Thread: Domain Name part of the success or otherwise of a project?

I know that having a very good product, service and brand is one of the essential ingredients to having a successful brand on the Internet. I have a theory that your domain name have an equally important role to play in the success of your project.

Given the fact that G+ is actually a very good social networking platform but its not catching on, (I even read somewhere recently that Pintrest now has more users than G+) I have a feeling one of the reasons is the fact that it does not have a direct top level domain name where you can access it. Your have this long winded url plus.google.com/riDiculusurl02049c0900d . If its a much more catch url say Gpluse.com or something snappy and easy, it may catch on more. I could be wrong of course, what you think?

You're right, a good brandable (or keyword) domain is the actual "location" of your business in the online world. It is as important as everything else.

Let's get this debate rolling, shall we..

Originally Posted by jake

Your have this long winded url plus.google.com/riDiculusurl02049c0900d . If its a much more catch url say Gpluse.com or something snappy and easy, it may catch on more. I could be wrong of course, what you think?

I have to disagree :) . One of the main reasons why people use FaceBook over G+ is because all of their friends are already located at FaceBook and there's no real point in moving unless there's something over at the competitor's site that can actually 'blow your mind'. It's not an issue logging into your G+ account since everyone uses Google and it's literally just one click away.

Users can also type in plus.google.com into the address bar of their browser and be redirected to the website which makes locating not an issue. Also, don't get me started on how many teens and/or old aged people that does not look at their address bar (unless they're entering credit card details of course).

[QUOTE=Marc;80143]Let's get this debate rolling, shall we..


I have to disagree :) . One of the main reasons why people use FaceBook over G+ is because all of their friends are already located at FaceBook and there's no real point in moving unless there's something over at the competitor's site that can actually 'blow your mind'. It's not an issue logging into your G+ account since everyone uses Google and it's literally just one click away.

Marc, but what get their friends to sign up with Facebook in the first place? . Given that Pintrest came on the maket way way later than G+, why has it overtaken G+ in terms of numbers of users?

Originally Posted by jake

Marc, but what get their friends to sign up with Facebook in the first place? . Given that Pintrest came on the maket way way later than G+, why has it overtaken G+ in terms of numbers of users?

One person tried something out -> thought it was cool -> invited their friends -> popular website.
In this case, opinions matter. Will you try out something a friend said that sucks?

It definitely has nothing to do with the domain names. It's all about marketing/advertising and what the website provides you with.

I've never signed up on Pintrest because it has nothing that interest me. That includes both FaceBook (canceled my account) and G+ (I do everything over Skype)
Although, I can run a survey and see why people dislike G+.

Jake, I say it's all about brandability (domain name falls in this category too), ease of use and simplicity. Just look at Windows for example. Why is it so popular when there are better operating systems out there? It's simple and one does not learn how to use it for 5 years before actually being able to do something.

G+ is just one of Google's many products so perhaps they are simply unable to take over and dominate whichever market they enter. It's too much and people find Facebook easier to use and more viral. This brandability, including the domain name which is the very first thing that they hear about before even visiting the site.

Also, Facebook managed to get to the top because it concentrated on one thing and one thing only. Social networking. It wasn't a portal like MySpace which was the whole 'Social Networks' phenomena leader until a couple of years ago, it isn't today and it will probably never be. Pick one thing and be the best at it.

This is how Facebook won over G+ and other networks, this is how Google once overtook the search market by concentrating on search quality alone and setting a high standard, this is how Pinterest became so popular with it's own unique approach etc.

Originally Posted by Alex

G+ is just one of Google's many products so perhaps they are simply unable to take over and dominate whichever market they enter. It's too much and people find Facebook easier to use and more viral. This brandability, including the domain name which is the very first thing that they hear about before even visiting the site.

Also, Facebook managed to get to the top because it concentrated on one thing and one thing only. Social networking. It wasn't a portal like MySpace which was the whole 'Social Networks' phenomena leader until a couple of years ago, it isn't today and it will probably never be. Pick one thing and be the best at it.

Alex,
I quite agree with the above points, you are right, once of the reasons for Facebook's success is the fact that it concentrates on one things.... its probably also much more flexible in terms of developing its product rather than with say Google ... who seem to thing it knows best, it imposes what it things Social Networking should be rather than what the punters probably want.

I agree. the catchy domain name,and concentration on social networking alone are major factors of breakthrough recorded in facebook.

I think Google has to blame themselves for the failure of Google+. I remember that advertising campaign of new social network was very big and major. And after the official launching of Google+ a lot of users have registered there (and me too :D). But, unfortunately, users did not find something really interesting and unbelievable. Personal for me Google+ is much worst than Facebook, but it must be the main competitor for Mark Zuckerberg. I also remember that on first weeks Google Plus beat Facebook by the number of registrations. But after some period analytics found that big part of registered users used Google+ only a couple of times.


Pinterest did not have such huge budget for advertising but has something new that other social networks was not able to offer before. Apparently if Google+ could offer something interesting to users, this social network will be very popular nowadays.