What are your opinions of startups whose domains end in .ly, .tv or .io (or the many others)? Do they seem less legitimate to you or does it not affect how you view them?<p>If you do think differently of startups with whose domains end in something other than ".com" what are your reasons? Of the more popular TLDs, which ones seem the MOST legitimate (which are the "least bad")?
This question can be highly debated, but here's my take...<p>Yes, alternative TLDs are cool for us nerds, but it's horrible for any startup in the consumer internet space. Most "regular" people are not familiar or comfortable using them. More often than not, people will meet you with a blank stare when you tell them your website is example.io.<p>I once spoke with the founders of Vol.ly (since acquired) and they said their name choice was a nightmare. Their company was pronounced Volly, but every time they would have to take time to explain their domain was v-o-l dot l-y. This is annoying for the founders and instantly forgotten by the user.<p>There's a reason why most startups that begin with non-.com domains eventually switch if they gain enough traction.<p>All that being said, I don't think it's logical to purchase an expensive .com before your company proves its success (or raises an absurd amount of money). Take your time, and get creative to find a workable .com, or get a domain that will still make sense if you ever want to purchase the .com. For example, served.io (no disrespect to them) could never change to servedio.com.<p>However, if your not in the consumer space, then I think alternative TLDs are a much more viable option. You're not depending on eyeballs for your startup's success. And if your target market is technology folk, it's even better.
We are in the process of building our startup for QR codes at QR.io.<p>Being an SEO/SEM guy for years, I was worried about Google snubbing a .io domain in SERPs. In the two weeks that the new site has been online, we've floated up from page 50+ to about page 5 for our most-targeted keyword phrase (QR code platform).<p>You do lose the ability to tell Google that it a US-targeted domain in Google Webmaster Tools like you can for non-country TLDs.<p>We went with it because data payloads of QR codes can be quite small (especially in MicroQR codes) and every character saved is potentially an exponential gain where it comes to unique identifiers in a URL shortener.
Short 2-letter TLD's are practical and shorter.
.TV is cute. .LY is fun but could feel too "political" to some. Also - registering and relying the whole business to domain registered in unstable political jurisdiction could be prone to "blackouts" :)<p>I registered: C.GG a few years ago because i wanted to make my own shortener that would be very easy and fast to type on the keyboard (letter C and G are conveniently on the left side of keyboard, and dot on the right). But never got to use it though yet.<p>Each one has it's own reason!<p>Gleb
This question comes down to marketing, if the largest portion of your growth will come from search, social links, and web advertising then I think they are fine. They are really bad for national branding campaigns like radio and TV, where linking is not an option. It is interesting that Overstock is pushing hard for a re-brand to O.co. It's a great name, if they can pull it off and change consumer habits it will help other brands gain legitimacy in branding. As such though they have their work cut out for them.
Quite an interesting point, thanks for bringing it up.<p>I'd say most domain extensions other than .com, .net, .org (and .edu, .mil, .gov) would fall under either ccTLD (country-code TLDs) or vanity domain categories.<p>If memory serves me right, the first creative use of such a domain that achieved good visibility and large-scale commercial success was del.icio.us, or am I missing any others before that?
If your marketing is mostly online and you're targeting more geeks, then a cool foreign domain is fine.<p>If you're targeting the masses, and marketing in print, then you need something more obvious which is easy to phonetically speak.<p>Having said that, I've seen some awful "dot-coms" read out on TV ads and radio ads over the years...
Careful with .ly, the website you serve on a .ly domain name must conform to the laws of Libya. A URL shortener, vb.ly, was seized in the past for linking to adult materials: <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370354,00.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370354,00.asp</a>.
We use .me - first because it makes sense for our name and because it was available. At the time, the .com version was held by a broker but fortunately for us, he let it expire and we were waiting! We still use the .me but direct the .com
I use a .io for my startup (served.io), and the reason why I picked it is because of its "coolness" factor. No need to spend thousands or millions to obtain the .com at this time.