The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is, yes, but no two letter domains remain. Can you register something like d3.io? Yes. Can you register something like dx.io? No.
Nope, not any more. Assuming your tool is correct (which, from checking other sources, it appears to be), all two letter io domains are taken, even those starting with q. There are still a decent number of letter + number domains [1], along with a ton of three letter domains.
[1] I posted a list of letter + number .io domains recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5672237 - most are still available, but some were immediately taken due to the post and due to FramesPerSushi's tool (which I found rather useful).
I wrote this simple python script w/ dictionary file to check free .io domains based on ~18,000 basic words: https://gist.github.com/russellbeattie/4982393 It uses the fact that nic.io's whois response is fast and simple.
Here you go: https://gist.github.com/russellbeattie/5553420 It queues up the words and then has 10 processes check the domains. But it won't do much for you, as whois.nic.io barfs after a short while from too many connections.
Whois is one of the easiest things to implement...this is a kludge. Just use threads and native whois lookups :). Here is a quick example - could use some error handling though - http://pastebin.com/haXNQ55W
Related, I noticed that sex.io showed up high in your list. For anyone considering registering the domain, think twice:
No .IO domain may be used, directly or indirectly, for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any Nation. In the event of NIC.IO being advised by any party that a specific site breaches this condition then NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration. The applicant may seek the reinstatement of any suspended domain name by seeking a determination by an Arbitrator appointed by the World Intellectual Property organisation.
The above is from the nic.io allocation rules [1].
It does. And it should be a legitimate concern for any startup that is hoping to rely strictly on a .io domain. The story of the vb.ly link shortener - and their seized domain - is worth reading:
Sidenote: I am enjoying all of the current interest in the .io domain (speaking as someone who owns a few .io domains). As a recent addition to google's gccTLD list, it still has a ton of great names available. Part of this is no doubt due to the higher registration costs. Part, however, is likely due to the fact that .io was only recently upgraded to gccTLD status.
Also, the most reasonable .io registrar I've found is gandi at $40. Out of curiosity, has anybody found anything less expensive from a reliable registrar?
vag.io is no longer available. But vagio.com is. I have a feeling it wont be in a little while after I make this post. Sucks domain squatters are such fucking scumbags. Plus nobody is interested in the term 'vagio' in the first place or else both domains would have been taken before today, so there's no demand or means to make a profit off of them. I hate domain squatters... the worst form of scum on earth!
Could somebody explain to me the imporance of .io domains in today's market? It seems they are very hot right now, especially in the startup world and I think they could even become as popular as .com.
Very short names are useful for link shortening. There are good reasons to pick names out of the "gTLDified" ccTLDs for that. IO isn't even a real country, so it's a better choice for ccTLD abuse than something totally stupid like LY.
I think it's totally responsible to have a shortener in a gccTLD as an adjunct to your main brand. e.g. quora.com has qr.ae as a link shortener.
I'm sort of against the whole concept of link shorteners, too, but if they're run by the site themselves, long-lived, and otherwise don't break the expectations of URLs/URIs, then they might make sense for mobile and type-in use.
Because you don't like it or…? What decides the “pointfulness” of a name? Is a name better or worse because of the TLD someone chooses to put it on? Is booking.com better than booking.io for a reason other than you've decided you don't like .io?
Let me rephrase: do you have any reasoned argument anywhere for why the .io TLD is in any way bad or pointless? Because it certainly hasn't manifested itself in the comments to this post. Vitriol seems to be the only thing that's been presented so far.
Stop whining about .io being a "hipster" TLD. Hipster is just a slanderous term for someone whose interests aren't exactly aligned with yours. Live with it.
.io is great because it has not been polluted by squatters and excessive usage over the past 20 years. The price of .io hopefully discourages wasteful registration, and it's a TLD used mostly by the tech savvy community, so it won't get polluted too soon. If you're in the tech community and you want a nice domain name, go for .io.
47 comments
[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 110 ms ] thread[1] I posted a list of letter + number .io domains recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5672237 - most are still available, but some were immediately taken due to the post and due to FramesPerSushi's tool (which I found rather useful).
https://gist.github.com/nodesocket/5553079
How hard would it be to make your python script spawn multiple whois lookups? Waiting on a single takes forever.
That didn't take long.
Related, I noticed that sex.io showed up high in your list. For anyone considering registering the domain, think twice:
No .IO domain may be used, directly or indirectly, for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any Nation. In the event of NIC.IO being advised by any party that a specific site breaches this condition then NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration. The applicant may seek the reinstatement of any suspended domain name by seeking a determination by an Arbitrator appointed by the World Intellectual Property organisation.
The above is from the nic.io allocation rules [1].
[1] https://www.nic.io/rules.html - Section 6
Well, that covers quite a bit...
http://techyum.com/2010/10/official-vb-ly-link-shortener-sei...
Also, the most reasonable .io registrar I've found is gandi at $40. Out of curiosity, has anybody found anything less expensive from a reliable registrar?
ruf.io (would have been great for Dante Basco) sud.io (would have been great for Phil Collins)
ba-da-dum-tish
https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en...
That all happened after hipsters squatting these domains cried Google a whaaambulance over not getting the search-rank they felt they "deserved".
Something else made these utterly pointless domains popular before that, but what that was, I don't know.
Possibly 'io' being short for input/output. The first .io domains I remember were some programmer blogs/personal sites. Now they are just over used.
Pointless hipster-TLD is pointless. Utterly pointless.
And then people choose to base the core identity of their company/service on that. Needless to say, I wish them greatness.
I'm sort of against the whole concept of link shorteners, too, but if they're run by the site themselves, long-lived, and otherwise don't break the expectations of URLs/URIs, then they might make sense for mobile and type-in use.
Let me rephrase: do you have any reasoned argument anywhere for why the .io TLD is in any way bad or pointless? Because it certainly hasn't manifested itself in the comments to this post. Vitriol seems to be the only thing that's been presented so far.
.io is great because it has not been polluted by squatters and excessive usage over the past 20 years. The price of .io hopefully discourages wasteful registration, and it's a TLD used mostly by the tech savvy community, so it won't get polluted too soon. If you're in the tech community and you want a nice domain name, go for .io.