IP address vs. domain name

submitting ip addresses to search engines

[yessir]

I have a question, which sounds like a bad idea to me. A co-worker wants to submit an IP address to search engines rather than purchasing a domain. Does this make any sense at all? Not really. But what would the repurcussion be?

[dingman]

A domain would cost $10 or so a year (I pay 12 Euros per domain per year for mine, and I know I'm not using the absolute cheapest registrar out there.) No matter how bad the domain name is, it's easier to remember than an IP. Nobody knows how to send e-mail to an IP (user@[192.168.55.2]), and people might well look at your URL, decide it looks weird and therefore suspect. Why isn't a domain worth the pidling little registration fee? I assume a search engine can handle it, but your users quite likely can't.

In addition, there's also the fact that you can't guarantee that your IP will never change. Unless you're big enough to have an IP block directly assigned to you that your ISP can't change, it might be switched out for any number of reasons. For that matter, you might switch ISPs or hosting companies. If you have a domain name, you just re-point it to the new location. If you have all your URLs done by IP, you have to convince everyone who links to you to update their links, including everyone who has you bookmarked. If you are big enough to have a firm hold in a block of IPs, why on earth would the cost of registering a domain even register in your budget?