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Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

leandomainsearch.com

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Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#11

Post by jaysonelliot »

matt1 wrote: post #2

Hey guys, About three years ago I built and launched Domain Pigeon, a web app that listed available web 2.0-style domain names each day [1]. The site did fairly well, but it was my first foray into web apps and I lacked the experience to grow it into something bigger. Eventually I moved on to other projects and closed Domain Pigeon down, which has been one of my biggest regrets. My original vision for Domain Pigeon i…

Domain Pigeon was a brilliant site, I mourned its loss. It's wonderful to see that you've built a new site.

The execution is simple and easy to use. I'd be conservative when it comes to adding features or futzing too much with the UX. I find the color scheme very readable, although of course that might be different for some people. Thumbs up from me.

A post-search filtering mechanism might be useful, although of course you'll want to balance the benefit of a feature like that with the impact it would have on the elegance and simplicity of the design.

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#13

Post by rmason »

Here are two very useful things that you could add:

1. For registered domains check to see if there's actually a live site. This would narrow the list of domains that could be purchased.

2. Also for registered domains check to see if the domain is for sale or auction.

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#15

Post by matt1 »

jasonkester wrote: post #9

I'm afraid this doesn't stack up well to the existing tools our there. Here's a comparison of your results with the tool I use most often when searching for a domain: http://www.leandomainsearch.com/search?q=big+daddy http://www.domaintools.com/buy/domain-suggestions/?q=big+dad... Domaintools' name spinner just gives better results, and immediately tells me about availability for all the .tlds as well. So I guess ste…

Thanks for the feedback.

Excluding the other TLDs, how are Domain Tools's results better? Looking through the 20 that you linked to, they seem much poorer than Lean Domain Search's, though I admit I am a bit bias.

Also, IMO other TLDs do not make good website names. They confuse normal people, which is why I did not include them in the Lean Domain Search results.

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#16

Post by jaysonelliot »

jasonkester wrote: post #9

I'm afraid this doesn't stack up well to the existing tools our there. Here's a comparison of your results with the tool I use most often when searching for a domain: http://www.leandomainsearch.com/search?q=big+daddy http://www.domaintools.com/buy/domain-suggestions/?q=big+dad... Domaintools' name spinner just gives better results, and immediately tells me about availability for all the .tlds as well. So I guess ste…

I disagree with your assessment.

"Doesn't stack up well" and "get your tool as good as that" aren't very constructive phrases, as feedback goes.

What goals do you have for a tool that others meet, and this one does not? Where do you see Lean Domain Search falling short? How are the others better, specifically?

I just tried the name spinner you linked to, and while it has some features that LDS lacks, it seemed to focus more on synonyms and similarities than actually including my keyword or string in the domain. I especially disliked the "show more results" link, which left me unclear on how many results were really available. I don't want to spend my time clicking blindly in hopes of finding something, I'd rather just see the full list.

The multiple TLD availability is an extra feature LDS doesn't have, but not one I'd find useful. Personally, if it's not a .com, I'm not interested. That could just be me, though.

I much prefer the simple and elegant approach LDS has taken.

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#17

Post by matt1 »

rmason wrote: post #13

Here are two very useful things that you could add: 1. For registered domains check to see if there's actually a live site. This would narrow the list of domains that could be purchased. 2. Also for registered domains check to see if the domain is for sale or auction.

Thanks --

Even if there's not a live site, that doesn't mean you can simply purchase the domain name.

Also, my gut says that most people don't want to pay a lot for their domain names and would not use the sale/auction availability indicator.

That being said, if more people are interested in it I can look into it. Would you mind adding it to the suggestions page?

http://leandomainsearch.uservoice.com/forums/144111-general

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#18

Post by jeremyis »

It's certainly useful, though it looks like it's just attaching choice-words to the beginning and end of the word I entered.

It's not clear from looking at the results what TLDs\ each result is, though it appears to only return .com. What about all the other cool TLDs like net/om/us/etc.

Also have you seen this: http://domai.nr/

Was fast, which is appreciated!

Re: Review my startup - Lean Domain Search: The fastest way to find a domain name

#19

Post by matt1 »

chaz wrote: post #14

I really like it, but it's giving me plenty of results for domains that are already taken: http://www.leandomainsearch.com/search?q=commerce

Some searches only result in a few available domain names. There's not much I can do about that other than generate and check more domain names (which I will in the future). It's the nature of whatever you're searching for; commerce (and most other money-related searches) will be saturated.
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