine Optimization is not going to be what sells their product.
What about SPAM or firewall rejections? If your company has a .LY ending for email address, are your emails less likely to go through?
One interesting thing that we have noticed is that even seasoned tech veterans don’t actually understand the origins or implications of roots like .CO or .ME – in a recent conversation with a high tech luminary, I was told that .CO stands for “company” and .ME is a vanity ending to promote your own “personal brand”.
Actually, .CO is for Colombia and .ME is for Montenegro. And that begs the question – does their origin even matter? Especially if people start to think that .CO is short for “company” and, BTW (by the way) The Republic of Columbia has partnered with VeriSign to promote that domain name as an alternative to .COM.
What experience or advice can you share? Thanks!
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Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!