It’s common sense that top-level domains (TLD) have a strong influence on domain name selections and the perceptions that are formed by consumers. Rich Brooks of flyte new media wrote an interesting, albeit "unscientific" study on the matter.
As expected, perceptions were highest for .com, while .biz, .info, .name, and .[any country] suffered from poor perceptions.
Some opinions about the .net TLD included "2nd rate site," and "second choice/first was taken."
For .info, "garbage" and "last resort" came to the minds of the 30 respondents.
For .[any country], respondents thought of "only .tv is cool," and "depends on country."
As .com continues to become a scarce source for strong domain names, it will be of increasing importance for small business owners to be creative in their domain name creation and purchases.
It would be interesting to see how much TLDs influence the naming of small businesses.
Concerning another aspect of Web sites that is little talked about, online marketing director Igor Mordkovich wrote a small piece on the importance of font size for a Web site’s ability to keep a user on the site for longer periods of time.
He points to a case where his company had to test out larger fonts for a site targeted at seniors and their caregivers. As expected, tests showed that visit lengths were prolonged for the version of the site that used larger font.
Mordkovich suggests that bloggers and site owners re-evaluate the font sizes they use on their Web sites in order to prolong the time their readers spend on their pages.
Sources:
http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/02/19/
what-to-do-when-your-com-is-taken
http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/02/19/
text-size-and-visit-length
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