You may have read about flicker.com’s recent transfer to Yahoo!. At first glance a generic verb, the domain name is also a highly-trafficked and very intuitive misspelling of Flickr, the popular photo-sharing site that Yahoo! owns.  Like Flickr, many Web 2.0 brands are utilizing misspellings of common words to make their brands more distinctive (Del.icio.us and Digg come to mind). Some also turn to unconventional spellings because the domain name version of the “correct” spelling isn’t available.  According to Tech Crunch, when the founders of Flickr first came up with the idea for the site, they liked the name “Flicker.”  Unfortunately, flicker.com was already registered, so they adjusted the brand’s spelling to “Flickr” and set up a website on flickr.com.

Despite the prevalence of alternative spellings in Web 2.0 brand and domain names, many consumers are not catching on to these “typos” and are typing the customary spellings into their browser bars when searching for the brands in question. The owner of flicker.com attempted to capitalize on this trend by hosting ads for photo-related products and releasing harmful tweets from a similarly “misspelled” Twitter handle, both of which were problematic for the Flickr brand.  As Flickr’s popularity rose, flicker.com saw a significant increase in traffic, making the name a valuable online asset. 

Right now, tumbler.com is undergoing a similar phenomenon, with traffic increasing an estimated 270% in the last 12 months as Tumblr.com, the social blogging site, also saw an increase in visitors of a similar amount in the past year.  In the case of tumbler.com, however, this “typo” actually points to a branded third-party site.  Tervis Tumbler Company, which produces popular, customizable drinking glasses, known as tumblers, and accessories, is currently using tumbler.com and is redirecting the domain to their site, tervis.com.

Unlike flicker.com, tumbler.com is not attempting to piggyback on the popularity of the similarly named social media site.  Tervis Tumbler aptly purchased this generic product domain many years before Tumblr’s genesis in the hopes that it would boost Tervis’s traffic and that consumers looking online for tumblers in general would come across the Tervis brand.  But I’d be willing to bet that Tervis isn’t too upset that they are getting additional visitors, even if they are finding the site by accident.  What would be interesting to see is if this increased traffic actually results in additional sales for Tervis.

So should Tumblr be worried about this domain?  I don’t think so.  Tervis isn’t infringing upon the Tumblr brand here, and visitors finding a store full of Tervis Tumblers are not going to mistake this for another blogging site and abandon their search for Tumblr.  Also, despite Tervis’ ownership of tumbler.com, Tumblr still ranks first on a Google search for the word “tumbler,” meaning that Internet users who use search engines rather than direct navigation will immediately be presented with Tumblr’s site.  Long story short, I think Tumblr can rest assured that consumers won’t be diverted for long by the 60-year old tumbler company, but Tervis is enjoying the serendipitous stream of potential new customers being introduced to their company.