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Comment by SkyMarshal | Hacker News Reader

Interesting shoutout at the end to COInternet and the now-global .co TLD. I wasn't even aware of that.

They're running quite a marketing campaign for the launch, anyone think it will rival .com's popularity?

.co is a huge opportunity for squatters. I can't tell you how many times I've typed "site.co" instead of "site.com" because I hit enter too quickly.

For legitimate uses, it's terrible. Imagine having to say "that's co NOT com... see-oh. no M!" every time you give out your domain.

> .co is a huge opportunity for squatters.

You can get them at under a $1 per domain too if you bulk order them. But since it's a pre-order, the people who pay $300 get priority.

I don't understand why they don't auction off the obviously desirable domains, like they're doing with the 1 letter domains.

It sounds like any domain that has more than one pre-registrant will be auctioned.

If you're the only one who request a particular domain, you get it cheap though.

i think that's $24.99 instead of $29.99 per domain if you register 21+, Not under $1 per domain.

This is ridiculous... why is this TLD being allowed? Its main use is going to be abuse, ranging from squatting to phishing (chase.co, paypal.co, anyone?).

> why is this TLD being allowed?

Colombia?

Yeah, I saw that. They should have been given .cl or something that's not a common misspelling of the de facto standard TLD.

.cl is for Chile.

.cb? Is there a rule against 3 letter country TLDs? (And, thanks for the info).

It looks like they're giving trademarks registered before 2008 first dibs, so as long as those big companies' IT departments are on the ball, they can pre-empt the squatters.

Yeah, but for a tax of $300. The big companies will doubtless all register theirs, but there are countless other sites that won't have the time/resources to do this.

I just type Ctrl+Enter to append the .com, works in chrome, ff and IE at least.

Doesn't seem like it'd be any better or worse than .cm

Not a chance. However, the traffic value of .co is huge. If you look at .CM as an example... potential for money making is very high. Hotels.co, yes please!

Yeah I was wondering the same thing...

After reading their website though, I got the impression cointernet.co guys are trying too hard to convince how much of a hit .co will be.

Also, isn't there a plan in the works to make everything and a kitchen sink as their own .tld?

I think you are referring to the custom TLD's, which are currently available, if you have the huge amounts of money to acquire one.

They are running a great campaign, the best one to date in fact. Even so, I feel that .CO is a quality extension in the same field as .TV and .ME which are doing fairly well.

Twitter was given T.CO at no cost as part of the .Co Founders Program. For more info and details on CoInternet the T.CO shortener and the E.CO live auction, I have covered the story here:

http://www.dotsauce.com/2010/06/09/twitter-t-co-domain-offic...

can somebody explain to me what the deal is with .co? I see that there is a 3-phase rollout, which seems aimed at maximizing revenue and protecting existing .com.co domains. What is the best site to register/apply for a .co domain name? I have searched to no avail (just found a few sites that seem dodgy)

I believe you can pre-register one at GoDaddy: http://www.godaddy.com/tlds/co-domain.aspx

The best site to register is Network Solutions, as they are partners of the enterprise that is .co.

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