There always been a fair bit of discussion on DomainState about certain countries preference in usage of Country level domains primary to .com : Germany, France and a few others . But, having just returned from Australia I'm somewhat amazed (again) at the total abandonment of anything other than .com.au. down-under.

Given the Global usage of most tlds why have some countries become this polarised. Is it national identity fixation or what that drives ??

Originally posted by Bailey
There always been a fair bit of discussion on DomainState about certain countries preference in usage of Country level domains primary to .com : Germany, France and a few others . But, having just returned from Australia I'm somewhat amazed (again) at the total abandonment of anything other than .com.au. down-under.

Given the Global usage of most tlds why have some countries become this polarised. Is it national identity fixation or what that drives ??

I guess the question is why use anything other than the standard for the area?

I don't think .com.au has really grown market share though, it has always been domainant for as long as I can remember. Australian's use .com alot, but they know it is for international, not local sites.

Originally posted by Bailey
There always been a fair bit of discussion on DomainState about certain countries preference in usage of Country level domains primary to .com : Germany, France and a few others .

.com still rules in France. Germany is a different story.

Originally posted by snoopy
I guess the question is why use anything other than the standard for the area?
Australian's use .com alot, but they know it is for international, not local sites.

Fair point Snoopy, perhaps the Aussies are more defined in their usage but, in the last few weeks I almost became obsessed in trying to find an Australian high profile usage of anything other than .com.au - I know the likes of Quantas (as an example) use the .com but, even they advertise under the .com.au within Australia.

I'm actually quite an admirer of this apparent Australian identification with its national web presence - I have my own theory/analysis of why this usage may be so. But, I'm not sure it could be summarized in less than 3000 words.

Originally posted by Bailey
Fair point Snoopy, perhaps the Aussies are more defined in their usage but, in the last few weeks I almost became obsessed in trying to find an Australian high profile usage of anything other than .com.au - I know the likes of Quantas (as an example) use the .com but, even they advertise under the .com.au within Australia.

I'm actually quite an admirer of this apparent Australian identification with its national web presence - I have my own theory/analysis of why this usage may be so. But, I'm not sure it could be summarized in less than 3000 words.

Put it this way, for an Australian company to use something other than .com.au would be like an American company using something other than .com. It would confuse alot of people. The only real exception would be if you had both .com.au and .com but promoted the .com. A few very large Australian companies have done that in the past.

Here is Alexa for Australia,

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/AU

Put it this way, for an Australian company to use something other than .com.au would be like an American company using something other than .com.

Which - as an owner of more than just a few - is the biggest drag on the .us cctld taking off.

Well, that and Neustar ... but that's for another time.

QUOTE]Originally posted by Bailey
Fair point Snoopy, perhaps the Aussies are more defined in their usage but, in the last few weeks I almost became obsessed in trying to find an Australian high profile usage of anything other than .com.au - I know the likes of Quantas (as an example) use the .com but, even they advertise under the .com.au within Australia.

I'm actually quite an admirer of this apparent Australian identification with its national web presence - I have my own theory/analysis of why this usage may be so. But, I'm not sure it could be summarized in less than 3000 words. [/QUOTE]

I can't summerize it in less than 3000 words either .. but Just about all the big major online businesses in Australia use the dot COM they also own the dot AU .. example: Telstra.com, Jetstar.com ANZ.com Ebay.com etc .. small to mid size businesses use the dot COM dot AU either because they cannot afford to purchase/just unavailable the dot Com name, they dont feel any need to have the dot COM (product/service local Geo market only) they are unsophisticated in internet marketing a multitude of reasons to use only the dot COM dot AU ...

There are very few dot COM dot AU domains that would attract any significant type-in traffic almost all traffic in Australia comes from search engines and or advertising, banners, print, TV, viral. PPC is almost non existant in Australia .. Fabulous appears to be best at it yet there are hundreds of thousands of domains taken we even have pro-drop services and aftermarket re-sellers such as Netfleet.com.au ...

Where Bailey has found a devotion to dot COM dot AU is in developed branded advertised sites ... The general public/surfer (age group over 25 up) is a very tough nut to crack younger users may be more educated in the use of a URL (dunno) i deal with people on an almost daily basis in the mid age group by phone trying to explain to them how to type a domain name into the address bar (whats the address bar) of their PC and not into the Google search box or other S/E is often very hard frustrating work there are to many www dot's then a dot then a COM then a dot AU average Joe Blow thinks that if the name site is not on the first page of Goog ect then it doesn't exist or it's all just to hard ... even explaining an email address is just as bad .. Example: Bigpond (the biggest) give users emails with extensions such as dot COM, dot COM dot AU and dot NET dot AU, then we get under scores just to make it more difficult ...

The general population in Australia is very un-sophisticated in the use of the the web ... heck even our biggest online Travel site is Wotif.com .. Yahoo.com is AU dot Yahoo dot COM .... to get a Google search result devoted to AU sites one has to tick the pages from Australia button other wise the user gets the world web results ...

We have excuses ... there are only a 21 million people population the U.S. Population, 2009: 305 Million and Counting -

Besides when registering a dot COM dot AU name for your business the name is very likely to be available at reg fee if it's not a pure generic .... The culture is different to the outside World the dot AU has little meaning it could be Austria or any Country starting with "A"

Originally posted by Bailey
I know the likes of Quantas (as an example)

Qantas

Acronym

Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Services Ltd

Q A N T A S

Much easier to pronounce than their earlier

The Western Queensland Auto Aero Service Limited

http://www.qantas.com.au/travel/airl...ning/global/en

This message proudly brought to you by DomainState Pendants Association.

We now return you to your normal programming...

The history behind the Qantas name and spelling is interesting.

BTW Drewbert what kinda pendants are you guys selling?

Originally posted by Americar
[B]QUOTE]Originally posted by Bailey


There are very few dot COM dot AU domains that would attract any significant type-in traffic almost all traffic in Australia comes from search engines and or advertising, banners, print, TV, viral. PPC is almost non existant in Australia .. Fabulous appears to be best at it yet there are hundreds of thousands of domains taken we even have pro-drop services and aftermarket re-sellers such as Netfleet.com.au ...

I don't think there is much of a cultural difference to elsewhere, people still guess at url's and make typos. It is just that number of people potentially typing in a .com.au is perhaps less than 5% that of a .com. You have the population difference plus the fact that .com is more than just the country code of the united states - in terms of international usage. At the end of the day the number of names with type ins worth talking about is not a large number.

Very interesting insights Americar and snoopy.

I notice in rugby league matches on TV from Oz that NRL.com is featured prominently in the adverts painted on the field, and that NRL.com.au redirects to NRL.com.

Is this an anomaly or simply a reflection of an organisation that likes to display the fact that it had the bucks and foresight to acquire that domain way back?...(or is grass paint so expensive over there that they can save plenty by missing out the .au? LOL).

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

My interest in the prevalence of the .com.au market is related to the cctld in comparison to usage of the tld in its home market share, Not for for ppc.

One would imagine the following Country markets (those more known to me) US, UK, DE AU. had more similarities in there usage. (late play of .US an exception) but, this apparently is not so. My opinion is there is a 'nationalistic' influence. one I probably didn't expect to find in Australia

Americar thats the first time i've noticed your not a yank - I wonder why.

Originally posted by fizz
BTW Drewbert what kinda pendants are you guys selling?

Don't make me come over there!

"Americar thats the first time i've noticed your not a yank - I wonder why."

Ahh' no not a yank ..

The nic .. well that goes back a long way .. i'm to lazy, too old, it's to hard, theres too much paper work involved to change now .. in any case i am stuck with it ..

Plus Americar there's nicer beer in Oz ;-)