If you want a web presence, where do you get a URL?

Citation

(2007), "If you want a web presence, where do you get a URL?", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 24 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2007.07724dab.002

If you want a web presence, where do you get a URL?

Edited by Dennis A. PittaUniversity of Baltimore

If you want a web presence, where do you get a URL?

Much of the material written about the internet deals with the items and issues that arise after a company buys a URL and arranges for its presence on the internet. Issues such as web site design, functionality including electronic funds processing, and the specifics of company contact and feedback dominate the discussion. Rarely, is the vital first step in this process, buying and registering a domain name, covered.

Recently, we discovered Dotster.com. Dotster, Inc. is one of the most profitable and successful internet companies around, with its primary business centered on domain registration and web services.

Dotster.com[www.dotster.com/]

A domain name, such as emeraldinsight.com, signifies a specific address on the internet. Because no two parties can ever hold identical domain names, picking a domain name allows a company to have a truly unique identifier. It is how site visitors and customers will remember a company and be able to find it among the millions of other web sites on the internet. If you will, a domain name is the equivalent of an internet brand name. Like product brand names, they vary in terms of their value as brands. In general, the shorter, more descriptive a domain name, the more valuable it is.

At the outset, we should clarify some terminology. One commonly misunderstood term is a top-level domain name. A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an internet domain name; that is, the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.emerald.com, the TLD is com.

Dotster is a seven-year-old company that got its start by selling and registering domain names. Dotster really has nothing to sell. It depends on several government agencies to accomplish the registration task. One is the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, and other internet protocol assignments. It is operated by ICANN. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In order to register domain names for customers, Dotster.com must interact with these agencies.

It used to be that organizations had only a few real TLD choices: com, gov, edu, and net. In reality the choices were more complicated then and are now much more complicated. One reason is that there has been a large increase in TLD choices. In addition to those choices, there are numerous country code TLDs. They are used by a country or a dependent territory and are typically two letters long, for example jp for Japan. However, there are literally scores of TLD from which to choose. That process can be daunting even for trained organizational personnel. To aid the customer, Dotster.com offers some aid. It provides a user-friendly interface to help customers in dealing with the name choice and application process.

When approaching the choice of a domain name, customers usually have a domain in mind. There are certain words, phrases, images, or characters that have special meaning in the market segment and may offer advantages in recall and image creation. Dotster.com allows customers to enter their selections and search the central domain name registration database to see what is available. The search results will return a list of what is still left to choose.

We ran several searches on known and new domain names using Dotster.com’s fast domain search engine. It is new and is called the Domain Discovery System (DDS2). It is a fast way to find a desired domain name. The company is mindful of the game played by copycats who register similar domain names in the hope of capturing business from the original registrant. For example, the US President’s office maintains the Whitehouse.gov web site. Quickly, someone registered Whitehouse.com and intercepted misdirected traffic aimed at the government site. Enough users added the.com to the Whitehouse out of habit to generate significant traffic.

In order to protect a domain name, Dotster.com allows users to find and register ten or 20 domains at once. This is analogous to a preemptive defense in business and can register the “look-alike” domains that vary simply by TLD. Thus, Dotster.com provides a bulk registration to search for and register multiple domains at one time. This tool is helpful for many businesses, since it allows registering numerous variations of a name like The Coffee Shop and have them all point to the main web site, driving more traffic to the central site and protecting the business brand identity. This avoids the Whitehouse.com problem.

Dotster.com helps with a little known privacy vulnerability. Few people know that every time someone registers a domain name the personal information used in registration is made available to anyone who wants it. Every day, spammers from around the globe mine data from the WHOIS database to find personal contact information. They use this information to send SPAM or simply sell the information to the highest bidder.

Finally you can do something about it. Dotster provides a WHOIS Search function. One can enter a domain name in the box provided and learn the name, address, telephone number and e-mail address of the person who owns that domain. It may be helpful for those seeking a domain name already registered by identifying the owner for follow up contact.

To overcome this situation, Dotster provides a privacy product that blocks WHOIS access to the identity of the correct owner a domain. The service is called the PrivacyPost Whois Information Protection Service (“Private Whois Service”). Users have to agree that their domain name will be the listed Registrant and domain owner as per the information contained within the official whois record. They are assured that the domain name represents the lawful owner and/or his or her agent. However, Dotster shall list its information for mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address. Thus, owner privacy is preserved from outside eyes. The service is available at a fee. In addition, it provides numerous tools for functions such as e-mail forwarding. URL forwarding, and DNS management.

Perhaps the most noteworthy development is Dotster.com’ s association with a specific new TLD,.mobi..mobi is the first and only top level domain dedicated to delivering the internet to mobile devices. .mobi has the potential to revolutionize the use of the internet on mobile phones and Blackberries. It is designed to guide mobile users to made-for-mobile internet content and services that can be accessed with confidence. There is significant industry support, since.mobi is backed by the most prominent mobile and internet players in the world. Dotster.com stresses that the key differentiator for the.mobi domain is the mobile user experience. This is driven by the Switch On! Guides. The guides contain a mixture of mandatory and recommended best practices for developing mobile content and services.

Dotster.com provides a valuable nuts and bolts service to the internet community. In fact, it makes internet-based commerce possible. It also is helping to shape the future of the internet and communications.

In our next issue, we will investigate other informative sites and invite readers to submit their favorite internet sites for our consideration.

Reader requests

Please forward all requests to review innovative internet sites to: Dr Dennis Pitta, University of Baltimore, 1420 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-5779, USA. Alternatively, please send e-mail to: dpitta@ubalt.edu for prompt attention.