Domain Names... Which Ones?

[Mayo]

I have a couple of business-related domain names; neither Web site is up-and-running, but they are in active development and will go online this year.

I need to renew some of the domains and I am unclear on which ones to retain or not... I have tried to find information online about which top-level domains are important but I haven't had much luck.

I plan on keeping .com, .net and .org for both businesses.

I also have registered .biz, .info, .name and .ws.

I figure that I can safely delete .ws; I didn't know what I was buying when I registered it...

I am mainly concerned with preserving the integrity of my .com registrations and preventing any problems down the line.

Are there any suggestions and/or informational links that will help me decide? A few of these domains (.biz, .info, .name and .ws expire on 1/30/09 and 1/31/09).

 

[Xairbusdriver]

No real info but I think most people expect a business to have a ".com" address. We use ".org" for the church site. Of course, most browsers will automagically add ".com" if the user doesn't type it in. It's just the most common but I suggest it's also the most expected. The only reason I would keep the others would be to have them redirect users to the 'real' site at the ".com" (or whichever you choose as your main base) location.

Just to show you how little I know, the ".ws" is completely new to me! I suppose that stands for web site? Would be great to have registered "my.ws!"

[Paddy]

I'd keep the .com, the .net and the .org and have redirects to the .com on those names. (it's a simple thing to do at GoDaddy - not sure about other registrars).

I think the other names are not that important and I'd let them expire - people don't usually want a .name or .biz name if someone else already has the .com and .net. I know I wouldn't anyway!

[Mayo]

I read somewhere Way Back When that one should lock-up all the domain names that are variants of .com, but in recent years they have come out with so many... Since I privately register each domain it runs around $17/year per domain.

So you really think that .com. .org and .net are the only variations I need to be concerned about?

[Paddy]

Those are the only ones I worry about. You're not planning on becoming amazon.com are you? Actually, even they didn't nail down all the domains. Amazon.net is actually owned by someone else - though they have a redirect on it to novaone.net. Probably got a bit confusing with their own clients. Amazon.name isn't owned by anyone. They do own amazon.biz though.

[Mayo]

OK, I'm going to let them lapse...

I do use GoDaddy and everything redirects to the .com domains. In the case of my personal domain I only registered .com. (As far as I can ascertain my name is unique in the U.S.)

Thanks for the feedback; I saved around $75/year.

[Highmac]

I suspect Amazon has most major country domains too. We have Amazon.co.uk - and if I go on to Amazon .com it suggests I try .co.uk first  

[Paddy]

Yeah - amazon.com suggests amazon.ca to me. Obviously, they look at your IP address and make the appropriate suggestion. Interestingly, amazon.co.uk, amazon.de and amazon.cn didn't make that suggestion. (or if they do on the Chinese site, there's no Canadian flag accompanying the suggestion and I don't read Chinese!)