The observation:

The .co craze. Will .co lead to the next generation of websites? Where a .co website is about whatever it is supposed to be about or will it lead to the same old bs as .com? People buying up domains and parking them somewhere never intending for anything useful to come of them. Ever. Hoping that by some strike of luck someone somewhere will offer them a million dollars for it... give me a break.

The .co craze. I got mine. Two domain names I have been hunting out for months. Watching the whois records like a hawk for expiration dates and redemption periods. Both names not being used to their potential. I even tried to contact the owners... One domain with no website at all was nearing the expiration date. I got no response from the owner and the name has been renewed since, still no website to this day. The other is being forwarded to another website, which is pretty much useless unless someone types the name directly into their browser... The owner was kind enough to respond, but he wanted $2,000 for the domain name! I spent less than $100 for a cumulative 4 years of .co domain name(s) that can be renewed thereafter for $29.99 each per year. 1 of the names: ($2000-$100)/$29.99+2 years = 65 years, I win.

The .co craze. I think excellent marketing can lead to a very successful wave of new websites. With names available for those creative minds that have been waiting patiently. Wanting to avoid another domain lockout forcing people with real original ideas to buy junky domain names... I am hoping for the best.

The skeptic in me:

The m is a habit. As I wrote down my new .co email address the m showed up on the piece of paper. Anyone who builds a decent .co website risks driving traffic to their .com counterpart. If both websites are decent this can have terrible results. If the .com is some POS landing page for penny ads then have no fear your .co will prevail and users will catch on. If you are direct competition it could be another story.

The side note:

I think 1and1 missed out today. Upon receiving an email from them, while at work, announcing .co on sale to the general public today July 20th, 2010... I quickly went to their website requested my account password and attempted the registration process. Their website hung like none other. Pages timing out, loading animations spinning; I figured there was a mad rush to register .co names. Clicking frantically with no response I decided to call them. So I call and press 1 and wait. A sales rep comes on the line asking how they can help. I say I want to register a domain name. He says let me guess a .co? And I said yep. Well it wasn't working on his end either. Sorry 1and1 I dashed over to godaddy to reset my password and secure the names I wanted before someone else could. Later on that evening I went back to 1and1 to purchase this name though, so they didn't miss out completely as things seem to be working fine for them now.