I think it's worth noting here that many people are misled into thinking that buying domains is easy and cheap - because of their experience with '.com'.

Local country domains often require that the buyer jumps some additional hurdle - other than the simple registration.

For a '.fr' for instance, you need to have an address in France - and for many you need that OR a trademark registration valid in that country.

In general, this is a good thing, as it restricts availability of those names to people who have some serious project in that country - even though in all cases it's possible to find a way around the local regulations.

Does anyone know of an international domain type which it is absolutley impossible to buy?

Yes,
Antarctica (.AQ)

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Sante J. Achille
Search Engines & Web Marketing Consultant
skype: rifardo

I think that's AND, not OR - you're right French domains are an absolute pain. Even if you have an internationally recognised trademark they *still* need a residential French address! Pretty rubbish for a European TLD - especially after they 'deregulated'!

Other difficult ones in our portfolio are the ones requiring a legal company in that country, .kr and co.jp. Still they aren't impossible, we can register .kr through a holding company now and even get co.jp - our partner can set up a Japanese branch company! (although the $6k cost puts most people off).

Things are getting easier but the hassle and paperwork (faxing!) and lack of API facilities will stop the mainstream providers (GoDaddy etc.) offering these specialist ccTLDs.

>Antarctica

That's a niche market if ever I heard of one - can we get a MLS editor from there?

Nick,

I think the .jp represents a suitable alternative to a .co.jp!

Andy

Yes that is the one we always sell them as an alternative but apparently the co.jp carries more status. Definitely not $6k's worth of status though

On a connected subject, it will be interesting to see what happens to CentralNic's portfolio, as ccTLD's become more available. One of their main selling points used to be the difficulty in getting the 'proper' ccTLD. How many people still buy the ru.com not knowing they can get the .ru?

I know they are really pushing the IDN line though now and have a very impressive range on that front.

Maybe it's an AND or an OR, though?:-)

If you have a French address, you probably don't need an internationally registered trademark, I assume?

Btw, I'm not sure about France, but in Germany the .de version is more important than many (non-German) folks believe: It gets over 80% of the type-ins! (I'm sorry for not having a source to cite, now, but I read this on a german domaining forum, so I hope the information is accurate).

Many thanks for that contribution - in the SEO world we often forget the value of type-in domains. I'd be interested to know how many of type-ins were from eg Austria (where I have connections of course).

I suspect that .de if seen as a strong indicator of the German language - rather than just a country denomination!

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about type-ins. Domaining really sounds exciting and I think everything, that can lower one's risk profile and make one a bit more independent from Google is a good thing (especially in Germany where Google's market share exceeds 90%).

I also read, that type-in traffic is increasing, but I'm really wondering if that's only true in absolute numbers (because the web is growing) or if it also holds true in relative numbers:

Do many internet savy people really type in a domain name instead of using a search engine? My guess is this would be mostly people who are not very internet savy, yet and the more internet savy surfers become, the less likely they'll become to type in a domain name.

I've read, that somebody interested in baseball cards (for example) will sooner or later type in www baseballcards com (read it on a domainer's blog). I don't really do this, but I think this might be true for many people - that they'll just type in such a name out of curiosity to see what is there..and if it's your domain and you have a good site, it probably does have good value.

Edit: I'm sorry, I forgot to address your question: I think it didn't break down the type-ins into locations they came from. I would be interested in knowing this, too, however, in case anybody happens to know.

P.S.: Andy, I have to say, I find it strange, that you, Discovery & evilgreenmonkey from SEW all know Austrian people (but no/fewer Germans), when our nation has about 10 times their population. Maybe Austria is more open to international relationships than us Germans are?

this page on enom's support pages shows a lot of the limited domains and what conditions they require.

Norway and Finland are not on that list, and they're either really difficult or really expensive to get.

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