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By Merrill Warkentin, Northeastern University
So you want to start a website. There are many decisions to make about content, strategy, and technology. What is your overall objective? Are you primarily trying to create an online informational listing much like a yellow pages ad, with no need for expensive design and constant website maintenance? (This kind of static website design, common for small businesses, is often called “brochureware.”) Or do you want to create a dynamic, interactive, exciting place for customers to come and learn more about new products, see promotions and demos, get helpdesk-style customer support, join a community of your customers to share information about your products, and ultimately purchase your product online? Creating this customer-facing system can be a strategic decision for the next millennium.
You also have many operational decisions to make about who will design and host your website. One very interesting question concerns the name you will choose for your site. This “domain name” or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the often a cryptic name selected by companies who stake their claim on the digital frontier. The typical format for commercial sites is www.companyname.com. Sometimes the choice is clear. Your existing company name, possibly registered as a trademark, is widely recognized and is not yet registered with InterNIC (the domain name registration organization) and so you select that name. Other times, there may be no clear choice or there may be obstacles or potential problems with that name. And you may want to think about also registering names that are very similar to your selected name.
In the old days (about three years ago), InterNIC did not check for trademark registration when it issued approvals for domain names. And so a young boy registered toysrus.com before Toys R Us did, and the company had to exchange a lot of bikes and video games with him to be able to use the domain name they wanted! Similarly, a VJ with MTV had registered mtv.com just before his contract renegotiation and just before the company realized they should have a website! For a while, individuals were registering every possible name they could think of in hopes of selling the rights of some of them for huge gains. One woman has profited millions of dollars in the last three years by registering thousands of domain names and waiting to be approached with offers to buy them. The ability for “cybersquatters” to do this today is more limited – not only are registered trademarks off limits, but other legal restrictions may apply.
Celebrities and other public figures have recently learned that they should protect themselves by registering their own name and similar variants to prevent fans or detractors from starting websites in their name with potentially unflattering content. So the famous John Smith may want to register johnsmith.com. Certain news organizations are already encouraging all their on-air talent to do this.
Another problem is the ambiguous or copycat domain name. The staff of the White House maintains a government information website with many links to government services and programs at www.whitehouse.gov. But there is also www.whitehouse.com, a porn website. (In exactly the same fashion, the owners of nasa.com hope to attract virtual visitors who intended to go to the government’s site for NASA.) When the recent popular movie “Deep Impact” (about a comet striking the earth) was being filmed, the producers learned that a one-character variation of their domain name www.deepimpact.com, had already been registered by a porn website entrepreneur with the hopes of capturing cyber-audiences who confused or mis-typed the spelling. There are countless examples of website names intentionally selected for their similarity to other URLs. So when you register your new domain name, it may be a sound investment to protect your reputation by registering all the obviously similar names at the same time. InterNIC was even subject to this ploy – some one registered www.internic.com to attract traffic away from individuals mistakenly trying to access the www.internic.net site! The former no longer exists.
But the newest twist to watch is the proliferation of websites set up by disgruntled employees or customers to vent their anger toward major corporations. These sites usually have domain names that are either ihatecompany.com or companysucks.com. A classic example is the www.walmartsucks.com site, created by a customer who felt he was mistreated at one Wal-Mart store. He has created a repository combining all the negative news stories he can find about Wal-Mart with anecdotal accounts from fired employees and unhappy customers. Wal-Mart has unsuccessfully offered to buy his website from him to shut it down, but he refuses! When such an individual used to tell his 50 to 100 friends and co-workers about his frustration, it may have resulted in a few lost sales, but with the Internet, he can now reach thousands or even millions of potential customers.
Some of these company hate site names are sly. Instead of registering dunkindonutsucks.com when David wanted to broadcast his complaints about his Dunkin’ Donuts experiences in Hartford, Connecticut, he registered dunkindonuts.org, which actually shows up as a “hit” listed higher than the official corporate website on many search engines. Ultimately, the managers of this Randolph, Mass-based firm decided not to fight this site, but instead regarded it as a way to get valuable customer feedback, instituted suggested changes, and eventually impressed David enough with their efforts to convince him to turn over the site to them!
After a disgruntled New York bank customer started a site to complain about errors on his Chase Manhattan checking account statements, Chase quickly secured the rights to chasesucks, chasestinks, and ihatechase. But you may not always be able to anticipate what these domain names might be. When two customers felt abused by their experience with a rental truck that constantly broke down, they launched the “U-Hell Website.” U-Haul has now sued them for trademark infringement and libel.
As you take those first steps toward setting up shop in cyberspace, look at the big picture – how can the web enable you to redefine your relationship with suppliers, distributors and customers? How can you reach new markets? How can you customize the interface for your customers and enhance their interactive experience? How can you mine the data from the interaction to better understand your customer base? But as you look at the big picture, also pay attention to the little things that can make a big difference. Avoid future problems when you select your domain name, and consider registering similar names at the same time. Yahoo now has a large section for "Consumer Opinion" sites, including boycott sites, complaint sites, and a list of sites dealing with domain name controversies.
For more information about electronic commerce, click here to visit my ecommerce portal.
About The Author:
Merrill Warkentin is Associate Professor and Coordinator of MIS in the College of Business at Northeastern University. He has authored over 80 research papers and books, primarily focusing on IT management issues related to electronic commerce, virtual team design, expert systems, computer security, and digital multimedia. Dr. Warkentin has served as a consultant to numerous companies and government agencies, and has been a featured speaker at dozens of association meetings and industry groups.
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