It is well worth taking the time to read. Excerpt (emphasis added):
“Domain names are the primary scheme by which this [internet] economy is organized. For an internet-based organization (e.g., YouTube), the domain is often central to the marketing of the organization. For instance, the domain name serves an internet retailer in much the same way as both the brand and the physical location do for a bricks-and- mortar retailer. For a business with significant operations in the physical world, the internet presence is typically still critical for marketing, communications, and transactions.”My #1 takeaway after reading? You definitely want a dot COM domain name (yes, even .NET is inferior), but there is much, much more in the working paper referenced above for anyone in the domain name industry or involved in the domain name selection process.
*Yes, the same Karl Ulrich quoted below: “The introduction of new TLDs is likely to increase the value of the gold-standard ‘dot com.’ Adding more side streets only increases the value of a main-street address.” –Karl Ulrich, Vice Dean of Innovation and Professor of Operations and Information Management, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania (source: Knowledge@Wharton)
