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Ask HN: Would you trust a .me domain?

8 points by hellweaver666 ↗ HN
Hi all,

I'm thinking of launching my new startup idea on a .me domain name - I already have the .com and .co.uk version (I'm in the UK) but think the domain would sound snazzier with a .me domain.

That said, I'm concerned that with .me being a relatively new domain people will struggle to remember it or type it wrong or just plain not trust it because it's not a 'mainstream' extension...

What do you think? Should I risk it?

Thanks

20 comments

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tsetse-fly
It didn't stop del.icio.us. If you build it, they will come.
ErrantX
yes. but the URL is actually the name in that case - so it is a "flash" feature. :)

myapp.me.uk does not, quite, have the same draw.

To the OP I'd say if you already run it from a .com domain adding .me.uk cant hurt!

If the .me adds to the name (say, for example, find.me.uk) then 100% go for it :D

Trust is a funny thing: if your userbase is hardened hackers like the HN lot then you might end up (at least initially) with a trust issue - but the general public aren't going to care that much.

Though you do raise a good point about people being confused: but if you own .com and .co.uk variants then I doubt it will account for much loss of traffic :D

katamole
"Trust is a funny thing: if your userbase is hardened hackers like the HN lot then you might end up (at least initially) with a trust issue - but the general public aren't going to care that much."

I think the opposite is true - "hardened hackers" may judge the TLD less than the general public.

Eg, I run a couple of small websites, and I know that .com is a matter of routing, and says little about the intention of my website. However, a casual user might see .com as more of a directory than a routing issue.

A few years ago I had a couple of people try and convince me that .org was reserved for non-profit organisations. While that might be the intended usage, it certainly isn't mandatory.

whatusername
Depends on where you live. http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2008-05/

SCHEDULE F

ELIGIBILITY AND ALLOCATION RULES FOR ORG.AU

The org.au 2LD is for non-commercial organisations.

The following rules are to be read in conjunction with the Eligibility and Allocation Rules for All Open 2LDs, contained in Schedule A of this document.

1. To be eligible in the org.au 2LD, registrants must be: a) an association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory; or b) a political party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission; or c) a trade union or other organisation registered under the Workplace Relations Act 1996; or d) a sporting or special interest club operating in Australia; or e) a charity operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation; or f) a non-profit organisation operating in Australia, as defined in the registrant’s constitution or other documents of incorporation.

2. Domain names in the org.au 2LD must be: a) an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s name; or b) otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant.

Jem
Don't confuse .me and .me.uk - two different extensions. :)
ErrantX
meh no real difference. If he is uk based then .me.uk is more likely to be remembered :)
Jem
If by no real difference you mean that one is a top level domain extension and the other is second level intended for personal sites, yes.. you're right.

I'm UK based - I'm more likely to remember .me or .co.uk than I am .me.uk

ErrantX
To joe public .me.uk is more memorable. I own a semi-popular domain which is accessed from the .co.uk, .me.uk, .me and .org variants. .me is barely used (in fact this is what we use as the advertising URL on certain sites - however we find people tend to use me.uk when revisiting via that intro method).

So by no difference I meant there is no real difference to the UK public between the 2 (but me.uk is probably a safer bet).

(btw the site in question normalizes to .com so there is no infered bia by the "browse" url).

jacquesm
delicious changed their 'funny' name to delicious.com, the old one is simply a redirect now.

It may have helped them in the beginning but it seems that there must have been some detrimental side effects in the long term or I'm sure they would not have switched.

jacquesm
I think it would depend greatly on the kind of service you are going to offer.

If you mean 'trust' to stand for 'comercially trust' then I think the answer is no, simply because it is different. We started out as a .nl but within days it was clear that if we were to have any sales at all it had better be a .com, or people simply aren't going to pull their credit cards.

If you mean 'trust' to stand for 'are they going to put their data in to your site' then I think that that effect will be a lot less, and once you've built up a user base it will fade. del.icio.us is a nice example (even if it does still have the .us in there, and they eventually changed over to delicious.com).

Personally, for any commercial website I'd use nothing but a .com, unless it was targeted to a specific geographic location, then I'd use the domain for that country instead.

Tichy
I wouldn't worry about trust, but I think people will definitely forget about the .me and just try .com instead.

For del.icio.us they also bought delicious.com eventually...

mdasen
I think you'll be fine. The issue usually isn't trust. The issue is more often that people will go to your-name.com and not see the site and give up - no matter how much you tell them to go to your-name.me. Make sure you have both your-name.com and your-nameme.com so that you can redirect those to your-name.me if you're going to go this route.

I don't think trust is as big a factor (unless you're asking for credit card numbers) as them typing the address correctly.

Jem
I've not had problems getting (and keeping) users on a .me; but I'm not selling anything. I also have a fairly young audience (14-18 primarily). I'm sure both of these things have an effect.
matwiemann
If you have a service for the tech-savy audience this shouldn't be a dealbreaker - actually it may be more exotic/interesting to some.

If you want to cater to a broader audience - a .com may be better.

vaksel
I would try to avoid it. Top level domains are better performers
olifante
Domains are becoming less relevant as more and more users just google the name instead of typing in the address. Choose any non-obscure domain name with one of the common TLDs (.com, .org, .net, .me, .eu) and you should be fine.
whatusername
yes - but then you need some funky google-fu so that when users google for www.yoursite.COM they get directed to www.yoursite.NET

The .com is still the best option

streety
If: 1) You can secure the domain <yoursite>me.com and 2) It helps with your marketing

I would say go for it.

hellweaver666
Thanks for all the feedback guys - I think I'm going to operate the site on the .me primarily but make sure I have the .co.uk .com and .me.uk point to the same place just in case.