[iak8god]

In retrospect I'm surprised that anyone thought it would work this way once search became a viable way of navigating the web. I've never bought shoes IRL from a place named "Shoe Store". Following the address metaphor, I've also never gone looking for "Shoe Sreet" to buy my shoes.

[ehnto]

It may be my experience from working in ecommerce and rubbing shoulders with SEO companies, but I am initially skeptical of simple domain names. Bestshoes.com? No brand, just a domain name probably picked out by an SEO mage. I would have to do my due diligence before purchasing. Sometimes I wouldn't be bothered and I would go to a brand I recall from real life.

I used to help run an online bodybuilding supplement company, and some of the shifty domains the SEO guy cooked up that people trusted blew my mind. Bestweightlosssupplements dot com. Perfect, let me pop my CC details into that site.

[emodendroket]

One thing I see a lot on HN is programmers and other highly technical users assuming their behavior reflects typical user behavior. That is quite often simply not the case.

[ehnto]

I would definitely not be surprised if that were shown to me. I guess that's why we do A/B testing and other confirmations of our assumptions. Things that seem like they wouldn't work often do, like making a button green, or making the checkout two steps instead of one increasing conversion.

Humans are wierd.

[user5994461]

It's funny you'd say that, because all train stations are in "train's street" in some countries, and in London most banks are in "Bank street" :D

[ehnto]

A nuance of my city is that Bank Street leads to the train station, and no longer has a bank on it!

[iak8god]

Sure, but which came first, trains or the street name? Maybe Zappos should get Shoes.com just for being where the shoes are at :)