.NET versus .ORG which is better?

[Highestlevel]

I'm curious what you guys think about the long term prospects of .net versus .org domains. Currently the perception is .com 1st (by a country mile of course) then .net (2nd) and .org (3rd) my view is long term .net and .org will be pretty much equal second in terms of global perception.

 

[Archangel]

Good points -- reps added for ya

I don't think the Paris Hiltons and the Lindsey Lohans of this world are even aware about the battle going on among domainers trying to snatch the COMs out of each other's hands.

To the non-domaining target audience, an ORG extension speaks for itself -- it's an ORGANIZATION. And the word "organization" is more biased towards "non-profit".

If you brand something as for "non-profit", whether real or just a perception, it gives people the impression that you are not building this website for financial gain. A lot of people just want to read stuffs from "real" people. Not from businessmen. So probably it won't matter much whether the ORG is not as professional as it "looks". What they want is "real information", ... not manufactured mini-sites, autoblogs, or scraped content that is synonymous with a lot of COM/NETs.

 

[DomainAvalanche]

I think that it all depends on the keyphrase you are using and the purpose of the site. I think that some definitely fit the .net better and some the .org - I like to look at it as a case by case basis.

 

[Web 3.0]

Thanks for all the inputs.
I decided to register both .net & .org,
and will probably develop two different Web sites with them.

 

[Erdy]

I agree with some of this but I don't really get why you'd choose SanFrancisco.org over the .net.

It interesting how domainers have such different criteria to value tlds. I would take any .net city name over the .org at any time. I think the org is half as valuable as the net.

Furthermore, outside the English speaking world, .net is a valuable extension. It might be only 11% worth of the com for English domains, but in Germany, Japan, Turkey and probably some other countries .net is a a very strong tld worth between 30-60% of com.

---------- Post added at 10:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 PM ----------

Some people suggested that .net stands for network. That's incorrect. It is short for internet. You must certainly have heard people using sentences like, "We met on the net", when clearly they mean on the Internet.

Anything that is Internet related goes well with .net such as forums, domain registrars, hosting companies, programming languages...

The pronunciation of .com is difficult in some foreign languages. The letter "C" has two sounds in English:
1. "C" that sounds like "K": cat, car, com, cute
2. "C" that sounds like "S": civil, civic, acid

The first version, the K sound is more common in English. However in many languages that version doesn't exist at all. For instance instead saying "cola" they would say "kola". Instead "calorie", they would say "kalori" or "kalorie". Therefore the pronunciation of com is problematic in many languages. However "net" does not have such a problem. "net" is also an actual word in many foreign languages. Therefore it is even stronger outside the English speaking world.

 

[DOTT]

neither .net nor .org good ones are available, i think

 

[Archangel]

I'm having a hard time following this. The hard/soft C sound thing doesn't make sense to me. "For instance instead saying 'cola' they would say 'kola.'" Are you suggesting some places say "sole-la"? What's more: "'net' is also an actual word in many foreign languages. Therefore it is even stronger outside the English speaking world." Net is an actual dictionary word in America. How does this make it stronger outside the US?

I'm lost.

Some people suggested that .net stands for network. That's incorrect. It is short for internet. You must certainly have heard people using sentences like, "We met on the net", when clearly they mean on the Internet.

Anything that is Internet related goes well with .net such as forums, domain registrars, hosting companies, programming languages...

The pronunciation of .com is difficult in some foreign languages. The letter "C" has two sounds in English:
1. "C" that sounds like "K": cat, car, com, cute
2. "C" that sounds like "S": civil, civic, acid

The first version, the K sound is more common in English. However in many languages that version doesn't exist at all. For instance instead saying "cola" they would say "kola". Instead "calorie", they would say "kalori" or "kalorie". Therefore the pronunciation of com is problematic in many languages. However "net" does not have such a problem. "net" is also an actual word in many foreign languages. Therefore it is even stronger outside the English speaking world.

 

[Flodro]

I personally myself would select .net as I hate the look off a .org domain to any other domains there are for registration.

 

[Weber]

Org sounds like a star wars character.

 

[Erdy]

I'm having a hard time following this. The hard/soft C sound thing doesn't make sense to me. "For instance instead saying 'cola' they would say 'kola.'" Are you suggesting some places say "sole-la"?

No, that's not what I was trying to say. I picked a bad example. Let's take the word 'Canada'. Almost in every country they will pronounce this word as you do, however in some countries they will write it with K instead C. If you check this list you can see that half of the World writes it with a K at the beginning:
http://www.logosdictionary.org/pls/...cedure_type=SW-exact&subject_code=&num_row=10

In English the letter C represent two completely different sounds. One of these sounds is K like in cat, car, com, cute. However in many languages the letter C never represents the sound K. Only the letter K represents the sound K. In some languages writing the sound K with the C would be incorrect.

This creates many problems because suddenly you have the word 'com' that you pronounce with the K sound but write as C. Of course everybody knows how to say and write it because they copy the English speakers. However it remains a foreign word that has an unexpected spelling. Com might have come from company or communication and both of these words have the unexpected letter C at the beginning that doesn't match the sound. In German for instance the spelling is 'Kommunikation'.

In other words, there is a familiarity with the 'com' in English because it sounds like company or communication. It sounds good and it looks good. But in many languages it looks like the incorrect spelling for the sound and it does not resemble a known word like it does in English.

But the word 'net' is more International and it is the short form of Internet. It entered the daily language in many countries with the Internet. Whether it is a word in English or not is irrelevant. The point is, with the Internet the word 'net' has become part of the daily language in the non-English speaking world. Neither com nor org has this advantage. Even if there was no .net TLD, still in many countries people started using and still use 'net' to mean Internet.

 

[Archangel]

Good explanation, backed with facts. Thanks, it's clearer to me now. Reps added

No, that's not what I was trying to say. I picked a bad example. Let's take the word 'Canada'. Almost in every country they will pronounce this word as you do, however in some countries they will write it with K instead C. If you check this list you can see that half of the World writes it with a K at the beginning:
http://www.logosdictionary.org/pls/...cedure_type=SW-exact&subject_code=&num_row=10

In English the letter C represent two completely different sounds. One of these sounds is K like in cat, car, com, cute. However in many languages the letter C never represents the sound K. Only the letter K represents the sound K. In some languages writing the sound K with the C would be incorrect.

This creates many problems because suddenly you have the word 'com' that you pronounce with the K sound but write as C. Of course everybody knows how to say and write it because they copy the English speakers. However it remains a foreign word that has an unexpected spelling. Com might have come from company or communication and both of these words have the unexpected letter C at the beginning that doesn't match the sound. In German for instance the spelling is 'Kommunikation'.

In other words, there is a familiarity with the 'com' in English because it sounds like company or communication. It sounds good and it looks good. But in many languages it looks like the incorrect spelling for the sound and it does not resemble a known word like it does in English.

But the word 'net' is more International and it is the short form of Internet. It entered the daily language in many countries with the Internet. Whether it is a word in English or not is irrelevant. The point is, with the Internet the word 'net' has become part of the daily language in the non-English speaking world. Neither com nor org has this advantage. Even if there was no .net TLD, still in many countries people started using and still use 'net' to mean Internet.