It’s not .com.
Every once in a while I see a .co domain name around town. One of my favorites is mow.co, which is used by a local lawn mowing service.
I was flipping through the Angie’s List magazine last night and saw an ad for a local window washing company. Something about the domain name looked funny:
I’ve never seen that before. They use a .co domain name, and to make it clear to readers that it’s .co and not .com, they put an / through an “m” next to it.
Joseph Peterson says
Clever.
And what’s the equivalent in conversation when someone mentions that name aloud? Probably “Sparkling Clean dot Co … remember, NOT .COM”.
torywatson says
Andrew,
Great find, thank you for sharing!
This may cause confusion with some viewers. Perhaps changing the font of the URL to the red color of the box next to it and leaving the “circle M” gray and black would improve the effectiveness.
IMO
Kevin Murphy says
Maybe Overstock should try this.
Joseph Peterson says
You know, I applaud their creativity. But shouldn’t a name be defined by what it IS without obligatory explanations of what it ISN’T?
Great find, regardless.
Kassey says
It just shows how much extra work you have to do if you use .co instead of .com. With .com, you don’t even have to mention it. Be default, people assume it’s .com.
Andrew Hazen mentioned in the following DomainSerpa interview that in TV commercials he had to add the tag line “dot info, not dot com”.
http://www.domainsherpa.com/andrew-hazen-couponsinfo-interview/
So .co will always remain as an inferior choice.
Domainer Extraordinaire says
The .com owner loves this.
Joseph Peterson says
@Kassey,
On the whole, I’d agree. But “always” is too big a word. I’d be content with “usually”.
Occasionally, .CO offers some distinct benefits. Andrew mentioned Mow.co. Similarly, although O.co wasn’t perfectly successful, single-letter .COs such as T.co do bring something to the table that .COM can’t — namely brevity.
When .CO is made part of the brand name itself, then I think it can work well. Yet backing it up with a matching .COM would be crucial.
Also, let’s not forget Colombia.
Kassey says
You are right, Joseph. There are always exceptions. I now remember the company Brit + Co branding itself on brit.co. It makes some sense. BUT, Colombia is the word that’s always on the back of my mind. Their government can change the rules. Art.sy is a good example. They had to move to Artsy.net last year when the Syrian government shut down the service for a while.
DonnyM says
Would be interesting to use StopSmoking.co? or quitsmoking.co with a no smoking sign at the end. This would work. I should charge for this advice.
Though I am only a .com man.
Ryan says
They are pointing out a negative within their marketing, It has clearly been a problem that their clients have gone to the wrong site, otherwise they would not go to such extremes.
JP says
Makes a good logo for .co IMO.
Snoopy says
I bet some will see that and think it is sparklingclean.com. There is really no way around this other than changing domains. They’e probably done this because of loads of people going to the wrong site and telling them about it. You can tell people till you are blue in the face not to confuse it with something else but in the end gravity is going to win out.
Ryan says
.co is actually going to be a big loser with the new gtld launch
Alan Aurmont says
Slashed M = no more Mess
Domainer Extraordinaire says
Once you’ve typed in .co you can’t help but add the m. I had to backspace creating this reply.
phil says
When will .com owners start highlighting the m on the end?
Tobias says
It’s ridiculous, I tweeted a similar find a couple of days ago: https://twitter.com/tobiasr/status/432582205140115457
ChuckWagen says
This would all be moot if only there was a .doh
kandyjet says
nice findings. very interesting.
digibulk says
It is effectively an advertisement for the .com! Bet .com owner’s happy for the free publicity!