√ About option V MAC

No double-speak, just something neat. Option V is a cool new way for Macintosh users to get to this web site. Macintosh users can get to this site by just entering option v into the Safari browser -- a single character domain name. How cool is that? The following link is an experiment -- Want to play Quarters?

This domain is an ideal name to promote Macintosh products. Macintosh software developers, hardware manufacturers, product distributors can easily advertise their site by showing Macintosh customers they can access their site by just entering option v. Can't get much simpler.

No more wondering if a potential customer can remember your domain name, or not. A single character is very easy to remember. Also, if the customer can't remember if the character was a lower case or an upper case character, not to worry, both option v and option V takes the user to this exact site. Neat. huh?

√ More about option V MAC

The tech stuff. This domain name is simply a single character multilingual domain name with a dot com top level domain (TLD). It is a perfectly legal and totally genuine domain name. There is no server-side wizardry or tricks to get people here. The single character (code point) of this domain is simply the radical sign from the Mathematical Operators char-set section from the Unicode multilingual database. The code point value for this character is Unicode 221A and the PUNYCODE value is xn--19g. However, even though the technical stuff is.. ah, technical, the domain name is easily accessible from Macintosh keyboards by entering option v -- a single character.

One final note. While this domain is neat, the technical foundation that this is built on is only the tip of the ice berg. The IDNS has incorporated the Unicode's database into the works to allow and welcome the entire world to the net and in their own respective native language.

Keep in mind that the population of the planet who's native language is English is less than 5 percent. The remaining 95 percent of the world's population is logging on to the Internet in record numbers in their own languages (i.e., something other than the typical a-z and 0-9 characters you typically see in domain names). These new potential customers will not only be able to see their domains in their respective languages, but will be able to view this domain as Mac users do.

This domain works for all current English users, and is already scaled for the rest of the world. Now how many additional potential Mac customers will that be? Good question.

√ The Goal

The goal simply is to find a Macintosh company with vision. One who realizes the enormous potential of having a simple single character domain name that Macintosh users can easily remember and find. In fact, they can get to this site easier than any other web site on the net -- all they have to do is to enter option v -- how much easier can it be?

As such, I'm offering this domain and technique for sale (please, serious inquiries only -- read this ).

Granted, the single character names re the above link are accessible to Windows users, but so is this one if Windows users work at it -- and who knows perhaps someday Microsoft will finally get one of their browsers to be fully compliant with Unicode code points, like Safari does.

But, the point isn't how many Windows users may have problems accessing this site, but rather how easily Mac users can. And in that, no site can claim easier access than this one.

√ Update option V MAC

Ever wonder just "How many" Macintosh users there are? Apple occasionally provides us with an update -- last count 19 million OS-X users (per Steve Jobs August 2006 Worldwide Developers Conference ). More recently Keith Bachman, an analyst at Bank of America Securities, now quotes a higher number in an AppleInsider article: 22 million users of all versions of Mac OS X. Bank of America Securities estimates an increase of 6 million Mac users since the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in June 2005

Currently, Mac's hold around a five percent of market share, depending upon who you're talking to. But, if that same ratio holds for the remainder of the world, the increase in the actual number of Mac users could far exceed the number of people living in the US. The numbers are absolutely staggering. So, if your company is interested in selling their Macintosh product to the entire world and not just English speaking people, then this is probably one of the most significant domains your company could buy.

√ If nothing else, read this about option V MAC

Hey, 22 million potential customers isn't shabby. But how many Macintosh users are actually getting to this site currently? Well... lets examine that:

  1. This site was launched on Jan 8, 2007.
  2. The only advertisement this site has received was a simple hard-copy bookmark showing only the url. This bookmark was provided at MacWorld between the dates of Jan 8 to Jan 12, 2007. There were only 300 bookmarks given out. There were no sales, no salesmen, no promotional offers, nothing more than a stack of bookmarks laying on one table in one booth. People were free to take the bookmark as they wanted with no sales pressure nor information provided about the url at all. All that was printed on the bookmarks was Option V Mac, nothing else.
  3. Since then, Jan 8, 2007 to April 8, 2008, this site has received over 39,400 unique visitors with an average of 68 visitors a day and that figure is rising (data provided via Google Analytics -- and is available to a serious buyer).