Until sometime back, not typing a complete website address on a browser was cool and time-saving. Almost everyone had adopted the super short-cut of pressing CTRL+ENTER after typing the name of the site, to have the browser automatically complete the .COM and land on the correct site. We can see why somebody decided to have web browsers recognize and execute the most common domain extension in the world: .COM.
How does this feature hold in recent times? I have noticed that doing a CTRL+ENTER has become like a sub-conscious, involuntary reflex kind of behavior for most users. Today, is this short-cut as useful as it was earlier?
Let us examine few trends and facts of the web:
- Increasing number of individuals and non-businesses opting for websites
- Most individuals and companies are striving to get easy-to-remember domain names
- Country-specific localized branding is gaining popularity
- Most individuals and companies are housing multiple domains (similar in names)
.COM is rarely available today. All 3 letter possibilities are gone on .COM; all 4 letter ones are depleted. Almost any other name that you can think of, is booked already.
Trend and common-sense suggests that the number of .COM sites a user would visit is decreasing in number. Region-specific domains have taken precedence. And it’s not always that the same business owner would have a .COM and .IN and .AU, etc. It is complete okay and acceptable not to have ownership over .COM as your brand identity. Another recent trend shows that smarter marketing and availability of wider domain extensions has made some brands to get very creative with their domains. Check the following for instance:
Recent news indicate that .CO domain is the next happening and going to be second most popular after .COM in few years. People who have missed out on having their choice of domain name with .COM are opting for .CO now.
As we see, while .COM will always dominate the number of sites out there and also as the first option for new people who are registering, the % of sites with .COM an individual visits vs sites with other extensions – is changing rapidly. The CTRL+ENTER combination is getting to be more frustrating, firstly – to the end users for landing up on sites they do not intend to; and secondly to the website owners having lower visits due to traffic diversion towards the default Generic Top Level Domain: .COM.
Even for users who prefer typing a specific domain with specific extension, there are few annoying plugins like Google suggestion/auto-complete that come in the way of reaching the intended site. We shall discuss this in a separate post. Detach from CTRL+ENTER; bookmark and click your way through the web for better experience.
Vishal Mehta is a usability professional who loves to play chess and has a strong eye for details. He’s also the CEO of IDYeah Creations, a UX practice in Pune, India. Vishal is also a guest blogger on UXBooth, Technorati, BlogCritics, and SAP Community Network.
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It’s been so many years I have been browsing the web but was not aware about ‘CTRL+ENTER’ shortcut. Thanks for highlighting this via blog. It’s bit late for me to get use to this shortcut now (which is good) as I always been typing the URL & bookmarking it for later reference.
You’re welcome Tejash. Glad you found something to consume from the post.