According to a press release out today The March of Dimes has switched its domain name from Marchofdimes.com to Marchofdimes.org.
If your wondering who owned the .Org before it was Rehabilitation Foundation for the Disabled in Toronto which owns the domain name Marchofdimes.ca
It appears that the March Of Dimes acquired the .org back in March of this year.
MarchofDimes.com is now being redirected to the Marchofdimes.org.
Of course since the March of Dimes owns both the .com and .org there won’t be any loss of traffic but the move makes sense to me and is a big boost for PIR, the non-profit company that operates the .Org regsitry.
Here is the rest of the press release:
“For 12 years, the March of Dimes has used .com to promote our presence on the internet because it was the best and only descriptive domain available to us,” said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, president of the March of Dimes. When the .org became available this year we saw an opportunity to more appropriately align ourselves with other top nonprofit organizations around the world. We think it will help consumers more intuitively understand that the March of Dimes is a not-for-profit dedicated to mom and baby health.”
“Changing to marchofdimes.org is a subtle improvement, but it’s a natural for us,” said Dr. Howse. “It lets more moms know that we’re a trustworthy, independent, non-commercial source. We are a one-stop shop for the information women need to help them have healthy pregnancies and healthy, full-term babies.”
Good decision.
The .org extension tells you it’s a non-profit organization. Keyword + extension in this case makes sense.
I think the bigger story is why in the world did March of Dimes USA allow another organization in Canada to use their trademarked name. March of Dimes is a worldwide known organization and the Canadian version is riding the coattails of the US based company.
Hi Todd. The reason, as you might imagine has a complicated history. There are two March of Dimes organizations – one in the U.S. and a second in Canada. I don’t know when the Canadian organization was founded, but my understanding is that both organizations used to have the same mission – to cure polio. After March of Dimes funded research led to the Salk Vaccine, both organizations soon changed their cause and their missions diverged. The Canadian organization, March of Dimes Canada registered the domain back in 1997 before the US organization considered it apparently and had been holding it ever since. Since March of Dimes Canada brands themselves using the Canadian ccTLD marchofdimes.ca, they didn’t need it and it was possible to reach an agreement.