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If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

centernetworks.com

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Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#51

Post by StavrosK »

abstractbill wrote: post #40
StavrosK wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you suggest? Getting a .com domain? Have you tried to do that recently? All dictionary words and most two-word combinations are taken by squatters. I searched for a domain name for a new web app the other day and wanted a .com name, it was almost impossible to find anything . I spent two days searching until I found something. .net and .org are better, but users always expect (and type in) .com.

It's not actually that bad. I recently wrote a script that sends me daily emails of all .com domains that are expiring that day, sorted by length, and by a measure of how "English-like" they are (just using a frequency table for pairs of letters). I was surprised by how much good stuff is available.

That's interesting, where did you get a list of all the expiration dates?

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#52

Post by burgerbrain »

timerickson wrote: post #47
burgerbrain wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's some dumb marketing gimmick. The idea basically seems to boil down to "only old foggies use the major gTLDs these days, lets be hip and make our company name an adjective that is also our URL" .

It's more than a gimmick. A recognizable and memorable URL has proven to be extremely beneficial to new startups. Memorable .com addresses are becoming endangered, or very very expensive.

To this day I have to doublecheck myself on where the '.'s are places in "del.icio.us" (in fact, it abandoning this URL some time ago). Now, "amazon.com"? Absolutely no worries there.

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#53

Post by StavrosK »

petercooper wrote: post #34
StavrosK wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that companies are doing it doesn't mean that customers aren't fazed by it. Sure, 37signals is doing well, but do you think the "hq" part of the basecamp domain helped? When 37signals weren't that well-known and wanted to market it, how many potential customers do you think they lost because people typed "basecamp.com", didn't go where they intended to and never visited again? Customer retention is like tryi…

I can't find fault with your arguments because I'm sure they're true for many cases (and the 'plugging the holes' is entirely valid). That said, my gut feeling is that at least a plurality of people are Googling terms like 'basecamp' rather than typing them in as URLs. And I doubt that those who do type in URLs are fickle enough to write off the task on one failure. Proving it either way would be laborious (but would…

I always try to subtly correct that, it irks me when misspelt :P I'm sure people will google for things (hell, I have the "I'm feeling lucky" shortcut bound to "l" on my browser so I do "l basecamp" and I'm there), but this only works if you're first on Google for your name, which isn't something many companies can boast, and certainly not when they're just starting out, which is the time you want new customers the most...

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#54

Post by StavrosK »

ericflo wrote: post #41
StavrosK wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you suggest? Getting a .com domain? Have you tried to do that recently? All dictionary words and most two-word combinations are taken by squatters. I searched for a domain name for a new web app the other day and wanted a .com name, it was almost impossible to find anything . I spent two days searching until I found something. .net and .org are better, but users always expect (and type in) .com.

Just make up a word, that's what we did.

Yep, that seems to be the best course of action. I'm bad at randomness, but I'm good at whipping up a simple markov-chain-based domain name generator in a few hours.

I'll train it on an English dictionary and they'll sound good as well!

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#55

Post by StavrosK »

jarek wrote: post #48
iwwr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.ch? We could use a few flags of convenience on the virtual seas.

.ch, .is, .se... If you're going to get a ccTLD from a country that isn't yours, make it a reasonably internet-friendly country.

.is costs like $150 though, last time I checked :/

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#56

Post by jarek »

StavrosK wrote: post #55
jarek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.ch, .is, .se... If you're going to get a ccTLD from a country that isn't yours, make it a reasonably internet-friendly country.

.is costs like $150 though, last time I checked :/

39 EUR/year. http://www.isnic.is/payments/tariff.php. Still expensive enough to prevent registrations on a whim, though.

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#57

Post by StavrosK »

jarek wrote: post #56
StavrosK wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.is costs like $150 though, last time I checked :/

39 EUR/year. http://www.isnic.is/payments/tariff.php . Still expensive enough to prevent registrations on a whim, though.

Hmm, yes, but at least it's not the $150 the other registrar I saw had. Plus, .is is a good extension.

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#58

Post by mkramlich »

StavrosK wrote: post #14
burgerbrain wrote: post #2

Hopefully? Stop abusing country code TLDs already...

What do you suggest? Getting a .com domain? Have you tried to do that recently? All dictionary words and most two-word combinations are taken by squatters. I searched for a domain name for a new web app the other day and wanted a .com name, it was almost impossible to find anything . I spent two days searching until I found something. .net and .org are better, but users always expect (and type in) .com.

And part of the problem is that some people are "squatting" solely because others are truly squatting. Defensive domain squatting, you might call it.

I'm all for abolishing the TLD suffixes totally since (a) they're not used consistently anymore anyway, and (b) it reduces confusion between cases like foo.com and foo.org and foo.net, etc -- unsophisticated users (who are the majority) may assume some or all are the same service or purpose, but they are not. Yes, in a way, in acts to increase demand for a single namespace, but on the other hand, the same sorts of workarounds and naming hacks are still available (add extra words, suffixes, dashes, etc.).

I personally now like fun/weird non-sensical non-specific "made up" names because (a) they're more likely to not already be taken, and (b) they could be used for an almost infinite variety of purposes justifiably. For example: www.spooflurk.com could be for shoes, sex, politics, a CV, a company, a game, a band, whatever, whereas www.shoe-sales.com is rightly expected to be pretty much about selling shoes. Yes you'll get less "organic" traffic (and less accidental traffic, which may sometimes be the same thing) on the other hand I'm a firm believer that the most important thing is to provide something people want, and eventually the right number and mix of people will find out about it anyway, regardless of the name. The noise to signal ratio in the world is pretty bad so quality stands out and people talk.

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#59

Post by mkramlich »

Keyframe wrote: post #38
Charuru wrote: post #7

The schadenfreude is strong in this thread.

Why do people keep using that word - schadenfreude, when peinlich would be more suitable?

peinlich is more suitable but alas it's taken by a squatter who wants $50k for it ;)

Re: If Libya Shuts Down the Internet, What Happens To .ly Domains?

#60

Post by sequoia »

I apologize if I missed something, but I think it's shamefully insensitive of the editors of that site to not even acknowledge that this issue is proportionally irrelevant in light of the fact that peaceful protesters are getting shot to death TO-DAY in Libya.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23924674-liby...

Let's do a thought experiment for a moment and pretend there are some things more significant than web development and e-commerce, shall we?

yes I cross-posted.

EDIT: the author/editor there (Allen Stern) was gracious and considerate in his response to my complaint, and committed to trying to find a way to put the .ly domain issue in perspective in the article. Kudos centernetworks!

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