5 ms·

Domain Pigeon: Your Unintelligible Five Letter Domain Name Awaits

42 points by bemmu 18y ago

pclark 18y ago
I hope that when I launch my startup, if we're featured on online publications people post threads here. I think it's really nice (and great kudos) :) Congratulations on the publicity matt1, its a great service.
- matt1 18y ago
  Thanks!
ggruschow 18y ago
Congrats... Please don't take this the wrong way - the name seems to work because I remember it - but why the name "Pigeon"? At least in the big cities, I think many people associate them with disgusting flying and then piling fecal matter. (I like them though.)
- Jem 18y ago
  I'm not Matt, so I could be way off, but when I first heard the name I associated "pigeon" with carrier pigeons. Almost like domain pigeon is powered by a carrier pigeon fetching you the latest domain results.
matt1 18y ago
Oh wow. I just got into work and saw this on my Google Alerts. It's funny--I'm currently redesigning the entire front page. I think it looks kind of sloppy right now and was hoping to rerelease on Sunday before I started promoting it and receiving more traffic. So much for that idea :) Can't complain too much...
- hrabago 18y ago
  To me, that's actually more support for the idea that you shouldn't wait for everything to be absolutely perfect before launching.
  - matt1 18y ago
    Yeah, good point. Patten said "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." Not a bad way to approach your projects either...
  - naish 18y ago
    37 Signals just posted an entry relevant to this concept, comparing the recording styles of Frank Sinatra and Axl Rose: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1560-axl-vs-frank-more-time-doesnt-mean-a-better-product http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1560-axl-vs-frank-more-ti...
- jorgem 18y ago
  nice! Looks like you're winning the "duel" :)
sireat 18y ago
The site looks good and works well. However, are ~4000 nonmember domains and ~13,000 member viewable domains "all" one can get? That is, Domain Pigeon pre-selected these names? If so, that is certainly a different approach, going for quality instead of quantity(since 13,000 domain names is certainly a drop in an ocean of possible domain names not taken yet). I kept looking for some sort of associative search box, for example one could enter "LISP" and find "LISPy" names.
- matt1 18y ago
  When domains are added they are randomly assigned to be either community domain names, which everyone can see, or private, which only members can see. Currently its about 3 private for everyone 1 community. This is going to change at some point though in favor of some better distribution system (imagine the case where Domain Pigeon has 250K public, 750K private--see the problem?). As far as searching goes, the box on the left column searches the database and will display domains that match your search term. Since the site is relatively new and I've focused mostly on abstract domain names, most won't find any results (which is also why the search feature currently isn't in a more prominent position.) There are going to be lots of positive changes in the coming weeks, including what I hope will be the best domain name generator on the net. Stay tuned...
  - jwesley 18y ago
    Why do you keep the good domains private? I bet the affiliate commissions from showing off these domains would be much higher than the revenue from membership fees.
arnorhs 18y ago
it's missing domains with dashes in them
- matt1 18y ago
  No its not :)
sam_in_nyc 18y ago
6 days ago I commented in your post revealing DomainPigeon. I predict that it won't work because domain squatters will simply scrape and register all of the semi-decent domain names. Are there any means in place to prevent this from happening?
- matt1 18y ago
  Lots and lots of domains
- jwesley 18y ago
  No one is rushing out to register gibberish domains. If anyone wants too they have plenty of other opportunities to do so. Nearly all domains still available are not intrinsically valuable - they generate close to zero type-in traffic for squatters to live off.
grsites 18y ago
Great site! I just registered 6 domains, and then decided to go ahead with the $14.95 subscription for access to the full list. Definitely worth it! :-)
brentr 18y ago
I just registered tguts.com. The name works well for the trading social network I am building.
known 18y ago
You may try 4 letter domain names at http://www.domainnamesoup.com/4letterdomainnames.php http://www.domainnamesoup.com/4letterdomainnames.php

42 points by bemmu 18y ago

I hope that when I launch my startup, if we're featured on online publications people post threads here. I think it's really nice (and great kudos) :) Congratulations on the publicity matt1, its a great service.

matt1 18y ago
Thanks!

ggruschow 18y ago

Congrats... Please don't take this the wrong way - the name seems to work because I remember it - but why the name "Pigeon"? At least in the big cities, I think many people associate them with disgusting flying and then piling fecal matter. (I like them though.)

Jem 18y ago
I'm not Matt, so I could be way off, but when I first heard the name I associated "pigeon" with carrier pigeons. Almost like domain pigeon is powered by a carrier pigeon fetching you the latest domain results.

matt1 18y ago

Oh wow. I just got into work and saw this on my Google Alerts. It's funny--I'm currently redesigning the entire front page. I think it looks kind of sloppy right now and was hoping to rerelease on Sunday before I started promoting it and receiving more traffic. So much for that idea :) Can't complain too much...

hrabago 18y ago
To me, that's actually more support for the idea that you shouldn't wait for everything to be absolutely perfect before launching.
- matt1 18y ago
  Yeah, good point. Patten said "A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." Not a bad way to approach your projects either...
- naish 18y ago
  37 Signals just posted an entry relevant to this concept, comparing the recording styles of Frank Sinatra and Axl Rose: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1560-axl-vs-frank-more-time-doesnt-mean-a-better-product http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1560-axl-vs-frank-more-ti...
jorgem 18y ago
nice! Looks like you're winning the "duel" :)

sireat 18y ago

The site looks good and works well. However, are ~4000 nonmember domains and ~13,000 member viewable domains "all" one can get? That is, Domain Pigeon pre-selected these names? If so, that is certainly a different approach, going for quality instead of quantity(since 13,000 domain names is certainly a drop in an ocean of possible domain names not taken yet). I kept looking for some sort of associative search box, for example one could enter "LISP" and find "LISPy" names.

matt1 18y ago
When domains are added they are randomly assigned to be either community domain names, which everyone can see, or private, which only members can see. Currently its about 3 private for everyone 1 community. This is going to change at some point though in favor of some better distribution system (imagine the case where Domain Pigeon has 250K public, 750K private--see the problem?). As far as searching goes, the box on the left column searches the database and will display domains that match your search term. Since the site is relatively new and I've focused mostly on abstract domain names, most won't find any results (which is also why the search feature currently isn't in a more prominent position.) There are going to be lots of positive changes in the coming weeks, including what I hope will be the best domain name generator on the net. Stay tuned...
- jwesley 18y ago
  Why do you keep the good domains private? I bet the affiliate commissions from showing off these domains would be much higher than the revenue from membership fees.

arnorhs 18y ago

it's missing domains with dashes in them

matt1 18y ago
No its not :)

sam_in_nyc 18y ago

6 days ago I commented in your post revealing DomainPigeon. I predict that it won't work because domain squatters will simply scrape and register all of the semi-decent domain names. Are there any means in place to prevent this from happening?

matt1 18y ago
Lots and lots of domains
jwesley 18y ago
No one is rushing out to register gibberish domains. If anyone wants too they have plenty of other opportunities to do so. Nearly all domains still available are not intrinsically valuable - they generate close to zero type-in traffic for squatters to live off.

grsites 18y ago

Great site! I just registered 6 domains, and then decided to go ahead with the $14.95 subscription for access to the full list. Definitely worth it! :-)

brentr 18y ago

I just registered tguts.com. The name works well for the trading social network I am building.

known 18y ago

You may try 4 letter domain names at http://www.domainnamesoup.com/4letterdomainnames.php http://www.domainnamesoup.com/4letterdomainnames.php