The .CO extension opened for public registration this afternoon (at 2pm U.S. Eastern time) and the re-launched TLD (officially the country code for Colombia, but now available to anyone worldwide) got off to a blazing start. In the months leading up to the start of general 

registration 39,000 .CO domains had been taken during the Sunrise and Land Rush periods, however within 30 minutes of today's open registration launch, the total number of .CO domains taken had soared past the 100,000 mark and they were still going strong as of this writing.

The extension also got a major boost when it was announced that Overstock had purchased the rights to O.CO from the registry for a whopping $350,000. While that is a very nice chunk of change, the registry should receive even more value from having a USA Today Internet 50 Index company putting a high profile .CO domain into everyday use. Corporate adoption and promotion is the real key to success for any extension that wants to achieve widespread public recognition.

While no registry has the resources to make their extension a household name on their own, the .CO Registry has done a phenomenal job of putting .CO on the radar of everyone in the domain business, as well as a significant number of people in the business world at large. Their marketing team, led by registry CEO Juan Diego Calle and Director of Marketing Lori Anne Wardi has been working around the clock for the past few months to keep .CO at the center of industry conversation. With many new extensions expected to launch in the years ahead, I think you'll see a lot of new registry operators use their playbook in an effort to break through the TLD clutter. 

.CO certainly got Overstock's attention. Their Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said "In the new era of the Internet, where short and memorable web addresses are critical for capturing the attention of mobile and socially connected Internet users, our O.CO web address will help to reinforce our brand and expand our business among these audiences." By the way, for the very interesting back story on the Overstock - .CO connection, check out Michael Berkens' account of how it germinated at a cocktail party during the recent ICANN meeting in Brussels (with Michael himself playing an important role). 

(Posted July 20, 2010)