Google ignores NexusOne.com

Google launched the Nexus One smartphone yesterday

Despite the huge hype surrounding Google's first foray into the smartphone market, the web giant has neglected to acquire the key .com web address for the new Nexus One, domain name marketplace Sedo revealed today.

NexusOne.com is recorded as being first registered in 1998 to a private individual and now resides with a Peter Villanueva, according to a WhoIs search with .com registrar GoDaddy.

Google is currently selling the Nexus One smartphone via its google.com site, although it declined to comment on the significance of the news and whether it has plans to acquire the domain in the future.

Domain names are an essential channel to market for companies, helping to boost branding efforts and improve the success rate of product launches, explained Sedo business development director Nora Nanayakkara.

"As Google is offering handsets directly to consumers, it will need to carefully assess how it can use direct navigation domain names in ensuring positive uptake of the device, as neglecting to fully utilise the type-in traffic of domain names means that it will potentially miss out on large volumes of consumers looking for information on the new handset," she said.

However, Nanayakkara warned that organisations must ensure they have in place well organised online brand management campaigns to guard against unwanted speculation about an upcoming product.

"Domain names can reveal a great deal about product development plans from major companies," she explained.

"For example, Apple seems to have taken a step in the right direction with its pre-emptive purchase of the web address iSlate.com, but this has created a flurry of online speculation that this may be the name of an upcoming product, something Apple may not have intended to do."