Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : cz.cc & co.cc Domain Names

[bruc]

We had a summer web site special to try and help some small business in our area get online without busting their budgets especially with our economy the way it is.

We had a few tell us they had either a cz.cc or a co.cc domain name.
This was a first for us.

I would like to hear anyone's experiences or thoughts on using either of these.

I did read where Goggle had banned them but Goggle does as they please so no big news to me there.

[rajj]

yes Google has removed the two extensions from its listings. while .co.cc offers 2 free registrations, .cz.cc allows 5 free registrations they also let you manage your MX, A, Cname records as well. I personally would not use them for a business.

[Techno]

Don't use either .cc for a business. It's unprofessional and without Google the site won't get noticed & traffic will suffer.

[Mr X]

My understanding is that .cc is fine, but .co.cc (which is a domain, not a ccTLD) is frowned upon by Google.

[grimmig]

not to mention the gb.com disaster this weekend. Always something with these "fantasy" domain extensions. They either get kicked out of google or blacklisted. I stay far away from these types of domain extensions.

If you really cannot afford a domain name you might want to have a look at chi.mp or dot.tk

[bruc]

The reasons my clients told me they had gotten their domains with cz.cc and the co.cc was because the domains they wanted were already taken.
I explained to them that they needed to maybe use another domain name similar to their businesses and they have.

I don't think I've ever seen one of those extensions on a search engine before.

I certainly appreciate your input into this.

[Gerrit]

Neither of both are extentions. They are domains of which the owners give away free subdomains. The owner of the domains can decide at any point that they want to discontinue the service, and then your "domain" is lost too, so needless to say this is not reliable at all. Also, to my knowledge .cz.cc was already considering closing their service.

There are countless of such free subdomains available:
.be.tf
.new.fr
.ac.gs
.us.tt
.us.pn
.de.vu
.co.tv
.co.cc
.nl.nu (costs 1 € as once off registration, terrible support)
.co.be
.eu.tc
.da.ru
.bit.ly
.by.com (although registration seems suspended ??)
.uni.cc
.co.nr
...


the examples are countless. Probably some of the ones I listed above on top of my head don't even exist anymore which is an indication of how unreliable they are. In addition to that, it comes across highly unprofessional because the main users of such weird subdomains are teenagers who cannot afford an own proper domain as yet.

The one difference that .cz.cc and .co.cc offer compared to most is that you can move them to your own DNS and create A Records, MX Records, etc. while most others are just redirects that you cannot move away from the server of the provider of the subdomain service.

This however changes nothing to the fact that these services are highly unstable.
The only ones I have seen being around for more than 5 years without having changed owners and being unreachable now and then, are .co.nr, Ulimit.com and uni.cc

I am not saying they're all bad, but they come across as unprofessional and I wouldn't trust them for any site I'm serious about. Maybe nice to give a shorter URL to a long hobby site, but nothing more than that.

PS: some actually real domain extentions (as in: you own the domain and are in control) can be obtained for 2 euro or less. So why would you then want to rely on a subdomain?

PS II: I lived in Czech Republic before and have seen exactly 1 .cz.cc advertised and that was for the website of a temporary student union. Not a single enterprise, cultural website or media-related site used another extention than .cz, .com, .eu (or very rarely you'd see a .net, .org and such ... But mainly you see .cz and .com and now and then also .eu, but NEVER .cz.cc)

[bruc]

Thanks Gerrit for your input. This was actually my first experience with either of the cz.cc and co.cc. My clients did get .com domains after I told them to make a small change in what they wanted.

I went to the cz.cc site just for the heck of it and here is what they're advertising:

live statistics: 599428 Registered Domain Names - 186129 Domain Names Online - 255411 registered members

I've yet to see a web site with either and have never seen one on a search engine.

[Gerrit]

I only have experience with Ulimit.com when it comes to subdomains. Friends of mine used .co.nr and were satisfied. I was quite satisfied with Ulimit too, but I would only use it for a hobby site, not for anything remotely serious.

Fact is with subdomains of a domain owned by someone else, you rely on that someone else maintaining the service. The moment they quit, you lose your subdomain too. I much more prefer to be in control myself, especially when these days a meal at a fastfood restaurant is more expensive than a real domain. .com domains below 10 euro are frequent, and .info is sometimes even available for 3 euro per year. Why bother with subdomains then?

[quantumphysics]

Originally Posted by bruc

Thanks Gerrit for your input. This was actually my first experience with either of the cz.cc and co.cc. My clients did get .com domains after I told them to make a small change in what they wanted.

I went to the cz.cc site just for the heck of it and here is what they're advertising:

live statistics: 599428 Registered Domain Names - 186129 Domain Names Online - 255411 registered members

I've yet to see a web site with either and have never seen one on a search engine.

like 90% of .cz.cc and co.cc are blacklited from searchengines for abuse

[Shamildx]

better avoid .cz.cc and co.cc domains , .tk is so far good

[ext_id]

.info or .in(and it's family) are very cheap.
You can surely get them at under 5USD per domain.
I think this is a very cheap price regardless of an economy situation.
I vote for paying 5USD than relying on unreliable fake domains.

Seriously, I wouldn't want to buy anything from a company/shop/or any business who are hesitant to pay less than 10USD for a real domain.
A site using .cz.cc domain will definitely give a bad impression for some.

[*Matt*]

Like other members have said Co.cc websites have been completely de-indexed from google, because they where usually "Spam" sites.
If you want to keep things cheap for your clients go with .info domains which only cost about 2$.

[Lubeca]

Originally Posted by ext_id

.info or .in(and it's family) are very cheap.

What do you mean by "family"?

Don't forget that .in is India - so unless that's where you are it's not a good idea to register your name under .in, no matter what some clever marketers try to tell you.

I probably wouldn't use .info either - too obscure.

For a commercial web site you should either use .com or your own country's ccTLD

[Gerrit]

.info is actually gaining popularity a lot, for sure not an obscure extention anymore and it makes perfect sense as well for an informative website.

.in has been a hype for a while amongst domainers but unless you have ties to India, better stay away from it. It is and remains a country domain, just like .cn was a hype for a while but that hype is long over now. The same will happen with .in eventually, except of course for Indian websites.