For most people/businesses the initial decision will be whether to opt for an international, regional or country extension. International extensions: Generally speaking international extensions should be used if your website is going to be of interest to people in different countries. The most common one is .com. It is also the most sought after and consequently it may be difficult to find what you're looking for. Other possible international extensions are: .net, .info,
.org and .biz. Originally these extensions were created to indicate whether the site was one representing an organisation (.org) a group of businesses (.net) etc. However the extraordinary demand for domain names has largely swept this aside. If you find a suitable domain name for your business, consider yourself lucky - no matter which international extension it comes in! Some country extensions - particularly from small nations that don't require many Websites, but seek revenue - have become very popular and are used in a similar manner as the conventional ones. These
include .tv (Tuvalu) and .ws (Samoa) The registrar for Samoa sells their extension .ws as .WebSite which can allow you to buy a suitable name that is not available in other international extensions. It is obvious why .tv is of interest to some businesses also. Regional extensions: These are currently restricted to .eu (European Union) however .asia and others are on their way. It is a condition that the owner of an .eu name either lives or owns a business in a member
country of the European Union. Country Extensions: Every country has the right to its own extension and most do. If your site will be mainly aimed at the population of a particular country, you may wish to consider that country extension. This will help you to be more readily accepted into the fold of localised search engines (search engine = virtual "telephone" book for websites). Many countries enforce conditions of local domain ownership. Usually it is either residency, and/or citizenship, approved business interest and sometimes 'proof of need'. Examples of
country extensions are: .us (United States) .ca (Canada) .fr (France) .ch (Switzerland) .au (Australia) etc. If you don't know the extension for your country, please ask us or check it out here:
Extension for mobile devices: There are about 4 times more mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) in use than Computers (2007). This coupled with the need to differently develop 'the look and feel' of a site when intended for a mobile device, required a reserved extension for this purpose. .mobi is the result. In view of the enormous advances achieved in mobile technology, we recommend to any Web user to secure their .mobi domain while still available! Conclusion: No matter which
extension you eventually settle on, it makes good business sense to try and acquire your name in other extensions as well* - particularly if your site is commercial - as otherwise someone else might be able to profit from your hard work and marketing. * These extra web names can then 'point' to your main website, thereby eliminating additional development and hosting costs, while ensuring you can be found on any of these extensions. To view a practical example, try DomainHoard.net DomainHoard.org DomainHoard.info DomainHoard.biz |
