A few months ago I wrote about the world’s most dangerous country codes.
According to security firm McAfee, .cm is the most dangerous ccTLD because people frequently and incorrectly input .cm instead of .com. And they land on bogus web sites designed to capitalize on these mistakes.
Well, folks, get ready for another new typo-friendly country code: .co
Colombia owns the country code but has long deployed it along the lines of www.presidencia.gov.co or www.dell.com.co or panasonic.com.co.
This approach makes it next to impossible for someone inputting Panasonic.com to accidentally end up at Panasonic.com.co.
But what if you got rid of the .com?
Enter .CO Internet S.A.S — the registrar behind the new (old) domain. According to their web site:
Associated globally with the words “COmpany,” “COrporation” and “COmmerce” – the .CO domain is easy to recognize, simple to remember and flexible to use.
The sunrise registration period for trademark holders is going on now. In July the domain is expected to be available to everyone.
The registrar has begun a “founders” program to highlight early adopters of the domain. I like the idea but the execution underscores the real reason most companies will be registering .co.
The first founder profiled is Transitions (as in Transitions Lenses), which recently launched www.getsighted.CO.
What is not mentioned is that Transitions also registered www.getsighted.com (which redirects to .co).
In other words, .co isn’t replacing .com, just augmenting it, which is why most companies are going to register it. Many companies with a .com domain will want to lock in the .co equivalent to capture those folks (like me) who accidentally leave off the “m” when inputting ,com.
And, just as important, locking up .co prevents anyone from creating bogus sites, though it appears that .CO Internet S.A.S is making a concerted effort to prevent this sort of thing from occurring.
I don’t expect .co to become one of the world’s most dangerous country codes anytime soon, but it could quickly become one of the most profitable.
UPDATE: The CEO of .CO Internet S.A.S commented below on this post. He stressed his company’s efforts to prevent any nefarious uses of .co and notes that they are not marketing this domain as secondary to .com.
