–Dan Kelly, Attorney

Which of these two signs (generally speaking, not these specific signs) do you think has sold more beer?

or

It stands to reason that COLD BEER signs have probably moved more product than BUDWEISER signs in the history of time, but, as with all things, context is important.

Merge the above train of thought with something else I’ve blogged about repeatedly:  the value of generic domain names.  While it may be true as a general proposition that generic domain names can be extraordinarily valuable, I doubt that coldbeer.com would be efficient in selling or promoting beer, principally because cold beer is a fleeting thing, and a point-of-purchase “COLD BEER” sign has an influence on a ready purchaser in a way that it simply cannot have on the average web surfer, no matter how thirsty.

Toys.com and cars.com are widely regarded as “category killer” generic domain names, and they are used, respectively, to sell toys and cars.  Coldbeer.com is probably not a category killer for beer, but it just might be for something else, like beer refrigerators.  The key to a category-killing generic domain name is making sure that it gets used in the correct category.