Is It Just Me or Most Web 2.0 Domain Names Suck?
A couple of weeks ago I was browsing around TechCrunch when I came across some articles that were listing web startups that would be participating on a Demo event.
The idea about getting startups grouped together to demonstrate what they products or services can do is pretty interesting, but that was not what caught my attention. Instead, I could not help but think about how bad some of these domain names were. Here are a few examples:
- Webmynd.com (browsing history tracker)
- Insoshi.com (social network platform)
- Omnisio (video sharing)
- Wundrbar (improved search)
- Qrimp.com (web apps)
- Gwt-ext.com (widget library)
- Twitxr.com (picture sharing)
- Yokld.com (local business finder)
I mean, Wundrbar.com? Gwt-ext.com? For real?
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that all my websites have awesome domain names. Even DailyBlogTips is a pretty average one; it is long and has 3 words. There is one big difference though: when I started these sites I had no clue of where I was going, and my startup budget was $10.
These companies, on the other hand, are trying to revolutionize their segments; to provide some innovative service that will become popular on the Internet. Usually they also have thousands of dollars backing them up (sometimes even millions of dollars…).
When I come across some of these names I get the impression that the company sent its secretary to ajaxwhois.com and told her to play around until she came out with a “cool” domain that was still available.
The takeaway message is: if you are going to launch a web startup, make sure to devote some of your time and money into finding or purchasing a good domain name. You will be stuck with it for the rest of the life of the company, after all.
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Tough Times for GoDaddy
GoDaddy is the registrar of several of my domain names. While I do think that their web hosting is crap, so far they have performed well as a registrar.
That being said, it looks like other people are not having the same luck with their services lately. Yesterday Mashable covered the story of a website that was suspended by GoDaddy due to “suspicious activity.”
Browsing around the web I also came across a website called NoDaddy, which is dedicated to report horror stories from users that got damaged by the company. Here is a quote from the homepage:
GoDaddy suspends accounts without due cause. They often even levy an arbitrary “fines” and hold your domain name ransom until you pay it. GoDaddy stores your credit card number when you make a purchase, allowing them to levy “fines” without your consent (example1, example2, example3).
For example, when Nick Berlette exposed a serious security hole in the website of DynaDot.Com, they apparently responded by persuading GoDaddy to shut down his blog rather than fixing their pathetic security [agiorlando.com]. GoDaddy of course complied immediately, and sent him this shutdown notice. Note that GoDaddy used the ransom approach here, saying he had two options: Pay a “$199 non-refundable reactivation fee” and GD will put his web site back up, or “if you choose to transfer the berlettefx.com domain name to another registrar, we first require that you pay a $75 administration fee … to cover the costs of responding to or “cleaning up” the situation caused by your web site.
Well, if nothing else I will be more careful from now on. GoDaddy should do its homework though, having such a bad publicity circulating around must cost big bucks, especially on the age of blogs and social media (NoDaddy was on the Delicious front page today indeed).
What registrar do you use? Have you had any problems with it in the past?
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