Indian Websites and Domain Names

[Ceres]

I came across a Times of India article that discusses how some Indian businesses handle/view websites and domain names.

Many of us already know that while it's easy enough to set-up a website, it's much harder to maintain that website. As the TOI article puts it:

maintaining a website is a slightly easier task than standing on one leg on the edge of a cliff

I suppose that's one way to put it!

With regard to domain names, should Indian companies choose .com or .in? :

DOT COM OR DOT IN?
Some entrepreneurs believe that choosing a ‘dot com’ instead of a ‘dot in’ or ‘dot org’ is lucky. There are others who want ‘dot in’ instead of ‘dot com’. But what are they fighting over? Is it a superstition?
“Dot com may get you more click rates, since people assume your website is your brand name, especially if you are a new businessperson,” says Devika. There is no golden rule to measure which dot works for what type of business. According to young website owners, ‘dot com’ is commercial, ‘dot org’ is for organizations such as NGOs and ‘dot in’ is simply to show a regional connection for the website. For example, ‘in’ means India and ‘ru’ is Russia.

Ideally, I think these Indian companies should register both the .com and the .in (especially if they have a local presence in India or people are accessing their site from India).

We have a thread discussing whether or not your .IN domain should be relevant to India and Indians?. One view quoted in the TOI article:

“A London businessman will definitely want to use ‘dot uk’ instead of ‘dot in’,” says Ravi. “But it doen’t matter. It’s just a name. He can host his site on ‘dot in’, too.”

Well, I don't know that I agree with the "it's just a name" bit...

Here's the link to the full article: A website is your ladder.

 

[domainwallah]

Nice read.
Google places a definite weight to .IN, if the keyword is searched in Google.co.in. It is an established fact. But there are several caveats to that, and you have to look in the eyes of Google, that yes, your site is India related.
There are several criteria for that.

 

[Jeff]

Poor advice:

“A London businessman will definitely want to use ‘dot uk’ instead of ‘dot in’,” says Ravi. “But it doen’t matter. It’s just a name. He can host his site on ‘dot in’, too.”

The extension you choose is important. It does matter - it's more than a name.

 

[RealDomainer]

Looking at the future, for local businesses, a .in name could become something one need to have and .com name definitely a good one to have.

Things seem to be probably moving towards that direction.