Now, when using search engines, and the internet in general, I always take note of the destination URL, but I know scores of people who -- as only pseudo-computer literate -- simply ignore the URL, in favour of the link text, or title, or whatever else. Nevertheless, they're all far more likely to type .com after a word than they are anything else.
Are the other TLDs, .biz, .info, .org, .net et al actually worth investing in? I've recently been pondering the purchase of a .info, but have held off because there's the looming question in my mind that people may not click it in search results because its not their traditional .com familiarity. Just how much of an effect do you feel the suffix has on user's desire to click, or visit, or whatever?
I don't really expect anyone to throw up some actual statistics or solid evidence, but general feelings or re-assurances are welcome :p
joe public doesn't know .biz is a domain... you want to lose all the typeins to mydomain.biz.com?
I own the .com for a resort area. The tourist bureau owns the .org. Luckily for them, we cooperate and therefore limit the damage, but their own staff and site developers type in "com" or give out my url in error over the phone. I've even had a few very pricey online ads mis-typed and pointed to my domain over the years.
That said, the url in a serp probably has less psychological effect if it reads authoritatively, as in the example above --but it's STILL exponentially less valuable than the .com when it comes to $-value.
my-family.us = about us, the people in my family
vincevincevince.me = about me, vincevincevince
now if they were to launch .usa, that would probably be massively successful
I have around 50 town and region names (free, since I administer the 4th level .ci or .co under them). They're worth what I paid for them.
IMO no, not unless, as RC said, it's a last resort and reads well.
I tend to look at tld's aswell. .orgs hold great power when searching for medical/factual/hobby stuff or opensource stuff (you get the point) and .com's have more sway if I want to get my CC out....
Nick
saying that even for something like S*X.info I would NOT pay $10,000
give me .co.uk any day of the week :)
Shak
Not to mention the value of a pure info site in dmoz/Y! that linked to your commercial .com
Nick
*trundles off to find a nice .com*
I don't really expect anyone to throw up some actual statistics or solid evidence, but general feelings or re-assurances are welcome
Funny you should say that. :) I spent most of this afternoon working on programs to compute the number of .com and .net domains hosted by Irish ISPs for some pages on my main website. The figures show that .net is definitely way down on the choice list. The .org figures were even further down. I think that the last time I checked Irish owned .infos, only 129 were hosted on Irish ISPs. (This is a work in progress and I have not included Irish owned domains hosted on hosting companies yet.)
Regards...jmcc
I used to waste a lot of extra money getting the matching .net & .org to go with each domain. Then the new ones came out (info, biz, etc) and I said the heck with all of them - except the .COMs.
IE defaults to .com when you use the <Ctrl><Enter> shortcut key (for those that don't use it, it automatically adds the "http://www and .com" around whatever domain you enter in the address line).
Once in awhile there will be somebody that grabs a .net to one of my .com domains, and I just watch everybody come to me instead. Usually, they end up trying to sell me the .net within a year - which I politely refuse...
i'll note however that .com for a site which is an info resource/organisation/society/charity etc LOOKS really odd
Right. But only if you are aware what .com was intended for. This would make you infer logically, e.g. from the U.S. Navy using navy.com for recruiting purposes that the U.S. Navy was a commercial enterprise.
whitelies.tv
You a Hoosier? (I'm a transplant.)
