Brilliant Domain Name Examples

[tedster]

I was watching TV yesterday and one of the ads hit me over the head - for Vehix.com

Yes, they are very good ads, but what a brilliant domain name! Eminently brand-able, no spelling problems, and two 'weird' letters (v and x) that create a memorable impact. But most of all, even though it isn't a keyword, you sure know what the topic is. Not even Amazon.com does that.

I was wondering what domain names others have admired and why, outside the obvious ""awesome-keyword.com" kind of thing.

As usual, no self promotion please. And in a change from our
usual ways, links are not really indicated here - just list any
domain names you admire and talk about why.

Thanks - tedster

[pmkpmk]

You DID have a look at amish.com, did you? It's actually a scraper site of sorts, but a smart one. If you can call something "honest scraper", then amish.com is it.

Hey, I own two easy*.com domains, because they are actual product names of us. Didn't knew they were valuable. I bought one off an English guy who actively approached us about it for 150 EUR :-)

[peewhy]

I once promoted an 'easy...com site, so successfully that the owner was sued by our Easy friend.

[edited by: peewhy at 10:57 am (utc) on April 8, 2005]

[peewhy]

The Amish site, isn't it just a portal? ..why scraper?

[luckychucky]

I still think one of Google's (minor) advantages over its current major rivals is its ability to be 'verbified'
i.e.
"I'm going to Google this"

Actually, that can be a monster disadvantage under trademark law, and Google must vigilantly remind people that their trademark is not to be used as a verb. I dimly recall seeing just such an offical Google reminder once. Apparently once your trademark starts being commonly used as a verb, it's on its way to becoming a generic term, and losing all protectability. When that happens, you join the ranks of such former trademarks as ZIPPER, ASPIRIN, THERMOS and TEFLON, and losing all rights to your own brand name.

[pmkpmk]

peewhy, as far as I saw it only offers Overture results. That is NOT my definition of a portal. OK, they do not scrape in a way that they get foreign content onto their pages. Actually they do not have ANY content on it at all. Maybe you can call it a ppc-portal. Usually I disapprove this type of sites, but amish.com might even be useful to some visitors.

[peewhy]

Especially those looking for Amish related things! LOL!

[rogerd]

I like friendster.com - its name tells you what it's about, but is still distinctive and probably trademarkable. It won't get the type-in traffic of "friend.com" or "friends.com", but that's probably a worthwhile tradeoff. Compare it with the opaque orkut.com, which does little to add to the value of that site/business in my opinion. On the plus side, it's a lot easier to spell than buyukkokten.com. (Orkut B. is the site's founder.) Demonstrating that no term is safe in every language, supposedly "orkut" sounds like the Russian word for circumcision.

Another interesting comparison from two heavyweights in the jobs & career biz:

monster.com - a common word but distinctive when used for the job/career market; easy to spell & type, playful/fun overtones when combined with appropriate graphics. Could seem "so 1990s" at some point?

careerbuilder.com - more generic, but much more descriptive of the site's purpose; more characters, harder to type, more potential for spelling errors. Nice positive overtone with "builder".

In thinking about this whole thread, there's a lot of overlap with "brilliant trademarks" and "brilliant company names". Of course, some domains may be neither trademark nor company name and still be brilliant.

[tedster]

When choosing a domain name for a new venture the common experience is that your top choice is not available - maybe your top 100 choices these days. Creatively solving that problem is a big business issue.

One of my clients chose to enter a highly competitive field on the web, with lots of early adopters to ecommerce. Keyword.com was a lost cause, as were ekeyword, ikeyword, keywordworld, keywordonline etc. All the common stuff was long gone, along with about 200 other .com names that included the keyword.

After an intense brainstorming they came up with keywordheaven - and that name has now served them well for about 6 years. (Their market is about 90% female, so the soft feel of the name is a plus).

Just a little bit "out of the box" can work wonders - they showed me that you don't always need a perfect master stroke.

[pmkpmk]

I always thought monster.com a bit silly. They are running TV ads right now, and they are silly too. Actually I have a job offer running on monster right now, and their system already sent me three "perfect matches" - two of them were in reality far from being a match at all.

When it comes to job portals, I like stepstone.com (dunno if they're international). Their key visual (very nice pebbles) and the message in the domain name is pretty cool.

[joost]

monster.com ... Could seem "so 1990s" at some point?

The same may be true for dogpile.com?

On the other hand -this may sound silly- these names may actually have an advantage with non-English speakers (such as myself): the fun-part is easy to recognise, so the name easily sticks.

[sem4u]

I used to work for a company in the online recruitment industry so I know some detail.

Stepstone was a good name, but in the UK at least, they ran out of money. Sponsoring Channel 4 cricket for a couple of million didn't really help...

Monster is a silly name but people remember it.

Jobsite is an easy to remember one, but they have actually rebranded twice, once from jobsite to gojobsite, and now back again.

Workthing is quite a good name and is owned by The Guardian.

Total Jobs is owned by Reed Business (I think). This is a good name - 'does exactly what it says on the tin'.

[Leosghost]

Total Jobs is owned by Reed Business (I think). This is a good name - 'does exactly what it says on the tin'.

;)

[greatphilosopher]

I've always loved:

WebSideStory.com

[lexipixel]

GODADDY.COM - unique, memorable

ISOLDMYHOUSE.COM - catchy jingle drills it into your brain

PAYPAL.COM - catchy, possible double meaning "pay (me now) pal", or "(your) pay(ment) pal"

CS.COM - super short, easy (CompuServe)

KAZAA.COM - kids like stuff their parents can't spell

NAPSTER.COM - unique (with nice logo too)

INTERNET.COM - I remember when it got registered... thought, "boy is that stupid"... but then, I also decided not to buy "radio.com" when I saw it was available in the goldrush days.

MP3.COM - easy, nice grab of a file extension

ROTTEN.COM - really is...

...and on the stupid side:

AA.COM - American Airlines, (but then it probably makes sense with all the pilot / alcohol problems in the news)..<grin>

[tedster]

Very nice list, lexipixel.

I intended this thread to be positive examples, but just can't resist mentioning an absolutely AWFUL domain I saw on tv during a late night infomercial. With the 2-word invented brandname phrase made generic to protect the foolish, they actually expected people to type in:

www.55.BrandPhraseTV.com

What were they thinking? Probably some kind of tracking or other, but really.

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Lately I am very much appreciating the enterprising plans of Armenia, the Federation of Micronesia, and Tuvalu in making their TLDs available (.am, .fm, and .tv)

They have opened up a world of nifty possibility and I've seen a number of organizations putting those TLDs to good use. I've seen evidence that it's not hard to get the public to grok those extensions when they are appropriate - in fact, I think it's harder to get comprehension of subdomains other than "www".

[Rosalind]

I like LockerGnome.com, it has nothing to do with the site but it is easy to remember. It's nice to see domain names that are a bit whimsical.

[pmkpmk]

Lately I am very much appreciating the enterprising plans of Armenia, the Federation of Micronesia, and Tuvalu in making their TLDs available (.am, .fm, and .tv) They have opened up a world of nifty possibility and I've seen a number of organizations putting those TLDs to good use.

For German and Austrian companies, the TLD of Antigua - .ag - is very much of interest, because the abbreviation AG is the German/Austrian equivalent of the British PLC or the American Inc. So it's actually "Siemens AG", "DaimlerChrysler AG" or "Deutsche Bahn AG" (German Railways Inc.). For smaller PLC/Inc's in Germany and Austria, it is very attractive to have a company.ag instead of a (maybe already taken) company.de or company.at

There's a small problem though. A German(!) court has decided that only German companies who really ARE a AG(PLC/Inc) might get a .ag domain. Again, in other words: a German court is denying German companies the right to get domains from Antigua, whereas the Antiguanian authorities see no problem in giving .ag domains to ANYbody who asks (and pays).

P.S. For better understanding: not every German company is automatically an "Inc.". We also have the concept of "GmbH", which rougly translates into the "LLC - limited liability company", as well as several other models for companies depending on size and financial resources. Where in the US the Inc. seems to be the rule, in Germany the GmbH/LLC is the rule.

[pmkpmk]

New message because of - well - new Message...

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What about widget24.com, widgetworld.com and widgetcentral.com domains? Again mostly for the Angloamerican region, but are they considered "catchy", or are they just silly and last-century-like?

[BriGuy20]

Somone asked how the name ebay came about. I read a book about eBay, and the reason given in the book was that Pierre Omiydar thought the name "Echo Bay" would be cool for a domain, but it was taken by a mining company. He decided to shorten it (and the name ebay was available), and thus, eBay was born.

[willybfriendly]

Other "extensions" that can still be found lying around inlcude things like "widgetguild" and "widgetfair".

Both harken back to the days of trade guilds and traveling fairs, and continue to have some resonance for people.

I have also picked up a "widgetshow" for a client.

WBF

[Frank_A]

ysartglass.com (pronounced Is art glass) is one I like - I would, I coined it, and of course I get a lot of funny (!) emails asking me 'if it is art glass'.

Of course it is probably a bit obscure to be regarded as brilliant. It derives from the family name of the glass makers.