Internet Engine finally gets the domain name it wants.
When SEO firm Internet Engine started in 2000, it had a tough time acquiring the corresponding domain name. It ended up settling on Internet-Engine.net. But the hyphen and .net always bothered founder Thom Disch.
“Certainly everyone prefers having a top level domain of .com instead of .net,” said Disch.
Getting someone to sell a better domain name to him wasn’t easy, though. “No one was letting go of any of these names, period,” he explained. “I couldn’t even get a response from them. It was so frustrating.”
Until this year, that is. Internet Engine acquired InternetEngine.com this past month.
“I’d check once a quarter, and check some of the offer sites out there to see if any variation of Internet Engine would come up,” said Disch. “Finally, when I was checking InternetEngine.com again, I saw a notice on it that it might be for sale.”
Disch went back and forth with the owner several times before dipping into his savings at a price of under $10,000, but twice as much as Disch set for his ceiling.
In addition to the obvious navigation issues with a hyphenated .net domain, Disch was concerned about a competitor getting the domain name. Although that would violate the company’s trademark, the company realized it would cost a lot of money to go after an infringer.
Overall, Disch was happy with the process of buying a domain name once he finally got a response from a seller. “I just wish it was easier to reach out to [domain owners], especially when you have a true interest in buying the domain,” he said.
He had a trademark on “Internet Engine”? It was nice of him not to file a UDRP. He should be given a trophy.
1. Great to see end users chasing a domain that they want and willing to pay a good price.
2. Great to see that the owner is willing to sell at a price that most likely had a lot of profit built into it.
That’s a sign healthy industry.
@ JP – yes. It’s a design trademark, but that doesn’t stop many people…
@ Rob – agree, although it’s a shame people have so much trouble getting in touch with domain owners.
Interestingly if you enter InternetEngine.com, it resolves to Internet-Engine.net. I would have thought they would have done this the other way around now, and have the “old” dot net domain forward to InternetEngine.com
Marg,
If they did it the other way around, they would be throwing away all of the SEO power of the aged website internet-engine.net. Internet-Engine.net has a PR of 4/10, which is something not to be discarded. Being an SEO firm, they are taking the correct approach.
Hi Drew, I did think (after I posted) maybe that’s why they did this. Our company had to change URLs last year for re-branding and we did a lot of planning and a 301 redirect. Within a short time we were back where we had been in the SERPs, with the benefit of the better name.On the other hand they are the SEO folks, so they must know what they’re doing…
Marg – doing a 301 is an acceptable way to do this (although a lot more work). In this case I think they made a smart move. They have the domain for protection and email purposes…it really won’t matter much that the site people ultimately visit is the old .net.
I work on this stuff full time. I couldn’t agree more. Great post! Good stuff!