The Return of WWW.
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
www. will make a comeback with new top level domain names.
Type in any correctly configured domain name and you don’t need to include www. Technically www is merely a subdomain.
That’s why you usually see ads that just promote something like DNW.com instead of www.DNW.com. People know it’s a web address because of the .com.
I started thinking about this today when I was dropping my daughter off at school. I was behind a truck that had a URL with www on it: www.somename.us.
Was it necessary to include www because many people don’t recognize somename.us as a web address?
(Keep in mind that you are likely in the top .01% of knowledge about domain names if you’re reading this site. Most people don’t understand domain names.)
As hundreds of new top level domain names come online over the next few years I think we’ll see a resurgence in the use of www when people display a web address. If you just saw a truck that had great.food on the side you might not think it’s a web address — much like I did a double take when seeing att.jobs on a billboard.
www.great.food? People get that. Well, they’re more likely to get that than great.food.
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That’s a real interesting take on the situation. I never thought of it. And you’re probably right.
Makes perfect sence. I’m sure great.food just looks like some unfinished sentence to some. I’ve never liked the non-use of www. in advertising anyway.
Good post, but there is a lot more to it. Asking people to remember http://www.word1.word2 is totally mission impossible. If fact, asking people to remember word1.word2 is already mission impossible.
Word1Word2.com can work and even Word1Word2Word3.com can work when Word1 Word2 Word3 sequence makes logical sense. And people do not need to remember .com. Plus .com tells them it is website address.
Basically people are totally incapable of remembering where to put the dot, so any URL where you have to remember where to put the dot is totally useless in advertising and marketing.
It is the same problem with a dash and the same problem with non .com ending. 99 out of 100 people will always be confused with your URL.
Very true, the www. is very needed in those situations.
Excellent point Andrew, and this really hit the nail on the head:
“(Keep in mind that you are likely in the top .01% of knowledge about domain names if you’re reading this site. Most people don’t understand domain names.)
The most intresting aspect of the new TLDs is that they will show to what extent dotCOM has been hardwired into people’s brains. My belief is that it will be close to the opposite percentage you stated above.
I’m not so sure about this one, Andrew. I think people will be inundated with extensions and they’ll recognize it as an address without the www regardless.
In your example great.food looks like a typo since I am so use to seeing the .com. If I saw an ads and really interested in the product I might probably type in food.com. By the time I get home, I would probably have forgotten the subdomain. This is going to be interesting.
Thant’s a great observervation and totally correct imo
I think this is why .COM is ultimately so much more desirable.
By the time someone types …
http://www.great.food
…. they’re so likely to continue and type:
http://www.great.food.com
My fingers just naturally want to add the DOT-COM. And I think it’s an easy mistake for most people.
The guy with food.com is going to get a lot of free traffic.
Its been years Andrew but you finally nailed it!
I agree completely, good ob.
Interesting thoughts… And I think you’re right. For those people who aren’t too much into domaining it’s much easier to refer a http://www.xyz.com to a domain than xyz.com.