.CO

It looks like Taco Bell is promoting its new website and Ta.co domain name on Twitter. If you have a look at Taco Bell’s Twitter page, you can see the company has a Ta.co graphic background, and the avatar also has a Ta.co logo. The promoted url is also Ta.co.

When you visit Ta.co, you are redirected to Taco Bell’s website, which can be found on TacoBell.com. I think this is a simple marketing tactic to capitalize on the short ta.co url. Here’s what the company says about Ta.co on its website:

I use DomainTools to track the domain name acquisitions of several major companies. I find it interesting to see what these companies are either buying in the aftermarket or hand registering, and I also think these acquisitions can provide insight for my business or become fodder for an article on this blog.

As you might expect, Apple makes quite a bit of domain name purchases. Most of the domain names I track are brand-related domain names. Many seem to be of a defensive nature. For instance, Apple is buying quite a few new gTLD domain names and ccTLD domain names related to products and other trademarks. For the most part, it doesn’t seem like Apple is using many of these domain names (for instance, you can see AppleNews.Taipei and MacbookPro.online aren’t resolving).

One domain name that is

In September of 2013, a luxury yacht company announced that it had acquired the single letter Y.CO domain name from the .CO Registry. The firm had previously used ycoyacht.com for its url. The acquisition price Y.CO paid remains private.

This morning, Ben Roberts of SuperYachts.com published an article about Y.CO and the launch of its website. In the article, Roberts discussed the Y.CO domain name that the company acquired and how it helps position the company:

Five years ago today, .CO domain names became available for people around the world to register. Neustar, the parent company of the .CO Registry, is celebrating the 5th birthday of the .CO Registry today. In honor of this occasion, the company published a detailed press release along with three infographics that share some great information about .CO domain names.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of the celebration is that Neustar and the .CO Registry aren’t simply touting the accomplishments of the Registry in the press release. The focus of the news is  more geared towards the accolades of companies using .CO domain names. The .CO Registry has worked very hard to create a community amongst its registrants, and celebrating its registrants rather than itself on this anniversary is not surprising to me.

Some interesting facts shared in the press release and three accompanying infographics include: