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July 29, 2014

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Here's the The Lowdown from DN Journal,
updated daily
to fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry. 

The Lowdown is compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron Jackson.

What's a Better Domain for a Blueberry Farm - Blueberries.link or HowsMyPicking.com?

I'm a big fan of blueberries. I eat the healthy fruit almost every morning either fresh when they are in season or frozen when they are not. So, when I picked up a couple of fresh pints at my grocery this week I couldn't help noticing the domain name on the label - HowsMyPicking.com - not WishFarms.com - reflecting the name of the 92-year-old Plant City, Florida farm not far from us that is one of the state's top growers (and top importers of the fruit from other regions after the Florida crop is gone. With the North American season nearing an end Wish Farms is currently bringing the berries in from Canada). 

Now Wish Farms does own WishFarms.com and has a nice website there. So, why 

 

would they put a name like HowsMyPicking.com on their label instead of building their own brand? A visit to HowsMyPicking.com - apparently a takeoff on the How's My Driving? stickers you see on the back of semi trucks (though I'm not sure how many people will make that connection) - provided the answer. 

It turns out How's My Picking is also a trademarked brand they use for a traceability tool that allows them to trace the berries they sell back to the grower, variety, field location, date and time. A unique 16-digit number that appears on the package is tied to specific information about each individual package of produce. Consumer feedback is then linked to their growers and pickers so they can hold them accountable to ensure their customers get a high quality product. 

So, they are using HowsMyPicking.com (which actually re-directs to a page on the Wish Farms website - http://www.wishfarms.com/hows-my-picking/) to try to educate consumers about the extra quality assurance steps they take (and if you follow the link and enter the 16-digit number on the package they will enter you in a drawing for a $100 grocery gift card). That's all well and good and I think the unique identifying number is a really nice way to differentiate them from others growers. However,  I don't know how many people, other than a domain geek like me, would bother to go their computer and type in HowsMyPicking.com (especially since there is no mention on the package of the chance to win something). 

Blueberries image from Bigstock

I also wonder about the choice of the name for their traceablity tool - a name with high visibility on the face of their product. HowsMyPicking.com seems like a reach - but this is the heart of the current arguments surrounding the arrival of new gTLDs isn't it? With all of the good .com names supposedly taken (leading to choices like HowsMyPicking.com) the new Gs are meant to offer more descriptive and concise options. Indeed you can get many one-word keyword domains in new Gs that are not only taken in .com but almost every other previous alternative (like .biz, .info and .us) as well.

That was true in this case too. I looked up "blueberries" and found a registration fee would get you the exact name of

 the Wish Farms product in any number of extensions, including one that would have made perfect sense for their tool (the number that links you to specific information about that package of fruit) - Blueberries.link. In fact I liked it well enough - being a huge fans of blueberries as I mentioned - I registered it myself for under $7 at Uniregistry.com (a discounted price that is available through their affiliate program).

Now, I say that a name like that would have made perfect sense, and from purely a language standpoint it would have - but from a domain standpoint - perhaps not so much at this stage of the game. How many would not recognize Blueberries.link as a domain name - even if you put www in front of it? How many would type in BlueberriesLink.com? When people see .com they know its a web address.

So, as of today many traditionalists would likely argue HowsMyPicking.com is the better name and brand while new gTLDs advocates would say, no way - Blueberries.link is much better. My guess is Wish Farms has no idea new gTLDs even exist - but they and other businesses like them may learn they exist in the years ahead - provided new gTLD registries can get the word out

Whether or not they can do that remains the multi-million dollar question that no one can answer with certainty yet. If they can scale that Everest sized mountain the game really could change - but as of today, the finish line is still too far away for any of us to even know where it's at or even if it is a finish line marking the end of a winning race, or a finished line eulogizing a massive program that failed to meet expectations. My guess, like many, is that we will see something in between with some finishing the marathon as winners and others failing to go the distance. 

(Posted July 28, 2014)  


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