Ask HN: your thoughts - .net domains o.k. or unprofessional?

4 pointschristofd16y ago9 comments

I don't see too many YC companies with a .net domain. Although when asked, most say that it doesn't matter. Is a .net domain a 2nd rate mark?

9 comments

9 comments · 7 top-level

mikeryan16y ago· 1 in thread

Its not second class but it's likely bad from a marketing perspective.

When you tell someone the name of your company they're going to go to .com first - and if you don't own that its going to look strange.

The real exception are sites which make creative use of country code domains like bit.ly or del.icio.us

Soupy16y ago

I agree, I would personally try to go with a .com simply because it is the first thing people are going to try. It's simply habit. I've been following the recent trend of country code domain usage and I believe that these are an exception to the rule IF the country code is somehow used in conjunction with the site name. People seem to remember this distinctly and disconnect it from the .com altogether solving the issue.

andhapp16y ago· 1 in thread

I would personally not buy .net for the reasons mentioned in this thread already. Similarly, I would not have hyphens or any funny spellings in the address either. Just keep it simple, if your company is called Yahoo then yahoo.com should be where people can find about you.

christofdOP16y ago

Yahoo! was initially a funny spelling before people got used to it. Same with the word Google (before 1999 I would have not known how to spell that).

clemesha16y ago

Recently I overheard some "non-techie" people discussing a university website, I looked over one of their shoulders, and they had written down ".edu.com". Point is, people are very familiar with the .com tld.

That said, it probably depends on your audience - if you have a great site or cater to a more tech-minded audience, it'll probably make less of a difference.

movix16y ago

Personally I rate domain hacks, especially perfect ones like last.fm. I think think the dominance of the .com should be challenged, partly because how many .coms are genuine businesses, i.e. do they make any cash, or do they just lose it hand over fist - shouldn't there be a .fail TLD ?

I know there's lot's of issues with hacks like this, but still think they're worth exploring and are a neat way of bypassing the speculative purchasing of .com names.

Try www.domaintyper.com for some neat domain name choices.

redorb16y ago

.net is 2nd rate unless you are a 'network' or ISP .. other than that - go for a .com

satyajit16y ago

When you have .net, you need to market your site with .net on it, else all the traffic meant for you is going to go to .com. Perfect example is Box.net - they have made .net as part of the branding.

bgnm200016y ago

in my opinion yes - solely for the fact that people will almost always try .com first.

however, devver.net (from the techstars incubator) has a .net, so thats not to say it isnt done.

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