Today’s news that G.CO was sold to Google must be exciting to those with .CO investments. The price Google paid wasn’t disclosed, but the key word is “sold” and .CO Registry CEO Juan Diego Calle did tell Reuters that “the price of one character (.CO domain names) is already north of $1.5 million.” I am sure Google will publicize this in a way that money can’t buy, similar to Twitter using T.CO.

The timing is very good for the .CO Registry in light of the pending renewals that are scheduled for the next several days. As one person pointed out on Mike Berkens’ blog, the Registry has great timing when it comes to important dates. The O.CO announcement came just before .CO names were available to the public a year ago.

While some people seem to be calling the .CO Registry out for dropping important news before big dates, I think it’s smart marketing, and owners of good .CO domain names will certainly benefit. Someone like Lonnie Borck of B52 Media (a good friend) who took a very big risk buying E.CO for close to 6 figures must be very happy right about now. I know he has turned down 6 figure offers for the name, and I would bet if he doesn’t sell it for over a million dollars, it will be close. News like this will help him and others.

This news should certainly not influence people who bought .CO domain names that aren’t worth anything to renew their worthless names. I posted an article offering people the space to list their .CO domain names for sale, and there were certainly a whole bunch of names I wouldn’t want to own at no cost. In my opinion, this happens with every single extension and will happen forever. There are always people making dumb investments (DMD @ $27 anyone?).

When .mobi was having problems, people who owned .mobi names seemed to chide and criticize the .mobi Registry for not doing enough to promote the fledgling extension. I don’t think anyone can accuse the .CO Registry of the same thing.

Kudos to the .CO Registry for their marketing efforts. The more people that see .CO domain names in action, the better investment good .CO domain names will make. Whether you have or will invest in .CO domain names or not, you have to respect the fact that .CO isn’t resting on its laurels.

I received an email from Abdu Tarabichi this morning announcing the launch of Domainsville.com, a new website aimed at helping domain investors. Tarabichi is also the founder of DNKB.org (Domain Name Knowledge Base), and he has frequently sent me helpful suggestions for my blog.

According to a post on the Domainsville blog this morning,

“Domainsville.com is a portal that combines all the resources you need to navigate the domain industry.  Read more useful articles, and locate fresh and functional promo codes to save on your next domain order.  Plan way ahead of time for the next event with our comprehensive listing of domain conferences, meet-ups, webinars, and live auctions directly from your Domainsville dashboard.  Signed-in users can customize, edit, or remove information widgets as they desire.  For example, if you do business with select domain registrars, eliminate the clutter by hiding promo codes from all other companies.”

There are a number of websites catering to the needs of domain investors, so it will be interesting to see how Tarabichi differentiates this from other websites. I wish him luck with his new venture.