Which is worth more, singular or plural domain name?

[jleane]

So its safe to say that someone who owns either of these domains would be in pretty good shape, but hypothetically what would be worth more, assuming the sites were identical in every other way (traffic, back links etc.)?

NB '<snip>' was just the first thing that popped into my mind.

[edited by: engine at 12:47 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2005]
[edit reason] specifics [/edit]

[steve_o]

I assume 'plural' since person onsite would be looking for 'plural'. Also this would be typed on search engines. Just my opinion....

steve.

[edited by: engine at 12:50 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2005]
[edit reason] specifics [/edit]

[snsh]

if selling plural, then "plural"
if branding an unrelated product/service, then "singular"

[edited by: engine at 12:49 pm (utc) on Jan. 13, 2005]

[HughMungus]

If you're just asking for opinions, as someone who has labored over choosing a domain name for a web service, the plural is usually better than the singular. Like someone else said, if it's a single product, use the singular. If not, use the plural.

[Dorian]

Speaking from painful first-hand experience, buy both but trade as the plural. People almost always pluralise company names irrespective of how they are in reality.

[snsh]

[clarification to workaround editing]
if selling a product named 'example' then plural
if branding (such as 'Example Software Corp') then example.com singular

[maximillianos]

I agree with the "buy both" advice. IF you can afford to. I started my site about 5 years ago. I bought two domains that represented the two variations of spelling for the pronounciation of my domain. Looking back over the years, my logs are filled with visitors who type in both variations to get to my site. I would have probably lost 30% of my traffic if I hadn't made that small investment in the other domain.

I would think a similiar rule applies here. With word of mouth, sometimes the plural can get lost. Folks may type in either and if you don't own both, you may end up losing customers to a competitor that snaps up your singular (assuming that down the road you build a successful site, which we hope you do!)

Good luck!