Google's recent
decision to name its holding company Alphabet demonstrates the power of domain names. The use of the name gave BMW free Web marketing.
Web traffic to Alphabet.com, owned by BMW, soared more than
500% after Google cofounder Larry Page announced Google would become the largest subsidiary of a new holding company called Alphabet, a BMW-owned fleet management service. Some of the
readers might have missed the URL in his blog post at the time of the announcement. It points to abc.xyz. No matter -- BMW got a boost from the news.
So BMW's Alphabet site had a bit of fun
with Google and posted its own version. The tagline reads: Because Alphabet is more than
a name to us. Earlier this week someone stepped in with a bit of foolery when
they set up the URL domain name abc.wtf and directed it to bing.com.
A Google search for the Web site Alphabet does not bring up it up. It does, however, serve an advertisement for Google's
new holding company. The site abc.xyz does not currently support content. It's a landing page, or a holding place to build on. No matter -- Google's
abc.xyz received 1.9 million visits after the Aug. 10 announcement, climbing to 3.9 million the following day, per Similar Web.