All good comments here on this vexing subject, people! Here's my last 20 years (yes) experience:
Dot COM is the world's default.
Virtually all Search Engines will react to an input of just a name and automatically search for
WWW.Name.COM So hypothetically you could miss out on a million dollar deal if I owned getrich.COM and you only owned getrich.net. (Or one of the million others out there now) My listing would come up first.
I understand that Google gives a high plus rating to COM over all others. (They used to discount any sub-domains automatically. (hostname.com/getrich).
Everyone fears their business being hijacked by someone with a similar name: gOtrich.com, who will pick up on your advertising.
Won't happen till you are buying a million visitors per month. That's what the ratfink thieving criminals out there concentrate on.
My advice? Forget it. Get as close a name as makes descriptive sense and focus on your product - or more precisely, what that mysterious market out there wants. AND there is no telling. Just look at Twitter, or Apple, or tatoos, or body-piercing......
If you are a small or boutique type business, use your own name:
www.FinkelsteinFasterFashion.com and get to work canvassing.
