Choosing a domain name for your brand identity is the start. Protecting your domain name by registering for example .net, .org, and the many more extensions is one step in brand identity.
However a recent very unpleasant experience in New York, resulted in realizing some companies also register undesirable domain names. I was one of many unhappy people, mainly tourists as I was showing an Australian friend the sights of New York. We had chosen to use the City Sights NY bus line, but we caught with some 100+ people in a clear “screw the paying customers” experience.
I was really annoyed that my friend, only in New York for 2 days both had to experience this, and missed out on a night tour. I commented, I’m going to register citysightsnysucks.com, and share the full story of our experience, directing people to use Gray Line New York , which clearly by observation were providing the service we clearly did not get.
To my surprise, the domain name was already taken. To my utter surprise, the owner of the domain is the same as citysightsny.com. Did they do this by choice, or did another unhappy person (at least in 2006) register this, only to be perhaps threatened legally to give up the domain.
I would generally recommend in brand identity this approach, especially when select common misspellings and hyphenated versions if applicable can easily lead to a lot of domain names for your brand identity.
$ whois citysightsny.com Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information. Domain Name: CITYSIGHTSNY.COM Registrar: INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D/B/A DIRECTNIC.COM Whois Server: whois.directnic.com Referral URL: http://www.directnic.com Name Server: NS0.DIRECTNIC.COM Name Server: NS1.DIRECTNIC.COM Status: clientDeleteProhibited Status: clientTransferProhibited Status: clientUpdateProhibited Updated Date: 31-dec-2006 Creation Date: 28-nov-2004 Expiration Date: 28-nov-2011 Registrant: CitySights New York LLC 15 Second Ave Brooklyn, NY 11215 US 718-875-8200x103 Fax:718-875-7056 Domain Name: CITYSIGHTSNY.COM
$ whois citysightsnysucks.com Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information. Domain Name: CITYSIGHTSNYSUCKS.COM Registrar: INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D/B/A DIRECTNIC.COM Whois Server: whois.directnic.com Referral URL: http://www.directnic.com Name Server: NS.PUSHONLINE.NET Name Server: NS2.PUSHONLINE.NET Status: clientDeleteProhibited Status: clientTransferProhibited Status: clientUpdateProhibited Updated Date: 26-jun-2007 Creation Date: 11-aug-2006 Expiration Date: 11-aug- Registrant: CitySights New York LLC 15 Second Ave Brooklyn, NY 11215 US 718-875-8200x103 Fax:718-875-7056 Domain Name: CITYSIGHTSNYSUCKS.COM
