Welcome to Domains in the Wild. In this series I post images of domain names that I've spotted out and about in the real world. Then I write a bit about what I think of each one. It's easy to miss domain names, but they're all around us and play a key role in a companies branding, messaging and design. Spotting them and taking a photo is sort of a fun hunting game to play while you're out and it takes very little effort once you start looking for them. Once you start to play, you will begin seeing domains everywhere without even trying.
If you catch any yourself, please share them with us all in the comments.
Without further delay, here are the domain names that I found in the wild recently...
The theme this week is alternatives to .com. The so called, 'not coms'. I have found a lot of these recently and now that I've found enough I thought it would make a good highlight post. There are a ton of alternatives to .com now and although I don't think a lot of them will ever catch on, it's great to see alternatives get used now and then.
While none of these domains are .com there are a few I'm highlighting today aren't really available to the general public. Take a look through the domains and you'll see which ones I'm referring to. Anyway, enjoy these recent trophies from my hunt... Domain in the Wild!
The first domain up is Cornish.edu. This domain belongs to a the Cornish College of the Arts. This domain is proudly displayed outside the main campus center on the corner of Fairview and Boren. The college offers Majors in art, design, film, interior architecture, music, performance production and theater.
The domain is one word which was the last name of the founder of the school, Nellie Cornish. It's an exact match name to the schools name and it ends in .edu which is perfect. Domains with .edu are not available to the general public.
According to wikipedia,
Since October 29, 2001, only postsecondary institutions and organizations that are institutionally accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies are eligible to apply for an edu domain.
Next up is Fatherhood.gov. The domain serves as an information and programs directory site for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse. The site and organization is a resource of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA).
As with the .edu domain extension, .gov domains are not available to the general public. A .gov domain is restricted to government entities that are in the United States.
This is a great keyword, single word domain and it's a great fit for this organization.
Next we have ItsTime.me. This domain was apparently for event or seminar featuring a 'guru' of mediation. The domain is not pulling any website any more as the event has passed, but the ad was still up inside this bus so I snagged it.
The .me domain was a quick selling popular domain when it came out to the general public in 2008. However, I personally don't see this domain used much and was surprised when I saw this ad using it.
The domain itself isn't bad, however I wonder if a domain hack would have made more sense such as itsti.me or something else like itstimefor.us. I guess I just don't understand if they chose this domain for only the words, 'its time' or were they trying to combine it with the word, 'me'. I don't understand the phrase, 'its time me' so I can only assume they just wanted the two words, 'its time'.
In the end, it's not a bad domain name I just think I would have chosen something different and it's not at all the kind of domain I would invest in.
Finally we have GreenFeathers.info. This domain belongs to a company that offers traditional gardens and rooftop gardens. According to their website they are the "Pacific Northwest regional distributor of LiveRoof® brand green roof systems."
They're using a .info domain which was first introduced in 2001 and has been a fairly successful 'not com' domain extension. They have the exact match to their company name in this extension which is a s two word name, "Green Feathers."
The .com is for sale but it's not clear what the price is. The .info makes sense in a lot of ways and it's easier to see it's use with businesses than say a .me. However, I wouldn't invest in a name like 'green feathers' especially ending in .info. I'm guessing they went with the .info because the .com was taken and didn't bother to inquire about the price.
Well, that concludes this edition of Domains in the Wild.
If you enjoyed this post or have some domains in the wild to share, leave them in the comments and get an UPVOTE from me!
