The Real Problem with .biz & co.

Take the TLD readyness test yourself!

[vincevincevince]

Instructions:
Read the following list, remember it, close your eyes and then type the domain names as fast as possible. (If you can't touch type, then type them without looking at the screen.) Note carefully those which cause you difficulty.

www.webmasterworld.biz
www.google.info
www.yahoo.biz

[vite_rts]

they were all good, thanks :-)

[ccDan]

No problem here.

I'm sure your test seemed like a good idea at the time. Kind of like asking O.J. to try on the glove, eh?

[pageoneresults]

www.google.info

The above is a natural fit for the

QWERTY

keyboard. The others require a little more thinking.

Either way, those TLD's don't seem to appear much in the SERPs. ;)

[vincevincevince]

Interesting... perhaps domainers are immune. A test at the office yielded mistyped parts of the .com ending for Google, in particular, i.e. www.google.cibz and even one www.google.combiz.

Nobody here reporting the same? Personally I have the greatest trouble typing webmasterworld with another TLD

[jtara]

Actually, they all work quite well on a QWERTY keyboard.
Why, even .com. All alternate hands and rows.

Now, what was your point?

[mikeyb]

Interesting... perhaps domainers are immune. A test at the office yielded mistyped parts of the .com ending for Google, in particular, i.e. www.google.cibz and even one www.google.combiz.

Nobody here reporting the same? Personally I have the greatest trouble typing webmasterworld with another TLD

I would say you are finding these results as they are existing well established domains.

If it had always been www.google.info from day 1, no one would think about trying to type google.com.
It's only because people know it's google.com that they automatically type .com

Same with webmasterworld. If it had always been webmasterworld.biz that is what you would type, as you know it's that

[stu2]

I even have problem typing in wemasterworld without any extension :)

[gpmgroup]

I think a major corporate is shortly planning mass lessons for consumers by having them regularly typing .info :)

[ccDan]

If it had always been webmasterworld.biz that is what you would type, as you know it's that

Good point. The only domains I have problems with are the ones where I don't remember the extension (though the same would apply to instances where I'm not sure of the domain!).

For example, there are a few related sites I visit from time to time that are .NET instead of .COM, and another is a .COM. One .NET has since bought the .COM of their domain, so both work. For a long time, I couldn't remember which was which. It's not that I went with .COM first, it's that I couldn't remember which to use, and frequently used .NET for the .COM and vice versa, and ended up at parked pages rather than the site I was trying to reach.

It's like driving somewhere, and you end up at 123 Any Street instead of 123 Any Drive. If you go there everyday, you know the difference and wouldn't make that mistake. If you go there infrequently, or it's your first time, you're much more likely to make that mistake.