Skip to main content

Has the .com Domain Lost Its Luster?

Having a good domain name in the “.com” domain was once the gold standard of online presence, and the “.com” top-level domain literally defined the “dot-com” era in which the Internet and online commerce grew exponentially. But these days, according to a survey conducted by Lexicon Branding, consumers don’t see a lot of difference between “.com” and the “.net” and “.biz” domains.

Lexicon surveyed 2,509 regular Internet users who had purchased products or services online during the last six months of 2005. Respondents were asked to rank four test Web sites by answering six questions on a ten-point scale; between respondents, the only differences between the sites were the suffixes on the sites’ domain names. Some respondents might see a domain ending in “.com,” while others might see the exact same site with a domain name ending in “.biz.”

Recommended Videos

The results? Consumers seem to perceive virtually no difference between “.com” and “.net,” and “.biz” lags only slightly behind.

When asked their general opinions about domain suffixes, 41.2 percent of respondents said they had a very positive opinion of “.com,” with 27.2 percent having a very positive opinion of “.net.” Only 10.7 percent reported having a very positive opinion of “.biz.” On the flip side, 15.9 percent reported perceiving “.biz” as very negative, while only 3.8 percent and 1.1 percent respectively viewed “.net” and “.com” very negatively.

Asked about doing business with a bank, 12.3 percent of respondents reported a positive impression of a bank with a “.com” address, 11.2 percent responded positively to a bank with a “.net” address, and 11.1 percent responded favorably to a bank with a “.biz” address. For an online consumer electronics store, the percentage of respondents with a positive impression were 28.7, 27.8, and 24.7 percent for the “.com,” “.net,” and “.biz” domains, respectively.

“At this point, .biz suffers certain liabilities that .net doesn’t,” said Lexicon CEO David Placek. “It is the least familiar of the three, and some of our survey respondents tell us that they think .biz sounds ‘cheap and slang-y.’ It will be interesting to see if .biz can overcome these perceptions as time goes by.”

“Our overall conclusion is that a business would do well to create the most effective name it can, and secure it no matter what the domain suffix,” said Placek. “In terms of actual consumer acceptance and usage, it doesn’t make much difference.”

Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
Qualcomm just squashed its own desktop ambitions
Qualcomm's CEO presenting Snapdragon X Elite CPUs at Computex 2024.

Qualcomm has been on a tear with its Snapdragon X Elite CPUs in Copilot+ laptops, but the company is struggling to expand beyond the initial lineup. Just days after the first orders arrived, Qualcomm has abruptly canceled its Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows and promised refunds to developers who had ordered the mini PC.

We first heard about the Snapdragon Dev Kit in May, when Qualcomm announced it alongside the release of Copilot+ laptops. It was a part of Qualcomm's ambitions on desktop Windows PCs, and Windows PCs more broadly, as it would allow developers to toy around with the most powerful Snapdragon X Elite CPU available -- the X1E-00-1DE, which isn't available on any consumer device and has over 100 watts of power at its disposal.

Read more
Dell knocks $450 off it’s Dell G16 gaming laptop with RTX 4070
A woman using the Dell G16 gaming laptop in a coffee shop.

Gaming laptops have come a long way from the past few years when they used to be massive and bulky, and if you're looking for a great mid-range option, this configuration of the Dell G16 is worth checking out. The Dell G16 is actually an updated version of the older G15, which was a bit of a workhorse when it comes to budget-oriented gaming laptops. In this case, you get a great laptop with an RTX 40-series GPU from Dell directly for just $1,300, which is $450 off the usual $1,750 it goes for.

Why you should buy the Dell G16 Gaming Laptop
As the name might suggest, the Dell G16 comes with a 16-inch screen that runs a 2560 x 1600 resolution, with the ability to hit a whopping 240Hz refresh rate, which is perfect for those who enjoy playing competitive games. Under the hood you get yourself an RTX 4070 mobile, which is roughly equivalent to the performance of a desktop RTX 4060. Even so, it's a solid card for gaming at 2K, although you will have to make some graphical compromises, especially if you're aiming for higher refresh rates than 100 or so.

Read more
Boston Dynamics gave its Atlas robot an AI brain
The electric atlas from boston dynamics

Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announced on Tuesday that they are partnering to develop general-purpose humanoid robots. Boston Dynamics will contribute its new electric Atlas robot to the task, while TRI will utilize its industry-leading Large Behavior Models.

Boston Dynamics, which launched in 1992 as an offshoot from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been at the forefront of robotics development for more than 30 years. It burst into the mainstream in 2009 with the BigDog and LittleDog quadrupedal systems and debuted the first iteration of its bipedal Atlas platform in 2013. Atlas' capabilities have undergone a steady evolution in the past decade, enabling the robot to perform increasingly difficult acrobatics and dexterity tasks, from dancing and doing back flips to to conquering parkour courses and navigating simulated construction sites.

Read more