Ask HN: .com, .co, .me does it really matter?
When registering a company domain name, does it really matter what domain you choose? Or are specific domain names really associated with specific types of sites (like .me for personal sites)?
7 comments
Yes, always try for the .com. Anything else is horribly confusing for non-technical people.
yeh, then norm is .com
anything besides that will just hinder users from getting to your site simply due to confusion.
i highly recommend simply doing .com
As much as I hate to admit it, the name can be as important as the product. You need something that is easy to remember so word can spread on it's own.
Realize that if you have a good name, some people will try to type the name .com no matter what you do. However, very few people type domains into their browser anymore so I would pick a better name .co or .me than a bad name .com.
Realize that if you have a good name, some people will try to type the name .com no matter what you do. However, very few people type domains into their browser anymore so I would pick a better name .co or .me than a bad name .com.
I literally tried about 200 different dot com names for our startup and they were all taken. I had some brilliant ideas. They were all taken. Even the weird ones I came up with were taken.
In the end I settled for something I wasn't 100% happy with. It was a dot com and quite relative to the business, but it wasn't catchy. At the point of registration I knew this would not be the final name. So I decided to stop wasting time fretting about a name and focus on the business and product. I know that at a later stage I will be able to get some clever creative team to come up with a great theme and name and a catchy dot com that encapsulates that theme / brand. So for now our site has a clean design with not too much branding, but will easily be able to apply the changes once the creative team work their magic.
In the end I settled for something I wasn't 100% happy with. It was a dot com and quite relative to the business, but it wasn't catchy. At the point of registration I knew this would not be the final name. So I decided to stop wasting time fretting about a name and focus on the business and product. I know that at a later stage I will be able to get some clever creative team to come up with a great theme and name and a catchy dot com that encapsulates that theme / brand. So for now our site has a clean design with not too much branding, but will easily be able to apply the changes once the creative team work their magic.
a mediocre .com beats a decent non.com
The only sites I can name off the top of my head with .me are:
about.me
threewords.me
I can't name any .co sites.
I had the opportunity to buy a perfect domain name with my country's domain code but I decided against it. It would be confusing for anyone in a different country.
Funnily enough, I got a domain I wanted years ago because the owner had let it expire so I am delighted!
I can't name any .co sites.
I had the opportunity to buy a perfect domain name with my country's domain code but I decided against it. It would be confusing for anyone in a different country.
Funnily enough, I got a domain I wanted years ago because the owner had let it expire so I am delighted!