Is it important to have a .com name when you start a web site or can other domains be just as sucessfull? If you have a website do you think you have more sucess because you are a .com or do you think you would have just as much success if you were a .info or a .biz site? Is it all in the name or does it all have to do with how you market the site.

Also, what if you pick a .biz name and someone already has the name registered as a .com. Can they legally come after you and take your web site away, or would they just be out of luck because they didn't register the name as a .biz or a .info first?

Also, what if the .biz site was more successfull than the .com site under the same name. Would this help or hurt the .com in the area of advertising and on the search engines?

I think that, for now at least, .com sites have an advantage. However, your choice is often between a long, complicated .com address and a short, simple, .biz address. The short, simple address has an advantage, perhaps enough to offset the .com advantage.


As for having a .biz name that someone else has as .com, they cannot come after you, at least in most cases. The entire point of .biz is that the possible (simple) names in .com are running low, and by adding .biz, the number of possible addresses is doubled.

I wouldn't think they could "come after you" at all. After all, a domain name like XYZ.com is as different from XYZ.net, info or biz as it is from PDQ.com. Does that make sense at all?

The only thing might be that people might not notice that you're biz, or info, and fumble around a bit before they reach you. What you want to be careful of is selecting the right domain provider. Don't sign any kind of an agreement or pay months in advance before you see how your site will go. In six months you might not be alive - you may have succumbed to the well known "dot com syndrome."

Catty