opinion King of the domains: .COM

[amplify]

The sentiment that the king of the domain name space is .com has been true ever since I started domaining around 2008. I personally like to keep a good balance of .com, well beyond anything else.

Why is .com king?​

Saw.com has a couple of reasons to make their case.

They mention history, which .com sure has. It was launched in 1985, a year before the World Wide Web. Along with .com, other top-level domains (TLD) that are descriptive such as .gov and .edu were also released.

The second reason mentioned as to why .com is the king of TLDs is memorability. If you are older to be fortunate enough to have a landline in your house and a cheap collect calling plan, you certainly had to memorize an area code, much like you have to memorize a TLD, and they both just became second nature.

Of course, much like fat fingering the wrong digits trying to dial grandma on the opposite side of the country, there were hiccups along the way for domains too. One of the most notable was the confusion behind a certain government site that had not-so-family-friendly content on the .com (see: history of whitehouse.com).

There is credibility with .com. It's so widely used and trusted that you almost have full credibility with the first approach from a .com email address over having an obscure gTLD. The article mentions that credibility is essentially inherited from Fortune 500 companies employing .com as their top-level domain of choice (even though some have their own gTLD like Amazon).

A .com domain will get more traffic. They state that more people would be willing to click the .com in search engine results. This is the only area where I will have to disagree and say that any TLD has the opportunity for capturing those clicks for as long as their site provides more value than the .com. On the other hand, and with learned experience, .com does get more traffic when it comes to direct requests/type-ins. I believe that people revert back to memorability and automatically affix .com to a search query and land on a website instead.

Do you think .com is king?​

Why or why not? And, what is the breakdown of your portfolio?

 

[shahed_sajid]

Another reason why .com is the king is, numerous people don't aware of the existence of other extensions. Many of them think the name of a website carries .com at the end and it has to be.

 

[akirlew]

It is clearly king. I have encountered employees and even business owners who have misquoted their own "non dot com" domain or email address as a dot com. It is what is engrained in our minds when we think of websites, at least in the US.

Others can certainly thrive, but they have to overcome what comes top of mind, which I would imagine costs more in marketing.

 

[clasione]

It's sort of funny, it is still king, just as much as it was 10 years ago when all of these new alternatives began to hit the market. It will likely still be king, 40 more years from now. I always said, the alternatives are 50 year bets, if they ever make it to the top.

 

[shahed_sajid]

Dotcom is king and maybe always will be but data shows that domination level when it comes to new registration is decreasing by every year. It's understandable as valuable dotcom names are already registered for sale or in use.

 

[Domainnature]

I have 90% of COM domains, so yeah I feel the King.
But anyway a non developed .COM without top content it's a Queen that awaits to be impregnated.

 

[jmcc]

There is credibility with .com. It's so widely used and trusted that you almost have full credibility with the first approach from a .com email address over having an obscure gTLD. The article mentions that credibility is essentially inherited from Fortune 500 companies employing .com as their top-level domain of choice (even though some have their own gTLD like Amazon).

That's missing a very important aspect. Use by the Fortune 500 companies is important but without the Mom and Pop usage, it would be just another gTLD. Big companies don't make a TLD successful. People make them successful. They use them and tell others that they use them. Those others often go and build websites on that TLD.

The problem with thinking that big brands are important for the success is this: people remember the brand and not the extension. Large brands and companies are important in the early phase of a TLD's market but if it doesn't get any use by small businesses and individuals then the TLD will begin to decline. If a TLD is lucky, and .COM certainly was, then it becomes widely used and people forget about the extension. This is because they have adopted it as "their" TLD and assume that every new website targeting them is in that extension. For the US market, that's the .COM. For other markets such as Ireland, it is the .IE ccTLD. For the UK it is the .UK ccTLD. For Germany it is the .DE ccTLD.

The rise of the ccTLDs really started when ICANN failed to act to stop Domain Tasting in the mid 2000s. People found that they could get the domain names they wanted in their local ccTLDs. Now, where there is a strong ccTLD, the numbers of new registrations each month is well ahead of those for .COM and the other legacy gTLDs. The .COM is still the top global gTLD but at a country level, things are quite different.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

It's sort of funny, it is still king, just as much as it was 10 years ago when all of these new alternatives began to hit the market. It will likely still be king, 40 more years from now. I always said, the alternatives are 50 year bets, if they ever make it to the top.

If the 2012 round of new gTLDs had launched a few years earlier when it was difficult to get a good .COM domain name then they would be doing a lot better today. The problem was that by 2009, much of the demand for these new gTLDs (alternatives) had disappeared. The market from ten years ago is almost completely different to the current market. The .COM is actually much more global in nature now. About ten years ago, it had not really gained traction in the Chinese market.

Regards...jmcc

 

[WarpedMind]

Just because there is a "best" doesn't mean that there are others that are "good". I agree totally though, .com is king.

To ignore the other extensions is a mistake, IMHO. The fact is, there's only a finite pool of quality names in .com (or any extension for that matter). There are certain extensions that make more sense and there are others that are trash. When used properly, these extensions can be used effectively. The key to success with nTLDs and gTLDs is to incorporate the extension directly into the branding. Otherwise, the assumption is that the name is a .com - again speaking to the value and the reason .com is king. For example, my domaining brand I plan to build out is Serious.Domains, not "Serious Domains". (You can bet I would have bought SeriousDomains.com if I could have.

Let's put it this way... when I buy a non .com name, if it's one I plan to build out, I also buy the name plus dotcom .com. In my "Serious.Domains" example, I also own seriousdotdomains.com - If the need to do this doesn't demonstrate that .com is truly king, I don't know what will.

 

[accurate]

.com will always be king.

 

[amplify]

Surprised that there are still so many good dot com names available for registration.

Got two just before bed last night at about midnight.

 

[accurate]

It is clearly king. I have encountered employees and even business owners who have misquoted their own "non dot com" domain or email address as a dot com. It is what is engrained in our minds when we think of websites, at least in the US.

Others can certainly thrive, but they have to overcome what comes top of mind, which I would imagine costs more in marketing.

Seen this before!

Probably done it too.

Surprised that there are still so many good dot com names available for registration.

Got two just before bed last night at about midnight.

Always good .com domains available when you know where and how to look.

 

[accurate]

Just because there is a "best" doesn't mean that there are others that are "good". I agree totally though, .com is king.

.com is king.

To ignore the other extensions is a mistake, IMHO. The fact is, there's only a finite pool of quality names in .com (or any extension for that matter).

There is so grab what you can.

There are certain extensions that make more sense and there are others that are trash. When used properly, these extensions can be used effectively.

Nahhh.

The key to success with nTLDs and gTLDs is to incorporate the extension directly into the branding.

People won't get it.

Otherwise, the assumption is that the name is a .com - again speaking to the value and the reason .com is king.

Yes!

For example, my domaining brand I plan to build out is Serious.Domains, not "Serious Domains". (You can bet I would have bought SeriousDomains.com if I could have.

Build out?

Let's put it this way... when I buy a non .com name, if it's one I plan to build out, I also buy the name plus dotcom .com. In my "Serious.Domains" example, I also own seriousdotdomains.com - If the need to do this doesn't demonstrate that .com is truly king, I don't know what will.

Everyone always want a .com.

 

[amplify]

I think after my initials in dot net transfer from the ROTD auction sale ($2000 loss, but that's my only loss of 2021 so I hope I can apply that to my stock gains as it's still under $3000 for the year? I'll get with a CPA there), I will have 99.9% com and 2 (two) .org domains.

I'm not playing ngTLDs. Slow and steady build of .com with great names.

 

[accurate]

I think after my initials in dot net transfer from the ROTD auction sale ($2000 loss, but that's my only loss of 2021 so I hope I can apply that to my stock gains as it's still under $3000 for the year? I'll get with a CPA there), I will have 99.9% com and 2 (two) .org domains.

That sucks you lost money. I wasn't impressed with the pre-marketing this year.

I'm not playing ngTLDs. Slow and steady build of .com with great names.

It's what sells.

 

[ecoracer]

I've 90 % .com's, some .net domains and one .be domain. I also believe .com is king and it's proven. GLTA!

Still i don't have any .io domains.

 

[base]

.com on the king of domains, I don't think there's any question on it, is there? I have a hard time picturing a one-word name that is any better suited to any other extension.

There are a couple exceptions like .org or .net because of their historical significance with "organizations", or "networks, techie" relation. ccTLDs are preferable in many instances too where there is a sense of national pride rather than an international branding appearance.

My own portfolio is very diverse and my approach is quality-preference versus quantity-driven. I believe we are what we eat, and the domains we end up seeing, visiting and using across the web can be very much in direct proportion to what we offer as sellers.