What's with startups using .io domains?
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I'm looking for a domain name and I've seen there are some new services launching with .io domain, is this suppose to mean something or there just choose it because it's short
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Of the many new or 'alternative' TLDs, maybe some like IO because it sounds 'computerish'. I/O for input-output is an old abbreviation in IT. – Jesper Mortensen 13 years ago
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When you can acquire an easy to remember 5-8 character domain name, it's hard to pass up. The `.io` ones are still pretty open in terms of properties you can acquire. Four letters + .com are pretty much all taken unless you mix a number or two in there. – Travis 12 years ago
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shouldn't they like Italy too? IT? – Umair Ashraf 12 years ago
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.it would be nice too, but it's for italy and they require residency -- .io does not, anyone can buy them. – Chovy 11 years ago
3 Answers
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http://www.nic.io/ The .io domain is allocated for the British Indian Ocean area: http://www.nic.io/rules.html. Some start-ups seem to like using these types of top-level domains to build cutsey domain-hacks; http://pistacch.io, http://moustach.io/, http://twit.io/, etc.
From Wikipedia :
.io is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the British Indian Ocean Territory.
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-1. Quoting your rules link: 3.1 An applicant may reside in any legal jurisdiction. Nothing else indicates reservation for British Indian Ocean. – Net Tecture 13 years ago
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The answer is correct, Cypher never said only residents of that territory can register such names, only that the name itself was assigned to that territory. – Alain Raynaud 13 years ago
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IO is a popular programmer nomenclature for Input/Ouput otherwise shown as I/O. It is also the devs way of being cute with the name
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The use of the .io domain has a few benefits:
- The .io namespace is far less crowded, which means you have a much better chance of getting your domain name.
- It is shorter than .com, .org, and .info and while it is different, it is still easy to remember.
- As mentioned by others, I/O (input/output) is a term which almost all people with a background in computers will understand, and thus, it resonates well with them.
- It's new and different, which makes your startup stand out a bit and is great for marketing purposes.
- It just sounds cooler than .com ;-)
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