Hi! I'm the CEO of Instant Domain Search. I originally built it in 2005 after attending YC's first Startup School, and have maintained it as a side project since then. AMA!
I'm a long time happy user. The site is fast, simple, and always seemed trustworthy in a market with seedy actors. You've helped me name multiple projects and companies - thank you!
I concur - it's really snappy and a great place to start if you're looking for a domain. Although it's not 100% accurate, I understand the technical limitations and frankly, I can't think of a better alternative.
Been a happy customer since 2005! Your profile says "W22" next to the company name, is that a reference to a YC batch? What are your plans for the site?
Tangent: You know How everybody has to keep explaining "web3" over and over again? Twitter threads, deep dives, YT explainers, etc? Nobody had to spend much time explaining "web 2.0". You just saw Google Maps after MapQuest or InstantDomainSearch after whatever else was there, and you instantly got it.
I could be wrong about this but I believe you wrote a nice long article explaining how the search works and how you're able to search millions of rows instantly. Had some diagrams as well. It was quite an interesting read that I still have some faint recollection to this day. Can't seem to find that link anymore. Would you mind sharing it with us?
P.s. sorry if I'm totally wrong about this could be from some other site for all I remember now
Most registrars expose people to way too much complexity. The Internet is the original social network, but no one has made it easy to use. I think there is a lot of opportunity here.
None of those sites existed when I first built this 17 years ago. WHOIS, even behind a cache, would not support our query volume. We focus on being really fast. Any specific features you'd like to see?
I’m on mobile. Any way to return only “available” results? Eg only results where you can click buy and pay a normal registration price? (And not like $100 to $1M)
Honestly, you don't want to query a third party database. If you have a really good idea for a domain name, its already taken. OK, I'll retry: if you have a really good idea for a domain name, you don't want to share it with a third party. You only want to query the database(s) directly, and even then you want to select which ones. Why? Discretion. Say you want to start a new company. You look if the name you came up with is available. You verify it isn't, and hey presto a few days later it got domain squatted.
Because 1) you don't expect this to happen (confidentiality) 2) you're still setting up your company/idea which requires other administrative tasks which require time.
They want you to impulsively buy a domain out of fear of it getting hijacked.
I still don't see why not, it takes a few clicks and costs a few dollars. It seems that if you are a person that expects this to happen then it's a good strategy.
Otherwise you just decide which domain search you trust and hope your domain remains available.