I know .CO has done a great job of branding itself as something other than a country code, along the lines of .Me.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Brilliant effective marketing.
But I couldn’t help but notice that the major registrars promoting .CO domains don’t even mention that .Co is a ccTLD, or more precisely the country code for Colombia.
Here is what Godaddy.com, has to say about .CO:
“Co Is the first truly global, recognizable domain to come along in years”
“Understood around the world as an abbreviation for “Company,” “Corporation” and “Commerce”, .CO is easy to recognize, simple to remember and flexible to use. It offers international recognition in a fresh landscape where you can still choose the name you want, not just settle for what’s available.””
“.CO is meaningful, memorable and intuitive for people around the world”
| “ |
|
Ok no problem with any of that but nowhere on Godaddy.com page promoting .CO do I see any mention of what .CO truly is which is a country code for Colombia.
Domainers are quite familiar with Domains, TLD’s, ccTLD’s but the general public, well they are pretty much completely ignorant on these matters.
I think some mention of what the domain extension actually is should be disclosed to the non-domainers who might be acquiring these domains.
I can see where a end user would register a .Co domain not knowing what is represented and down the line be upset he didn’t get that very basic information told to him.
I think its a legal problem waiting in the wings.
Network Solutions.com page on .CO domains likewise doesn’t say a word about .CO begin a country code:
“”It’s the beginning of the .CO era!
::Find the domain name you’re looking for when you use the newest domain extension. With a .CO domain name you will have more choices in branding your online presence with a truly global, recognizable and credible option for a Web address.
“”With a .CO, the possibilities are endless and new opportunities arise. Associated with the words “COmpany,” “COrporation” and “COmmerce,” it’s the perfect platform for today’s socially networked individuals and entrepreneurs to create .COmmunities, share .COntent, and to .COnnect, .COmmunicate and .COllaborate online.
What will you create with your .CO?
The Key Benefits of .CO
- .CO is a truly global, recognizable and credible domain.
- .CO gives businesses and brands the chance to create a worldwide footprint.
- .CO is relevant to individuals, businesses and organizations.
- .CO is meaningful, memorable and intuitive to use for people around the world.
- .CO appeals to today’s socially-networked individuals and entrepreneurs.””
I agree… the promotion of .CO is quite deceptive.
Frankly speaking, is it that important that .co means Colombia. I am ever more surprise when you mention that most domainers do not understand about TLDs and what they mean. Wow??!!
Completely agreed! As well, people should be aware that .ly is the ccTLD for Libya!
mp/m
Why ruin such a great “$moke and mirror$” publicity campaign/launch/story with the truth ?
At the end of the day “End Users” will have the last word, as it has with all the other extensions including much better positioned ones .
.mobi who? .info who? .tv who? etc etc
I give it about 18 months to 2 years for the irrational hoopla to last or till the next “big Thing” (extension gtls or c.c ..whatever)…
Nothing kills an extension’chances for long term success/survival faster… than “the best domains/keywords” falling in the hands of short time *speculators” worse even if they are foreigners to the c.c.
(*of the non-developer kind)
Hats-off to the promoters, fantastic Marketing campaign.(non-sarcastically)
they just want to make money.
as early as possile 😉 because they cant make money next year 😀
Exactly,
Investing in a countries domain extension when that country has a government that is barely 10 years old with “guerillas” in the mountains plotting to overthrow? What will people do if the “new” Columbian government decides to change the rules and only let Columbian citizens own the .co extension??? I would walk carefully in the .co space.
Registrar’s that neglect to mention the extension is Columbian are asking for trouble. Many .cm’s were dumped because of problems dealing with these countries registries. Try and change the nameservers on your existing .cm’s; I’m still waiting….. Buyer beware.
Best. Vive la Revolution!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100722/wl_afp/colombiavenezuelaunrestdiplomacypolitics
I am not sure where the actual source for the google comments are coming from, but i have read that google will recognize .co for international use, much the same as .tv and .me
here is a link to the article http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/359704/google-approves-co-domain-for-international-use
Agree with chandan, the registry and the speculators need to make money as soon as possible before this extension takes it’s rightful place on the scrap heap of domain extensions.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but everybody knows this is the truth.
Just another NOT .com
Show me ten developed .co sites and maybe I’ll have a different opinion.
Show me one that shows up in a top ten search result too and I’ll be impressed.
.co is an international enterprise and i don’t think it matters that .co stands for Colombia. Are you insinuating that there is something wrong with Colombia that it “needs” to be mentioned. That’s a pretty rough suggestion.
When I buy a .com, why am I not told what it stands for? There is no “this means commercial” tag with its advertising. .co has been marketed for global acceptance such as .com, .org, .net etc. If you are still making dark associations with Colombia and that’s why you “need” to be told it’s “Colombia”, please don’t. This is not Libya or a country without economic viability. This is a wonderful fantastic country that has 50 mil. people and a proud culture. .co is a business, and this has been a great collaborative effort between Colombia and the US.
Does .co have any restrictions?
In order to register a .ca domain you have to have a physical address in Canada or they will take the domain away from you.
Maybe that’s not the case with .co but I’m not sure I want to have to worry about what Colombia might to.
How about .cn domain for China. Didn’t China impose some retroactive restrictions or start limiting registrations to China based registrants?
I would think the .co registry should be legally obligated to let it be known that .co is JUST a country code… same for .cm, .tv, .me etc.
Also, search engines may treat them as country specific meaning that no matter how much you develop the domain you won’t show up in Google.
I give .co about three months to play out so as long as speculators get in and out (just like .mobi and .me) they might make money otherwise they have expensive dogs in their portfolio.
I speculated in .mobi, made money then let the rest drop. Probably the same scenario with .co
Speaking of .me, anyone paying big bucks for .me any more? Nope. That was quick.
@Em John
LOL That’s a mighty strong endorsement of dotCo. Care to step from behind the curtain? 🙂
“I agree… the promotion of .CO is quite deceptive.”
Or just smart
Would it benefit the .co marketing machine or the registrars to mention to the general public that it is the country code for Columbia?
I very much doubt it, if anything it would dilute their chances of squeezing big bucks out of it.
David:
Not really an endorsement but perhaps more of a defense to counterbalance the offense. Sometimes “The Ugly Protectionist” needs to be reigned in a bit.
I believe it is important to watch the general public’s usage and accapetance of dotCo (and I’m not talking about domainers or those companies directly approached by dotCo). DotCo has three things going in it’s favor that many of the upcoming new TLDs will not 1) A great crack team with Juan, Lori, etc, 2) Major registries promoting the daylights out of it and 3) No competition.
As I’ve written before, the general public is never as logical as we’d all like to believe. IMO, all of the current reasons to utilize dotCo will matter little to them. The public bought into dotCom because it was first and they had to. It wouldn’t have mattered what the TLD was. The ccTLDs gained traction because Nationalism and identity matters much to many people and some countries associated dotCom closely with the US during an ear it was losing popularity 2000-2008 (regardless of one’s political affiliation, I noticed this everytime I was overseas during that period).
Basically, DotCo was released in a vacuum and enjoyed many advantages the upcoming gTLDs will not. It’s the end of an era and if the general public does not begin developing it en masse (and I”m talking Mom & Pops) it spells disaster for the new gTLDs as an investment and in the aftermarket. The good news to all of this is that the days of dotCom being recognized as a genuine alternative investment (outside of the domain industry) has yet to begin.
@Em John
I agree and your passion is obvious and impressive. Why the identity cloak?
Em John , it has nothing to do with the “wonderful fantastic country” of Colombia. Country codes don’t have the same value as .com or even .net domains for many reasons, one being that many search engines only include country code domains in search lisings in their own country. So having a .com may not get the site listed in many countries including the United States. Most people will remember “.com” even when you tell them another extension. I have several domains and mostly “.com” a few “.us” and only a couple “net” “info” “org” and no other country codes. I highly recomend against using country codes unless you live in that country.
I just also accidentally also gave another reaosn why “.co” is not a good domain name. I wrote, “So having a .com may not get the site listed.” When I should have wrote “.co” this shows even when one wants to type “.co” the habit is to add the “m” and people will vist the equivalent “.com” site. Real problems for “.co”
Here’s an interesting observation:
I just did a Google search for “.co” and the Google results is showing a list of major “Company” results (maybe Google view the .co extension more in the favor of a company rather than Colombia).
I think its funny that so many domainers who dont believe in .net/.org buying .co like crazy.
If you want a great alternative to a .com I dont see any better option than .net or a relevant ccTLD
Yaron, Id actually recommend .org if natural traffic and comfort are the goal ; )
I think .net was trumped years ago in terms of use/value.
Have told you many times, when you buy dot co, you are supporting the corrupted co govt.
How much money is giving back to the people of columbia?
Em John
“”.co is an international enterprise and i don’t think it matters that .co stands for Colombia. Are you insinuating that there is something wrong with Colombia that it “needs” to be mentioned. “”
Not at all, just saying that is what in fact it is, nothing wrong with it but I do think somewhere on the page where the registrar is selling the extension it should be mentioned.
Rob
“”I would think the .co registry should be legally obligated to let it be known that .co is JUST a country code… same for .cm, .tv, .me etc.””
In this case I think it should be the obligation of the registrar that is actually selling the domain to ITS customer.
Michael, what about .TV? Most “regular” people don’t know that .TV belongs to the tuvalu islands, they just see it as a abbreviation for the word “television”.
Ask people what .com stands for and I’m pretty sure 90% don’t know that either.
I totally agree with you – it should be stated what .Co is and what it presents, but does it really matter to the end-user? Geotargeting isn’t an issue, the .Co registry is making a ton of money and the end-users are happy with their domains.
What I don’t understand is how they can market .Co as a meaningful, memorable and intuitive extension for people around the world when a lot of countries don’t have english as their primary language. Go to france, spain, italy, germany etc etc and ask people there about .Co and what it possibly means. I am pretty sure they won’t be able to tell you. .TV on the other hand, that IS what I call a globally recognized word/term!
.Co is for the columbian people, it’s good for typo-hunters or people trying to protect their .Com. It’s not what I would call a worldwide domain, but merely a “branded” product / extension that’s on a current hotstreak.
Let do a simple math here:
400k co domains registered by 100 people- you called that success?
There are billions people and all of them know dot com.
Anyway, $30USD for a co domain to register is way tooooooo expensive for the columbian family.
Somebody was mentioning getting a list of quality .co sites that rank in Google. Check out any of these:
Bimmer.co
Pappas.co
IWNY.co
Flipping.co
tmc.co
now.co
turkel.co
challenge.co
getsighted.co
angel.co
David:
One of the more accurate takes on public consumer habits. There was no other choice than .com 20 years ago. There really was no marketing campaign necessary. .co marketeters have blazed a trail and now it is up to the public to decide and that will ultimately make or break it. I believe it will come down to “like” and “dislike” more than anything and if it catches, people will be registering it by imitation. It’s funny with all the banter that goes on, domainers essentially have little control whether .co will take or not.
And yes, there is no competition for this new TLD. That will take it quite a ways while it is being pushed at every major registrar.
Mr. T
Networksolutions.com doesn’t have a big ad on the front page of its site for .tv, it does for .co which if you click it takes you to another full page of info on .co domains, but does not mention that its a country code.
Same for Godaddy.com, they have a huge ad for .co domains on the front of their site, if you click on it, it takes you to another page that talks about .co domains.
But to answer your question if they do have a full page ad for .TV domains on their site (not sure either registrar does) it should somewhere say on the page that the extension is and stands for.
So far, these 2 are ranked #1 on Yahoo for the keywords:
GetSighted.co = get sighted
IWNY.co = iwny
I can’t speak for other registrars, but this is another example of Godaddy and Bob Parsons hypocrisy.
When .TV was making GD money it was ” a globally recognised extension”,number 2 in the drop down and Bob even had his own .TV site,then when Bob wanted a piece of the premium pie and Versign told him where to go, he could not wait to point out .TV is cctld of Tuvalu,Now .co is flavour of the month, no mention of it actually being the cctld of Columbia,and again we have another “Globally recognised extension”.
In my opinion any registrar should disclose the meaning of any TLD.
People can use it how they want, but CO is the ccTLD of Colombia. Anything else is marketing.
Brad
And spare a thought for the poor people of Columbia!
They’ve been “sold out” and exploited.
Nic
@RW – not over here. GetSighted.com is #1 and so is internetweekny.com. The .Co’s are in the #2 spot 😉
@Michael – I agree. The registry is just hiding the info because they know that if most end-users knew it was the ccTLD (of Columbia) the extension probably wouldn’t reach the same popularity level.
@Mr T, thanks. Well, at least it shows that .CO names will rank at Yahoo (and Google … I saw a few indexed over on Google, but not on the first page).
.CO = Waste of Money!!
.CO= Failure
.CO = Hype
.CO = Dumb
.CO = Marketed to Domainers!
.CO = Next year DROPS will be Over 50 Percent
.CO = Typo of .DOT COMS
.CO = If you develop, people will want to keep typing .COM and lose traffic to .COM
.CO = Will Fail
.CO = NOT EFFECTIVE MARKETING
.CO = Make Money by promoting To Domainers
.CO = IS TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME IF U DEVELOP THEM!!
I chose to avoid purchasing the .co, but then bought 3 .co domains this past week because of deceptive marketing. Now I regret buying these domains. Before reading this article, I found out that the .co is the Colombian country code. If I knew that beforehand, I would have avoided the .co altogether.
It really unethical that registrars would deceive people, leaving out that the .co is in fact the Colombian country code. I refuse to buy another .co. Three is enough. It’s better to buy .com domains because everything else is too hard to move. I tried a dozen times to try and move a .net that bears a good name, but struck out every time.
If you want to make money, .com is the only way to go. Unless you have premium domain names in the other extensions, it will take a mighty effort to move anything other than .com domains.
I decided not purchase the .co, but then bought 3 .co domains this past week because of deceptive marketing. Now I regret buying these domains. Before reading this article, I found out that the .co is the Colombian country code. If I knew that beforehand, I would have avoided the .co altogether.
It’s unethical that registrars would deceive people, leaving out that the .co is in fact the Colombian country code. I refuse to buy another .co. Three is enough.
Domains should stick to buying .com domains because everything other domain is too hard to move. I tried a dozen times to try and move a .net that bears a good name, but struck out every time. The end-user always wanted the .com version.
If you want to make money, .com is the only way to go. Unless you have premium domain names in the other extensions, it will take a mighty effort to move anything other than .com domains.
Stick with the .com. Don’t follow the mass because you will lose out in the end.
Excuse my errors. Used an I-Phone to type the messages. Thanks.
GetSighted.com BTW is registered at MarkMonitor, GetSighted.co maybe a problem
NIc
“And spare a thought for the poor people of Columbia!
They’ve been “sold out” and exploited.”
How so?
Do you know what the registries deal with the Government of Colombia is, because I don’t.
Are the people of Colombia any more “exploited” than the people of the United States?
I mean when was the last time you got a check for dividends from .US domain sales
Could someone please explain to me…
how Nube .co (cloud in spanish)landed under Microsoft Corp hands…? like Manna from heaven
TIA
Fecha de Registro del Dominio Tue Jul 20 18:02:48 GMT 2010
The big ? Will .CO work Global ?
Comment by Mr.T
“Go to france, spain, italy, germany etc etc and ask people there about .Co and what it possibly means.
While there are many which (dis)like the new .Co, there is something which should recognized. There a re more than english keyword domains being registerd. Germany is jumping all over the new .Co ! This did not happen with .mobi , .me or other newcomers.
Even more important!? The registrants are not just domain speculators, because there are many longtail and hyphenated names being registerd. This clearly means that A.) There are development projects on plan B.) Google will not be able to ignore relevant content eventhough on a .CO with German language and C.) If this keeps up, Google will have to push the. CO as a Global TLD in there search.
Just a few German non type in domain examples which will clearly be developed!
Rechtsschutzversicherung.co
rechtsschutz-versicherung.co
siesuchtihn.co
sie-sucht-ihn.co
Take in consideration these domain names have all different owners! So clearly a sign of high acceptance of the new .CO .
At last take also in consideration that each domain registerd at German registrars are running 48 Euro each, at today’s exchange rate thats about $ 60 each! So there is clearly more happening then just a few speculators jumping on the new .CO
Just my two cents
lol,
registrars, made so much money on unsuccessfull attempts. hahah.
So suppose if go daddy had 10,000 unsuccessfull attempts on the during land rush perious.
10,000 x (domain attempt registrartion fee) 20 = 200,000
wowaaaaaaaa, any registrars who did the MOST UNSUCCESSFULL ATTEMPTS, MADE MORE MONEY!!!!
without losing a dime, they made money, what a way to make money lol.
Think about it people. Come on!
@MHB,
“GetSighted.com BTW is registered at MarkMonitor, GetSighted.co maybe a problem”
I believe both names are owned by the same company (Transitions Lenses).
Google has already stated that its SE will consider .co an international TLD
of course, all registrars should be onest and say that .co is the Colombia’s TLD, but… there is just ONE of those who register domains that doesn’t already know that???
anyhow, it’s already VERY difficult to find good .co domains… e.g. I’ve just tried (ONLY for curiosity) the availability of two italian words: ami.co and miti.co …but both results already taken
.US domains have done nothing for me. I own some good .us names, but they have failed to garnish any attention.
.com and .info are the only extensions that produced any sales. The $29.99 price tag on the .co is far too much. .com is still the best.
The good .co domains were reserved ahead of time. That gave many companies an opportunity to grab their product names.
Some domainers were able to beat companies to the punch. It appears that loans.co was registered by a domain investor who parked it at Sedo. Loans.com is owned by Bank of America.
It really depends on the market. Some names joined with .co lack market appeal. I found a few .co names that weren’t registered by the .com owners. Two are tourist places, and one is my hometown city.
Agreed with this post, it’s misrepresentation.
It’s also stupid – after .com comes ccTLDs. The internet is going LOCAL.
What’s with the jokester TLDs? US domainers that would buy into .me, .wtf etc and then slag .US instead of harvesting that space. Hilariously short-sighted.
I dont make the rules (it cost me a lot of money trying to change them – believe me) – I just follow the rules set forth by the courts…
To much ACPA case law and UDRP panels (in their own indirect genius way) have implied the .com the only one on the shelf – so where the negative hype about it being a ccTLD for Columbia just adds more temporary credibility (free advertising) – it is just set up for a harder crash than the rest – like .cc.
@Duane – You make some valid points that need to be taken into consideration.
“Germany is jumping all over the new .Co ! This did not happen with .mobi , .me or other newcomers.”
@Duane – I haven’t been to Germany in the last year or so and correct me if I’m wrong, but .de is by far the most popular domain extension there, and .com being a weak weak 2nd choice. How are end-users or companies going to promote the .Co when a lot of german people never touched a .com? I only see more confusion between .com and .co typos or vice versa.
“The registrants are not just domain speculators, because there are many longtail and hyphenated names being registerd. This clearly means that A.) There are development projects on plan B.) Google will not be able to ignore relevant content eventhough on a .CO with German language and C.) If this keeps up, Google will have to push the. CO as a Global TLD in there search.”
@Duane – That’s all good and I hope you’re right BUT just because some people buy long, hyphenated .CO domains it’s not a given that they’re going to be developed. A lot of speculators pick up high volume search keywords (similar to the ones you used in your examples), park the domains and play the sit&wait game. If they make $$$ they’re a keeper, if they don’t they’ll be dropped in a year from now.
Google already allows .Co domains to be geotargeted, that’s probably as far as it will ever go.
“Take in consideration these domain names have all different owners! So clearly a sign of high acceptance of the new .CO .”
@Duane – Like I said earlier, taken into consideration that your examples are very popular keywords in germany, I can’t help but think that someone bought these to speculate on typos or earn some quick cash on the flip. I could be wrong but I have a very odd dejavu feeling about this.
@Duane – If you look at the whois of RechtsschutzVersicherung.co you’ll find that the owner is “Michael Schmid” who happens to be associated with 963 other domains. It could be a long term investment, but I’m thinking he has other plans.
“At last take also in consideration that each domain registerd at German registrars are running 48 Euro each, at today’s exchange rate thats about $ 60 each!”
@Duane – Price is not an issue for bigtime domainers or big companies. $60 is pocket change but it makes me wonder why they pay $60 when they can get the same domain for $28 at name.com etc etc.
I don’t want to burst your bubble and I hope you’re right but I have a hard time seeing the end of the light in the .Co tunnel based on your arguments.
Really good post, i’m amazed at all the excitement around all these ‘new’ codes that come out like .co and .me. I’m even slightly dubious about .eu…
I don’t think divulging .co as the official cctld of Colombia is particularly a necessity. The domain has been rebranded & marketed like .tv and .me to mean something else. If the extension was somehow in jeopardy of being taken away by Colombia, then whatever risk of that which existed would need to be divulged.
Mr. T,
Having lived in Germany for 5 years, I can tell you there are A LOT of smart investors there, internationally savve, and if they picked up a lot of .co’s it means they invested for an international venture or to find buyers outside of Germany in general. .co is an international commodity, much like .com has been. If the German businesses invested, I’m sure they invested wisely, in most cases.
Who in here will develop a .co premium keyword in english ?
actually who in the entire planet?
and then advertise the site in Old Media…
What company/corporation would be stupid enough to do that?
and then advertise the site in Old Media…
del.icio .us anyone?
***********
As far as “Google” treating it as a tld…
aaaandddd?
How does that has helped .tv ?
*************
“.CO is meaningful, memorable and intuitive for people around the world”
“ .CO is relevant to individuals, businesses, and organizations
.CO gives businesses and brands the chance to create a worldwide footprint
.CO appeals to today’s socially-networked individuals and entrepreneurs
With industry-leading technology, enhanced security and unprecedented rights protection mechanisms – .CO is poised to become the world’s next premier web address”
Did you mean .COM?
The new 20 year old ‘ standard for all of the above.
Pleeeease.
GD and BP would do/say anything in the name of a dollar.
Max
You nailed the issue on the head.
The problem is that IF as you say:
“The extension was somehow in jeopardy of being taken away by Colombia, then whatever risk of that which existed would need to be divulged”
No Then its too late.
That’s when the lawsuits start to fly.
Because they didn’t disclose it ahead of time.
Why do you think the drug companies spend 30 seconds of a 60 second TV commercial telling you ever possible side effect of their drug, because they are being nice?
No Its because they are covering their ass.
You take Viagra and get an erection that doesn’t go down until you go to the hospital to get a shot to take the blood flow away, you can’t sue them, they told you it could happen.
So your point is you can’t disclose after the problem you have to disclose before the problem.
Of course there will probably never be such a problem with .CO but that should be every customer choice to assess.
The fact that Colombia is running .CO registry could become relevant. I think with a country with their track record, a valid question could be raised regarding their ability to run the registry in a fair and honest manner.
More than likely nothing will happen, but companies that don’t disclose this information ahead of time could be helped liable if something does happen.
Brad
Brad,
What kind of track record are we talking about here? You make it sound like Colombia is a country that is different than others. I would such that we all pull our own weeds first.
I think all extensions, no exceptions, should have to reveal their extension. Or none. It’s problematic to handpick domain extension origins to be revealed based on suspicion.
Em John,
Are you serious? The history of corruption in Colombia is legendary. I don’t think it is a coincidence they are intentionally leaving out the fact that it is the official ccTLD of Colombia in all advertising.
Even if you go to the official sites any actual references to Colombia are very rare.
People should be able to understand what they are actually buying. Then let the chips fall where they may.
Brad
Funny, how many people get things wrong. Real Estate turned out to be a failure for 95% of investors and some made billions on it. Very few sharp ones made money both ways. On the way up and down.
The fact people post here one way or the other makes this TLD a success without a doubt. It will probably never be as big as .COM, but it will put downward pressure on all existing domains. Actually every new .something will bring prices down. Pure free market and positive for internet. Cheaper prices mean more internet.
.COM is also a ccTLD as it falls under US Jurisdiction no different than .CO at all (legally). Both can be turned off by a single country. The difference lies in the way both nations treated private property historically. US (no matter how strong the socialistic forces are) has a very good record in this regard believe it or not. That is a big plus for .COM, but I do not think it’s an issues as countries are not stupid. They follow the money and mostly make rational decisions (China does not apply here as their record was/is/will be damaged when it comes to private ownership. Ask Margaret Thatcher.
I personally prefer .co over .com and they made a mistake, by not going with .co in the beginning and making it global.
So to sum it all up and answer your question. No, the registrars should not mention that .Co is the country code for Colombia as there is no legal obligation at all. Following this path one would have to mention .COM is US and US related risk applies. No one forces anyone to buy .CO domains.
You people need to realize you are not sheep and you have your own brain. No need for regulations/warnings and etc.
@NotSocialist
”
I personally prefer .co over .com and they made a mistake, by not going with .co in the beginning and making it global.
”
Most loses in this world come from trying to change the rules – so someone can find or create their niche – rather than simply playing by them and making even more dough.
Good God Friend – sorry
“Are you serious? The history of corruption in Colombia is legendary. I don’t think it is a coincidence they are intentionally leaving out the fact that it is the official ccTLD of Colombia in all advertising.”
True, Colombia is pretty much world famous for 3 other words starting in Co:
1) Cocaine
2) Coffee
3) Corruption
I can’t see .co making number 4 on the list anytime soon never mind number 1
How stable will .co be if they go to war ?
25 July 2010 – Venezuela head threatens US oil cut over Colombia row
Mr Chavez said he had received intelligence that “the possibility of armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombia was higher than it had ever been”.
“If there was any attack on Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the US, even if we have to eat stones,” he said.
“We would not send one more drop to US refineries.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10757064
.
So when reserving a “.co” – indirectly you are supporting a country that is involved in Cocaine, the Coffee they pack the Cocaine in and Corruption.
Does this mean Overstock promotes all this – wow that is bad press for the “O.co” bill of goods they were sold – I do not knowif I want to buy them anymore.
Setting all this asside. Can’t they just come up with another “.co” that is not from Columbia – oops i mean another replacement for “.com” that is not from Columbia – you know what I mean – the next non.com that will replace the current “.com” – I mean “.co” – I mean.. I mean… I mean
Brad,
Have you ever met Colombian people or done business with them? I have and so I don’t know what you are talking about in terms of .co and the company behind it. What sweeping generalizations people make! So what you are basing your opinion on is a small fraction of this country. Are you saying that there is no legitimate business in Colombia? Give me a break. How about search your own country for incidences of corruption.? You might find “just” a few. Hah! It’s easy to pick on something when it’s from your computer desk. Let me know what your own direct experience is.
Em John,
All I said is the history of corruption in Colombia is legendary. It is true. If you are going to try to dispute that be my guest.
Otherwise you can quit trying to put words in my mouth.
Brad
Brad,
I think its quite clear when someone says something is “legendary”. No need to put words in the mouth. I think every country has their “legendary” dark shadows of business. Is your country exempt? Still, what is your own experience with Colombia? Sweeping generalizations are always really myopic, in any case.
What I don’t get about domainers is: if the domain is so valuable, why not post a couple paragraphs of original content on it? Any domain extension can make it onto Google, if it actually contains some original content, not copy and paste from Wikipedia.
If you type it:
Justin ==> Justin.tv is no. 1
GuruBob ==> GuruBob.co is no. 3.
acronym ==> Acronym.de is no. 5.
Ed Dale ==> EdDale.co is no. 11.
Noone has to regret owning .co ==> just create meaningful content on the ones you deem valuable, and it will take its place on Google!
GuruBob.co & EdDale.co are both wordpress blogs in English, so that says something positive that .co is indexed in Google for English keywords!
What if Colombia has changed the rules of .CO in future ?
I think ccTLD should not be internationalized , because these TLDs
a very good way to know the address of a companies . CCTLDs also
are good for international companies to ” localize ” there business
for example msn.co should be for MSN in Colombia .
.co is not run by Colombians. It’s run by Neustar.
This sort of thing is nothing new, i.e. entrepreneurs capitalising on cctlds of countries where the inet is less a focus than in entrepreneur’s own country.
What seems different here, perhaps, is that the “entrepreneur” is more organised (not simply one or a few enterprising individuals as has been the case in the past) and has more capital reserves. As such, they (Neustar) have made substantial effort to minimise potential liabilities. Interestingly, a well-known consulting firm is now getting a piece of the domainer pie. See the .co PR documents for details.
I imagine those persons who persist in opposing the actions of “domainers” might in time feel foolish, as the revenues continue to shift toward larger, more public-facing enterprises. Perhaps some day their own employer will have a department or at least a budget item solely devoted to “domains”. “Domaining”, as we see now, will perhaps hold a different meaning when that day comes.
.co is probably not worth much if not for “domainers”. The demand is simply not high enough among other businesses. “Domainers” are, effectively, the target consumer, even though this will never be publicly stated.
To those who oppose the concept of “domaining”: Keep wishing for “content”. Meanwhile you might try reading books and academic journals. There is enough “content”, now coneviently available without a trip to the library stacks, to last *lifetime*.
🙂
I know this is a bit off topic but it still concerns the .co domain.
Here are some old past sales of .co domains (mostly from SEDO and Afternic)
I think when the new numbers start rolling in, we may see a trend upward due to the fact that Google will be treating this extension as a Global TLD and not just a ccTLD as it was treated when these sales where made.
Information was found at Namebio.com
Domain cash
O.CO 350000
flighttech.co 4819
Mortgage-Index.co 2446
BusinessAccounts.co 1956
studentjob.co 6560
TotalMobile.co 4922
EmploymentLaw.co 3167
weddingdesign.co 1000
Bodog.co 2000
ReservationRewards.co 3262
casinoguide.co 2328
Gates.co 16597
WebLoyalty.co 3418
Husbandry.co 1953
aberdeendating.co 200
marysbridal.co 120
topweddingsites.co 200
connectingsingles.co 160
modernrugs.co 6411
DBP.co 4618
GoDirect.co 2100
Mob.co 9187
And.co 9305
Pilates.co 11913
Apartmentfinder.co 4632
MobileMovies.co 1881
iFlorist.co 4718
WarnerBreak.co 3000
Holt.co 4435
Couture.co 6510
Cheap-Laptops.co 2046
Zumex.co 8835
TheCube.co 40919
Relay.co 8370
Theater.co 10000
Hairsprays.co 3819
CheaperCarInsurance.co 2468
Teletexholidays.co 7900
TrueLocal.co 14254
FreeMusicDownloads.co 5345
BetterDeals.co 2673
Forums.co 8908
WorkoutWorld.co 4187
FastImpressions.co 3150
Simple-Savings.co 2628
DebtIndex.co 2365
Tilers.co 4380
TheOneStopPhoneShop.co 1708
BibleStudy.co 9074
Performance.co 8016
Duck.co 10455
History.co 21667
Hardware.co 2188
Hollywood.co 17438
SciFi.co 2445
TeachersPension.co 4000
Archos.co 10000
Why.co 5268
BeHappy.co 9250
Study.co 7902
Educare.co 6985
Monday.co 7989
BOTW.co 1250
Connected.co 3500
Knives.co 3507
CheapBooks.co 3498
Prayer.co 7540
WeatherShop.co 8768
Lyrics.co 80000
ClaimSolicitor.co 2987
Bid4it.co 5231
HomeSell.co 16130
ecCoupons.co 11334
EnergyWatch.co 20000
PokerGenie.co 8725
TravelRes.co 8725
RightCover.co 3482
PornWorld.co 3000
ForSale.co 14692
4Ads.co 2750
Pretty.co 6250
Candles.co 2655
Motoring.co 11504
Grape.co 4246
eGay.co 12130
UKSearch.co 2695
Bernstein.co 4750
GDP.co 610
qui.co 400
spiritualawakening.co 100
good4you.co 360
Camping4You.co 195
.
.
anyhow, the number of the, already sold, .co domains seems be around 300,000 for a total registrars earning around $10 million… that’s $6 million LESS the selling price of the insure.com domain alone… 😐
.
.
In that 10MM figure, are we accouting for the registrars’ own auctions, i.e. landrush sales where two or more parties wanted the same domain name?
I can’t believe how many trademarked .co names are for sale in the gdy auction…for extraordinary prices.
Christopher,
Check out eBay if you want to see even more. I wonder what % of those 300K+ regs are just straight up squatting domains.
Brad
@BreakingNewsBlog.us
I am just wondering why you would be giving an extension that is less then 7 days old (7 days being sold to the general public that is) such a hard time. Its a Raw extension. Only around 300,000 domains registered and still has a LOT more room to grow as compared to the over 80 million (from what I read) .com registered extensions.
Plus if you consider the fact that around 2,000 .co domains have been withheld from the open market in order to sell at auction on a later date to continue to generate buzz about the extension.
I am not saying that .co is going to be huge, just give it a month to form a direction before we start to compare its shortcomings to that of the internet giant .com. After all, .com does have a 20+year head start on this newly released extension.
Just my food for thought.
@Brad
I would hazard to guess that its about the same as all the other extensions (% wise). If you consider that all the same squatting names are registered in all the different extensions. That means it has to be the same %.
If you look at one for .co, you will also see that its taken in .net, .org, .co.uk, .co.in, .cc, etc. Most to all of them are probably squatters. Even some .com squatters.
Just food for thought.
Many of those namebio.com prices that Slate quoted above, which I’m assuming are sales, are staggering amounts to pay.
Someone in another thread on a forum mentioned that most of those .CO sales on NameBio are actually typos of .COM, which would make sense because if you look at the whois many of those regs do not even exist in .CO and the ones that do mainly have 2010 creation dates.
All the .CO sales on there are from 2006. There is 1 sale between 2006 and O.co in 2010.
Brad
Cheers Brad, thanks for the clarification.
If you are a new company and looking for a great domain for your website then .co is a great possibility. 150 million .com have been registered and the well of good domain names has dried out.
Here are my two predictions for 2015
1. Many people will not remember if .com or .co came first
2. Most new websites will use .co. .com sites will be seen as first generation
Colombia or not. Its really not the point. Its the public perception which counts
So do you mean to tell me if a domain name has been taken in .com and I pick up the same name (Not trademarked of course) in a .co, you consider that a typo?
So do you consider all the same domains that where picked up in .net, .org, .in, .co.uk, .de, ect…. typos?
Especially if you consider that MOST people never use the extension when typing in their destination website. I mean really think about it…. the average person uses some search engine (Google and the likes), types in a few key words (hence why generic key word domains go for a mint) and they are off to the top searches.
The average person will select one of the top 5 searches (they don’t care if its a .com, .net, .org, or .co), they will just blindly choose.
The only people who really seem to care about the extension are domainers. I would have thought that domainers would embrace this opportunity. Here is a chance to get keyword rich domains to develop, park, or sell to a end user but instead it seems that many would prefer to bite their nose to spite their face.
Why not just let it play out. Businesses will be the END ALL determining factor in this anyways, not the speculators or the domainers. If the businesses like it and jump on it, the it will be a success if not, it will be all those other extensions all over again.
To use yylex words:
“.co is probably not worth much if not for “domainers”. ”
So in order to join the “.co” domainer parade I decided to blow $25 on 2010-07-21 and reserve “CapitolHill.co” where I also own CapitolHill.com which easily gets 20+ non-seo organic typins a day. I have yet to get one “.co” typin.
Contrary to Christopher Hofman 2015 “book” just menioned – the fundamentals will not change.
It does not take alot of genius to realize “.co” just another useless, worthless non-brandable non.com –
yylex
.CO is run by Colombians (fully Colombian company and colombian entrepreneurs). If you are referring to the technical stuff (DNS, SRS), yes, those things are operated by Neustar.
Christopher Hofman permalink
If you are a new company and looking for a great domain for your website then .co is a great possibility. 150 million .com have been registered and the well of good domain names has dried out.
Here are my two predictions for 2015
1. Many people will not remember if .com or .co came first
2. Most new websites will use .co. .com sites will be seen as first generation
Colombia or not. Its really not the point. Its the public perception which counts
**********
The public perception is NONE , it doesn’t exist and it will remain that way.
Domainer’s are not in the business of changing well establish and cemented habits nor reinventing the wheel.
Even my grandma .com’s everything…
The owner of the .coms are salivating, waiting for any clueless company that chooses to develop and advertise a .co
I had my doubts with .mobi ..my mental lapses per se , I remember how thinking : How can it be? that some many domainers have it wrong ? wth this extension I have no doubts , water under the bridge in a few months (tops year and half)…
GD has it second because it knows showing it ready available it will increase the chances of a new registration (decent names in all other extensions are taken)…
It ‘s all about the bottom line as any business , it did it with .me “I mean they pushed that aberration for quite awhile ” so it will do to the .co till the next big thing/extension.
Lastly more imprtant of how many domains are beign registred or are sold so far and for how much …you need to look at “who is doing the registering/buying?”
@Christopher Hofman
In 2015
“1. Many people will not remember if .com or .co came first.”
Sorry, but I can’t resist. I will gladly wager $1,000 right now against that prediction. In fact, I’ll take the same bet for 2020. Deal?
I think many people are overlooking or underestimating the “shortness” factor with .co. Ultimately most people are looking to do things faster or more efficiently and this pace will only get faster. If it were available, I would get .o or .e for an extension cause its quicker, easier. I have already tested the .co dissemination theories by telling colleagues that .co extension is available. Mentioning that its `c-o`as in company has them never forgetting. Stands to reason…`co`has been around for hundreds of years.
David,
Although I wouldn`t bet (cause i`m not a betting man). I`m kinda split over your bet because I think domainers have longer memories than the general population. I`m pretty sure 95% of people don`t care about domaining history and that they only get to their intended website knowing .co or .com just as part of the address and nothing else. I would imagine if you did a sample group of 1000 people and asked which domain came first, net or .com, most would say .com only because it`s more common and the fact is they don`t know at all. Both were initiated together. You might get the same sampling in 5 years time and for the same reasons. They really don`t know and don`t care.
@Em John,
You ARE a betting man – you are betting on “.co” – and should your bet prevail – there would be 2 on the shelf (“.co” & “.com”) – and when there is 2 on the shelf – all 500+ non.com’s are on the shelf – and you have a perfect Socialist Internet – where everybody is equal – albeit miserable – I will apply Churhill’s quote below.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings (.com’s) ; the inherent virtue of socialism (.com and all non.com’s are equal) is the equal sharing of miseries. – Winston Churchill
There is no `betting` on .co. I`m an investolator. Not a speculator. I also have other extensions. No .mobi, no .me no .tel. Research and due diligence creates an investolator.
And how you analogize a Churchillian quote with domain extensions, I`ll never know but it may be wiser to look into the terms monopoly and oligopoly as they apply to .com and .co. LOL If you are saying that .co is leading us into a socialist state, I think you missed your calling as a professional hyperbolist.
@Em John:
How about this quote instead “Investolator” or did you say “Invest-debater” – obviously you are into this .co bill of goods very deep – so nothing but frustration is going to come out – as you have made very obvious with your huge genius words.
“A government (ICANN) big enough to give you everything you want (.com, .co, …) , is strong enough to take everything you have (.co – Columbian Government once everybody switches because of you and appantaly all your multi-millions of your .co colleagues) .”
– Gerald Ford – Presidential address to a joint session of Congress (12 August 1974)
Em John:
With the exception of some powerful ccTLDs in their own countries, the general public has no knowledge of anything but dotCom because they simply couldn’t care less. It’s really no more complicated than that. Personally, I hope that dotCo does well because the more money investors make in any TLD the better it is for our industry period. But to compare dotCo’s potential in any way to dotCom (which is no longer a TLD, but basically the brand for the Internet) is unrealistic – and that is the point where domainers will get burned.
David,
Which general population are we talking about…The US? I know that .com is all the general population `knows` but nothing remains in a static state. As I have a `few`.coms myself, it would be nice to say the .com will remain at such high prices but in reality, I know that is my bias. History shows, in most every sector, that the champ will be eventually knocked off, at some point. I`m not saying that is .co, but some Russian kid is in his bedroom right now creating something that will revolutionize the internet or how we do communication. So it will be interesting to see.
Brian,
Hyperbolic just means you are blowing things out of proportion.
.COM is the same as prime real estate. Homes on the beach in Malibu, condos in Manhattan will always be in demand.
As hyped up as .CO is right now there have still been more .COM regs in the last week. Even in 2010 .COM averages 2M regs per month. It is not going anywhere.
Brad
My experience is the Germans are the most dedicated (with their money) in buying the “.com” to support their “.de” national brands – a pretty good indication that even the savvy consumer in Germany recognizes the “.com” as being the brand for the Internet.
When I see the likes of amazon.com ebay.com google.com microsoft.com facebook.com cnn.com aol.com baidu.com godaddy.com snapnames.com or even thedomains.com changing their name to .co or whatever that Russian kid is brewing … I worry about.
MultiBillion/Multinational ecommerce platforms and thier Brands will go down the drain…yeah right.
Hell will freeze over fisrt.
You’re a genius. One controversial extension tied into a informative article translates into a massive traffic generator. .com wil always be the best.
Every end-user that backs put of a sale usually objects when the .com is not part of a deal. There are many .com websites that sell for thousands, bur the all the other extensions are still available.
One wise website owner and industry leader told me to only register the .com unless the names are great in other extensions. Domaining is a learning game. Persistence is key to becoming successful as a domainer. .com is the best extension, will always be number #1.
I still predict .mobi will eat .co for breakfast!
Yes .Mobi Dick will eat .co for breakfast in the middle of the bermuda triangle when all non.com’s now live
Sorry, Ijust have to jump in one more time.
@ Brianwick
“My experience is the Germans are the most dedicated (with their money)”
Absolutely right! This is why I am more than suprised that so many -GermanLanguage.co- names are being registerd! This is very unusual and this kinde of hype did not happen with other newcomer TLD’s!
“buying the “.com” to support their “.de” national brands”
Sorry but this is not the main reason! Having developed several websites in German, there is something to consider when trying to do business in Europe.
Many country’s on little space and many cctld’s! Just imagine every state in the U.S. had there .TX , .OK , .IL there would be 52 different state TLD’s eventhough all speak the saim language. This is simular with the German language, it is spoken in several country’s in Europe. So if you have to use a “Non country targeted TLD to A) get customers non confused that they can use the service offered on the website because if a Austrian recognizes .de on site, they will question if they can use the offer of a foreign country’s (.de) website. B) Considering the SEM and SEO perspective your also screwd when wanting to offer your goods in several German speaking country’s by using a .de which C) is probably why the .Co could stand a good chance of being used quite often because Google is allowing the .CO to be targeted to any GEO area.
“a pretty good indication that even the savvy consumer in Germany recognizes the “.com” as being the brand for the Internet”
Like I have said it has nothing to do with .com being the brand of the internet, because in Germany the .com, if your lucky, will only grab 20 % of a .de price tag. Sorry but in Germany the .com has as much value as a .net or .org in the U.S
I ment
“So you HAVE to use a “Non country targeted TLD”
Duane permalink
“a pretty good indication that even the savvy consumer in Germany recognizes the “.com” as being the brand for the Internet”
Like I have said it has nothing to do with .com being the brand of the internet, because in Germany the .com, if your lucky, will only grab 20 % of a .de price tag. Sorry but in Germany the .com has as much value as a .net or .org in the U.S
************
I’m lost.
Regarding my experiences with “.de” businesses wanting the “.com” TLD – apparantly just from me – well I glad I helped you all live your “.co” lie and in some cases non.com lie – maybe I should become a registrar as well to further promote that denial – there is a lot of money to be many in selling denial.
Brad,
Even Prime Real Estate like Malibu is subject to market fluctuation. Sometimes big, sometimes small.
I am the biggert student around – even when January starts my 13th calendar year – what I take out out this “.co” dialog is words from David Castello:
“…. is unrealistic – and that is the point where domainers will get burned.”
– for every new avenue feel I missed or want to pursue – there are probably 100 avenues to get smoked !!! – and anybody new to this business trying to do what I got in on the tail end of when I started (and made lots of mistakes) – will get smoked.
To use the prior reference of the Russian kid re-inventing the Internet “.com” or whatever – his fortune lies in implementing web 2.0 (Windows for the web) business applications – and not buying up oil leases where it has been proven there is no oil.
You just have no idea of what youre talking about….like all the big Names (GoDaddy, NetworkSolutions etc.) know, the “.co” Domain will rank great in every country cause .co’s will be geotargeting able. Just follow what Google says.
.co is at least as good as .biz or .info, probably as good as .net/org and maybe its even right behind the famous .com.
Yes, there is a good reason why every big player like twitter, facebook or even BMW already choose their .co adress!
Every morning when I wake up I have sex with every one of my 7,000 “.coms” sometimes even 2 or 3 times with some of them. The fact that other people want to buy “.coms” without me asking is what makes the experience so gratifying every morning.
All I see here is folks trying to sell “.co” – where “.com” sells itself.
And ask youself will BMW.co just forward to BMW.com – or will BMW.co actually be a different website – where the consumer gets confused.
“.co” just ain’t so
@jason: are you downplaying the “technical” aspects? if not, i misunderstand your comment. really, the technical side is all there is. without the technical assistance, there is no .co, no promotion to the right audience (=hungry domainers) and no business opportunity. wasn’t kevin ham supposed to pursue .co? he pulled out of .cm. conscience? do you think that cameroon would have initiated getting their tld operational if not for some “technical” assistance? would niue have put .nu into operation if someone had not approached them? how about christmas island (.cx)? or tavalu (.tv). libya (.ly)? etc., etc. it really makes you wonder what the heck jon postel was thinking: was he completely ignoring economic reality? make no mistake, those with the technical know-how are running these shows. not the indigenous peoples. is that surprising? of course, once the profits become concrete, then the non-technical folks take a keener interest. but by then it’s often too late. the “damage” has been done. the tld’s meaning has been altered to make some quick cash.
at least .com was meant to be commercial from the start. it’s meaning will always be the same.
s/tavalu/tuvalu/
apologies for misspellings, inaccuracies, etc.