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How to find a short domain name

zegup.com

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Re: How to find a short domain name

#71

Post by pg »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #32
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…

That was my first thought too. Any time I search for a domain name these days, my process goes something like: 1. Enter it into a web browser, see if it's in use or parked 2. If not, run whois on it at the commandline. 3. If not, decide whether I want to buy it. If so, do so right away, otherwise assume it will be lost in a day or so. And I'm not even 100% sure I can trust the browser search, depending on what the DN…

You can safely use http://instantdomainsearch.com. It was written by a YC alum. Lots of companies we've funded have found names there.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#72

Post by [deleted] »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #32
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…

That was my first thought too. Any time I search for a domain name these days, my process goes something like: 1. Enter it into a web browser, see if it's in use or parked 2. If not, run whois on it at the commandline. 3. If not, decide whether I want to buy it. If so, do so right away, otherwise assume it will be lost in a day or so. And I'm not even 100% sure I can trust the browser search, depending on what the DN…

[deleted]

Re: How to find a short domain name

#73

Post by larrys »

pg wrote: post #71
SkyMarshal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first thought too. Any time I search for a domain name these days, my process goes something like: 1. Enter it into a web browser, see if it's in use or parked 2. If not, run whois on it at the commandline. 3. If not, decide whether I want to buy it. If so, do so right away, otherwise assume it will be lost in a day or so. And I'm not even 100% sure I can trust the browser search, depending on what the DN…

You can safely use http://instantdomainsearch.com . It was written by a YC alum. Lots of companies we've funded have found names there.

That appears to be using nslookup (edit-"esq") to see if the domain resolves as a result of a test that I just ran. (Tried a name not in the zone file that IS taken (4L .com) - edit: it said it was available. Then tried a name that wasn't in the zone file and it took some time to determine if it was available. If it was comparing to the zone file there would be essentially no delay it would be a simple search. If I wanted to prove this I could register a name NOW, do the dns, and then do a query but I don't have time to do that. The zone file is only available once per day for download.

Also, it doesn't work for anything other than .com.

And if you hit "search" it sends you to godaddy.

All in all I think it makes more sense to simply find a dns server that you can trust OR get a hold of the zone file and query that (safest way actually). My personal feeling though is that this is all a non-issue.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#74

Post by shocks »

johnstalcup wrote: post #69
shocks wrote: post #34

I felt a bit limited by this, so I've just knocked up a similar tool with far more flexibility. Still actively developing it, but it's far quicker already. http://dev.mindfuzz.net/domain/ Edit: Grammar.

i like this. the page is pretty, results are fast, and the letter based slots specification is nice. but i think the results are pretty low quality (gibberish).

Thanks for your comments. :) I agree that the quality of the results are not of the best quality, but I think it can used to source some interesting information.

Warner Brothers appear to have registered batman[1-9].com, heh.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#75

Post by drewonstuff »

brianbreslin wrote: post #29
drewonstuff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't disagree more with that we should be treating .com as passe. While .me or whatever is "cool", the majority of the world still relates to .com's the most. I'm in Taiwan right now and the people here probably have no idea what a .me or a .it is. They are using .com.tw, not .me.tw (and yes, of course I understand that .me is from Montenegro and this would never be possible). And the "reminds me of 1999-2001"…

Actually .me.tw would be possible, just as there are .gov.tw etc. so .com in the .com.tw is not a top-level domain (.tw is), it is a 2nd level domain in this case. so there could be xyz.tw just like .co was originally exclusive to government of colombia and you could only get 2nd level domains, ex domain.com.co etc.

thanks for clarifying, I edited-in that line in () mainly to qualify that I was sort of joking about the .me.tw. I now know it wasn't a joke.

Re: How to find a short domain name

#78

Post by statictype »

pg wrote: post #71
SkyMarshal wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my first thought too. Any time I search for a domain name these days, my process goes something like: 1. Enter it into a web browser, see if it's in use or parked 2. If not, run whois on it at the commandline. 3. If not, decide whether I want to buy it. If so, do so right away, otherwise assume it will be lost in a day or so. And I'm not even 100% sure I can trust the browser search, depending on what the DN…

You can safely use http://instantdomainsearch.com . It was written by a YC alum. Lots of companies we've funded have found names there.

May I suggest they change the default registrar from GoDaddy to something else?

Re: How to find a short domain name

#80

Post by taejo »

matt1 wrote: post #50
user24 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It confuses normal US people. I'm pretty sure normal British people are perfectly comfortable with .co.uk, Australians with .com.au, etc.
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