Its been a topic that has been discussed a lot in the domain name community for the last few years, what impact will apps have on domain names? I’m a big fan of apps, I’ve been buying the latest-and-greatest iPhone for years and use an iPad every single day.
Apps are a big part of my life and I have found that in many cases apps can help me get things done a lot quicker. That being said I still use websites a lot and believe that every app needs to have a corresponding domain name, here’s three reasons why:
- Apps are all about doing one or several specific tasks. Pack too many things into an app and it becomes impossible to use. Apps are about doing the main task I would do on a website, not necessarily doing everything. I expect to have some features on an app but if I want to do everything I know I can find it on a website. Things like detailed product information, complex functionality, etc. are all going to happen on a website. Having a corresponding domain name for that site is the only way I’ll be able to quickly find it.
- App names tend to be short and brandable, I expect the domain to match the app and in most cases should be able to guess it. I’ll go to the .COM first and then check other extensions typically like .ME and .CO. I don’t think .NET and .ORG are as good of a fit for apps but that might just be me. An app should have a domain name I can easily guess since doing a bunch of Google searches for an app name can be hard since app’s are often one simple commonly used word like “Storm” or “My Weather” which will often bring up a zillion search result.
- I want to often learn about the companies that make the products or services I’m using. App’s are a terrible place for putting details “About Us” pages with photos and bios of founders or stories of how a company started. Plus, most people expect to find this on a website so won’t even try searching for it on an app.
Those are three reasons that I think every app developer should be making sure they have a solid domain name. Feel free to add your own as well since there’s definitely more than three!
You are spot on Morgan, we have seen a sharp growth in our sales to app developers.Because we tend to ask some of our customers additional questions we are seeing trends to why they are purchasing them and one of the main reasons is to get the matching landing page.With all the new apps being produced, many new apps can get lost in the crowd so these developers want the additional web presence(not just on mobile) for branding purposes.