I'm the founder of a small Italian startup. In 2010 we developed a simple web app called http://urli.st/, in 2011 we got founded and we established a company (an italian SRL, similar to an American LLC). We worked a lot on the new webapp and we are almost ready to deploy it.<p>In 2010 the guy who owns urlist.com wrote me to "put the two together in some manner" (his domain <i>was</i> empty), I answered "no", he published on his domain a fake urlist page with our "about" in it. Now urlist.com il just a redirect to his "personal" delicious page.<p>It would be great for us to have the urlist.com domain but I don't know how much the guy will charge us. We do not have much money. I just <i>do not</i> want urlist.com to redirect to a delicious page.<p>Is there anything we can do to protect us?
You can either buy the .com or not worry about it.<p>By starting your company with a .st domain, you were making an implied statement that you weren't concerned with being mistaken for the .com version of your site. You were always going to leak a substantial portion of your traffic to urlist.com because that's the first thing anybody would think to type in to their browser when they heard your name. That's the world you set up for yourself.<p>Until this guy wrote you, you were (presumably) perfectly happy with that situation. Why then is it a concern today? That is, why is it suddenly worrying you that you don't control urlist.com, when it was never your intention to control it?
Honestly speaking I don't know how far this bookmarking idea will go - I don't mean to sound negative - it's just you're in a cowded space.<p>I'd go with what you've got now, and if your site takes off then you'll have the funds to get it.