Interesting way to compare actual usage of .co.in and .in

[sm]

was just thinking of doing a ground reality check on what indian companies and businesses were actually using for their domains.... just discovered a quick and easy way of comparing:

using the inurl qualifier with google, we get:

for .co.in ---->

http://www.google.co.in/search?q=inurl%3A%22.co.in%22&btnG=Search&hl=en

for .in ---->

http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=inurl%3A%22.in%22&meta=

For the purpose of comparison, let us see what kind of sites are actually using the two extensions:

.co.in examples:

bsnl.co.in --> telecommunications company
hutch.co.in --> Hutch - GSM mobile services company
wipro.co.in --> one of the largest software companies in india (the first company in the world to be awarded a SEI CMM Level 5 certification, if i'm not mistaken)
ntpc.co.in --> national thermal power corpn.
sail.co.in --> large iron and steel company.
nokia.co.in --> Nokia
thomascook.co.in --> well known travel agent
standardchartered.co.in --> have used it personally for online banking (many in india use it)
sonyindia.co.in ...
orange.co.in --> popular mobile services company
hsbc.co.in ....
citibank.co.in --> a lot of NRIs (Non Resident Indians regularly use their services)
ipcl.co.in --> petrochemicals giant
yellowpages.co.in ....
nationalgeographic.co.in ....
apple.co.in ....
icicibank.co.in.....


.co.in usage is prolific and with many popular companies and online banking services (not to mention google, yahoo etc) using it, it'll be a long long way before .in gains mind share amongst the indians down here.

Thats not to say that this wont happen, but you know what they say about "dont fix it if ....".. many online banking services and companies will just not switch over to .in because it sounds "cool" or is a bit more convenient to type. They'll stick to what has already been in use for a long time (and also in order to avoid confusion.. something that's important for all banks etc).

for the foreseeable future, IMO .co.in rules.
But for cool-type of sites like chatting, dating etc .in might work well....

 

[betterdayz4]

Great post, thanks for sharing that info and I agree.

 

[TopSatelliteRadio.co]

What do you think of the .firm.in extension?

I recently Reged SEO.Firm.in and I am hoping that it will be highly keyword targetable for "Indian SEO Firm" .

 

[slaughterbeck]

I’ve been thinking long and hard about a way to express similar thoughts on the subject but I’m blonde. :hehe:

Well researched and explained, rep added.

 

[-db-]

In a way, it's comparing apples to oranges. The .CO.IN extension has been around for several years, so it's naturally going to be better known and more widely used than the newer .IN which is just starting to become recognized.

 

[sm]

In a way, it's comparing apples to oranges. The .CO.IN extension has been around for several years, so it's naturally going to be better known and more widely used than the newer .IN which is just starting to become recognized.

you're right.. there really is no comparison at the moment, because .in is very new. But there's another thing that i've noticed: large corporations and portals prefer .co.in (barring a few exceptions like ebay....)

In addition, the ".co" adds a professional touch and is hence perfect for businesses and ecommerce outfits, where as .in domains would be good for general purpose sites in categories such as greeting card, social networking, humor, movies, sports, dating, modelling etc....

Well researched and explained, rep added.

thanks for the comments, especially coming from someone who's had a certain measure of success from selling .in domains.

 

[tipsfromthetop]

Great post SM (rep added), thats the reason i purely concentrated on .co.in and in the odd instant got the .in to go with it with my portfolio.

You mentioned Ebay they have been playing lets use the .in then change .co.in for awhile now i think the last month or two its stayed on .in so could be a possible trend move but i firmly believe .co.in is the big player and in a year or two people will start to see more .in big name players but!! these companies i think you will find they will also have the .co.in live forwarding to .in or forwarding the .in to .co.in to play safe.

 

[mahadeva]

A search for .IN with more filters

While I agree that .CO.IN is currently more popular than .IN, a modification of SMs search criteria gives results that have more .IN in the URL and it does not look so bad after all!

:imho:

http://www.google.com/search?q=in+-...n&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&as_qdr=all&start=10&sa=N

 

[monRa]

Tha'ts real great news for the .co.in users! I think .co.in are much cheaper, right?

 

[sm]

http://www.google.com/search?q=in+-...n&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&as_qdr=all&start=10&sa=N

nice little twist

All in all, research is necessary to build up a really good portfolio of names that will actually sell to end users, because they are the ones who'll set the bar on prices. Also, it's important to focus on domains that could potentially be of interest to business operations, rather than focussing too much on things such as:

single keyword domains (unless the keyword is hot and/or commerce oriented... that is monetizable)

stuff like biology.co.in or maths.co.in etc........ even if they're good, who will the buyers be? That's the question to ponder on. No point holding "premium" domains that dont sell. The ones that sell will need good thorough research to acquire (or plain simple pot luck.. something that doesnt work all the time).

 

[dongan]

Tha'ts real great news for the .co.in users! I think .co.in are much cheaper, right?

Yes. The cost is less for .co.in domain registration.

 

[ccourt23]

Thats easy to say when .co.in was available for years before .in was available so I expect the results shown.

 

[1rrr1]

I think that .co.in will rule for the years to come. It reflects in most of the investor's portfolios. More .co.in, less .in

 

[sm]

.... also because of the inertia factor. People get used to a particular extension, and to play safe many companies / businesses would be averse to change over from co.in to .in any time soon. 5 years down the line, yes. IMO not before that.

 

[jaikini]

i am from india i see here many company use .co.in when showing their ads on television and news paper

thanks,
jaik

 

[slaughterbeck]

i am from india i see here many company use .co.in when showing their ads on television and news paper

thanks,
jaik

Have you seen any changes recently with a few more advertisers using the .in namespace?

 

[Monolith]

Eh, i think *.in will eventually outpace *.co.in. Every business that currently owns a .co.in domain will want its .in counterpart, and every new business will surely be registering the *.in version right off (if not to the complete exclusion of *.co.in).

Assuming that people will stick with *.co.in simply because theyre 'used to it' really doesnt fly imo. With time, *.in will become what theyre used to.

 

[sm]

Eh, i think *.in will eventually outpace *.co.in.

possible down the line.

Every business that currently owns a .co.in domain will want its .in counterpart, and every new business will surely be registering the *.in version right off (if not to the complete exclusion of *.co.in).

I think in the end, there will be different types of websites using the two. More company and corporate sites will stick to .co.in, and perhaps after a few years general portals etc might start using .in
Possible! I was just thinking of making some kind of an automated tool for keeping a check on trends on a weekly basis (sort of based on the google/yahoo search API's ...for mining a complete list of all websites using .co.in and .in (filtering out parked domains) and the categories to which these sites belong (for instance -corporate, entertainment sites, portals, news sites, technology oriented sites etc etc)
maybe over time that'll lead to some interesting insights... also a way of being on top of the latest trends.

Assuming that people will stick with *.co.in simply because theyre 'used to it' really doesnt fly imo.

the "used to" part is actually quite important. This is exactly what has led to the dominance of dotcom domains for so many years. That is not to say that change doesnt happen, but in the meanwhile, it's best to stick with current trends, while keeping an eye on future possibilities.

 

[pratiknaik]

Have you seen any changes recently with a few more advertisers using the .in namespace?

I've recently saw http://goair.in ( a newly launched airlines ) and http://playtv.in ( one of the 100's of TV channel - which very few ppl watch ).

Thanks,
Pratik

 

[-db-]

This is off-topic but.....

Pratik it's good to see you posting my friend. You haven't been around NP much this past week and we've missed you.

:great:

 

[jaikini]

Have you seen any changes recently with a few more advertisers using the .in namespace?

i still see .co.in more in the ad than .in

thanks,
jaik

 

[tipsfromthetop]

This is off-topic but.....

Pratik it's good to see you posting my friend. You haven't been around NP much this past week and we've missed you.

:great:

I concur DB, it is good to have Pratik around