You're completely wrong ... with all the power that Google has they do not decide what is or is not a top level domain. ICANN does and they appointed the domain extension to the Colombian Government as the extension for Colombia. No ifs ands or buts about it. Globally Google is not that powerful because there are many many other search engines and .co can't bribe them all. They are trying to make a quick buck at the expense of Americans because we are one of the richest countries. Most countries have never even heard of this domain extension. There are very few .Co sites around because most people use .com, .net, and if they can't find the domain they are looking for there are plenty of additional domains that Google treats as equals. They treat .info as an equal, .us as an equal ... ect. I've said it before and I'll say it again ... .co is over priced, the way it is being marketed is extremely unethical even for the government of a country known for their cocaine trafficking and corrupt politicians. The politicians in Colombia are as bad as it gets. This domain is not and never will be a top level domain. The money form the domain goes directly to the Colombian Government and .co stands for Colombia.
Bingo! That is why they are priced so high and being pushed on Americans as if they will be valuable someday. They won't be.
.Co is being pushed on us the same way drug dealers push cocaine on kids. In the end no good will come of it.
Do you what a Top Level Domain (TLD) is? TLDs that refer to a country are called country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), while TLDs that are used wordwide are called generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). .CO is a technically a ccTLD, but what matters is how it is treated practically and Google decided to give it the same importance as a gTLD (.com for example). This is not my opinion, it's an official statement.
Firstly - America is NOT one if the richest countries in the world - its actually the poorest country in the western world - it owes trillions of dollars in debt! And Americans are not the only people surfing the internet, anyone can afford to get a .co domain if they wanted to in most of the world - I hate it when you guys think your the only people on planet earth. Secondly - it only matters if .co is treated by search engines - top one is Google, so that makes Google VERY powerful, whether you like it or not. Thirdly - Yes, that's what people do. "They just want to make money" is such a poor person's mentality - of course everyone wants to make money (to whatever extent) - when you go to the grocery store to buy food, do you say "oh they just want to make money, so im not gonna eat unless they give free food"? It's called value exchange - Yes, if you meant they are ripping us off by over-pricing a domain extension, then I also feel the same!
Of course I know what a top level domain is and you just made my point ... It is a country specific top level domain. This means it is only a TLD for Colombia. And Google does the same for many country specific domains including .us.
When you look at GDP which is what many economist look at the United States has one of if not the highest. And the reason we're able to have such a high debt rate is because we bring in so much money. Globally, economies are hurting and the US is no different, but we are still considered the economic powerhouse of the world. That is why when our economy started hurting it affected practically the entire world. I said Google was powerful, but they do not decide what a top level domain is. ICANN does that. And globally Google is not nearly as powerful as they are in the US. Moreover, it does not only matter how .co is treated in search engines. Even though most search engines treat it very poor ... It does not work on all smart phones ... Most countries never even heard of this domain ... and the little use of it there is ... it is spammed. I'm all for a company making money, but there are better ways to do it than spreading lies to promote a product. As far as the pricing I also agree that it is overpriced. In addition, I feel there are ethical ways of doing things and unethical. .co has sold their domain based on lies and it's just wrong.
I'm not sure whether you have ever used Google Webmaster Tools in order to set geotargeting for a domain name. I can assure you that, while you can set the country for all gTLDs, you can't for all ccTLDs but .co, .cc, .me, .tv. For example, the option is disabled for .us names while you can set, let's say, France for .co names. This is what Google staff means by "treating .co like .com" in the link I posted earlier.
I think they just made ​​an innovation in use of "short domain" for their customers and they certainly will not remove the old domain..
There are some people that invested in these domains when they first came out not understanding that they are country specific. They all hope the price will increase, but there is no way that is going to happen. ICANN is releasing a massive amount of domain extensions to give people more realistic options for their company or product if the .com or .net is taken. At the end of the day .co stands for Colombia and is Colombia's domain. That is what it should be used for because that is what ICANN intended it to be used for. The only reason we're even discussing this domain is because all the hype and marketing .co has done to try and make this extension into something it is not. It is a country specific domain and will always be valued as such. There are better options .... I like .biz, .us, .me ... or really any other domain that is not over priced much better than .co if the .com or .net is taken.