Domains, Humans, Browsers and Behavior

Just saw this post on dotweekly.com about the SERP of candy.com. Started to write a comment but felt it worthy of a full post. Here goes.

I have a query for all domainers. You have just opened a browser window and want to search for candy floss. How do you do it?
1. Type google.com in the browser address bar and press enter. When google search opens, type candy floss in the search box and press enter.
2. Same as above, but you check to see if you are indeed in google.com or the local version. If local version then you click “go to google.com” before searching.
3. You type candy floss in the browser’s address bar and press enter.
4. You type candyfloss in the browser’s address bar and press enter.
5. You type candyfloss.com in the browser’s address bar and press enter.

Now, how many of your theories are already flowing out the window? And, I haven’t even talked about different browsers yet! Is it IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera?

Are you on a mobile smartphone?

Do you put the double quotes when you search?

If you are on google, have you turned off the instant search feature?

When you are typing in the search bar, do you look at and consider the suggested phrases?

If you are typing in the address bar, do you consider the history and bookmark suggested links?

Now, what do you think about a type-in?

…to be cont’d…