Domainr - blog

Re: 101domain

Twitter user @elliottcable just sent a somewhat troubling message our way:

"isn't sure what to think of @domainr. Looks pretty sexy, but seems to be affiliated with the scammy 101domain.com (1,000$ for every domain)"

We asked him for details, and it turns out some .com domains cost a bit more than normal there:

"@domainr Oddly enough, a bunch of .com domains. The specific one I was looking for was http://ellio.tt/ (turns out that one is 300$/yr nywy)"

We suspect that the .coms he's referring to might be for resale, not initial registration—we've had some great exchanges with 101domain since launching Domainr, and they seem to have both the best global TLD coverage of any registrar out there, and the best user experience for longer-tail TLDs. Non-.com TLDs tend to cost significantly more money than .com's tend to, which is probably one of the reasons they're not more widely used. Perhaps with more exposure from products like Domainr, they'll eventually drop in price and be more widely used.

Updated iWantMyName support

As our ideegeo friends down unda continue enhancing their iWantMyName domain service, we continue updating Domainr's support of it. The latest additions:

• .lc
• .ht
• .com.sb
• .tel

We're in frakking Wired!

We understated this a wee bit in yesterday's post, but Domainr's in this month's Wired!

Being mentioned in such a renowned publication is a huge honor for us, as Wired's been a major influence on us all during its 15+ years in print. In fact, it's one of the main reasons Eric ended up living and working on software in the Bay Area. Having grown up in rural Ohio, it was one of his earliest connections to then-emerging Internet tech, and he's read it religiously ever since.

Thank you kindly, Mat and Wired!

Further 'round the Tubes

We're honored by Domainr's recent appearances on these fine sites:

• #7 on LifeHacker's Top 10 Tools for your Blog or Web Site

"One reason so many new-fangled webapps have such crazy, vowel-deficient names is because the net seems almost completely picked over for .com addresses. Don't sacrifice your clever idea or give up on your name, though—head to Domai.nr."

• Faceoff, the "face-to-face web technology podcast," talks about Domainr in Episode 8


• #1 (!) in Six Revisions' 12 Excellent Tools for Picking a Domain Name:

"Domainr is an innovative web tool that helps you explore other TLD’s that have made popular websites like last.fm and del.icio.us stand out from the crowd. Of course, searches will also include popular top-level domains that are available."

• #2 (!!) on Wired's March, 2009 Playlist

"Desirable .com domain names are scarcer than profitable investment banks. But Domai.nr makes finding pithy URLs easy by querying 280 top-level domains and another 2,014 second-level ones for domain hacks, turning real English words into unique and memorable Web addresses like del.icio.us, internetfamo.us, gee.ky, and iamthewalr.us. Plus, it's free. Kookooka.ch/oo!"

♥ Tinyarro.ws

We're obviously fans of URL hackery, but Tinyarro.ws takes it to a new level. Dave digs it too.

Domainr lets you check availability of domains like these, so grab some dingbats from ⌘C ⌘V Character and start playing!

ccTLD Forum Discussion

Especially relevant to Domainr users considering non-.com domains is the new ccTLDs Forum, where you can find plenty of country code-specific domain discussion. We're in agreement with both DNW and Rick:

"Latona is a big proponent and believer in country code top level domain names, although he became a convert only last year. His world travels taught him that there’s more than just .com."

A Small Slice of Pie

Google Analytics gives us a whole host of interesting information about our visitors. One thing that really stuck out when looking at this data today is that Internet Explorer accounts for less than 10% of our traffic—3rd place—while Firefox and Safari account for nearly 80%.

After that caught my eye, I dug in a little further to see how people using different browsers tend to use Domainr. What I found is that IE users are way down in 8th place(!) when it comes to clicking on our “register” links, and are the most likely to leave right after visiting with a bounce rate near 50%. Safari and Firefox users tend to bounce about 20% of the time, and occupy 1st and 2nd place, respectively, for “register” clicks.

Oh, and here's a picture of me nerding out:

Growing Pains

Domainr’s front end is hosted on Google App Engine, which provides us with a (usually) stable, fast platform that lets us scale with relative ease. Over the past few days, ongoing performance issues have caused Domainr’s performance to suffer.

We’re working hard on a contingency plan. In the meantime, you can also search for domains on these other sites: NameBoy, DomainFinder or Domize.

TLDs are Yellow Bubbles

ICANN posted a simple graphic showing the TLD breakdown, visually:

Domainr supports all these TLDs, as well as another 1900+ second-level domains—you can see them on each TLD's page.

International Domain Laws

The Domains smartly reminds us to check countries' rules and regulations before registering their domains, and lists some examples:

• .ca and .eu have "presence requirements"
• China routinely shuts down .cn sites that violate its rules
• Vietnam just published new rules for .vn domains

We've updated Domainr's "Is it safe?" FAQ with this info—thanks The Domains!