Question about .net

[Doug]

My friend and I have a really funny idea for a website but the problem is the .com name is taken. It isn't being used, it is just a white page that says go away so somebody is just sitting on the domain. My question is, how much less attractive is a .net name or should we try to come up with a different .com name.

[ozgression]

It depends, really. I came up against a similar problem a little while ago and made the decision to go with the .net because it was still a decent domain and there weren't really many good .com alternatives left.

[michael_gersitz]

.net is not bad at all anymore...

[deronsizemore]

Maybe I'm way off base, but I don't think the .nets are all that bad. I mean eventually you'd think the .net's would have to gain in value when all of the .com's are gone, right?

[Doug]

Thats kind of what I was thinking. Plus the .com is a useless version of the name anyway so it wouldn't take away from the .net at all.

Thanks for the replies.

[Cutter]

Yeah, the biggest issue with .nets are that you often end up sending type-in traffic to the .com. Same deal if you got my-cool-website.com, some people start going to mycoolwebsite.com.

You said that the .com is a useless version of the name; I don't know specifically what this means but it should be ok. I'm guessing its something like del.icio.us. Those guys aren't losing any traffic to del.icio.com

[etech-martin]

.com is universal domain extension. It brings traffic across the globe. However, I think it is difficult to get unique name for .com domain. I would suggest you should go for .net domain extension. It is also good and becoming popular now a days. See our domain extensions are also .net ;)

[Doug]

It is useless because the .com version of the site is just a white page that says "go away," which means if a person types that in by accident then they will know they are in the complete wrong place. The more I think of it now, the more I am seeing .net names anyway. I'm pretty sure the site will do fine with .net.

[Hylo]

As there are only a limited number of quality .com names out there (and a high cost of getting them off anyone sitting on them) I can see .net becoming almost as valuable as .com over the next couple of years, definitely more so than .info or some of the other extensions available.

If you look up at the address bar above I wouldn't think it's done Chris too much harm on here.