To make women all over the planet take note of a colorful logo designed to honor them on their special day, Google took a bold step, rebranding as Googlo for a day. The logo features the universal female symbol for letter “G” – no surprise here – while the second “O” and last “E” are surprisingly similar – two red circles.
In all fairness, this is a stylized logo. However, the last letter makes us sheep believe that the designer was either drunk with love, or in a rush. Regardless what reasons are behind this relatively puzzling rebranding, the logo inspires me to run wild on the fields this spring. The colors are bold and feminine, with bright purple and marigold hues in perfect harmony. A yellow flower at the heart of the logo stimulates appetite for all good things.
Yes, it may be Googlo today, but Google’s doodle blunder is not a PR fiasco. In fact, I doubt humans even noticed the subtle issue with the last “E.” And as all Google doodles in history, this brought Google numerous reports, each echoing the other, pretty much as we sheep carry the “baa” from the first to the last sheep.
But there are still lessons to be learned here by all entrepreneurs, own the domain rights to all variations of product and company names – including misspellings. Purchasing those rights these days can be cheap – Some charge less than $5 per year to own the domain name. But because they are cheap, most of the process is automated, so unless the EXACT name being requested is already registered, no one will question you or anyone else about a similarity of names to another domain.
Someone with an ALMOST identical domain name could lure your clients to their site thinking they are dealing with your company – such actions are done by those looking for ways to take advantage, so your reputation is on the line.
Once all the misspelled versions are covered, own the domain names with common extensions such as .org, .net. Also, consider hyphens or underscore versions if your domain name is more than one word. And one final consideration – if you have haters, a common practice is to add the word “sucks” at the end of a company or product name and before the dot whatever. Take that option away from others too. You won’t be able to buy them all as new extension options are being added all the time, but if you have the common ones, it will alleviate most of the worry about someone hijacking your customers or intentionally harming you through from your website.
When you register a domain name, you need to be the “owner” of that domain – not your tech guy or someone else. It may make the set up easier to have the tech guy, but, if in the future you part, even on good terms, there may be hassle moving forward every time you need to deal with the domain name or registration.
Most of what others can do to harm your company or reputation is not criminal – even if it is against the law, it is a civil matter. Meaning, if you want to fix it in court, it will be on your dime.
Remember to pay the annual domain registration fees. That might be easiest if you do it the same time as you do some other annual task or tie it to a special date. If you pay annual fees to your State for incorporation, etc., consider paying the domain registration fees at the same time as those.
Oh yea, and while we’re reminding people, and in honor of that special day Google was celebrating – ladies schedule your checkups each year around the time of your birthday. You’re too important not to maintain great health.
Google aint Googlo every day of the year.