Domain Names were on the front page of the LA Times this morning.
In a 2 page article (in the print edition) entitled “A .Co Kickoff For Godaddy” talked extensive about the .Co extension, Godaddy and domain names.
Love to see domain names on the front page of one of the highest circulated newspapers in the US.
If you’re not in Los Angeles for Domainfest.com you can read the article here.
Thanks for the article link.
My favorite part:
“…the Web domain extension .co, a short version of the popular and ubiquitous .com…”
Let me (try to) preempt the usual comments that accompany .co posts:
Comment #1: [from someone who got in early in the game] Great to see .co getting this level of exposure.
Comment #2: [from someone who didn’t] The hype won’t last, and after Superbowl Sunday and the Sedo auction .co will fade into oblivion like all the others that went before.
Comment #3: See Comment #1
Comment #4: Seem Comment #2
etc.
Would much appreciate any fresh perspectives or newsbites to be thrown into the mix, preferably from those NOT trying to shift market sentiment one way or another because of their own vested interests and managing not to add any value or provide further information for readers in the process.
Good writeup but they did not dare say that dot co is …..the 2nd class of the dot com.
Get ready to set the renewal auto=off after Superbowl is over
I’m glad you made that statement Observer, it sums up nicely the same sorts of comments repeated ad nauseum following any news on .co.
I think it will be very interesting to see where .co is 12 or even 24 months from now. Whilst it stands to reason that the pending promotion of .co (I.e. Superbowl) will boost the number of aftermarket sales and increase awareness – .co simply hasn’t been around long enough to deem it a success or failure yet. The next month will be very interesting, but the next couple of years will really tell the .co story.
Time will tell.
Regardless of where you stand on .co, I think most people would agree that .co has set the benchmark for launching new extensions.
As a disclaimer of sorts, I do have some investments in .co, but it represents only a very small part of my portfolio.
I wonder if Godaddy will put .CO as their number 1 choice again (when they run the SuperBowl ad) to lure more people into it.
I am sure that they will see a spike in hits (as they always do) after their SuperBowl ads (considering that it reaches over 100 million viewers not to mention the added coverage from the News and internet). I think if Godaddy has any business sense they would make .CO the default search after the SuperBowl.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find other registrars follow suite riding the coat tails (of the essentially free advertisement) of Godaddy.
I guess we will have to wait and see.
Just the way I see it
Cheers
ok, but now is the moment for all registrars to offer huge discounts on .CO domains!
GoDaddy seems make $5 less
do you offer lower prices on .CO?
say it to us, please
I just checked the Alexa rating for O.co= 9,303,523
Overstock.com Alexa Rating= 542.
Google.com Alexa Rating= 1.
.com is the proven standard through all extensions
No.
The Company behind .CO already stated that they made the registration high on purpose. They stated that they are trying to avoid (as much as possible) people purchasing domains (in bulk) just to have them sit (like you see all to often with lesser priced domains).
Personally I think that is a good thing.
I really dont see this being a domainers extension and I believe that the .CO company really does NOT want it to be.
It seems to me that they are taking this extension and looking at it through a BUSINESS point of view rather then a DOMAINERS point of view.
At least that is what I have gotten out of the things I have read.
Too many of us have on our domainer glasses and its hard to understand that our point of view does not necessarily fit with every extensions business model out there
That is just my point of view but what do I know.
Cheers
Dan J
I am sorry but that comment seems to come out of left field.
No one stated that .COM is not the standard barer right now for all domains.
No one will argue that .COM commands high yields for domains sold.
But that is not the issue and never was. The issue being discussed is weather or not .CO will be able to stand on its own as a credible and viable alternative for domain names (such as .ORG and NET).
So far no other new(er) extension has really been able to meet that kind of notoriety. This extension has some good backing and now its anybody’s guess on what will happen.
But to sit there and make comments about .COM being number 1 is off the given topic. If you dont care for .CO, then state that and come back with an opinion on why you do not think that any publicity .CO is getting will have an effect.
The whole .COM is king thing is getting really tiresome. We ALL know that .COM is the best extension to have in your portfolio (give decent names… bird poop is bird poop no matter the extension). I am sure this discussion can evolve beyond what many bring to the table.
Just my opinion
Cheers
Bottom line is I believe godaddy will sell more than 1 million .co names in the next six months. Add on the other products they sell with the domain names, and take an average customer who stays on let’s say for 5 five years. Add it all up.
Yea I think they will be just fine.
Story Reported:
the Web domain extension .co, a short version of the popular and ubiquitous .com
———-
Prima Facie evidence of plagiarism against .Com
…. ANOTHER Nail in the .CO Coffin …
@Observer
Terse and nicely said.
@landon
If we follow that reasoning , “co” , as in the abbreviation of company, should sue every .com owner for plagiarism. I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think it works.
Whilst not a .co believer myself, one can’t help but acknowledge the excellent marketing behind this.
Dot com is number 1 in USA, in UK,Germany and other places it isn’t , i get the feeling that some people find it hard to believe this and fail to understand the power of certain cctlds.
Now i am certainly not saying .co will replace dot com, as i don’t for a second believe it will come anywhere near,but does it have to, for people to make money from it? indeed,if i liked the extension i would have invested,i do however think that those continually commenting that dot com is God blah blah are infact as blinkered as those who come on here with ridiculous claims about the next big thing.
The truth i believe, lies somewhere inbetween,
For me those that diversify and are not blinkered are those that move with the times and as such will be succesful imo
So good luck those that have invested in .co, it isn’t for me, but i genuinely wish you all the best with your investments, you have certainly been given a decent start with the marketing behind it, will it be enough? personally i dont think so but i do think there will be some opportunites to make money from it, which is never a bad thing.
@Dan J
No wonder O.co and Overstock.com have such a different Alexa rankings: the latter is currently the one the entire website is built on, while O.co is just a shortcut. But, as you may have already read (and if you haven’t, you’re welcome to have a look at this http://www.overstock.com/guides/faqs-about-o-co ), they’re working on permanently move the whole business to O.co and that’s when its Alexa ranking begins to change.
@Faceanswers
All major registrars (including Name.com, GoDaddy and Namecheap) are going to halve their current .CO registration fees during the SuperBowl week.
What is the status of the i.CO auction?
Does anyone know how many people anted up $100,000 just to have the opportunity to bid?
What will i.CO sell for?
“.com is the proven standard”
no doubt
the comparison of .co with .com is (and always will be) impossible
Hello Mike,
I enjoyed seeing you and your wife in the Epik award video.
We can see both positive and negatives, in this latest .co fabrication. The one huge bright spot is that it will bring in more new domainers who will eventually power the coming Web Business expansion.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
@Internet Media
They called the i.co auction off. Apparently they’ve had dozens of inquiries into the name so they are going to handpick where i.co goes.
how much has been the prices of all single letter .co?
a.co – $ …
b.co – $ …
c.co – $ …
d.co – $ …
e.co – $ …
etc.
It’s Go Daddy’s Premier Choice Why because its 30 dollars to reg hurry get your before someone else does, they should be pitching the 3D.com extension Oh I forgot they never made that one up the Domineers did and we know Go Daddy laughs at them, .co is a Cash Cow for GD don’t feed the cow
Thanks for the post! I did knot know about this.
I wrote an article and linked back to this – hope thats ok
thanks!
My rambling thoughts are:
This is when its going to get VERY interesting to watch, the moment that ALOT of business owners become aware that .co even exists, then find out that most the best ones are being held back by the register for auction or have already been auctioned off or already registered by someone else.
So the big question is: What is more likely to happen?
1) Lots of mom & pops grab a “semi-decent” .co for reg fee.
possible outcomes:
a) They open an internet business, make money and live happily ever after.
b) They find that they can’t get their “global” .co to rank well in the search engines which presents a problem.
c) They get accused of squatting by someone bigger than them and end up in WIPO/UDRP/Lawsuits
2) Business owners come running after superbowl and are willing to pay big bucks for the domains that are for sale in the aftermarket.
possible outcomes:
a) Domain market/investor/sellers/domainers/registers make big bucks, businesses get what they really want and are content to pay over the odds to get it – everybody wins
b) Some of us MISSED THE BOAT AGAIN and get ridiculed by a new wave of Internet millionaires 😉
2) They don’t care about .co because (in reality) it stands for Colombia and are not interested in buying it (for thousands) from someone else.
possible outcomes:
a) .co domains get traded between domainers for a couple of years but eventually thousands are dropped if they are not making money in PPC
b) Dropped .co domains get snapped up in the drops and the registrars make even more money…for a few years.
3) Business owners are pissed when they discover that someone is parking what they perceive to be “a typo” of their .com/.co.uk etc
possible outcomes:
a) The pink flying piggies get shot down in record numbers by WIPO/UDRP/lawsuits for being “confusingly similar”.
b) New laws are hastily rushed through by the suits to address the concerns of business and TM holders
Although number 3) is the last thing any of us want to happen human nature tells me there’s a very good chance it will and “IF” it does happen in record numbers the word “cybersquatter” is going to stoop to an all time low in the history of the internet.
Possible outcomes of that:
Due to the sheer scale of disgruntled business owners shouting “cybersquatter” “cybersquatter” here there and everywhere new and FAR REACHING rules might be quicky implemented HEAVILY in favour(favor) of business owners/TM owners that will have a HUGE knock on affect for everyone involved in the domain market no matter what the extension is.
At the moment nobody knows what is going to happen but I think we should all be watching this extension very closely whether we have bought into the marketing pitch or not.
There may be far more riding on this extension that any other that has gone before…time will tell.
One thing that is “almost *” a given is that whatever happens the Registers & auction houses will come up smelling of roses as per usual.
* (assuming big business owners don’t go after them for auctioning off their TM names)
ps – It was also reported in ustoday
usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-01-16-godaddy-domain_N.htm
“Unlike other .com alternatives, the .co domain, which gained about 600,000 registered names worldwide since its launch, [ should do well simply because it sounds so similar to .com, ] said Richard Merdinger, senior director of domain-registration service for Go Daddy.”
Duuurrr, Not exactly a stroke of marketing magic in that comment but there again what has he got to lose ??.
Whats your thoughts on that observer ?
“What’s next .c”
I’ve already suggested it, but a single “.” is shorter 🙂
“Whats your thoughts on that observer ?”
…apart from I can’t count to 3 😉
To any of you “squatvestors” looking for good .co’s to pick up, I see these are unreg’d (look at the .com’s before buying ;)…
Jpeterman.co
BeachCamera.co
.Con
Prima Facie evidence of plagiarism against .Com
…. Another Nail in the .Co Coffin …
i.con
I’d like to pre-announce the 4th-quarter, 2011 launch of Squatvestor.com (SVC). SVC will publish tongue-in-cheek commentary on domain-industry news and trends and will eventually offer a moderated forum, as well as domain registration services and auctions. It is our goal to become regarded as “The Onion” of the domaining industry, while at the same time providing factual coverage and commentary on those subject held so near and dear to the average domainer’s heart.
Let’s face it, none of you commoners reg’ing 3Ddogsqueeze.co are going to make the kind of money the guys who were smucky (smart ‘n lucky) back in the mid-90’s have already made. The money is-a-flowin’ to the registrars and the holders of “I-Reg’d-This-Zillion$-Keyword-In-1995.com and now I’m going to sell it for 7-figures to this multinational corporation that’s paying with taxpayer funded bailout money”, but not to you – unless the occasional $1,000 turns you on. So while you’re dreaming of that pie-in-the-sky payday, we’ll do our best to inform you and make you laugh.
We’ll entertain some of you and we’ll p*ss some of you off, but whichever it is, we’ll make sure we have fun doing so.
– TBC
.Con
Prima Facie evidence of plagiarism against .Com
…. Another Nail in the .Co Coffin …