Business cards are old hat – try a website instead.Anecdotal evidence suggests more and more people are gifting domain names, according to Internet New Zealand.Communications and research officer Campbell Gardiner said domain names were becoming mor
Business cards are old hat – try a website instead.
Anecdotal evidence suggests more and more people are gifting domain names, according to Internet New Zealand.
Communications and research officer Campbell Gardiner said domain names were becoming more and more popular as present ideas.
“We are seeing more of it,” he said. “Having a domain name is a good way to express yourself online.”
Mr Gardiner spoke from personal experience: “I’ve actually given my brother a domain name,” he said.
“He was quite chuffed. He could set up a website or a blog and use it to record his activities or he could use it as a personalised email address.”
For example, if John Smith gets given the domain name johnsmith.co.nz, he can then use that domain name for the email address john@johnsmith.co.nz.
“Having your own personalised .nz domain name means you aren’t locked in to a particular ISP’s email address, like laura@xtra.co.nz, and you are easily able to change ISPs without having to notify your entire address book that your email has changed.”
He said the number of sites with the .nz domain suffix, as opposed to .com, had been growing over the last few years.
“We’d be delighted to see more and more,” he said.
“There’s nothing to prevent people in New Zealand from having .com domain names but in New Zealand it would be more common for people to have .nz. Certainly a lot of big firms will have .com domain names.”
Sites can be purchased with multiple suffixes that link to a main site.
A word of warning, however: if you go to register a domain name for yourself or as a gift, make sure you are getting a good deal. There are more than 60 registrars who can register domain names, which can cost between $20 and $70 a year.
The reason for the higher price? More services offered by the registrar, such as hosting and building your website.
“You’re better off going through one of the registered registrars listed on the DNC’s website. There are a lot of registrars out there. It’s a competitive market and that can only be good for consumers.”
