There are some basic rules that the web and branding on web works. Probably you’ve heard about them. Though I’ll tell you that they aren’t always true. I mean they’re not true everywhere. There’s a difference on how the web is perceived US or Western Europe, and on how it is perceived and understood in Easter Europe, specifically in Romania.

What’s in a name

Let’s think about the domain names. Generic domain names versus specific domain names. The most visited web pages don’t use generic names. It’s like an unwritten rule. Most of them use specific names, like Google, or Apple, or Amazon, Ebay, and so on. Using a generic name is like having no identity. There’s no cars.com, or dating.com, or books.com. Or maybe there are, but people don’t use them. You want to buy a book, you go to amazon.com, not to books.com. You want to search for something, you go to google.com, not to search.com. You want to sell something, you go to ebay.com, not to sell.com. Well, you get the point.

This is basic rule of branding, especially internet branding: don’t use generic names. You have to use clear names, something that sticks into the readers mind. And cars.com or books.com won’t.

Well, not exactly. You see, in Romanian web, and probably others also, you have a good chance to succeed with generic names. We have a lot of web pages like cars.ro, dating.ro, jobs.ro, blogs.ro and so on (of course, the names are in Romanian). What’s more interesing is that these pages have success and attract more and more visitors.

Why sometimes choosing a generic name is a good thing?

If the rules are so clear, if the generic names don’t usually work, what makes them work sometimes? I guess it depends on the culture. It depends on how a society (US society, Romanian society, and so on) and how it’s people understand the web. It depends on how long they’ve been in contact with it. It depends on how they know to benefit from it’s usage. As long as that society still sees the internet as nothing more than the last possibility or finding information, as long as companies in this society use the internet and have a web page only because “they have to”, they won’t be able to use it properly. For know we as a society still use the internet only to get information. We’ve started to understand that we can also promote our products, that we can get very easily to the entire world through the internet, but we’ve not quite understood it’s full potential. That’s why for now, generic names are good for us. Because if I want to look for an apartment, I’ll go to apartments.ro. If I want to find something about some car model, I’ll go to cars.ro. And so on.

If generic names work in your country, I’ll say it’s a good thing. They’re working because you don’t have yet your version of google.com, amazon.com or apple.com. So there’s lots of room for new services. Exactly as in Romania.