Someone from Google, er, Alphabet didn't read PG's essay: https://abc.xyz
The timing is exquisite.
Change Your Name
351–355 of 355 posts
Re: Change Your Name
#352I couldn't agree more. We see more and more startups end up with the wrong name for their business. That's why we created and launched the "Unused Domains" index a couple of weeks ago.
We index all(+50M so far) domains that are unused and give you access to them here: undeveloped.com/search
At least now you know which options you have and which alternatives are out there. The search and acquisition of the right name for your startup doesn't have to be that painful anymore.
PS: we help/advice/consult startups for free with finding and picking the right name in the right extension. So feel free to reach out to us if you're struggling with your name.
Re: Change Your Name
#353Someone from Google, er, Alphabet didn't read PG's essay: https://abc.xyz
yes, so true! :D
Re: Change Your Name
#354If the .com name you want is already registered, you can always buy it later once you business is successful enough to justify the investment (much like betali.st and getdropbox.com). There's no point in buying an expensive domain name for a company that may not survive past the startup stage. Note: a large swath of web users don't even understand the concept of a domain name or address bar...instead they google term…
I read this and honestly thought that it's kind of bizarre that he seemingly "randomly" came out with this post. My first impression was that it was a publicity stunt by Verisign. Nonetheless, Paul's point about naming is a good one. You have to have a good name. But, I see no evidence (and he didn't provide any) why the name has to be associated with a .COM domain. His only 'evidence' that he mentions is the fact th…
Yes, you would think it would be easy to analyze two yc portfolios, one with .com, the other with every other domain, controlling for the time since formation, and compare results, both survival and valuation. That would probably be a lot more meaningful, since the most highly valued companies are almost certainly also the oldest (surviving) companies.
However, I do think the point he is making is correct, that there are a number of constraints, but that the optimal decision involves a different weighting of them to that of many founders (my interpretation). I would argue that the constraints for startup founders naming companies are: 1) short and easy to say & remember 2) available (cheaply) 3) domain (.com vs others) 4) intrinsically meaningful 5) related to the business
Some founders compromise on 3 and give more weight to 4 and 5: what I think he's saying is that 1,2,3 are much more important than 4 and 5, to the point that "almost any word or word pair that is not an obviously bad name is a sufficiently good one".
Re: Change Your Name
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
All combinations of 6 letters .com are taken. All 16k words of the dictionary are taken in English. It wasn't even the case 2 years ago. I wonder whether pg's impression that if is possible to get a .com is outdated.
> All combinations of 6 letters .com are taken. Do you mean this literally for any 6 random characters? It rings true for 4, but I believe you can easily find a 5 character domain name even now. In fact, I just registered three five character and a six character domains without much trouble.
we registered a new 6 letter .com 8 months ago for 20 dollars.