
The best domain name search tool I've used - mattculbreth
http://instantdomainsearch.com/
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pg
This is the site we always use to figure out names for YC startups. Probably
half got their names this way. And yes, this was written by Beau Hartshorne,
founder of Snipshot. In fact, it was this app that made us invite him to
apply.

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omouse
And what happens if the domain is only being parked with one of those shitty
search pages? Do you buy it or skip on to another name?

~~~
pg
Buying domains rarely works. The owners either never respond to you or want a
crazy price. Plus there are always good ones still untaken.

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yaacovtp
Fun. Hook it up to a thesaurus and synonym dictionary and it will kick
everyone else's butt.

Meanwhile, I had fun seeing how many "a"'s I had to type before a .com became
available. And it was this many -
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com

What were the first 50 guys thinking?

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staunch
This one is from a YC guy so it's probably safe -- but in general it's good to
be suspicious of any lookup tool like this. There have been instances of
domainers using sites like this as a way getting users to generate lists for
them.

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danielha
It's very useful -- an example of good Ajax use. One of the guys behind YC-
funded Snipshot made this.

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waleedka
I've been using it for a while, but recently switched to: pcnames.com. They're
both excellent and once you use them you can't go back to the old way anymore.

~~~
bls
instantdomainsearch.com's FAQ promises not to share your searching with
anybody. But, pcnames.com makes no such promise. I don't trust pcnames.com

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webology
I stopped using them because I've had two domain names registered away from me
within 24 hours of searching for them on the site. Ironically, one I looked up
before I got on the plane to the 2006 startup school and by the next morning
when I had network access it was taken. It may just be bad luck but I've never
had that problem with a generic whois or providers like GoDaddy.

~~~
eli
I had something similar happen and I emailed the instant domains guy and to
his enormous credit he took the time to look into it and dig through his logs.
Odds are that you and me and tons of other people are just victims of domain
kiting (google it). Bad guys register tens of thousands of domains on spec for
nothing. It sucks, but wait a week or two and your domain may reappear

Incidentally he said the site is actually using an internal list of domains
that I think he got through some sort of DNS trick. It doesn't make any
outside queries.

~~~
eli
For those interested: Slashdot has a link to an article about the toll that
people using this loophole have taken on the DNS system:
<http://slashdot.org/articles/07/04/16/1515244.shtml>

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mattculbreth
I don't think I've seen this here, and it's something I have fun with when
thinking through ideas.

