After spending millions on promoting O.co moniker, Overstock.com apparently backtracked the effort.
At a glance it seemed that O.co is so much better than Overstock.com, with all the right ingredient of the perfect brand: short, easy to remember, sightly mysterious. But if really look into it, O.co has a major shortcoming which can cause major problem for the business.
What do you think it is? You would probably know it too, just trust your feeling.
Need a hint?
Ok. Pretend you want to visit the site. Try type in O.co in your browser URL bar. So that’s
O – DOT – C – O – ENTER
You got that? The problem with O.co is that it’s too short. Our brain has been wired to type in 8 character domains, 12 characters, or even more. And if it’s too short, somewhere in our nerve system it feels lacking. It feels incomplete, and uneasy.
Here is how long the URL for these popular sites:
Facebook.com – 12 characters
Youtube.com – 11 characters
Amazon.com – 10 characters
Google.com – 10 characters
Yahoo.com – 9 characters
Ebay.com – 8 characters
QQ.com – 6 characters
So how to find the best brand and domain for your site? Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try short domain, but really, beside trying say it loud, try also to type it in the browser URL bar and get the feel of it.
I think o.co is very appropriate for url shortener though =)