How to find a short domain name • Hacker News Board

Re: How to find a short domain name

#41

Post by larrys » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

tokenadult wrote: post #11

How do we know that as these searches are executed that the domain names don't become unavailable, because someone parks on them? That historically has been the problem with domain-name searches. I'd like an absolute guarantee that the searching is done in a manner that doesn't alert registrars or their cronies to new domain names to park on before running many searches here. The application is a text-searching appli…

I'm not seeing anything on zegup which allows you to even indicate from the list which domains you might be interested in. (Unlike LDS where you can go and register and click on something). Not that they won't add some way to mark a domain of course or allow you to register.

For speed purposes they should be FIRST running this check on yesterday's zone files from each registry (Verisign for .com/net for example). If that fails (shows in the zone file) no need to go further.

After that check if a name does show as available you do a whois against the appropriate registry NOT a REGISTRAR (because there is no reason to do that).

As step 1 if you don't have access to the zone file you can do a nslookup to see if the domain resolves. If it doesn't you can then check the registry (by the way PIR (.org) rate limits checks unless you are white listed).

Theoretically if a registrar has access to zegup they could front run domains IF the user of zegup indicated which domains they were interested in. Otherwise to many names to be of value in front running the way I see the site operating.

Of course there is nothing to prevent a registrar from putting up a man in the middle site (like zegup) hosted elsewhere and grabbing domains and doing what you are saying. So there is no way to "guarantee" what you are asking other than the reputation of the person running the "zegup" type site.

As an aside zegup.com was registered recently and has domain privacy. So even though whois can be faked privacy info when you are runnning a business is a bad idea.

Domain Name: ZEGUP.COM

Registrant: PrivacyProtect.org Domain Admin (contact@privacyprotect.org) ID#10760, PO Box 16 Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org Nobby Beach null,QLD 4218 AU Tel. +45.36946676

Creation Date: 09-Feb-2012 Expiration Date: 09-Feb-2013

Re: How to find a short domain name

#42

Post by matt1 » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 4:54 PM UTC

NyxWulf wrote: post #38

matt1 wrote: post #21

A few years back I built Domain Pigeon, a similar tool, that generated web 2.0-style domain names and made them available to visitors. One of my big lessons learned from that experience was that web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it…

I just checked out lean domain search, it actually looks pretty handy. I like how fast it is at generating domain names and checking for availability. One feature that would make it much more useful is the ability to specify multiple words and have it do a combinatorial check on them against your other words. One other thing, the "LDS" favicon took me by surprise. I had tabbed away for a second, then coming back I sa…

Thanks. The multiple queries per search idea isn't a bad one, but not enough people have asked for it where it makes sense to implement it just yet. And as someone else mentioned, the results are already a bit overwhelming. Having 3,000 or 4,500 or 6,000 results vs the current 1,500 isn't going to help that. I think my time is better spent exploring ways to organize the current results. But if there is demand, I'll meet it.

And yeah, agreed about the Mormon association. They really need to change their name =X

Re: How to find a short domain name

#43

Post by sounds » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 4:59 PM UTC

larrys wrote: post #35

matt1 wrote: post #21

A few years back I built Domain Pigeon, a similar tool, that generated web 2.0-style domain names and made them available to visitors. One of my big lessons learned from that experience was that web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it…

"web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it to them" Agree 100%. I'd like to give my positive experience with leandomainsearch.com. I used it when coming up with potential domains for a client (that was referred by a VC - a startup ready…

I'm learning so much from this discussion. I'll throw in my data point (I believe it's relevant):

I ran shell scripts on 10 nodes with fast backbone connections, making DNS queries of all possible 4-letter and 5-letter .com's. Obviously, if the domain doesn't NXDOMAIN, it has been taken.

At the time (before domain squatting was shut down) all legal 4-letter domains were taken.

From the NXDOMAINs, I ran a much slower whois script to see if the domain was registered but missing a DNS entry.

From that final list of unclaimed domains, I was quickly able to spot the one I wanted.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#44

Post by WA » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:10 PM UTC

gravitronic wrote: post #27

ericabiz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faster, but inaccurate. There are plenty of domains that are registered, but the DNS doesn't resolve. That doesn't mean they are available to register!

When I wrote a domain searcher script what I did was filter first by names that return are resolvable, and then whois the remainder. Reduces load on the dependent whois server whose terms of service usually say "don't run scripts against me"

That's exactly the approach I tried to suggest: Find as many correct replies first, because there certainly are hosts which names can be resolved and try the whois-approach on everything else.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#45

Post by neilk » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:12 PM UTC

matt1 wrote: post #36

neilk wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently obtained a five-letter domain name (Grovr) in .org/.net/.com, and felt good about doing so on the cheap. I hit on the that name out of desperation leading to silliness. The idea has to do with directed acyclic graphs of trust relationships, hence trees, hence "grove". There aren't a lot of real-world analogs, so I'd been struggling to find some short name that explained the concept. I was working with a fe…

"But now you're telling me that misspellings are actually a big problem? How much of a problem, quantitatively?" When you verbally tell someone about your site, how do you do it? Do you spell out the domain name? If not, people are probably having trouble finding it because it's not a standard spelling. And looking at the name I'm not even sure how to say it (is it "groover" or "grover"?). If you do spell it out, tha…

That's not really quantitative, but I see your point.

Flickr was the prototypical Web 2.0 name, and I always thought the unusual spelling was a plus, since it made it more memorable, but perhaps there were a lot of other potential customers who were lost at step 0.

And I suppose you have similar conclusions about domain hacks, or using dictionary word + obscure TLD?

I suppose I am aware that for the average person, a website address is "www.____.com" or nothing. But I have an irrational love of interesting domain names. Perhaps it's bad to indulge that.

EDIT: The US government has some guidelines for domain name usability here. Usability isn't quite everything, but it's probably worth serious consideration.

http://www.usability.gov/articles/newsletter/pubs/032007news...

Re: How to find a short domain name

#46

Post by moonchrome » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:14 PM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #19

Am I right to be suspicious of this service if the best name it could find for their own domain was zegup?

>babof.com is available

Yey !

Re: How to find a short domain name

#47

Post by larrys » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:15 PM UTC

sounds wrote: post #43

larrys wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it to them" Agree 100%. I'd like to give my positive experience with leandomainsearch.com. I used it when coming up with potential domains for a client (that was referred by a VC - a startup ready…

I'm learning so much from this discussion. I'll throw in my data point (I believe it's relevant): I ran shell scripts on 10 nodes with fast backbone connections, making DNS queries of all possible 4-letter and 5-letter .com's. Obviously, if the domain doesn't NXDOMAIN, it has been taken. At the time (before domain squatting was shut down) all legal 4-letter domains were taken. From the NXDOMAINs, I ran a much slower…

"domain squatting was shut down"

No such thing as what you are saying. You are probably referring to the penalties that are assessed for domain tasting whereby a registrar is penalized if they return to many domains relative to the ratio of registered domains (registrars also pay more money to ICANN depending on how they handle this as well).

Much to much work to do the way you are doing it. You need to get a copy of the zone files there are people with access to that (we have access but we don't sell access others do though for nominal charges).

Re: How to find a short domain name

#48

Post by matt1 » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

neilk wrote: post #45

matt1 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But now you're telling me that misspellings are actually a big problem? How much of a problem, quantitatively?" When you verbally tell someone about your site, how do you do it? Do you spell out the domain name? If not, people are probably having trouble finding it because it's not a standard spelling. And looking at the name I'm not even sure how to say it (is it "groover" or "grover"?). If you do spell it out, tha…

That's not really quantitative, but I see your point. Flickr was the prototypical Web 2.0 name, and I always thought the unusual spelling was a plus, since it made it more memorable, but perhaps there were a lot of other potential customers who were lost at step 0. And I suppose you have similar conclusions about domain hacks, or using dictionary word + obscure TLD? I suppose I am aware that for the average person, a…

Yeah, definitely avoid domain name hacks. It's a huge gamble and even if your product is successful, it probably would have been more successful with a better name.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#49

Post by user24 » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

matt1 wrote: post #21

A few years back I built Domain Pigeon, a similar tool, that generated web 2.0-style domain names and made them available to visitors. One of my big lessons learned from that experience was that web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it…

Nice site. Can I request TLD choice? I'd use com/net/org/co.uk

Re: How to find a short domain name

#50

Post by matt1 » Sat, Mar 03, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

user24 wrote: post #49

matt1 wrote: post #21

A few years back I built Domain Pigeon, a similar tool, that generated web 2.0-style domain names and made them available to visitors. One of my big lessons learned from that experience was that web 2.0 style domain names are NOT good domain names. More often than not people can't remember them and when they can, they misspell it and if they can spell it, it's only because someone had to spell it out when telling it…

Nice site. Can I request TLD choice? I'd use com/net/org/co.uk

No, Lean Domain Search does not support other TLDs for the same reason you shouldn't use domain hacks: it degrades the quality of the domain name and confuses normal people.