Domain Name question

[shutterfire]

Ok I am ready to launch a web site and I have every thing done except choosing a domain name. The question is .com or .net the down side with .com is it would require a hypen(-) in the business name. which one is more user friendly and has the best visibility for the net?

[Flea77]

This is simple! Are you are commercial organization or a network? A network would be like a Internet service provider etc. I personally will not do business with, or recommend anyone who does not respect the suffixes intent. In other words, the local glass company around here uses a .net, I get my glass from out of the area to avoid doing business with them.

Allan

[scottbuckel]

From my experience the biggest downside to the .net is that folks do not remember the .net and they visit the .com site, hyphens are also difficult to remember. Sorry that I have no conclusive answer for you.

Scott

[Tom]

I would try to think of a business name with an available top level domain name with .com extension. Definitely would not go .net or anything else.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Flea77

......I personally will not do business with, or recommend anyone who does not respect the suffixes intent. In other words, the local glass company around here uses a .net, I get my glass from out of the area to avoid doing business with them.

Allan

That's kind of harsh IMHO. Some people have no idea what .com or .net means and depending on what the business is, they don't really need to know. They may even be the best at their profession.

My mechanic is awesome, but he doesn't even know his website without looking at his card. He just had one of the kids that help him out at his shop put it together.
Shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

That said, I would do what ever I could to get the .com over the .net.

[revjvegas]

I'm still waiting for .doh to come out.

[ngoduyviet]

Fairly simple solution if it was me. Get both, point .net to your .com or vice versa.

[Flores]

domain names are marketing now days, the old school convention of .com s being businesses only and .nets being providers went away in 2003!!!

Originally Posted by InterNIC

The .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org TLDs are open and unrestricted. Traditionally, however, names in .net have been used by organizations involved in Internet infrastructure activities and .org is frequently used by noncommercial organizations. .biz is reserved for use by businesses.

pick a domain name that people will remember, if it isn't a .com, so what? as long as they can remember enough of it for the search engines to find it, they will find their way to your site.

the critical part is what they find when they get there! Content is indexed everywhere, if you have properly tagged content, it WILL be found. if you have the best content in the world, but no one can find it, why bother?

[Steelsun]

As others have said, go .com, as everyone remembers Dot Com, and not dot net.
I hate hyphens too, but sometimes they are your only choice (I have several with hyphens).

[Gambit]

Originally Posted by Flores

domain names are marketing now days, the old school convention of .com s being businesses only and .nets being providers went away in 2003!!!

Irrelevant. Most folks think of .com first since that is what they're used to. There's .biz which is arguably even more "commercial" than .com, and .net isn't just for ISPs. If it's not a business you could think about .org. However, I completely, heartily agree with the below:

Originally Posted by Flores

pick a domain name that people will remember, if it isn't a .com, so what? as long as they can remember enough of it for the search engines to find it, they will find their way to your site.

the critical part is what they find when they get there! Content is indexed everywhere, if you have properly tagged content, it WILL be found. if you have the best content in the world, but no one can find it, why bother?

Understand metatags and set 'em up right so search engines will index you properly!

[Some Idiot]

.com and no hyphen

[sanmay]

Just keep it simple and easy for average Joe.

[shutterfire]

Gosh, you guys gave me a lot to think about thanks!

[w9ctm]

I can't blame you being concerned about the name you use. I too, had the same problem....

I looked far and wide before I chose mine, www.chuckmurphyphotography.com