
Just How Important Is A Good Domain? - fiftyone
I am somewhat of a domain addict. I am always buying up domains "I" think are cool and have no idea what to do with them afterwards. Eventually, they just expire off into dead domain land or some squatter picks them up and tries to sell it back to me.<p>Sometimes, I have a really great idea for a domain of course someone has been squatting on it since '96 and want 2.5 million for it or some craziness.<p>My question is this... IF / When I am lucky enough to get some funding for one of my projects, just how important is the domain? I mean is it worth dropping a large chunk of your capitol on a domain? If you get 5 million ( oh ya baby! ) is it worth it to drop a Mil on a TLD like "blue.com" for example or if you get 10K is it worth is to drop 2K on a domain or better to just go for a webby 2.0; Ziggle-Zwaggle-Mangozr-twotozr-megoezr...<p>brandable kinda thing? ( Don't feel bad BTW if one of those are your actual domain. I actually own quite a few wiggle-waggle-ziggle-zaggle webby2.0 domains :P )<p>Obviously, I know domains are important, your gonna get more traffic and better recognition with blue.com as opposed to BlUEEEEEEEE.mobi But, is it worth it?  I stress a lot over the perfect domain, and I know it's fruitless ( especially since I don't have any money )But I do.<p>The price of a decent domains being as high as they are? is it worth it to stress over a domain? I mean if you have a real decent idea then theoretically the domain shouldn't matter... 
Right?<p>Just Curious
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pg
So far it has always been possible for the startups we've funded to find
acceptable names that aren't taken. If there's some name that they really want
and someone is willing to sell for under $3k, ok, but it's not really
necessary.

<http://instantdomainsearch.com>

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fiftyone
Instant Domain Search Rocks! No more Register.com for me! :D this a YC
project?

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pg
No, but it's by Beau Hartshorne, who founded Snipshot (<http://snipshot.com>),
which was funded by YC.

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shafqat
I think its important, but a few K interesting, not a few M. We got NewsCred
for free (it happened to be available) and fit our business perfectly. You
seem pretty obsessed about domain names... Channel that passion to building
the actualy product/business, and you will be all set!

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edw519
Pick a domain name that works and is available. Then put all you energy into
your product. Squatting is for those who can't build.

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whacked_new
Somehow I don't think it's that important anymore. The service seems to be far
more important. But it probably depends on what kind of application you are
building. Here's my take.

If it is a once-in-a-while application, then memorable is good. If it's daily,
then it doesn't matter. This is because users will rely on the quickest path
from recall. Anything that is written to long term memory will be quick, and
anything you use on a daily basis will fall into this category.

I would say news.ycombinator.com isn't the most catchy name, but it doesn't
matter because I access it regularly.

instantdomainsearch.com, however, is good because I use it once in a while.
simpleweather.com also.

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dkokelley
I see Paul beat me to the Instant Domain Search plug. Here are a couple of
other sites I found useful.

<http://www.nameboy.com> (takes 1 or 2 words and generates a list of potential
domains related to them.)

<http://www.makewords.com> (A little complicated, but if you figure it out
you'll find some pretty decent domains available. It takes 1 word and
generates domain names that include that word, along with a prefix of suffix
that comes from a theme, like actions, education, business, etc.)

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mynameishere
Which is more valuable: Amazon.com or store.com?

Which would you have guessed would be more valuable back in 1994? The actual
service is more important. Yahoo and google are both stupid names.

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JFred
Some ballpoint pen vendor agonized for who knows how long to come up with the
name 'Pen Island' only end up with the domain 'penisland.com', so don't sweat
the small stuff.

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Hexstream
Now that the domain kiting free lunch is (FINALLY) over, I think it should be
easier to find a good domain name that's not taken...

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webwright
Del.icio.us and Flickr. Hell, and Google.

I'd say you want something that is spelled like it sounds and, ideally, short.
IMO, .com is pretty important too.

Bluedot.us (a Seattle startup that's kinda in the social bookmarking space--
about 1.5m uniques last time I checked) switched over to Faves.com in
December. I checked Alexa, but it doesn't show data for the old URL. Might be
interesting data if compete.com or someone else has it handy.

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Feynman
InstantDomainSearch.com is great. Bustaname.com is also very good for testing
various keyword combinations.

