HN Explorer

Just How Important Is A Good Domain?

7 points by fiftyone ↗ HN
I am somewhat of a domain addict. I am always buying up domains "I" think are cool and have no idea what to do with them afterwards. Eventually, they just expire off into dead domain land or some squatter picks them up and tries to sell it back to me.

Sometimes, I have a really great idea for a domain of course someone has been squatting on it since '96 and want 2.5 million for it or some craziness.

My question is this... IF / When I am lucky enough to get some funding for one of my projects, just how important is the domain? I mean is it worth dropping a large chunk of your capitol on a domain? If you get 5 million ( oh ya baby! ) is it worth it to drop a Mil on a TLD like "blue.com" for example or if you get 10K is it worth is to drop 2K on a domain or better to just go for a webby 2.0; Ziggle-Zwaggle-Mangozr-twotozr-megoezr...

brandable kinda thing? ( Don't feel bad BTW if one of those are your actual domain. I actually own quite a few wiggle-waggle-ziggle-zaggle webby2.0 domains :P )

Obviously, I know domains are important, your gonna get more traffic and better recognition with blue.com as opposed to BlUEEEEEEEE.mobi But, is it worth it? I stress a lot over the perfect domain, and I know it's fruitless ( especially since I don't have any money )But I do.

The price of a decent domains being as high as they are? is it worth it to stress over a domain? I mean if you have a real decent idea then theoretically the domain shouldn't matter... Right?

Just Curious

14 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 38.7 ms ] thread
pg
So far it has always been possible for the startups we've funded to find acceptable names that aren't taken. If there's some name that they really want and someone is willing to sell for under $3k, ok, but it's not really necessary.

http://instantdomainsearch.com

fiftyone
Instant Domain Search Rocks! No more Register.com for me! :D this a YC project?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
pg
No, but it's by Beau Hartshorne, who founded Snipshot (http://snipshot.com), which was funded by YC.
mechanical_fish
Aaugh! I really needed this awesome tool last month!

Now, not only do I not need the tool right now, but my brain has once again been trained to think of reading news.yc as an incredibly productive activity! Quick, set noprocrast to "double front"!

dkokelley
I see Paul beat me to the Instant Domain Search plug. Here are a couple of other sites I found useful.

http://www.nameboy.com (takes 1 or 2 words and generates a list of potential domains related to them.)

http://www.makewords.com (A little complicated, but if you figure it out you'll find some pretty decent domains available. It takes 1 word and generates domain names that include that word, along with a prefix of suffix that comes from a theme, like actions, education, business, etc.)

edw519
Pick a domain name that works and is available. Then put all you energy into your product. Squatting is for those who can't build.
shafqat
I think its important, but a few K interesting, not a few M. We got NewsCred for free (it happened to be available) and fit our business perfectly. You seem pretty obsessed about domain names... Channel that passion to building the actualy product/business, and you will be all set!
JFred
Some ballpoint pen vendor agonized for who knows how long to come up with the name 'Pen Island' only end up with the domain 'penisland.com', so don't sweat the small stuff.
whacked_new
Somehow I don't think it's that important anymore. The service seems to be far more important. But it probably depends on what kind of application you are building. Here's my take.

If it is a once-in-a-while application, then memorable is good. If it's daily, then it doesn't matter. This is because users will rely on the quickest path from recall. Anything that is written to long term memory will be quick, and anything you use on a daily basis will fall into this category.

I would say news.ycombinator.com isn't the most catchy name, but it doesn't matter because I access it regularly.

instantdomainsearch.com, however, is good because I use it once in a while. simpleweather.com also.

Hexstream
Now that the domain kiting free lunch is (FINALLY) over, I think it should be easier to find a good domain name that's not taken...
Feynman
InstantDomainSearch.com is great. Bustaname.com is also very good for testing various keyword combinations.
mynameishere
Which is more valuable: Amazon.com or store.com?

Which would you have guessed would be more valuable back in 1994? The actual service is more important. Yahoo and google are both stupid names.

webwright
Del.icio.us and Flickr. Hell, and Google.

I'd say you want something that is spelled like it sounds and, ideally, short. IMO, .com is pretty important too.

Bluedot.us (a Seattle startup that's kinda in the social bookmarking space-- about 1.5m uniques last time I checked) switched over to Faves.com in December. I checked Alexa, but it doesn't show data for the old URL. Might be interesting data if compete.com or someone else has it handy.