If you thought the domain name market is crowded it may get worse before it gets better. While the new .co domain name extension is suppose to give companies an alternative to the dot com, there may not be many great names available once the public becomes familiar with this new web address.
Demand is already heating up since public registration opened on July 20. The initial launch earlier this year gave trademark holders the right to register their brand names. Corporations such as Google, Gucci, CNN, Honda, McDonald’s and Nokia have purchased their respected dot-co names. Many are keeping the website inactive, or forwarding to their dot com name.
If you’re unable to obtain a dot-com web address, the .co is the new solution for branding your online presence. .Co is intended to serve the online presence of companies, corporations and commerce operations. “Usually when a company tries to register a dot-com, they find it’s not available and they go to a second-class extension or go to whoever registered the name and purchase it for hundreds if not thousands of dollars,” says Diego, chief executive of .CO Internet, the official registry operator for the dot-co Web addresses.
Before public registration began Overstock.com paid $350,000 for the O.co address. Overstock President Johanthan Johnson said they were trying to keep anybody else from obtaining the domain name and having to pay millions for the registration rights.
The significance of .co is that cybersquatters may have a new method to target trademark holders. Also known as typosquatters, they register domain names that are one letter off from the proper name to capitalize on web traffic. Examples of such instances might be Rubermaid.com instead of Rubbermaid.com, but now they can register Rubbermaid.co if it’s available.
What people are talking about.Story about alternatives to dot com.