Ask HN: Domain hacking

[flooha]

For those that don't know, "domain hacking" is using a TLD to spell out your domain like del.icio.us or blo.gs.

I'm considering using one for my next startup and would like to get some feedback on your experiences. My biggest concern is that a lot of traffic will be lost due to typing in the equivalent .com domain.

I've considered the pros and cons, which I'll list below, but I'd like to hear your real experiences in order learn about benefits or repercussions that might not be obvious.

Pros:

  Very short domains
  Availability/Price
  Trendy

Cons:

  Lost traffic/emails to the .com
  Brand dilution
  Not easy to verbally tell someone the domain
  Trendy
  Slightly risky using "foreign" TLDs.

[Mz]

I haven't done what you are talking about. I did have the domain califmichele.com at one time. I was going by "Michele in California" online at the time and my email was califmichele (@ something). I wanted the domain name "michelesworld" but it wasn't available. It was a personal site of just stuff I was interested in, with no particular focus.

Trying to tell people the domain name verbally was a huge problem. My name is spelled with one L and many people automatically spell it with two. They also tended to think I meant Kalif or Caliph rather than short-hand for California. (As an aside: This was making me increasingly concerned that the site would attract the wrong kind of attention for the wrong reasons.)

I eventually left California and broke the site up into several sites, each with a specific topic focus. When I did so, I worked hard to find natural language domains that are easily conveyed verbally without having to spell them or add verbal explanations/provisos.

[megamark16]

I actually just released http://sit4.us as a tool for coordinating your existing network of babysitters. I kind of figure that having to deal with lost traffic is like having to deal with scaling, it's a problem I wouldn't mind having because it means that people are at least trying to find my site. On the other hand, this is really just a little tool I built because I wanted to use something like it and I couldn't find any existing tools out there. If I was really banking on it becoming a business than maybe I would have covered my bases a little better with the domain name.

[pbhjpbhj]

megamark16 - can I just OT and commend you for your sit4.us idea. I think it's really good, just the right depth without being too far in. If you add some sparkle on that (style it I mean) I can see you get lots of interest.

[megamark16]

Thank you very much for the feedback. I'm a major minimalist, so my work kind of reflects that, but I would like to spice things up just a little down the road. Thanks for checking it out!

Mark

[goodside]

The answer depends entirely on what kind of startup you're trying to make and who your audience is. If you want businesspeople and grandparents, having a snappy dot-com is crucial. If they're more tech-savvy, what they remember to punch into Google is a lot more important than the URL. From memory, I believe the domain for Scriptaculous is scripta.culo.us, but I would never type that into an address bar blindly.

[pbhjpbhj]

tl;dr: Your use cases speak into it too.

For example, in FF once the awesomebar has your address then with sufficient use most addresses are only 2 or 3 characters away (6 entries shown gives a space of > 100,000 entries in 3 chars, way more if you include unicode addresses!). So if it's something I'm going to use often at home then I'd look at the opposition for a geek news site and choose a unique letter if possible (not s:slashdot, not d:digg, not h:hackernews, etc.). Of course if it's an Apple audience you don't need to worry about this particular effect but you get the idea. Um, where was I. Yeah, if you want me to hit your link when I'm on the road or using others computers as opposed to simply when I'm home, or if I need to tell the address to n00bs not just email/tweet it then don't go for the geeky "domain hack".

[_cbsz]

If it's not too late, adding "(like del.icio.us)" to the title would make it obvious that this is not a post about DNS security.

[flooha]

Sorry, can't edit it.

[terrellm]

I think it's a novelty, however, I would not use a domain hack for a business unless I knew I could plug the leaks in traffic. For example, del.icio.us was a domain hack but they ended up buying delicious.com.

The average Hacker News reader knows domain hacks (I think?) but their parents probably do not and will just add .com at the end.

[roach]

I always had a hard time remembering the del.icio.us domain. I knew it was a .us tld but couldn't remember if it was delicio.us or de.licio.us etc.