When it comes to domain name extensions, most people are familiar with .com.  Because of this the average webmaster is scrambling to get the perfect .com domain name.  Some may even forego registering a potential goldmine of a domain name in favor of getting a less popular .com.  Yet, there are dozens of other domain names available, some of which have gained popularity despite not being a .com.  How can a webmaster determine if their site is going to be in such a league without the traditional .com?  This article will explain how.

First, a webmaster needs to evaluate the purpose of their website.  If their website is designed to simply direct people to an affiliate page, then it won’t really matter what extension it has, since they are only going to visit it once anyway.  However, if a website is designed for repeat visits, people may not care about the site not having a .com.  Sites that contain updated information, games and message boards tend to be the type of sites that get repeat visitors.

Secondly, webmasters need to consider the memorable nature of their domain name.  If a webmaster is able to create a witty domain name hack, such as del.icio.us,  and their content is good, it may not matter that they don’t have a .com.   A good site that can allow a webmaster to register unconventional domain name extensions is New.net.  This site offers extensions such as .love and .free.  By looking at these extensions, webmasters can start pondering ideas for their own domain name hacks.  If they need help, they can always type the word or letters used in the extension in a keyword analyzer or search engine.

Thirdly, webmasters need to determine whether or not a domain name with an unconventional extension will rank higher in search engines than a domain name with a traditional one.  In fact, consider the above-mentioned example of del.icio.us.  Honestly,  how many people are typing such a domain name in their browser?  While it is certainly memorable, all of the periods associated with it are annoying.  Yet, the site still has a high search engine ranking, which is probably how it’s getting its traffic.

Surfers visit it from the search engine, bookmark it and never again have to be associated with its unique URL.  This is the type of success a webmaster wants to emulate.  Indeed, if a domain name is keyword-rich and memorable, webmasters need to definitely go for whatever extension is available for it.

Of course, this is not to say that a person must be limited to just domain name.  If they want to still use .coms after using other extensions they can.  In fact, the more domain names that point to a site, the more likely a search engine bot will index it higher.  So, ultimately, with this strategy, webmasters will have two domain names they can work with.  They can use the one with the unconventional domain name in search engine marketing in hopes of getting indexed high, while the other one can be used in printed media, where people are more likely to be concerned with the type of URL they are entering in their browser.

With normal spoofing a scammer tries to get personal information by sending fraudulent emails masquerading as an official website an individual might be working with.  While some fall for the deception, many know better since the domain name in the email doesn’t resemble the domain name they usually use to access whatever site.  However, what happens if a domain name looks exactly like an official website?

This, in combination with a more ‘professional’ email, could trick someone into giving away all of their personal data.  And when this happens they will eventually become victims of identity theft.  But, how can a scammer acquire a domain name that looks official?  It’s through the unfortunate practice of the homograph attack.

What is a homograph attack?  A homograph attack is when a person makes an internationalized domain name, (also known as an IDN), look like a traditional domain name associated with a popular website.  They are able to do this because of the way internationalized domain names work.  Basically, internationalized domain systems use a different type of coding system than the ASCII-based domain names Americans are used to.

However, even with a different coding system, some languages have characters that look similar to characters used in American English.  Scammers exploit this by taking these letters and creating domain names that look ‘new’ to browsers and servers, at least in terms of coding.  To the human eye, these fraudulent domain names appear to already be taken, which is exactly what a scammer wants.  They cause further confusion by creating sites that look pretty much like the sites associated with the original domain name that the scammers are spoofing.

Before and even after internationalized domain names became popular, homograph attacks were expressed through spoofing just English characters.  Scammers exploited the visual similarities between ‘O’ and ‘0′ or ‘I’ and ‘l’.  Examples include ‘G00Gle.com or ‘PayPaI.com.’  If a person is not paying attention, they could still become victims, but at least these types of domain names still look unusual.  With internationalized domain name homograph attacks, the above-mentioned websites could look just as they are supposed to, fooling even the most vigilant Internet user.

So, how can a person prevent becoming a victim of an internationalized domain name homograph attack?  First, they should never click on any domain name that is given through an email.  Instead, they should enter the domain name manually into their browser.  In situations where one is working with a third-level domain that could be harder to remember, Internet users need to copy and paste the domain name into Notepad.  This program will help them determine what character set and coding is being used for the domain name.  If it’s not English and ASCII, a person should be weary.

In conclusion, internationalized domain name homograph attacks can cause a lot of havoc for Internet users.  However, Internet users should find comfort in the fact that while they do need to be aware of the presence of the homograph attack, the traditional method of spoofing which is much easier to spot tends to be more common.  This is because a person must be both clever and lucky to land an internationalized domain name that looks that much like a domain name that is already in use.  It’s much easier for scammers to try and fool people through email hyperlinks.