Spain… and spotting domains along the way — Sightseeing in

From .com to .cat, Spain offers a colorful mix of domain extensions in everyday use.

I just returned from a vacation in Spain. Whenever I travel to foreign countries, I pay close attention to domain names. While .com dominates the United States, it shares the stage with many other extensions in some countries.

Spain is no different. While most of the domains I saw on signage were .com, they shared space with .es, .cat, .barcelona, and other top level domains. Here are some I saw.

Let’s start with .cat. .Cat is one of the more successful sponsored top level domains, designed for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community. You see .cat domains through Catalunya, such as in Barcelona.

Here’s a .cat domain I spied in Sitges:

One of the most common .cat sites you’ll see advertised in the city is barcelona.cat:

Although I didn’t snap any photos, I saw .barcelona in use for a couple of tourist attractions.

Spain’s .es country code domain is also a popular choice. Here’s one that will make domain people cringe. Note the email address! The firm forwards this domain to a Facebook page:

You might like this one more:

I did a double-take when I saw this domain:

As I mentioned at the top, .com is still the most common domain I’ve seen in Spain, both on this trip and on my past couple of visits. Here are a couple .coms I spied at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia.