Then internet companies tried a unique experiment called Domain Hacks - the idea is to spell the domain name instead of appending it with a .com or a .net extension.
Take for instance sites like del.icio.us and blo.gs - both are actually Domain Hacks [.us is the Top-level domain on US while .gs is for South Georgia Islands]
Finding related domains is easy with Xona.com - a domain hack search engine that calculates all the possible permutations and combinations of web domains for you.
Say you are looking for a domain like http://fictitious.com that isn't available, the alternative domains that could match are http://fictitio.us/ [.us = United States] or http://fictit.io/us/ [.io = British Indian Ocean] or http://fict.it/ious/ [.it = Italy]
And here's a complete list of top-level domains for various countries.
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/02/when-web-domain-you-want-isn-available.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Amit,
Would you actually do something like this? :-)
Its cool I'd say. Wonder how Google or Microsoft react to this?
Cheers!
Alpesh
Written on 22/2/07 9:20 AM
I think the powers that be need to eliminate domain squatting as a business and open up those domain names that aren't actually being used rather than go through the process laid out in this article to get a domain name. I won't go into my strong opposition to domain squatting here...as I am trying to refrain from writing huge comments on DI as I have in the past :P
Great article Amit!
Written on 23/2/07 12:24 AM