Even ahead of Ta.co, people thought Taco.com was owned by Taco Bell
Sure, some people will type taco.com instead of ta.co. But that confusion isn’t fresh.
Yesterday I wrote regarding how I think Ta.co is a great shortcut web address for Taco Bell, and perhaps better than Taco.com.
Many people disagree, and one commenter (on the first post regarding ta.co) asked how much traffic will end up at Taco.com by mistake.
First things first, I don’t think people landing at Taco.com instead of ta.co will hurt Taco Bell. The domain name is owned by an IT firm, so it’s not like people will land at a competitor’s website and decide to eat there instead. If someone wants to eat at Taco Bell, they’ll eat there.
But will people be confused by the web address? I can guarantee that some will, since even ahead of ta.co, people have thought Taco.com was Taco Bell’s website.
A page on Taco.com explains:
Taco.com is so named since our firm is Technical Advisors COmpany. We do not sell tacos. We do not make tacos. in fact some of us do not even like them very much.
For those of you who insist on confusing us with Taco Bell, we provide the following links:
The site then links to TacoBell.com and TheBorder.com.
Amusingly, an “award” firm even sent a Taco Bell award notice to Taco.com!
I think most of us who own a number of domain names have experienced this ahead of. How someone can land on your parked page and think you’re a different firm is mind boggling. What idiot lands on Taco.com, sees the content and thinks “This is that fast food tex-mex restaurant!”
I’m trying to track down Technical Advisors to ask regarding this confusion, but it’s not easy. There’s no phone number on the firm’s website, and its “contact us” email address of [email protected] bounces.
The whois for Taco.com is protected by whois privacy, probably to stop people from contacting it regarding Tacos. Using DomainTools historical whois, I found an October 19, 2013 whois record showing that it’s associated with xyzzy.com. That site is also owned by Technical Advisors, but the phone number in whois is invalid and the sit hasn’t been updated in years.
I finally located a phone number for the firm from a historical whois record, and left a voicemail earlier this morning. I’ve also emailed a couple contacts I could track down. I’ll let you know if I hear back.
