All About .CO Domains (and GoDaddy’s Endorsement)

In the US, Go Daddy is well known for controversial Super Bowl commercials.

Some see the ads as distasteful. Others see them as harmless fun.

The latest campaign pushed the new .co TLD. So what is .co – and should you buy one?

Is .co a .com Alternative?

Despite a range of alternatives, .com is considered the primary domain TLD, and it’s still the most desirable.

Go Daddy is attempting to sell .co as an alternative to .com.

Other TLDs, such as .to, .us and even .at, were all pitched as alternatives or replacements for .com. But none really achieved the kind of awareness that .com has.

Also, there may be international complications. The .co TLD is owned by Colombia and, as the Violet Blue debacle in October showed, countries often have policies regarding their domains that can come back and bite registrars.

It seems unlikely that Go Daddy can swim against the tide with .co.

Go Daddy, like most registrars, offers packages of domain names; typically .net, .org and, sometimes, .info. Go Daddy is now pitching .co to be included in these packages, but it’s still going to be an outsider.

Thinking of Buying .co?

Before you buy up all of your domains as .co extensions, consider these points:

• .co is not new. It has been around for a long time, and there are already millions of established domains using the TLD domestically in Colombia.
• .co isn’t Go Daddy’s exclusive; lots of other registrars sell it.
• Other domain TLDs have failed to compete with .com. While .co may carve out a niche, history is against it.

Buy your .co to prevent cybersquatting, but don’t fret if it has already been registered.