Why do people care about the extension?

I wonder why .com has such authority when there are many popular sites on other extensions. You have tr.im, bit.ly, last.fm, imageshack.us and so forth.
Doesn't this prove that it's actually the site content and usefulness of the site that decides the value?
Why are .com's worth millions when really you can use any domain you want for your site?
And at the end of the day, does it matter what the extension is? I don't think it does. Most people don't pay attention to the domain, only the site.

The only rule I would apply to domains is to have it memorable, whether short or long.
Maybe some day people will realize the domain is actually worthless.

 

well u gave example of few site but do u know these sites may even loose some traffic say exam imageshack many people might be typing imageshack.com rather than .us .. later imageshack bought the .com domain for themselves.. if the site gets established the extension doesnt matter ..but to get it established extension plays a good role specially in search engines

 

The extension does matter.

Most newbies to the internet have heard of only an extension- the .com. You'll often see many of them typing keyword.com into their browser directly instead of going through search engines.

Then you've got to take local rankings into consideration, where country specific extensions like .co.uk, .com.au, .co.nz, .ca etc come into play.

 

Also, the ccTLD's affect search engine positioning, for example, a .de domain will appear better ranked in Google for German users.

 

I agree with all the above. but there are few other points :
1. Google and other SE will scan your site as soon as you register it - within 24 hours (no need to add it to the SE or anything) this has been happening to all of my .Com and .Net and .Org BUT it did not happen with .NU
2. even with all the above there are ORG or NET domains that have been sold for 5 digits and more - there is no rule that says you can not make a different LTD domain worth high $$ number.

 

Agree with Bohra, gr8liverpoolfan's & thewebhostingdir's. Extension first, later is site content and usefulness of the site.

but i dont really care, as long as i like the domain.

 

i agree with you bohra besides that .com extensions are the most popular and comfortable domain names because most of the people (newbies) thinks that the .com is the boss so they also think that any website or most of them are .com extensions but in fact there are a lot of extensions they will also discover

 

As you yourself mention, an important thing is to have a memorable domain name and dot com surely is the most memorable. That's the main reason why I prefer it. As far as the name goes, to me it just has to be memorable; it doesn't necessarily have to convey the kind of activities that your site carries, as activities evolve with time and you have to allow for that flexiblity. Nice sounding, easily memorable names both the extension and the first part are most impoartant in my opinion.

 

This is simple are anything else. COM are the first tried out plane and simple. There are alot of good sites out there with other extensions but unless you want your traffic going to another site and stealing your customers or what-not you going to want to get the .com. Then you can just simple have it direct to your NET or ORG much like craigslist does.

 

simple answer... dot com is more common..usually people assume that it would be domain_name dot com not domain_name dot aisa or tm etc.

 

i own hdhometheater.org hdhometheater.us hdhometheater.biz hdometheater.info which would be the best domain to build my web site- would the extension make a difference?

 

Extensions do matter because most of the newbies only know .com phase of internet. They are unaware about geo-targetted domains, or any other format of domains.

 

There are more chances to get a good and shorter domain name in other tld's, this might be one of the reason people might be interested in buying domain in other extensions.

 

Originally the extensions started off with direct intent into what the extension represented.
.com was for commercial sites
.net for network sites like ISPs or business intranets and sites for employees
.org for not for profit organizations

More info: http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-459.html

Now days it is a free for all and get what you can market.
For straight SERPs you can get by without the .com.
But for reasons expressed above the .com will be best.IMO

 

If you don't have the .com, you will lose traffic to the .com.

You can get great results and traffic without the .com, but sites that become popular without the .com still aim to own it. .com is still the default in people's minds.

It is still possible to get good .com domains, you just need to be creative. You could also grab a creative .com and then point to it with a keyword domain of another extension.

Have you considered using .tel in the mix?

 

The end users and their ITadvisors like to buy .com just to be sure that they invested well.

 

It also helps that when you type in a domain into the url bar, hold control, then press enter, .com is the automatic extension placed in.

if you hold shift and press enter, .net

and there you have the two TLDs