Another victim of the expertsexchange problem. It's unfortunate because hyphens really should be avoided in URLs. For the last couple of domain names I've registered, I made sure to put the potential names into the "Detect language" box in Google Translate to make sure they weren't inappropriate words in another language, in addition to reading them upside down and backwards for other English interpretations. Naming things is hard.
I noticed this too. I think naming things is only hard because people try for days to think of meaningful names when in reality the meaning and brand recognition from a name is carried entirely by the product. Every notable famous company has a really cool name. Only some lesser known companies have really cool names. Once a company gets famous, it effectively makes the name really cool.
That's my theory anyway, I bet you all are clever and can think of counterexamples.
The old reason was because in radio ads, saying the domain with the dash was confusing.
A friend of mine just registered a domain name with a made-up spelling of regular words kind of like "leet-speak". The two of us are the only ones who can type it from memory, which is not good.
Never heard of this described as the "expertsexchange" problem but I understand what you mean :D I see they have changed their domain now to include the hyphen, lol. Haven't visited it for many years.
Serves them right though, cluttering up google searches with resolutions hidden behind a paywall. That's karma for you. And bad preparation obviously.
But anyway, stackoverflow/stackexchange have rightly taken their place.