How many times has this happened to you. You’re typing in the url for your favorite website and low and behold you leave off the “m” in the “.com” and you go nowhere fast.
Until now.
The new “.co” domain is available for registration and businesses all over the world are jumping on the band wagon to claim their company’s name or trademark. But something else is happening too, and if you’re doing business on the net, you need to be aware of it.
Domain hijacking.
During a meeting last week, somehow we got on the discussion of domain names and the new “.co” domain. While we were chatting, I decided to punch in a few domains ending in “.co” to see if businesses registered them. I typed in a friends business domain and I was shocked to see that her “.co” domain was being re-directed to a competitors website. I then looked into her competitors and saw that this same company bought all her competitor’s “.co” domains and redirected them as well. A very cheap attempt at trying to steal a customer.
I immediately went and registered the “.co” version of all my e-commerce stores domains just to be safe and that’s something I recommend all e-commerce store owners do. For my friend, the legal battle now begins. Will she be able to force the scallywag to give up the domain and the deceitful practice? Will it be easy to do or will it be a fight that lasts for months with an unfavorable outcome? Only time will tell.
In the mean time, take a moment and spend the money to register the “.co” domain for your business. The money you spend today can save you a lot more down the road in legal fees and lost business.