Comments on: Do URLs matter anymore?

With search boxes becoming increasingly the first place people go to find anything, does it really matter what your URL is?

[jimofoz]

I still type in a lot of URLs. The annoying URLs are when they need www.blah.com instead of just blah.com .

[jsibelius]

CTRL+Enter puts the www and the .com around the rest of the URL for you. For those who hate all that extra typing.
As for the story itself, getting your business name known is a lot more important than your URL. You don't want your business to be called Green Grass and have the website be www.supercheapurl.com, but it's probably okay to have greengrasslawnworks.com or something like that. People will still be able to tell it's you, but they're remembering YOU, not your URL. The only business where it really is more important to have a memorable URL is a web-only business. If you have a bricks-and-mortar presence, YOU are more important than your URL. People know what Google is and they can find you.

[simonjoker]

I think search is a bigger innovation than most people realize. If I don't remember an URL I'll type a description in my location field (which is set to function also as a search field - for Clusty.com) and if Firefox doesn't complete the address, Clusty will give me the link.

In the same way, I find most documents on my computer most quickly through Beagle - it almost doesn't matter any more where a doc actually is on my hard drive, even though I still have a very organized system of folders set up.

[GarbageNames]

Are you Serious?

The title of this article should be ...Is CNET relevant anymore?

I realize the writer does not work for CNET but the idea that they allow such uninformed and ignorant writers to write about things they know nothing about is amazing.

If you feel good generic names like kitchen.com or radio.com are garbage names and non core assets. Please contact me and I will be happy to work a deal to buy these names from you at a much higher price than $10 a name like JustGoGetADifferentNameForLess.com.

I have $250,000 dollars waiting to be spent on these type of names. Please contact me at steven (a t) garbagenames.com

[Drewbert2]

"Indeed, in Japan, a country so often so clever about these things, the trend in advertising is not for companies to slap their URLs three feet high in the bottom right of the ad--it's to have search boxes with suggested search terms."

I guess you didn't bother reading the comments to that blog post you linked to.

The MAIN reason they do this in Japan is that the majority of people over there are not comfortable enough with the Japanese language - when written using latin characters - to remember a URL and type it into their mobile phone.

Quoting comment #9 off that blog:

"It's funny that it takes a trip overseas to realize how ethno-centric the Internet's technical structure is. What the Japanese are doing is pretty much what Americans would be doing if the Internet were invented by Japanese and Apple's website (for example) was ??????? instead of apple.com."

Also, if you were paying attention to ICANN's recent meeting in Sydney, you would know that the Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Arabic communities (among others) are SCREAMING OUT for the ability to type URLs 100% in their native character set. Hopefully ICANN will FINALLY launch these early in 2010 and Japanese businesses will no longer have to rely on suggesting people search for their brand and hope that they still have #1 ranking - or spend lots of their budget on PPC which I'm sure really upsets the SE's accountants.

[Drewbert2]

Some proof that URL's will eclipse the "search for us" syndrome in Japan very shortly -

Nissan Tida television commercials use IDN Japanese script URL's already...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhPSkQLyXH0

[idnd]

You couldn't be more wrong about the use of the search box in Japan, and domain names.
Check out this article: http://www.idndemystified.com/?p=692

[rurikbloodaxe]

Interesting article, but it is based on the "lack of ability" or "understanding" of a certain segment of the internet community. You can't say "urls" when you are really referring to what is called "domain names".

I saw a few comments, completely either ignorant or just jealous, calling people who own domains names "squatters." That's like renters calling homeowners "squatters". A domain name is a very important "brand" or "backbranding" for anyone in business online. Having a generic descriptive domain name, such as one that would define a carpenter's specific specialty and the geo location of his business, would be worth thousands of dollars to the carpenter that owned that "here's what I do, here's where I do it" brand.

I happen to buy and sell domain names. I buy them from people who already own them, or I register them new from the registrar, such as Rebel.com. I have sold domains to scientists, professors, corporations, small businesses, professionals from all walks of life, even a few musicians. The average price for an "aftermarket" (already owned) generic descriptive domain name that is longer than one word, is from $250 - $5000. I sold many thousands of domains between these prices. Many others sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars or even millions.

As far as "backbranding", that is the process of marketing your product or service online by offering it up as a generic domain name phrase, such as "books.com" or "educationlottery.com". You aren't going to tell the companies that bought these domains that they are losing money on their domains, because they aren't.

Here's the interesting answer to your question:

Not one of my domain buyers wanted their money back, or wanted to return the domain they bought. They've used these domains to brand their products and services, made them memorable, pointed their domains to their websites. They advertised them on TV, radio, magazine, newspaper and even the internet search ad services, such as Google's Adwords.

You hit on a true oddity in online branding which I found interesting because you noted it, and it is a rare but flawed concept. I have a client who has domains that fall into the "Japanese" language .COM area, and it is true that for years, Japan internet marketing was based on "search term" suggestions.

However, using "search term suggestions" has become an outdated and confusing method which returned too many competitor's websites in the search results. No company could "own" the specific search terms defining their products or services, so if you looked up "petyohin" ("pet supplies"), you would get hundreds of results, all from different companies. But what if you were selling to the Japanese market and you owned "petyohin.com"? Advertising/marketing this domain brings the consumer to exactly what they are looking for. So the attitude in Japanese marketing is quickly changing more towards "generic descriptive domains". Why? Because owning the domain and promoting it takes the consumer straight to the domain owner's website, instead of bringing up a list of hundreds of competitors.

A domain name is truly an "appreciable marketing asset". It works for you daily, nonstop, and appreciates in value depending on the demographic, competitive trends, and how long you've promoted the domain. In certain cases, the domain name itself became more valuable than the company's total assets. Ironic, isn't it?

For those who think domain "investors" are "squatters", go ahead and come up with a domain name that is descriptive, generic, and maybe geo-specific, see if it or a variable is available on a registrar, buy that domain new, and maybe a few others, and then just build them out, or point them to your own websites. Either way, if you own those domains and one or more turns out to be valuable, and someone someday offers you $10,000 for it, I guarantee you will not call yourself a "squatter". (BTW, a "cybersquatter" is someone who buys trademarked variations of domains. They are not accepted nor approved in the domain industry).

Thanks for the great article!

[8oooo]

"Indeed, in Japan, a country so often so clever about these things, the trend in advertising is not for companies to slap their URLs three feet high in the bottom right of the ad--it's to have search boxes with suggested search terms."

The problem with this is that your ad agency (Dentsu or Hakuhodo) has to pay Yahoo Japan the big yen to ensure you show up as #1 for the search term. Otherwise you risk a competitor launching a sneaky SEO campaign after your advertising is all designed and paid for.

I don't think the U.S. search engines are even open to selling guaranteed #1 slots anyway, so it's really risky to use search in the U.S. as your "address."