Here Dev.. for example.. You are in Germany and searching for a new car..so you goto Google.DE and search for Cars..
most of the results will be .DE websites ..
http://www.google.de/search?q=Cars&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=lr=lang_de
They are showing the "local" suppliers/websites before the other extensions...
Now we hear the story "well .com is the us extension " Well yes at this time it is....but what you will see inthe coming years are companies targeting the US market, oversea's and US based by using the ccTLD specifically for their US customer base the same as you see the the .DE and .IT etc..
And the Search engines were one of the first to recognize and fill this need by restricting or giving prefrence to "local" ccTLDS...giving etter results for there customers and and enlarging their own customer base.
Thisnk of it like this..
Lets take that "Cars" search for example... if you own Cars.US ..you can highlight all the US manufactured cars (is their really such a thing any more
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So your site is about Ford and GM products , you can discuss how well built they are compared to "foriegn" vehicles.. you can wewave the US flag if you like ..and you arent going tom take much falk over it. your proud your an american , buy our products, support our economy etc..
Now if you try and do that on your .com you are going to piss off half of your customers.. see what I am saying..
Cars.com you want to "tippy toe" make sure you dont offend anyone, because your traffic is generalized, it's from everywhere .. You arent going to talk about how better american cars are , your are not going to say buy from US Cars.comto support the American ecoonomy etc..
This is the same fopr all extensions.. it gives you a more personally relationship with your target market.. Hey, I am gernman and I want to buy from a german supplier and etc.. works for every extension.. the same support our economy, patriotsim, nationalism ..simple Pride...
NOt even going into the other more daily concerns of why you want to locate .US or .DE or .IT websites...for reasons of wanting a local supplier, of knowing if you need to return something fromthe states you dont have to pay shipping to Germany, from knowing that support is going to speak english or whatever your native lanquage , to knoweif you call the comapny ..you know it may be long distance..but at least it isnt an international call .. many many reasons..
This is the direction we are headed..
.com and ,net etc all still have their places but I think you will see this ccTLD direction is very real , and the growth is very strong..
because Companies are understanding ccTLD can provide excellent access to specific markets.
Doesnt mean they are forsaking one extension for another..only utilizing each extension to gain maximun exposure for their products/services