

Ask HN: Is .org ok for a startup? - mattberg

Obviously you will always want the .com of a domain, but what if the next best extension available is .org?  With many people locating your site by just searching for the name anyway, I wonder if it really matters as much these days.<p>For the domain that I am currently looking at, the .com and .net both just redirect to some generic keyword search page.
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pg
Probably not. The "next best" is likely to be found by traversing the space of
available names, not the space of available extensions.

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SwellJoe
Appending "get" to the front seems a popular alternative. getdropbox.com,
getballpark.com, getclicky.com, etc. It is pretty easy to remember (I pulled
three off the top of my head just now without thinking hard, and I don't use
any of those services).

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pg
Except about 80% of the time I send mail to someone at dropbox, I send it to
whoever@dropbox.com first.

There are always good names available. You don't need to stick get on the
front, or use a .net name, or pull a del.icio.us. Just fire up
instantdomainsearch and find another name.

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SwellJoe
Valid point. Now that you mention it, I _have_ tried to email people at the
.com when I needed the .net, and I have also mailed people at noun.com when I
needed verbnoun.com.

And, I have been surprised to find that if I keep banging away at it, I do
eventually find a good name. I was looking for a name for a new site to host
some Flash brain games I've been working on, and it only took about 20 minutes
of searching to find a domain I loved. I had to make up a word, but there aint
no harm in that, I reckon, as long as it isn't too long or too hard to spell.

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mkyc
Find some concrete data that compares the two. HN probably isn't a sufficient
sample. What sort of startup is it?

It might be easier to make up a new name than to settle for .org. A site like
boingboing.net does well enough - though I often forget the URL because the
.net isn't part of the brand. I've seen links to boingboing.org/com, which
might have an effect on search rankings. If you do choose .org, make the .org
memorable.

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rms
My best luck with generating domain names has been sitting down with my
cofounder at instantdomainsearch with us simultaneously brainstorming.

That didn't work for my most recent domain. Try <http://www.bustaname.com/> or
code your own for increased speed/flexibility.

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mattberg
Thanks everyone, pretty much the response I was expecting. I think I will just
try harder to find a .com.

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bgnm2000
try dotomator.com - my best friend when finding names

