Why Are People using (com) Dotcom, etc. on this forum instead of .COM?

[Banned: Peachesbackwards]

I realise every post here seems to be picked up on Google but what is the advantage of using different things instead of .Com?

[dcristo]

so the exact match domain including extension isn't indexed

[Banned: Peachesbackwards]

What happens negatively if its indexed, exactly?

[dcristo]

What happens negatively if its indexed, exactly?

Well nothing really, it just enables you to trace the origins of the domain in relation to prices paid etc

[MediaHound]

It's another layer of privacy.
Some people don't want an obvious breadcrumb trail so people can connect the dots with other domains or projects they're involved with.
Among still other reasons, it also protects the buyers in some cases because many buyers don't want their spending habits revealed and the sellers are respecting that.

[Banned: Peachesbackwards]

Does it affect Google Ratings at all? I noticed when I listed 2 websites for sale, their Google ratings went down a bit and just rebounded upwarded today. Is this just a coincidence in your opinion? I had noted the Google Ranking on the Thread of the Website for sale & advertised it as being sold on the basis of its Google Ranking. The guy who does the technical stuff & SEO for me said it was a coincidence. Thanks

[dcristo]

Google rankings always fluctuate. This would have nothing to do with it.

[Banned: Peachesbackwards]

Thanks for the info

[mikedee]

I just did a quick test and half the different methods for hiding your domain are not working at all, the rest are fairly easy to find for someone wanting to research a domain.

Here are some common methods and their actual results in google when searched with the regular domain name (ie. example.com). All of these are taken from actual examples in the forum now.

(.)com - Does not work, google has indexed the dnforum thread and shows it on a normal search.
,com - Does not work
[space].com - Does not work
(*).com - Does not work
*com - Does work, easy to work around by searching 'example com'
(adding spaces to the domain name)[space].com - Does work. Probably only good if the searched words have meaning on their own.
[.]com - Does not work
[space]dot[space]com - Works, but does not work for a search of 'example dot com'

So most obvious methods do not work and all your hard work will be wiped out as soon as someone replies 'example.com sold'. To hide the trail from google totally you will need to add spaces to the domain name in unexpected places and be slightly more creative

[WeBuyThe.Com]

I've seen people also using characters like thisn@meisfor$sale.com