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Workforce.com: The danger of not owning the “best” domain for your company

by — Policy & Law 10 Comments

Confusion when someone buys the better domain.

Logos for Workforce.com and Workforce Software

Workforce Software provides workforce management software using the domain name WorkforceSoftware.com.

For decades, the shorter Workforce.com domain was used by Workforce Magazine to deliver human resources news.

But last year, a competitor to Workforce Software acquired the publisher of Workforce Magazine. It then changed the use of Workforce.com from human resources news to promoting its own workforce management software, rebranded as Workforce.com.

Suddenly, Workforce Software had a big problem: confusion.

It didn’t have the best domain for its business, and now a competitor was using the best domain.

Workforce Software filed a cybersquatting complaint under UDRP against Workforce.com and lost.

The confusion is real. For about a minute while researching this case, I wondered if Workforce Software had acquired Workforce.com at the last minute. Take a look at their logos in the image. They both have lowercase logos with a blue icon in them. The icons are fairly similar but flipped.

This is not a case of cybersquatting, though. It’s another example of not owning the best domain for your company and having it come back to haunt you.

I usually tell people that if the better domain is currently in use in a non-confusing way, you’ll be OK registering the second-best domain. I urge caution when the best domain is just a parked page that might be sold to someone else.

But in this case, even though Workforce.com was being used in a non-infringing way, it was sold.

It reminds me of a similar issue a friend ran into. He registered a domain in the form exampleSoftware .com, just like this domain. Then someone bought example .com to market a sex toy. His friends called him up, saying they didn’t realize he had gotten into that business.

It will be interesting to see if Workforce Software takes this issue to the courts. While it’s not cybersquatting under UDRP, there might be a trademark issue. Then again, Workforce is a very generic word to use as a brand for workforce management software.

More and more companies are using new TLDs

by — Uncategorized 33 Comments

Registration numbers games are masking actual use.

Big companies might prefer .com. Most people might choose .com. But there’s another trend I’ve seen over the past year that shouldn’t be overlooked: more and more companies using new top level domains.

It’s a shame that some new TLD operators played games with registration numbers when new TLDs launched. The inevitable decline in registration numbers when those domains dropped is masking what I believe to be a steady increase in end users registering and using new TLDs.

I see this a lot at my PodcastGuests.com service. People choose domains like .show and .live for their podcast websites. I spoke to a podcast company the other day that uses a .audio domain. When I searched for virtual event companies this month, I saw domains ending in .events and .live.

What was once a once-a-month occurrence became once-a-week to now once-a-day.

So much has been lost in the debate over .com vs. new TLDs. .Com stalwarts said new TLDs didn’t have a place in the ecosystem. New TLD promoters said the domains were better than .com.

Neither is correct in 2020. The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Consider the millions of domain registrations this year. A business looks for its ideal domain. If it’s in the U.S., the registrant likely starts by looking for .com. If they don’t find what they want, they might consider an aftermarket domain. A subset of people decides to use a new TLD instead.

Thus, there is a growth curve for new TLDs. It’s not a hockey stick like some people predicted. But it’s there. Actual use by actual end users will increase over time. Slow and steady, but up and to the right.

Your domain name can hurt your credibility

by — Uncategorized 10 Comments

It’s OK to not have the best domain. But at least choose a decent one.

We talk a lot about how a great domain name gives a company instant credibility.

As an example, entrepreneur Jason Calacanis recently said:

When people see a great domain name like robinhood.com or calm.com, this inspires people because it’s hard to get those domain names. It’s hard to have the one-word domain name and it makes you look like you have a serious brand.

I’d argue the inverse is also true: if you have a horrible brand, your business loses credibility.

There are plenty of good domains out there that businesses can acquire for a few thousand dollars. These are respectable, professional domains. They won’t give their users instant credibility like Calm.com and Inside.com do, but they also don’t look bad.

Then there are domains that make a company look fly-by-night.

I recently evaluated online event platforms (for something unrelated to domains). It’s imperative to choose an online event platform that won’t disappear the night before your event.

A lot of virtual event platforms are, not surprisingly, new. Some have chosen bad domains that make them hard to trust.

Consider Run The World. By all accounts, it has some great customers. It just raised $10 million.

Its domain name is RunTheWorld.today.

I don’t have a problem with companies using new top level domains. It can make sense. But taking a long name like this and tacking on two more syllables?

Other choices make more sense, like .live or .events.

I certainly scrutinized the company more given its domain choice. The social proof from its investors and customers was much more important given the domain.

Some other options are Crowdcast, which uses Crowdcast.io. That’s a pretty good company name. There’s also Hopin.to. I don’t love the fact that it’s on Tonga’s top level domain, but at least it plays well with the company name.

None of these companies need to use the domain events.com. But a bit more effort would go a long way.

GoDaddy files customer support-related patent applications

by — Domain Sales 1 Comment

Patents cover a better way to provide support.

Picture of customer support representatives in a call center with "Customer support" in black text on a red background

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) has filed a couple of patent applications (pdf, pdf) for an improved customer service experience. Whether or not you think it should be patentable, I sure wish companies would adopt this idea.

The patents have two main elements to them:

1. When someone is within their account at GoDaddy and needs to contact support, they can use a one-time passcode to validate with the customer service representative. The screen may display this one-time code or it could be texted or emailed to the customer. Ideally, they wouldn’t need to provide other supporting information to validate their identity to the representative.

2. When the user provides that code, the customer service representative will see the history of what the customer has been doing on the site prior to the support call. The patent gives an example of someone building a website and calling in for support.

My typical experience when calling a company for support goes something like this:

1. Enter my account number on the IVR

2. Answer an IVR question about what I’m calling about

3. Get transferred to live rep

4. Live rep asks me my account information AGAIN and what I’m calling about AGAIN

So GoDaddy’s system is an improvement, especially when you’re doing something like building a website.

As a GoDaddy customer, what I’d love to see is better logging. For example, why have the last three times I’ve added domains through the Domain Listing Service has the listing failed? I don’t even get an email from the company saying the process didn’t complete.

New site shows available one-word domain names

by — Services 4 Comments

There aren’t many available, it turns out.

Screenshot of oneword.domains

OneWord.Domains shows available one word domain names.

A new website helps people find available one-word domain names—and proves just how rare they are in popular top level domains.

Steven Tey, a data science student at the Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute, launched OneWord.Domains to show available one-word domains in a handful of popular extensions.

The site currently shows domains in .ai, .app, .co, .com and .io.

While the site certainly identifies some great domains, there is a big problem: many of the domains have registry premiums.

For example, Million.co is an excellent domain and is available for registration. But it has a registry premium on it and will set you back a few thousand dollars to add it to your portfolio.

You can register .io and .ai domains that are on the site at regular rates, but you’ll notice a dearth of good names.

In many ways, rather than helping you find good domains to register, the site is another reminder of how difficult it is to find great domains to register. Maybe a two-word domains site would be more helpful.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!