GoDaddy’s .CO marketing blitz enjoys mainstream coverage by USAToday

The USAToday article by Kristena Hansen starts off, “While the “.net,” “.org” and “.gov” Internet domains are growing in popularity among those launching new websites, none have come close to threatening the decades-long reign of “.com.   But the “.co” domain may be the hottest new Web address, one that could be the first real .com competitor, according to some inside the domain-name industry.”

While domain names don’t always get good press coverage, GoDaddy knows how to get press attention using it’s upcoming Superbowl commercial with the unveiling of the new GoDaddy girl to create some serious buzz. 

But that’s not the main subject of the article, .CO domain names are. 

And by the sound of it, the possibilities seem limitless.

Kristena Hansen points out just how positive .CO domain names are.

Unlike other .com alternatives, the .co domain, which gained about 600,000 registered names worldwide since its launch, should do well simply because it sounds so similar to .com, said Richard Merdinger, senior director of domain-registration service for Go Daddy.

“There’s an international recognition of using .co to represent a company,” he said. “We were exceptionally pleased with the volume of registrations we did do so far.”

The .co suffix offers a whole new realm of opportunities for those searching to establish their Web presence, Merdinger said.

Industry insiders see a similar trend.

While you could argue .CO is just another fad that won’t offer any new significant challenges to .COM – with big ticket sales of domain names like o.co and a major marketing blitzy by GoDaddy ready to get underway, 2011 could see whether .CO really has what it takes to be a .COM competitor.

What’s all the buzz about?

Already in 2010, Mike Mann of DomainMarket has sold a number of premium .co domain names such as Cruise.co for $25,000 and Auctions.co for $15,000, but 2011 looks like it will be even better for Mike Mann. 

As Mike Berkens of the blog The Domains pointed out in a recent story, Sedo will be holding a .CO premium domain name auction following the Superbowl.  The auction will include many of Mike Mann’s .CO properties, many of which are listed for as much as $350,000 on his DomainMarket web site.

In the coming weeks, the single letter domain name i.CO will be auctioned off, in what could be the biggest sale of all to date for a .CO domain.  In 2010, o.co sold to Overstock.com for a whopping $350,000.

As far as the USAToday story which first appeared in The Arizona Republic, no one has commented on the article as of yet.  Over at azcentral, the story only managed to get a few comments, the first being a negative comment from a reader who had this to say about .CO: “sorry, but .co will fail. while it may sound similar, it is that very reason it will fail. People are already automatically tuned to typing COM and will forget to drop the M.  As far as the pricing, that is just silly. People buying up names will do so regardless of that small of difference. Make is a hundred bucks and you might see only the most common names get parked.”

It’s still early, but it already seems like .CO is making a big splash in 2011.