Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with domainnames

I need help naming my blog.

seandq — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 13:50:49 -0800

I need help naming my blog. I'm doing something a bit new, a bit random. I'm basically a high school senior who is taking on some friends with me to create a group blog on everything - mainly sports, entertainment, news, politics, etc.

I originally thought of hosting this blog on my domain and then just outsourcing my friends' posts as guest posts. Then it struck me it might just be a good idea to put all of our work together on its own site.

Ideas I'm hovering towards involving the phrase "Vox Populi", "Hive Mind", or "Groupthink". However, finding an open domain with those in there is a very hard thing to do. I want to emphasis the collaboration aspect, and possibly to a lesser degree the fact we're teenagers, and soon we'll be college students.

Thanks in advance!

What will different TLDs connote in naming a site for an art project?

Mngo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:01:53 -0800

How serious are the connotations of .com and .net TLDs, and which should I choose for an art project? My friend says I shouldn't go with mngoartproject.com because it implies commerce, and she uses .net herself because it seems neutral to her. To me it still connotes "network related," though I know it's used all the time just when .com isn't available. And .org would feel dishonest to me.

I've read this and related questions, and all the opinion that comes up at the front of a simple google search on the meaning of TLDs is from companies that want my business, and anyway what matters to me is the meanings that a smart group of people would associate with my site based on the TLD. (Bonus points if anyone can suggest a good non-commercial source for newbie basic info about things as simple as how to do a redirect).

Info: I'm in the US, the art project is decidedly non-commercial, and I'm already holding both .com and .net names for it--the question is which to use.

How to snatch up an "expired" domain?

scarabic — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:27:07 -0800

A domain name I'm interested in just "expired" 5 days ago according to its WHOIS record. However, all the registrars I've tried say that the domain is unavailable. Is there some kind of grace period for this? What's the best way for me to know if/when it actually becomes available? Any way for me to grab it right now? BTW there's nothing hosted there, and it appears to be owned by a squatter. Obviously I'm not looking to pay squatter prices here.

How me get website?

SebastianKnight — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:27:42 -0800

I'm thinking about making a website but it's years since I last did this, what are the best registrars, hosts, and insidey bits nowadays? I'm in the UK. I'm working on some creative projects at the moment (visual art, collaborative research - it's all very nebulous right now) and sooner or later they're going to need an online base. It's years since I last did any of this stuff and I'm completely out of touch - help me get up to speed.

The site structure needs to be flexible enough to house blog-like sections (serially updated content) and portfolio-like sections (non-Flash image galleries etc.), and I want to house several projects at one domain name like this www.domainname.com/project1 www.domainname.com/project2 and so forth. I'm not a techie person at all but I don't mind using an admin interface if it's straightforward. I really don't want to be fending off new exploits or spending days on setup and things like that though. Please ask specific questions if my thinking is too unclear.

I'd really appreciate some feedback from people who really know their stuff rather than from miscellaneous one-time satisfied customers. Keep in mind that I'm in UK, if that's at all relevant.

- Can you suggest any general resources for domain name ideas?

- Who should I register the domain name with? In the past I've used the godaddy service where they conceal your name and address from WHOIS queries. What do you think about that?

- Who should I buy hosting from? I'm not expecting much traffic and my budget is very tight but I would like to go with a company who've been proven over time. Easy setup is a plus. And I want to be able to do redirects easily (e.g. www.mydomainname.com/survey1 would redirect to something like Survey Monkey).

- When I have the name and the empty hole it points to, how should I put something in it? MTCreations recommended Wordpress to another poster here - do you agree with those comments? Would they fit my intentions?

I think that's it. My problem is that I want a good quality end product but that I don't have the knowledge or discernment to get there on my own, or the budget to buy someone else's.

Thanks everyone - you're saving me hours of reading in circles.

Who doesn't own their .com?

smackfu — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:42:42 -0800

What are some examples of a large company or brand not owning or using the "obvious" domain name like company.com or brand.com? Examples from the past would also be useful.

What's in a name? Is it worth money, or should I just pick another?

twiggy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:46:45 -0800

I have a product I'm building and I found a great name for it - but the .com is taken. Is it worth purchasing, or should I just come up with something else? In your experience - has it been worthwhile to purchase a great name, or am I better off coming up with something else? I've had a really hard time coming up with a name. I'm also stuck on this idea in my head that the name needs to be simple and make sense, especially due to my imagination of literal "word of mouth" spreading of the name in conversations.

I'm currently in email contact with the owner of a domain name I really like, and feel is appropriate to the product I'm building. My initial offer of $145 for the domain - which is what was quoted by dnscoop.com as its value - was politely rejected with "could you give me some more time to think about it? I thought it was worth more than that..."

It has been a week and a half now, and I want to follow up with him, but I'm not sure what to offer. To be clear, in his "defense" - he doesn't seem to be a domain squatter. He bought the domain to do something vaguely related to what I want to do - he just hasn't gotten around to it, so the domain has been unused for the few years he's had it.

The most I can afford to pay is a few hundred dollars - for all I know he'll reject that too, but I don't want to waste my time with the offer if people feel pretty strongly that the name doesn't matter that much.

ISO Easy Tool/Software to Create Web Site

If only I had a penguin... — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:25:56 -0800

I need a tool (web-based or software) to create and easily update a web site that will be hosted in a subdirectory of a domain that I don't own (i.e. myemployer.ca/myname). I created my web site on Weebly. Love the ease of use and all the drag and drop loveliness and it basically does everything I need, except one thing: I can't publish my site. I put my site on my employers domain (it's a professional not personal site) in a subdirectory. Weebly can't cope with anything other than my owning my own domain. I can download my site as a zip file, which would be fine except that none of the site internal links work as-is. They all point to the root directory rather than a subdirectory, which means I have to edit them, which is asking for trouble. A friend wrote a script to change them automatically, but the thing is this: I haven't updated the page in 3 years because it's too much of a pain. Update on weebly, download, run script, re-upload whole site, etc. Not worth it for small changes and even with big changes I can't be bothered.

I have three options:
1) Find a new development tool. This is the ideal choice if it exists)
2) Buy a domain name and continue using weebly. Not a great choice. It's the easiest but no one does this. None of my colleagues have their own domain so it would likely seem weird and full of myself. (They either have assistants do their pages, have crappy ugly pages that haven't been updated in 5 years, or have no pages at all).
3) Buy a domain name, use weebly and somehow mirror my domain at myemployer.ca/myname. This would be second best: All the ease of option 1, but still having my site on my employer space which is the more professional way to do this. But I have no idea if this is even possible.

THE QUESTION: I'm looking for 1) Advice on which option to choose. 2) What site development tool I could use for option 1. and 3) Whether or not option 3 is possible and how I would make that work.

REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW SITE DEVELOPMENT TOOL (Option2)
- Must be able to create site-internal links that will go to the subdirectory not straight to the domain's root directory. This is where weebly fails me.
-Should make it relatively easy to transfer all needed files into my web space by FTP.
- WYSIWYG point-and-click, drag-and-drop, and all the other marks of a weenie wannabe are all great for me.
- Should put together the structure of the site more or less automatically (e.g. add new pages to a menu bar, create site maps if necessary, etc.)
- I have no design sense other than saying "that looks nice" or "that looks amateurish. If I have to do my own design work, it will look amateurish, so bring on the templates.
- Free or cheap. ~$40/year would be acceptable.
- I don't currently include a blog page, embedded media, or any password protected areas, but I could imagine doing that at some point so bonus points if does this.

The site includes ~6 pages listed on the menu. The pages include e pictures, links to pdfs (also hosted as part of the site), external links, and a few pages of text. I've checked out blinkweb.com and sitekreator.com. Blinkweb can't do the subdirectory thing (like weebly) and sitekreator requries that they host the page and costs too much.

Should you buy all available domain extensions?

scarello — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 07:12:08 -0800

How important is it to purchase all available domain extensions? I have had this debate with a few people. Some feel it's good security to purchase all extensions available, and not just .com. Others feel its too expensive. What is the general opinion?

What is the best process for back-ordering a .CA domain?

chudmonkey — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:31:55 -0800

What is the best process for back-ordering a .CA domain? There is a .CA domain name expiring this May which I would like to secure for myself. I can say with certainty that the existing registrant will not be renewing the domain, and also don't expect anyone else to be after it either.

I know that various companies offer a back-ordering service for .CA domains, but I am seeking specific recommendations with an eye towards finding the best price. (I have other domains registered with GoDaddy, but they do not seem to offer .CA backordering.)

Were I to forgo using a back-ordering service, would I simply be able to register the domain for myself on the day it expires, or will there be some waiting/holding period before the domain becomes available to the public again?

Thanks in advance for any perspective or experience you can share!

Is backordering domain names a racket?

niloticus — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:30:11 -0800

I backordered an expiring domain name with its current registrar, but someone else got it. Does/should its registrar (& thus by extension, me) have had first dibs on it, if its owner let it expire? When I asked about this, GoDaddy's customer service said:
"The backorder process is not under our control just because the domain in question was registered through us. Each domain registrar may set up one backorder per domain and it is first-come/first-served on which backorder will capture the domain. "

(...and there's something like 150 registrars, is that right? I wish GoDaddy had been forthcoming about the odds & the process when they solicited my money.)

According to what I've read online (from 2005) the "expiring" registrar should have control of the domain, & might then send it to an auction. Did the rules change since 2005, or am I getting the runaround?

Why does this feel so much like a legal scam?

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:00:25 -0800

Was I scammed by a domain name registrar? Should I legally be able to get my money back for unavailable domains despite not having read their terms & conditions? A month ago, my friend and I pooled together and purchased numerous domain names from a small-time registrar in a top-level domain landrush (domains would all be released at once, multiple bidders would result in an auction). The idea was that if we were the sole bidders for any domains, they would be worth to us at least what we paid. Just today, the registrar notified us that (1) many of them are unavailable/invalid and we will only receive store credit for them. (2) Additionally, if we lose the auction for the domain, our registration fees would not be refunded at all. The registrar claims that these policies were stated in their Terms and Conditions; alas we did not click through to read them.

Do we have any legal ground (consumer rights?) for getting our money back? It seems like such a scam -- for domains in situation (1) I buy a product that is unavailable, and I only get store credit. In (2) they get to keep the domain registration fee from everyone who bought the domain which is only eventually registered once. It's like if I sell a $50 watch, but if there are multiple bidders, it goes to auction and I still keep all the $50s.

If I did a chargeback with my credit card, the bank would probably side with the company because I agreed to these terms during my purchase.

Other facts:
- The receipt shows the purchase of every single domain as "Domain Purchase: foo.com"
- This practice is divergent from the policies of the other major registrars in this landrush
- My account credit has even decreased, because they are based on the UK and credited in Pounds, which has devalued since. I didn't even know it was a UK company since the prices were in US dollars, and I made the purchase using a credit card.

Posting anonymously in case we decide to go to small claims court or something, and would not like this to be used as any sort of evidence.

Domain-tor? [realtor + domain]

yoga — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:41:46 -0800

Is there such a thing as a domain name agent? Like a real estate agent, but for .com (or other) domains instead of chunks of land? I have a handful of domain names I'd like to sell, but I don't want to bother with the hairsplitting exercise of looking at traffic & whatever else supposedly predicts popularity / marketability. I'm familiar with sites like www.domaintools.com, but I'm willing to pay someone a small percentage of actual sales price to do the selling / auctioning for me.

Hope?

Who's watching my domain name searches?

Kibbutz — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:31:14 -0800

I looked up a domain name at networksolutions on February 19, 2008. The .com and the rest of the suffixes (suffi?) were available. I checked back today to find that the .com version had been purchased on the same day that I researched it. It's now hosted at "reserveddomains". 1. Who bought it? Network Solutions? 2. Whatta the odds?

What to do with a meme-ish domain name?

wendell — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:17:47 -0800

Hi, I'm Wendell, and I'm a Domain Name addict. And I just registered DRINKSYOURMILKSHAKE.COM with the intent of setting up something like isyournewbicycle.com but I'm open to other ideas. Feel free to aim your long straw at me...

Do I own this domain name?

pkreutzer — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:59:55 -0800

I renewed two domain names with Registerfly on January 28, 2006 and never received renewal notices. Their system has been so screwed up that I've had to make multiple requests for renewals. In early February I received a notice from Enom that they were no longer registering names for Registerfly and offering to transfer my names from Registerfly to Enom, an offer I accepted. The other day I signed into my Enom account and discovered that the two names had expired. One name they said I could renew now for $9.95, but the other they said would cost me $160! These were both normal .com registrations. I contacted my account guy and he said he thought they could work something out. Then I got an email from his boss saying it would cost me $50 and I would have to email all sorts of documentation showing that I had tried to renew the domain, documentation I don't have. But, the WHOIS registry is in my name, with my contact information and says it doesn't expire until January 2008.

Before I call ENOM I'd really like to know where I stand, but I can't find anything that addresses this situation. Thanks.

How to transfer a domain away from a registrar that doesn't want to?

disclaimer — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:09:50 -0800

A client has a domain registered through a registrar that is (at best) unresponsive. We need to transfer it away from this registrar, but cannot get authorization. What now? The domain is registered via registerfly.com, a quick google reveals that they aren't held in high esteem.
A new client needs to update his website.
- The web developer is gone and the site appears to be hosted on godaddy.com servers (at least, I think that's who owns the IP block), but no one has the username or password (and even if he did, well, this just needs fixing).

- The domain contact information is registered to "FraudRecovery" with a contact email address of "risk@registerfly.com". Emailing that address has no response, and in fact other websites show that it's a known black hole. This information doesn't match anything my client has. Calling customer service results in 30 minute (or longer) wait times, sometimes ending in a hangup.
- We have tried to transfer the domain, but the transfer fails because registerfly doesn't respond with an authorization code (and the new registrar needs that code to proceed).

My plan was to (a) transfer the domain to a reputable registrar, (b) pick a new web hosting company (c) Rip the existing content from the existing site (d) update the site and provide the client with a properly registered, hosted, and documented site. However, step (a) is killing me.

What recourse does my client have? I know there may be a process at ICANN (I looked but nothing appeared to cover this possibility) - does anyone have experience with this situation?

A kicker is that the domain name is heavily publicized (it's a restaurant chain) so abandoning it is not a good option.
Any suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance.

Uncooperative domain name reseller

cillit bang — Wed, 03 May 2006 11:10:03 -0800

If a domain name reseller (eg Lycos UK) is doing a really crappy job at the basics (letting you renew your own domains, letting you unlock your domain to transfer to another company, being contactable at all) is there anyone higher up to complain to to get something done? We're talking about a .com address here.

Domain name research

grrarrgh00 — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 09:00:01 -0800

I'm looking for recent research on Web site names, looking at both branding and domain name selection, especially concerning non-standard (not .com, .net or .org) domains. Some partners and I want to create a site. I have a domain/name I believe is perfect. Short, cute, catchy, clever. The partners all love it. But it is a domain hack. And everyone wants more research on domain names before going forward with it.

The site is targeted to metropolitan young professionals, so the audience is probably more Web-savvy than your standard Internet user, and more likely to be familiar with site names like Del.icio.us. But the site has a regional focus, so the number of potential audience members likely to be familiar/comfortable with those domain names is definitely much smaller than an international site like Del.icio.us.

My Google-fu fails me. Searching for research on choosing domain names brings up advice like this, targeted to a business site, which our site is not. Then from the opposite perspective, there's advice like this, which advises site owners to think beyond dot-com, but seems like advice based on little other than "Del.icio.us is popular!"

The biggest question is how much trouble non-techy audiences have finding or navigating to a domain hack. The second biggest question is how well or badly evocative words not literally related to the site's contents (think Amazon.com or Flickr.com) can work. Renaming the site post-launch if the name confuses the audience is not viable.

Advice -- with specific examples of names that worked or didn't -- is quite welcome. Links to any research that's been done would be most helpful. Thanks very much.

Add "http://" Prefix to a List of Domains Formatted in Plain Text :: How Please?

Jhaus — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 22:05:50 -0800

Hi, hoping some MS Excel or HTML wizards can help me out with this. The goal is as follows; format a list of domain names so I can publish them on a webpage with hyperlinks to their individual addresses (currently they are all in Excel with each domain occupying a single cell in a single row; they are currently formatted like this: "domain.com"). There are just to many to go through and add this to each one. I'm thinking that one of these two solutions might work (just can't figure out how to do it!):
1) Use some formula in MS Excel to add the "http://" to each of the cells with a domain. Then just copy and paste into my HTML editor.

OR

2) Use some sort of code directly in the HTML editor to change "domain.com" into hyperlinked text.

This link came close, but just missed. Thanks so much for any help you might provide! Cheers!

How best to migrate from one domain to another?

AmbroseChapel — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:59:06 -0800

How best to migrate from one domain to another? Let's say I have a website at project.foo.com and I want to move it to its own "project.com". At some time in the future, project.foo.com will cease to operate.

How do I best migrate? And by best I mean "with the least, shortest disruption to visits from both search engines and human beings"

I can redirect by

changing the content to inform visitors of the new URL

using HTTP-EQUIV tags in pages

sending 301 HTTP headers from a script

using .htaccess files

changing the DNS entries

but which should I do, and when?

Let's say I absolutely don't want to lose a single hit from regular human browsing. I can imagine a very careful long-term transition like:

keeping the content, but adding a message to each page on the old domain: "project.foo.com/bar.htm will shortly move to project.com/bar.htm, please note"

moving the content and leaving only the message on each page: "project.foo.com/bar.htm has moved to project.com/bar.htm, please note"

after a certain period, removing all the pages, and redirecting any hit anywhere on project.foo.com to a "this whole domain has moved" page.

That seems like a good strategy for keeping my human hits, but it looks like a bad strategy for Google, etc.

So, say I just redirect the DNS? Or make every page issue a 301?

Presumably Google and other such agents (after a few hours downtime while the change propagates) will "see" the change, and redirect their links/update their database as required. But the humans might not have noticed. They ask for the content, they get the content. Why should they notice a new URL in the URL bar? So, they keep using their old bookmark and they haven't noticed the migration.

Should I attempt to to detect the fact that they came to project.com via a request to project.foo.com, and tell only those people that they should update their bookmarks?

Bonus question: am I over-thinking this?

Email downtime during domain transfer

anathema — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 05:34:33 -0800

Transfering a domain from NetSol to GoDaddy. Approximately how long will the email addresses associated with the domain be non-functional? I've transfered domains before but I've never had to deal with the email issue. Obviously my concern is that email will be down for a while, especially knowing that transfers can be tricky. Does anybody know if NetSol webmail will still be available after the DNS info is wiped but before GoDaddy picks it up?

Are Domains Really Worth $1,000+ Nowadays?

thebwit — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 08:03:27 -0800

How do you value a domain name? More specifically I am a member of a webmaster newsboard that has domain names for sale. When I inquired about a certain domain I was told the owner was looking in the $X,XXX range for it. Yet I don't see how a domain could be valued at that price range when I see sites with full content selling for less than that. Is a domain really that valuable anymore? I don't think it is. Yes a .com is better than a .net or .org or whatever, but to ask for $1,000+ for a domain is just kinda pricey I think when the domain hasn't been doing anything other than pointing to another url.

Domain Transfer

renyoj — Fri, 07 May 2004 11:14:39 -0800

I am in the process of purchasing a domain from it's current owner. What's the easiest way to transfer it to my own account?

Registering domains with the Cuban .cu suffix

twine42 — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 06:28:01 -0800

Is it possible to register domains with the Cuban .cu suffix? My searches online have come up with nothing, but I can't tell if this is because the market is dominated by American companies.

Help Me Figure Out What Domain Names to Keep

wendell — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 15:58:40 -0800

Domain-amania! (part one)
A little less than a year ago, when I thought I was on the road to recovery, I had a shopping spree on GoDaddy, getting more than a dozen domain names I intended to turn into a network of cool sites. Nearly all of them have lain fallow since then, and now it's time to renew or relinquish and "thin out the herd". Over the next several days, I'll be Asking MeFi what names are worth keeping and what site ideas are worth pursuing. [more-on inside] First: OXYCLONE.COM. Back in '99, I assembled a database (on MSAccess) of oxymorons with more than 2000 entries, called it The OXY2K, and dumped the list into static html pages at my old Tripod site and never finished my intended cross-linkings before I lost much of the database and most of my interest. Still, my more recent experience with php and mySQL has inspired me to explore ideas for data-based sites and the OXY list was the first of several concepts I chose to explore (which I'll tell ya about later). Since OXY2K is so-o-o-o dated, I looked for an alternative name, but like so many other categories, there are a bunch of Oxymoron sites and all the best names were taken. I came up with OXYCLONE (with a logo resembling a bucket of that cleaning stuff), but I'm not terribly happy with that. My OXY database, if/when completed will include a short blurb about the origin of each entry, and categorization by subject matter and 'type', plus the site would have a sub-list on the overused headline "Is XXX an Oxymoron?" Good idea? Wa-a-a-ay too 1990's Internet? Any hope that Google Ads would pay the overhead? Would YOU visit my site more than once for the "Oxy of the Day"? And does anybody have a better idea for the name?
I'm not asking much...