I did perform the check, oakbridge.com was taken, oakbridge.ca was available so I grabbed it. I looked at a number of potential business names and every one of them either had an existing site with the .com extension in use or it was owned by a cyber-squatter.
The .ca extension has become accepted for business use in Canada. We have amazon.ca, yahoo.ca, apple.ca, etc. which are all respected by Canadians but I was curious to see how the rest of the world looked at a domain that used a .ca. I look at a domain that has a .uk or a .au top-level domain and I don't bat an eye unless it is for a company that I would expect would be in the U.S. One response that I received off-line had the comment that "Unless you are a truly global operation, or a US operation, a .com domain suggests to me a sharp operator preoccupied with the unseemly grab for dot com real estate." Well I'm not a 'truly global' operation, nor am I a U.S. operation although I do business in the States and I do want to appeal to potential customers in the States. I have considered taking oakbridgesolutions.com as a second domain and combining the two. Many Canadian companies have done this although they typically have both the .com and .ca for the same domain name. One other comment that I received said that it really doesn't matter what top-level domain is used, it is the domain itself that is what people will look at. Personally I think that there is some truth to this especially as the number of available .com names dries up (it's pretty poor now) and the acceptance level of the new top-level domains grows. The question will become which is going to appeal to the target market, a long-winded or unrecognizable domain name with a .com extension or a easily identifyable domain name with a dot anything else? Thanks for your comments Ben, Steve Smith Oakbridge Information Solutions Office: (519) 624-4388 GTA: (416) 606-3885 Fax: (519) 624-3353 Cell: (416) 606-3885 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.oakbridge.ca > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:owner-witango-talk@;witango.com]On Behalf Of Ben Johansen > Sent: November 7, 2002 1:36 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list witango-talk > Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: OT - Business Name Change > > > Hi, > > Please don't take this wrong, but why didn't you check to see if your > proposed name was available in .com prior to changing it? > > The .com is just ingrained in peoples mind as the main domain extension > for the company's main site. In IE Browser you can just type the name a > then press ctrl-enter and it will fill in the http:// and .com around it > for you. > > Now the other extensions are fine, it is just going to take more > effort/advertising on your part to get people come to the .ca > > Hey this is just my opinion ;-) > > Ben Johansen - http://www.pcforge.com > Authorized Witango Reseller http://www.pcforge.com/WitangoGoodies.htm > Latest downloads & List Archives @ http://www.witango.ws > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:owner-witango-talk@;witango.com] On Behalf Of Steve Smith > Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 6:24 AM > To: Multiple recipients of list witango-talk > Subject: Witango-Talk: OT - Business Name Change > > I have recently changed the name of my business (the old name had some > problems associated with it) and I'm finally getting around to changing > my > subscriptions. Nothing else has changed, just the name of the company > and > the domain name. > > Unfortunately the oakbridge.com domain was not available so I took the > .ca. > I am interested in hearing from the non-Canadians (off the list please) > with > regards to their impression of seeing a company with something other > than a > .com domain. I'm looking for both negative and positive feedback. > > Thanks, > > Steve Smith > > Oakbridge Information Solutions > Office: (519) 624-4388 > GTA: (416) 606-3885 > Fax: (519) 624-3353 > Cell: (416) 606-3885 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Web: http://www.oakbridge.ca > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body > > ________________________________________________________________________ > TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body > ________________________________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: send a plain text/US ASCII email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe witango-talk in the message body
