Is owning the .com, .net, .info, ect. necessary?

Overkill?

[twist]

I currently own a .com and was wondering if I should snag up the .net and .org at the least. If I do snag them up, what should I do with them?

If I redirect them to the .com will I get punished by the search engines for having multiple sites pointing to only one or do the search engines accept this as normal business? Should I just leave them empty or is that also a bad idea?

[Corey Bryant]

A lot of companies are doing this to protect their trademark. It all depends on how big you are going to get :)

-Corey

[mcavic]

If you use a 301 redirect, there won't be any penalty. If you use a 302 redirect (the default in most cases) it'll probably still be fine.

Owning all of them doesn't hurt. If the cost is trivial to you, I'd go ahead and do it.

[maximillianos]

Agreed. I started a site about 5 years ago. Didn't buy the .org and .net version. My site grew over the years and someone else snagged my .net name.

If the cost is an issue, I would take at least the big two (.net and .org).

Good luck with your site.

[twist]

Thanks everybody, sounds like that is what I'll be doing.

[gpmgroup]

Its a lot cheaper to register them than trying to wrest them back after somebody else has.

[cooldoug]

Yes, that would be the best thing to do. It doesnt cost that much either.

[edited by: tedster at 12:35 am (utc) on Mar. 9, 2005]

[VegasRook]

With domains being $7 or less now, it is wise to just buy the extensions.

Of course, doing an actual trademark application will help if someone uses your name without permission.

The main problem becomes and industry one. A trademark can be extremely costly since you need to pay for EACH sector you want the trademark to apply in.

For example: You open up a general store and trademark "Widget Town" for that purpose only. Some other guy starts up a comic book series called "Widget Town". He buys the .net or whatever. Do you have a valid claim? No. You registered no claim to the name in the sector he is operating. You can always spend money and try the case in court but defeat will be the most likely result.

If you do a search on some big names like Federal Express, Wal-Mart, and so forth, you will see how they spent lots of money to trademark their names in just about every possible category.