Picking Domain Names by Search Results

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Picking Domain Names by Search Results

	By Paul Hoffman
	February 14, 2007 Views: 11,077 Comments: 1

There is a definite advantage to knowing what users look for when typing in domain names that they think should work. This article from Government Computer News shows an excellent example in .gov. “600,000 visitors a year to FirstGov try to find the federal government’s Web site by typing USA.gov into their browser”, so they switched from firstgov.gov to usa.gov.

It wasn’t mentioned in the article, but firstgov.gov redirects automatically; this is more intelligence than I normally expect from US government web sites.

By Paul Hoffman

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Comments

Daniel R. Tobias – Mar 1, 2007 12:30 AM

At least they’re using a .gov domain, in the proper TLD for governmental entities, rather than adopting some silly .com name (implying that they’re a commercial entity) as some government entities (including a few state governments, the United States Postal Service, and military branches’ recruitment sites) have done.

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