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Ask HN: Any stigma associated with a .CO domain?

7 points by mattculbreth ↗ HN
I've got a cool idea for an app that I'm working on, and the perfect name isn't available as a .COM. Somebody has it--but they aren't doing anything with it. They've also ignored my communication to them--which is fine.

So, the "new" .CO domain is open for this domain. Think that's ok? I haven't seen too many of them yet but maybe they'll get going soon enough. I know of http://duck.co and that's about it so far.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

8 comments

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astine
For some reason, a '.com' domain nearly always looks more reputable than an alternative. Some people even expect it. Furthermore, '.co' might be confusing. It looks like it might be typo. I don't know what domain you want, but it might be worth your time thinking of an alternative. Otherwise, '.net' is better than '.co' in my opinion.
CyberFonic
Two more options:

1) come up with a clever (must be easily memorable) variant which is available as .com. Be careful how you search as I've read about situations where the domain gets parked upon an inquiry. I just use whois & dig from the command line.

2) perhaps .biz or .info would work.

richbradshaw
It makes me think the website is Columbian, and looks like a typo, not .com, .co.uk but .co. Not sure how the average person would cope! Nice for making domain hacks though like bron.co or fias.co.
wolfrom
We just registered a .CO as the main address for our new startup. We think of it somewhat as a placeholder, as we hope to one day purchase the .COM since it's not actively in use by its current owner (but we haven't tried to contact yet). When we started, we had always called the product Rugby, but since the .COM is owned by Polo Ralph Lauren, Rugby.com would never be an option.

I think that had the .COM for our startup been taken by a pre-existing company with deep pockets and a strong brand, we would have simply chosen a different name. Incidentally, Rugby.co was already registered, and by a COLOMBIAN of all people. :)

We've all heard of sites that started with less-than-ideal domain names and upgraded when they had the money, and we rarely hear any of them complain about how much they spent.

Shorel
and rugby.co is just a parked domain.

Shameful for us Colombians U_U

icey
Personal experience has been that it's tough for me to type .co without automatically typing .com or .co.uk

I'm sure that will change over time, but it might be something to think about. It's not like the other off-brand TLDs - they tend to look nothing like .com.

notahacker
I'd steer well clear; even experienced internet users will remember .com rather than the actual address.

...and of course drive up the market value of the .com through type-in traffic as well. Delicious.com's owner made a pretty profit out of the risky del.icio.us domain hack, and at least people familiar with the site noticed the dots were there...

Shorel
.co domains can't have 'Whois Privacy Protection'.

This can be a deal breaker for some people.