Is .COM always best?

[Aspiring Billionaire]

I'll be among the first to say that dot-com rules in terms of domain name investments, and that ccTLD's don't even feature on my top-5 list of domain extensions as a domainer. But when it comes to local products and services, could the dot-com actually come second to the ccTLD?

As a consumer, when I search for local products and services on the internet I tend to use the .co.za TLD because it makes sense to find a local entity for plumbing or insurance quotes here in South Africa. I can understand that the exception would most likely be America, as the .com entities are likely to be based in the America's.

I'm fairly new to domain investing and find it disturbingly disappointing how decades have passed with still no real domaining end-user market here in South Africa, with the few who do know about it investing in a bunch of .co.za domains that don't sell very well because of the fact that there's no market for them in our third-world country.

Surely the type of TLD is something that should be factored into the equation when having end-users in mind. Could this be an opportunity with a substantial amount of potential (in relation to country-codes worldwide), or is it a gap in the market not really worth pursuing for a domainer. What are your thoughts?

 

[Paul123]

In the UK dot co.uk is as popular as dot com for business use. I read somewhere that 60% of small businesses prefer it to com

It depends what are you selling. If it's a local market then a cc might be better -- for an international market com is boss. For domainers com is certainly the best buy.

Best,
Paul

 

[johnny6]

Absolutely NOT.

If I'm in germany, denmark, england, france, canada... and I'm not a huge international company, then there's zero question that DE, DK, .CO.UK, FR, CA are best.

Zero question whatsoever. When I lived in both Germany and Denmark, I almost never typed in a .com for a german or danish website.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

yes, I also think .COM is King.

nobody needs a King
nobody wants a King

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

.com is .communism ( chinas online market )

see the stats

https://namestat.org/

what sounds better ?

LeosClub.com
Leos.Club

take a look on your keyboard
find .com
find .top

.com is dead

http://morganlinton.com/is-com-dead-some-say-yes-

http://www.codergears.com/Blog/?p=950

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/215

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/297985/is-com-dead

http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/08/COM-Dead

http://domainnamewire.com/2013/12/09/youd-say-com-is-dead-too/

http://www.ricksblog.com/2013/12/official-dot-com-dead-poll/#.Vs

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245647

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236398

http://get.poker/newsroom/news/4-reasons-why-you-should-ditch-com-good

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246032

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

 

[HotKey]

Asking if .com is always the best TLD at an established site like NP is like walking into the Heineken brewery and asking what the best beer is.

In the end, EVERY tld does the exact same job, which is resolving to a designated url. Over the years, dot-com has definitely come out as #1 in the TLD popularity contest, if that is what people want to define "best" as.

Really, it shouldn't be about the extension, it should be about the name as a whole and how it will apply to your brand/needs. Buuutt, having said all that, IMO .com = .awesome! Just because.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

If you’re a Canadian with a .com, .org or .net domain for your web site you may want to move to a .ca domain as soon as you can.

Why? On Feb 28th, Verisign, which acts as the central clearing house for all .com and .net domains worldwide – including yours – shuttered bodog.com on a “sealed charge” in a Maryland court, without prior notice and without actually convicting anyone attached to bodog.com of any crime.

“No problem,” you say to yourself “we don't offer gambling – why in the world would anyone care about us?”

Consider this quote from Erik Barnett, assistant deputy director at U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, regarding the successful Jan 13th copyright extradition ruling against Richard O'Dwyer, a 23-year-old U.K. Sheffield Hallam University student:

“The jurisdiction we have over these sites right now really is the use of the domain name registry system in the United States. That's the key.”

As the Guardian wrote: “The only necessary 'nexus to the U.S.' is a .com or .net web address for which (Delaware incorporated) Verisign acts as the official registry operator.”

Richard O'Dwyer's crime? He maintained tvshack.com – a site/blog listing links to other web sites offering downloads for English language TV and films. The reason he is going to be extradited is because the domain is registered as a .com, rather than a .co.uk.

So again, why is this important to you?

As the result of a charge against your .com/.org/.net domains, you become accountable to a U.S. Court by virtue of the fact that these top-level domains (TLD/DNS) are handled by U.S.-based Verisign and Public Interest Registry. Full stop.

Consider the potential where a competitor in South Dakota decides to question your trademark in that state because you lack a local business registration?

Indeed, what if your maple syrup customer's U.S. medical insurance provider decides to test the legal question that your product was the primary cause of diabetes claims in their state?

And because of Mr. O'Dwyer’s case, and now bodog.com, there is compelling precedent that you will have to defend any charge in any U.S. court in person, at your expense, regardless of what your passport or your articles of incorporation indicate.

That’s why you need to find out who handles the domain registration for your company. Be aware, you also need to perform due diligence and confirm your registrar is a wholly Canadian-owned business and confirm, in writing, what their liability/policy is regarding U.S.-only warrants regarding your domain.

To help save you some time here is the official CIRA link to authorized .ca registrars. Also, here is some background that may be relevant to your team.

Finally – and this is more annoying than anything else about this maddening development – you will need to seriously consider abandoning your .com/.org/.net, no placeholders and no forwarding, addresses.

Because as bodog.com found out, by virtue of simply owning a .com/.net property, you and I are now U.S. citizens in the eyes of their law.

Following a 20 year career pioneering digital publications, B2C/B2G/B2B e-commerce and high security mobile solutions both in Canada and abroad – Jon Blanchard spent the last 6 years as Webmaster with the Halifax Herald family of companies.

 

[DnEbook]

Local means a lot, that's why BUSINESSES normally will chase down the cctld to be seen as a local and easy to contact, sure the .com is cool if you wish to expand though