Plural version taken, singular version available.

[PowerUp]

People usually search for <snip/edit>items that come in pairs using plurals, for example "shoes" and not a "shoe" so should I - or should I not - buy a domain/word for an item that naturally is a plural IF the only version of the domain available is the singular version?

Do singular tense domains work for naturally plural items, (shoe vs. shoes, stocking vs. stockings) especially if I'm adding "action words" to the domain - such as "ShopForWidget.tld" versus "ShopForWidgets.tld"?</edit>

[edited by: Webwork at 7:57 pm (utc) on May 23, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[davezan]

Sure they can. But you gotta let your target market know it's out there. ;)

Also, be aware the plural version may have a trademark.

[OptiRex]

This is an interesting question since I actually have a lot of plural domains that do very well which are normally known in singular!

Also, be aware the plural version may have a trademark.

Yep, two of my widget names are trademarked and they protect them fiercely.

[walkman]

depends on how generic the "widget" is. If it's something buyshoes.com...wish then good luck in enforcing the trademark ;)

[OptiRex]

depends on how generic the "widget" is. If it's something buyshoes.com...wish then good luck in enforcing the trademark ;)

Actually is it akin to shoe.com and shoes.com not buyshoe.com or buyshoes.com.

One is a US international clothing company which has trademarked a clothing range like shoes.com and the other is a UK international bank which has taken another plural noun like trainers.com.

I was unsuccessful with my applications for these names for .biz, .info and recently .eu because of their trademarks even though the nouns have absolutely nothing to do with their business.

It would be like me setting-up a business with a trademark like Dollar or sweatshirt!

The strange thing is that I managed to register several trade widget nouns in .biz, .info and .eu including for example, stilettoes, boots, sneakers, brogues, sandals, clogs etc as a complete matching set.

The other two noun names I simply bought as ishoes.biz etc.

[Eltiti]

even though the nouns have absolutely nothing to do with their business

If I'm not mistaken (but I am not a lawyer), that's why they were able to register the TM in the first place: "Socks" would be an acceptable trademark for, say, a soft drink --but not for a garment!

So people went ahead and registered "sex" as a TM for (something completely unrelated), just so that they could claim "sex.eu"...