Does .com really matter?

[CTS]

It doesn't matter as much as it used to. Most of it is psychological marketing anyway anymore.

BUUUUT,... a fair example:

Everyone knows about Overstock dot com and what they do.

Well, when new extensions came out, the CEO thought it would be really cool for the customers to use a real short name instead.

So they paid millions and changed their corporate name to "o.co" . A prized one letter domain name in the .co extension.

Short story shorter, they figured out in quick order that people were typing in "o dot com" which they did not own.

They changed their name back within months.

 

[Arantor]

That one in particular strikes me as kinda awkward - .co vs .com is prime real estate for trouble. But I’m not looking to use a .co, just to understand if I can/should push on with a good (+industry applicable) eight letter brand name where the .com is effectively dormant but I don’t own it, or whether I should come up with another name where I can get the .com.

 

[Bawse]

It does not matter, but it's usually better to own the .com. I think the . community extension is really good for forums, and I also use a . community domain for my site.

 

[Cedric]

I think the primary difference between .co and .com comes down to awareness and user behavior. Most people are naturally accustomed to typing .com because it’s the most widely recognized and established domain extension. While .co isn’t as well-known, which leads to less intuitive use by the general public