The .Eco domain name registry posted a photo of a .Eco domain name being used by a major water company. Evian, a popular bottled water company, has a call to action on bottle of water imploring its customers to learn more about its commitment to plastic recycling: “find out more: www.circular.evian.eco.”
.eco in the wild — @evianwater using their .eco domain to tell their story about becoming a circular brand by 2025: https://t.co/QAMvphagPM (registered at @CSCDBS). pic.twitter.com/s5xP5JNVyL
— .ECO domains (@doteco) October 22, 2019
The reason the long url (with four sections) is being used is because Evian is promoting its “circular” program. The url has that reference along with the Evian branding. In fact, circular.evian.eco is a subdomain on the Evian.eco domain name, which does not resolve to an active website at this time.
Personally, I don’t really think they needed to use such a long and possibly confusing url. The “www.” helps customers understand its a url. They could have also used http:// but obviously www. is shorter. The website loads whether or not the visitor adds the www.
I would have advised the company to simply use evian.eco or circular.eco. Realistically, I don’t think Evian would use its .Eco domain name for anything but ecological-related uses, so there probably isn’t a need to make it a subdomain. Having the subdomain makes it more confusing though, especially with the www. in front.
It’s neat to see a .Eco domain name in the wild like this, but I think Evian could have done it better.
While the domainers discuss possible confusion of .co and .com addresses, other people experience different sort of issues: page https://www.evian.com/en_int/planet shows link with .co TLD instead of .eco (it takes you to .eco though).
Nice catch! The embedded link is correct, but the shown link is incorrect. Making matters worse, Evian does not own Evian.CO, so anyone who would copy/paste would land on the parked page.
The owner of Evian.co, based in NC, USA, is playing with fire showing ads related to Evian water …
Evian Water, owned by Danone, has many TMs on the term “Evian”, also word TMs, including one in class 32, which includes mineral water, for the US, dating back to 1979.
Here we have both bad faith in registration and in use … if they sue or go with a UDRP, he/she will lose the domain …