When a person talks about a dot com, the first thing that we connect with is the internet (Or as I like to call it the “interweb”). The extension in domain names has moved away from the earlier .com, .net, .org to more specific ones like .biz, .tv, .co and are even country specific. However, the .com extension rules all when it comes to business organizations with their websites because it has become synonymous with commerce. E-commerce drives businesses today and having a dot com extension in your URL is best for business in more ways than one. A domain having your name or your company name gives you a unique global identity and one with a .com extension enhances the value.
Service providers usually use a .net extension while a .org extension is more for organizations that may or may not be profit oriented. The .info extension will have different connotations. Today there are over 100 extensions to choose from but none matches the popularity of the .com king. In a scenario where you have a name with a .com extension and there are other websites with the same name but with other extensions, the .com wins every time. Since most businesses operate on a global scale and ecommerce drives trade, a .com is the logical extension for a business to choose. Country specific extensions may be relevant only in some cases but for most general commercial sites, the .com is the preferred “go to guy”.
Internet users globally associate a dot com extension to mean a business organization. Search engines may or may not list a site with the dot com extension at the top of their search results but when searching for a company, searchers do. Most browsers automatically enter a .com extension by default when you type in a name in the search box, not to mention most smart phones even have a “.com” button. Anyone browsing or searching for a particular company will automatically associate a dot com extension in the search. Additionally, if you have ever purchased your own domain, say with GoDaddy, I’m sure you’ve noticed that .coms can be roughly $5.00 more expensive than a .info or .biz.
There are billions of websites on the internet. For every service or product there are thousands of domains. Anyone searching for a particular product or service may see hundreds of search result pages. This can be a bit annoying if someone is searching for a particular company. Searchers have also turned smart and usually type in the full name of the company, usually with a .com suffix (well, .com means commerce doesn’t it?) to turn up specific results. If you have a .com as the suffix, you reach your target customer before others do. When results show the same name with different extensions, a searcher will choose the url with a .com in it first. Google and other search engines are refining their algorithms but .com is still what could drive your business further. It was and will likely continue to retain its top place as the preferred extension in top level domains.
Talk soon,
-Jonathan
P.S. – If you have any questions about this post or question regarding websites purchases in general, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. 
August 22, 2011 at 9:03 am
I learned a lot from this post, much appreciated!
August 22, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Hey James!
That’s awesome buddy.. I’m glad it helped!
-Jonathan
August 22, 2011 at 1:29 pm
What’s going on Earl!
Thanks for the comment. The thing that’s frustrating is thinking of a good URL and it’s taken.. especially when the site looks like crap! That’s happened to me a few times. There’s always a better name ut there though
September 1, 2011 at 2:14 pm
Thank you for the kind words!
The only advice I have is to write in the morning when your mind is fresh. Writing at the end of the day when your mind is mush can be bad on your blogs. The last thing you want to do have while writing is a “just get it done” attitude.
Hope this helped!
-Jonathan
September 9, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Someone I work with visits your site quite often and recommended it to me to read also. The writing style is excellent and the content is interesting. Thanks for the insight you provide the readers!
September 10, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Thanks Cathryn… I appreciate it
-JR
October 5, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I really appreciate the nice words Lynwood.. thanks!
-Jonathan
October 6, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Interesing article thank you!
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I enjoy visiting daily to see your musings. I have your page bookmarked on my daily read list!
October 11, 2011 at 10:31 pm
I’m flattered Sean.
Thank you.
J.
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October 16, 2011 at 8:44 pm
As always usefull info. I just started blogging but I hope that my blog will be as good as yours one day
October 22, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I appreciate the kind words Marc!
-J
October 22, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Hey Jayson,
The best thing to do would be to start with wordpress.org and check out their plugin selection.
Talk soon,
-Jonathan
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Thank you.
J.
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Hey Otha,
You keep reading and I’ll keep writing!!
Thank you.
Jonathan
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