There has been a tremendous amount of publicity for the new registry and I think it’s safe to say it probably is the most successful new (new again) tld launch in quite a while. Most likely the the most popular new tld there ever will be. From this point on it’s I think the new tlds are going to fight an uphill battle of popularity. Time will tell the true value of dot Co but there is no doubt that Lori Ann Wardi, the director of marketing, has done an amazing job.
Not counting her uncanny ability to see the value of advertising on my blog, she seems to have gotten the dot Co name printed and published in every corner of the domaining world. SparkPr did an excellent job making sure any and all questions were answered so that the media (I’m not sure I qualify as media) could continue to write new articles. If anything is to be had out of this, the domaining world has a group of people that know how to introduce a product and set the standard of domain product marketing. The timing of the Overstock sale was brilliant. Data such as “100,000 domains registered” let domainers know “hey everyone else is doing it, why aren’t you?” The pre-register hype was built up to the point that even if you didn’t want a dot co, you felt like you should at least try and get one. It’s like seeing a long line in front of the store. You have no idea what they are selling or giving away but you want to get in line to find out.
I didn’t get most (or any) of the names I was looking to get but most of them were held back for later auction. Names like landscaping.co and gardening.co are names that are probably out of my price range anyway but obviously names I would have liked to have. I stuck to trying to get names that were generic and worked well with the word company behind it. I, like the the people at dot CO, realize there is some value in the typo but was trying to focus on finding domains with the idea of dot co as company.
So have you checked Whois.co to see if any of the domains are yours? If you don’t mind sharing, I’d love to hear what names people went for and which names they landed.
Just my view but I don’t believe the average non-domainer is going to look at .CO as .COM. IMO they will say, “What is that?” Then it will be like trying to sell a .Info or .TV which don’t have as much public acceptance. Actually I would prefer either .Info or .TV over .CO.
Has anyone got active .co domain from GoDaddy yet? my 2 domains are still pending.
Shane, since your a fellow Illinoisan I’ll share a few.
Preface, I’m an Illinois Realtor and a GeoDomain collector:
SanFranciscoRestaurants.co
LasVegasRestaurants.co
BostonRestaurants.co
ParisRestaurants.co
BransonHotels.co
RioHotels.co
ChicagoCondos.co
There’s just something exciting about new extensions 🙂
Tim,
So very nice ones in there. I forget you live in Tinley Park. I’m originally from Saint Charles IL and I own StCharlesIL.com. I need to get it developed
I just bought domain names that will complement my mini sites.
My Real Estate office is in Tinley, I live in Downers Grove, Il. and Valparaiso, Indiana.
.co really stands alone. co has been around for 400 years or more! It’s really easy to hype an extension that has a history….unlike .mobi or.tel or blah, blah, blah. Yeah there is relevance there with cautious optimism. Not the second coming but….
i tried to get a number of names from a number of sources. Clearly, Enom won out. Never saw a dribble from Dotster or Network Solutions or even Godaddy. Was very surprised to see Pool.com, in the guise of Pool Trust , had secured a few domains through my.co (as a resller) including Calgary.co, intelligence.com and a lot more. The fact Pool.com got Calgary.co through my.co doesn’t sit well with me since I am Canadian and Pool.com is a Canadian outfit with companies around the globe and that their rights to general availability should be limited by the fact they are holding the landrush auctions. Its like the person who got KPC.com…what kind of coincidence is it that he is from Kuwait? Kinda funny when you have 6 registrars trying to register the same name at the same time…
Maybe pool.com should learn to control themselves a little more. These registrars make lots of money and i don’t see the point why they are trying to undermine rhe general public by procuring premium names when they are trying to act as an auction house for that same extension. Why not spread the wealth around a bit?
This is such a ridicuous conflict of interest it would even make the well-worn politician puke. Such a conflict of interest in general…
Great, I’m Pool.com, i’m now holding landrush auctions and I have a hand in getting names in general orders…great…great. But pool.com is becoming known for this. Cite the .asia case where they were buying the most premium domains through a foreign country registered company and holding auctions for .asia at the same time. …..great….great. This time they went after 2nd tier name so not to seem so obvious…great…great.
On another note, I did manage to get a few goodies in the art realm and in Spanish (which is better than anything with .co).’
Thanks always Shane for the candid comments.
All of my pre-ordered domains ( about 200 ) are still under ” pending general availability rush ” at NameJet. And some domain names from Landrush ” in process” at network solutions. I haven’t received any emails yet telling me about an auction or if i was lucky enough to be the only order for a name…. I don’t know how long this will take since they got over 100,000 applications to review and put in order…..
“There’s just something exciting about new extensions ”
Yeah…..until you get around to renewals and realize you made no money off the domain in the last year and nobody wants to buy them anymore.
LOL……some folks buy domains on notions such as, “I like them”, without thinking for a second if someone else does or how they could ever earn any money with those.
I think most will be a loss except for category killer domains like Diamonds.co.
Just look at www domains without the dot…..the traffic is not there unless you can get them on domains with really high traffic. Also, www traffic is dying off every year and the same will be true with .co and has been even before the extension was created, meaning the typo traffic was there even before the .co extension resolved. It’s been dying off too…..you can count on that.
Antipas,
If you had that many applications at namejet, you were one of the lucky ones. Enom rode home with the spoils in this one. Go to your account now and you will be able to see updated status. Like Shane said, you will be able to see current status at whois.co also. But Enom is an exception because of its auction format so don’t expect exact results from Whois.co for enom. I wouldn’t count on NetSol for anything special here.
Tim,
Everything is dying…so? Something must be living in that case….LOL
Antipas….right you are…. the .com is living. 🙂
Tim, can i get an email of yours, i have 2 geo+realtors domains doing nothing, maybe you can use’em
I got a couple of .co, nothing great. Had my preorders in but had the wrong creditcard, so I missed out.
The more I think about this though, the more I think it is a blessing in disguise. The reality is, this will just drive the value of .com.
Put it this way, if someone is going to pay $10k for a .co, I’m guessing the majority of those people would much rather have the .com
So in my opinion .co is just a poor mans .com and this will further increase the value of .com
I think it’s not such a bad thing if .co drives the value of .com, especially if you have both portfoloios.
“Realtor” is a trademark. 🙂
Realty is not. 🙂
I don’t know why you’d want to sell me domains anyhow. I don’t buy from domainers……ever. Nor do I sell to domainers……ever.
Not good business. 🙂 End users is where it is at.
I did not reg any.co names and do not think I will be doing so unless they take off… going to sit back this time
I pre-registered many .co domain names with Goddady but I only got one with godaddy. Disappointed with godaddy. Most of .co names I owned came from enom.com.
Amaericanflag.co
Bobblehead.co
Thermometers.co
Bibliography.co
Tim, just shoot me an email, i will explain everything. I know what a trademark is.
Hi,
I got visitors.co, saturdays.co and silly.co
Are they worth anything?
Thanks
I preordered for general release – so I missed out on the best of the best, but overall, I should be in good shape if this relaunch makes dotCO a serious contender:
3dCamera
3dCamcorder
3dVideo
AnaheimHotels
BedroomSets
ComputerSpeakers
DiningChairs
Dishwashers
Drapes
FloorLamps
Headboards
HouseRentals
Kennel
LedFlashlight
LedLight
LightBulbs
LuggageSets
MiamiBeachHotels
NewMovieReleases
Quinceanera
SellBooks
TableLamps
WirelessSpeakers
WomensDresses
Marin
Sonoma
(imho .co is a great stand-in for “County”)
The regs are a bit product heavy because that’s where the new content rich (non-parking) portals seem to perform the best.
I had applied for a 3 domains which are still pending application through godaddy.. not sure why.
these were ordered during the land rush phase. If I get any of them it will be cash in time.
anyone else still have applications pending ?
Still a waiting game for me.