Ask HN: What are your thoughts on .online domain name extension? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your thoughts on .online domain name extension?

2 pointsstanislavb7 comments

As I'm considering buying a ".online" domain name, I'd be happy to "hear" what's the opinion of people here about that domain name extension.

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I feel like anything that is not either ".com", your local country domain (".fr", ".co.uk"...), ".org" or a very trendy domain like ".io" is not really a great choice unless it combines well with the rest of the domain name to turn into your or your company/product's name. Most "non-standard" domains will look shady to inexperienced users, unless your target audience is niche / tech and most importantly not a customer, in which case they probably won't care about the domain in the first place.

Personally I look at websites this way, if it's ".com", ".org", or ".<country>" it's probably a business or organization, if it's ".io" it's probably a young startup, if it's ".net" it's probably old and not up to date/relevant, and if it's anything else it's either a blog or a scam.

I agree with this, except I don't necessarily think of .net as old. Personally whenever I get around to getting a new domain, I'm planning on it being ".io".

All my personal domains are .net. I prefer it to .com, as I think it rolls off the tongue better. I also think it sounds a bit more neutral than .com which always sounds to me like it should be a business and a few of my domains are just personal projects or non-commercial.

As regards .online, it always strikes me as a bit of a <whatever the opposite of oxymoron is>

Pleonasms! The following text contains 6 examples:

Dear John,

You have been invited to the president's birthday, please RSVP by post.

Attached you'll also find a PIN number. It's part of a free gift; true fact! Just use it on any ATM machine.

Best, Tim

PS: could you please bring some chai tea?

Thanks. Who said HN wasn't educational?

OK. I'll play:

1: Please RSVP 2: PIN number 3: Free gift 4: true fact 5: ATM machine 6: Chai tea

PS: PLEONASM sounds like a Spoonerism.

Yep :)

Thanks, this seems like a very good go-to guide on the art of domain choosing.

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