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Show HN: My new domain search tool (shortdomainsearch.net)
95 points by chaosmachine on Aug 12, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 57 comments


After SOPA support, the sexist superbowl commercials, countless customer support horror stories, etc., would you consider making NameCheap the default registration option rather than GoDaddy?


I would imagine there is some sort of affiliate link scheme set up, so you know, the guy can pay for stuff... most of us should probably use this as a resource and then then use NameCheap ourselves.


Yeah, unfortunately Godaddy commissions beat NameCheap by about 10x, but there's an option on the top right of the site to switch the outgoing links to NameCheap, if you'd rather use them.


I didn't even see that! Thanks for the honesty, at least we all have the option and you still get some commission...


Everybody gotta pay their bills, but please help starve the GoDaddy beast! They're bad for the internet community and treat their customers like shit.


I've been working on this for the last couple weeks, let me know what you think. It's written in Node.JS, served using nginx, and I'm using Redis to store the data.


Would like to point out that when you click on the link that takes you to godaddy you are given a choice of alternate domains in other TLD's.

So when I clicked on cry.bz it gave me the ability to "backorder" cry.com for $20.98

I'd like to point out to anyone not familiar with the business what ripoff this is. That is to suggest that there is a waiting list for any 3 letter .com and that you can simply pay $20.98 and get on that list. (Same with .net for that matter).

What's ironic is that particular domain cry.com is owned by a seller that won't sell really any domain for anything but an exorbitant price. (Way of of wack with whatever people think "ordinary" domain sellers do.) So this is even more of a waste of money.

Once again this isn't a comment on the site but on anyone who ends up at godaddy by using the site. (And of course since we are talking 3 letter domains there will be many who do this).

Separately I'm not a proponent of using any TLD such as .bz, .us etc. My opinion from being in this business for 17 years.


Likewise, I came across Randomainer (www.randomainer.com) which lists premium domains on the lower half of the page, below their available invented domain names. If the premium domains aren't squatted on/for sale, they have no price attached, and if you click on any one with no price it takes you to a 3rd party site (sedo.com) to "make an offer" on it. So I went to GoDaddy out of curiosity and found the domain I could "make an offer on" for the base price (on GD).

Sneaky buggers


> Separately I'm not a proponent of using any TLD such as .bz, .us etc. My opinion from being in this business for 17 years.

Why?


Any chance that is open source or at least you'd be willing to post a bit of a tutorial on your setup, on getting that up with node, nginx and redis? Maybe you're using containers?

Nice job!


Very intuitive, slick and fast UI!


Thanks, I spent a lot of time speeding up the search feature.

I still find it a bit difficult to visually scan the results list, particularly at full length, but I'm hoping the various filtering options help with that.


I was surprised that the domains at the top were control-clickable. It would be much more clear if there was just a checkbox below each one so that it's clear they are checkboxes.

Idea for display: Make it a table, with words down the left and domains across the top:

  | word  | .bz | .nu | .us |
  | ant   |  ✓  |     |     |
  | awe   |  ✓  |  ✓  |     |
  | ...and so on


Really pretty excellent. Thanks for helping me name my new programming language!


Let me guess. You have chosen wreak.me ;)


That literally made me laugh out loud!

I was gonna go with chainsaw.io with the tagline "fast, fun, but can fuck you up", but it was already taken!


Nice site. I like how it suggests xerox.io. I imagine all you'd get for your $49 there would be a nice letter from a lawyer. (Reminds me about the famous Wired article from 1994 pointing out how many big companies, like McDonalds, didn't have their own domains. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/mcdonalds_pr.html)


Sure, if you end up using xerox.io to sell copiers then I can see that happening.

However, if you use it for a clothing site or food delivery service I do not believe you would be infringing on their trademark.


Companies and products like Xerox, Kleenex, Hoover, Jell-O, that are used generically have the most twitchy trademark lawyers. They need to actively defend them to keep them from becoming generic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark


I know someone who had intel in their new business name/URL and they got a very clear letter from Intel's lawyers saying 'so sorry, can't use that', even though the business was transport-related.


Just because someone gets a letter from a lawyer saying they can't do something, doesn't mean it's true! Lawyers try to pull fast ones all the time to get what they want, and most people will go along with it out of unfounded fear.


I understand. It was giant corp. saying, "Do this or we drag you through court and lawyer fees." The name of the business was changed after soft launch (to accomodate Intel) but the new name was chosen before hard launch. Considering the founder was very bootstrapped, it was what it was. Not sure I wouldn't do the same in his shoes.


I just bought cry.bz... anyone want to make an airbnb clone targeted at high end crybz? I'm also open to other ideas, I can finance the development of the site etc if there is a good idea out there.

And great site though, its really easy to use, nice work!


I'm not sure the site is updating though. cry.bz still shows up for sale and I bought it a few minutes before the comment above. Might need to update that feature


I own crybs.com if you fancy that too.


Not sure what buying the domain implies here. Otherwise, nice to see someone from Tunisia in HN :)


I guess I meant register the domain. Thanks for the TN shoutout :)


Would be awesome if you'd let me choose the length of word I want. I'd still consider a 6-letter domain pretty short, and would love to look through the available 6-letter .io domains.


I just added a few thousand six-letter domains, enjoy :)


Awesome, thanks so much for the fast response!


Well I just learned people are paying a ton of money for .io domains.


I got a 2 letter .io domain for $50 from Gandi (they're $39 now).

About 4x more than a .com, but the 2 letter domain was too attractive to pass up.


How risky or bad is it if you don't own the .com domain for your app or service ?


I think it depends on your market. If you're aiming for mass-market consumers (i.e. not the people who are reading this comment ;), then .com is pretty important, since many folks don't even know there are other TLDs out there. This is especially true if there's a competitor with the .com -- because lots of people are going to just type your name directly into Google or the search bar and hit enter, and if you're not #1 for your name, you're in trouble.

If you're building something that's targeting our community (hackers, programmers, etc.), there's a lot more flexibility since we "get it" ... I'll just as easily find you if it's .io, .cc, or something more obscure like domai.nr, etc.


I bought a .se domain for a project of mine. In Google Webmaster tools the geographic target is set to Sweden with no way (that I saw) to change it. I got very limited traffic from natural search.

I recently bought a .com domain for the same project and I am already seeing an increase in natural search.


Just to add to this, here's the list of TLDs Google considers generic/geotargetable: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en


This is not good.

I mean why should a smart search engine like Google limit a TLD to a particular region. Especially since squatters buy good .com domains and charge premium prices. They of all people should know the difficulties of finding relevant domains.


Speaking of domain search tools, I built one for finding domains collaboratively with your cofounder/partner/friend/whatever.

http://wedomainsearch.com/

It's using Domainr's API and Firebase, though honestly it's not the best for super short domains. Short Domain Search definitely does a better job at that.


This is kinda awesome. Just bought blit.cc :)


Very useful product and very nice UI. +1


My first dozen attempts were kaput within 3 letters. The search is so quick, I almost thought the product was broken. Examples would be nice, though I understand that's difficult since any example domain could be bought and become irrelevant.


Nice work.

Would love to see a custom TLD setting (inputbox?), so I can add relevant TLD's


I found a domain i liked on your page, but godaddy.com charges 5 bucks more then namecheap.com and in general not very friendly to clients. So I had to go to namecheap.com and buy it manually..


You can use the "links" buttons on the top right of the site to change where the links go (there's an option for namecheap and name.com). It'll even remember your choice for next time :)


crap... did not notice these =(

may be make an jump page where user can select registrar and possibly show price? Although not sure how many users are like me :) May be totally not worth it.


Great work and the site is fat-free and very intuitive. Just a thought, grouping the domains by name and showing various TLDs for each name would be nice. And .in TLDs would be nice!


Please include .in domain


.im would be nice too - if we're making requests


Namecheap.com has a sale on .pw domains, $3.98/year.


and .it (please)


.com, .net, .org?


crap.io and barf.bz look promising.


Reminds me of http://domai.nr/


A .pw TLD would be nice.


It's a nice touch that GoDaddy encourages you to register a geographically correct TLD as well.


no .ly?


Looks like I need to start thinking up some startup ideas.




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