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Ask HN : Is the world out of good domain names?

2 points by rukshn ↗ HN
Are there any good domain names out there that one can get? Is it ok to use an uncommon domain name?

I've got a four letter .me domain name that some say good and others say bad. I've tried so many domain name generators and couldn't find a good domain name, and the good ones are already taken.

Are we out of good domain names? Is it good for startups to use uncommon domain names? What's your take on this?

10 comments

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williamldennis
It depends whether you're doing a consumer facing site, a personal site, or a b2b site. Consumer sites tend to be better off with .com's. Personal sites and b2b have a little more wiggle room because you tend to link to them directly (as opposed to search). SEO is really what is comes down to though, if someone spells your company name (or how they think it's spelled) into google, will you appear at the top of the list?
rukshn
But are there any .com domains out there that are good? buying owned domains from owners tend to cost lots of money.

There are some short .com domain names that are free but they are most of the time awkward and can't be easily remembered by users

bakli
Here is my trick, I usually take two words of different languages and append them to one each other. For example, I bought the domain polldaal.com . Poll means a poll in english and daal means respond to in hindi. These kind of domains are very easy to find and you can shoot for good SEO keywords too.
dragonbonheur
Given how the US government can and has shut down .com .net .info sites having a 'conventional' domain name can also be a liability. You can be creative and buy domains that people can remember with the .er .ly .es or other suffixes. There are still options out there.
rukshn
Thanks yes will look in to that, however most of the sites that do well are .com websites isn't it?
dragonbonheur
That isn't the only thing that matters. There are a lot of factors that can get a website on top of search results. Taking advantage of those factors is what Search Engine Optimization is all about.
csaba
I think for english speakers the .rs suffix can be interesting (e.g. love.rs - already taken, but hey). In my opinion uncommon domain names are ok, because nowdays you don't have to remember the full domain name to find the site what you are looking for.
rukshn
Yes nowadays most of the startups have wired domain names, sometimes even confusing with pokemon characters http://evilbrainjono.net/pages/startup-or-pokemon.py

But when it comes to Google and searching isn't it true that awkward domain names will not get better search results?

csaba
No, I don't think so. Google is clever enough to recognize your title tag along with your domain name. Of course it is little harder to be the first result for a search, but that's because new domains tend to be that way. And if you make enough money you can always buy the .com counterparts.
helen842000
Nope, not at all. I've found lots of really good .com domains in the last few months.

Short used to be the name of the game, now it just needs to be memorable. Don't restrict yourself to 4 or 5 letter domains. I usually find great .com around 8-11 characters as it gives you chance to be inventive, combine words to be unique.

If you want me to come up with a few shoot me a mail - I'm my username at gmail.com