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[George Pickering]

Many US cities are located near one another. In fact many times these sister cities are referenced with a hyphen. So what is the value of domains like

dallas-fortworth.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas/Fort_Worth_Metroplex

cincinnati-dayton.com
The US government is merging the two MSAs in the next year or two

washington-baltimore.com or baltimore-washington.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore-Washington_Metropolitan_Area

Any thoughts?

[artfuldodger]

Not sure of the value (probably zero type-ins, plus higher chance of error when typing in). However, I do like Baltimore-Washington better than Washington-Baltimore since that is how the local airport does it, Baltimore Washington International (BWI).

~J

[George Pickering]

Definately gets zero type in/direct navigation, but that is not an handicap due to our model.

Does the branding make sense? That is the key question IMHO. I just picked up Washington-Baltimore.com off namejet (someone let it go).

A search of Yahoo for the keyword (in quotes) reveals that a fair amount of organizations and companies that use washington-baltimore in their name.

I think I could combine my assets in the DC region (washington-baltimore.com, northernvirginia.net, washingtondc.tv, arlington.tv, bethesda.tv, northernvirginia.tv, tysons.tv, dulles.tv, montgomerycounty.tv, pgcounty.tv, loudoun.tv, etc) into that target different segments of the DC market. Since we have one office in Northern Virginia and a second one in Baltimore, we have sales coverage in both markets.

[artfuldodger]

I would say Washington-Baltimore.com is good branding for that area. I kind of think of it like if I was an area business owner and I received an email from someone with that email address it would get my attention.  Lots of businesses cover both areas and in between. Also, I think it would resonate with consumers/visitors too.

Although I will say I think I tend to say Baltimore-Washington Area more than I say Washington-Baltimore Area. However, that might just me personally and not indicative of most people in the area. Washington is certainly the more widely recognized city to anyone not from the metro area.