I was speaking with a friend on the phone after my post about FB.CO, and it was mentioned that Overstock has indicated that the company will rebrand its International websites as O.CO. There is a small reference “soon to be O.co” below its logo. At the present time, O.CO forwards to the Overstock website.
I think this could be very big for the .CO Registry, domain registrars selling .CO domain names, domain investors who have .CO domain names, and companies who have built websites on .CO domain names. The key to any TLD’s success is consumer awareness and that comes most rapidly when large brands actually use the extension rather than have it simply be a forwarder or other form of brand protection.
If Overstock actually “uses” O.CO and doesn’t just forward O.CO to something like Overstock.com/international, this will be very big news since Overstock is one of the more popular brands online.
I’ve mentioned this a number of times, but as a disclaimer my company owns a grand total of 6 .CO domain names (Bahamas.CO, cmm.CO, Elliot.CO, Torah.CO, Another.CO, and Beeb.CO), and .CO has been an advertiser.