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This autocomplete suggests domains that don't exist. You can just type garbage and it will suggest something, but then if you go there, there are no records. I

This autocomplete suggests domains that don't exist. You can just type garbage and it will suggest something, but then if you go there, there are no records. It seems like one purpose of an autocomplete box is help you avoid typos, so that makes it less useful.

pierrefermat1 1mo ago
Yes, OP seems to have completely lost touch with what is actually useful vs optimizing metrics for the sake of it.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
- lnenad 1mo ago
  But there is a cool blog post about it though.
bawolff 1mo ago
The autocomplete seemed to suggest real domains to me. If you typed in garbage it suggested the garbage plus a bunch of common TLDs - that seems like a reasonable choice to me. In any case, if your issue is the list of domains to suggest, its trivial to change that to a different list.
addag 1mo ago
This behavior seems to happen only when there is no more words in the list that can complete the current string. Otherwise, it shows only existing domains. I guess this behavior helps to autocomplete the domain extension for less-known domains that are not in the search list.
- Symbiote 1mo ago
  It doesn't work correctly with third level domains. speedtest.me.uk exists, but typing speedtest.me does not suggest it, and speedtest.me.u suggests speedtest.me.us first (doesn't exist). (.me.uk is a second level domain category in .uk, intended for personal domains.)
pul 1mo ago
Author here. Yes, it will autocomplete the most popular domains first, then known registered domains, and then fall back to appending popular TLDs. The reason is that it's impossible to enumerate all domains. gTLDs (like .com, .info) mostly publish their zone files, but ccTLDs (like .cn, .de) usually don't. But maybe you're right. After reading these comments, it's clearly confusing to people.
- 8organicbits 1mo ago
  There are limits to how accurate you can make this. Zones like .xyz renew at 18%, so you'd expect 0.2% of those domains to expire without renewal each day. The tranco list is based on a 30 day look-back and I've seen a small percent of those domains lack name servers, even for the latest list. Similarly, domains can be registered since the last time you downloaded your lists. So you never have a complete or accurate list. I think it's perfectly reasonable to suggest names that have recently expired or domains that could have been recently registered. The alternative requires an NS lookup.
- andai 1mo ago
  I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind appending the TLDs? Can't you just append any TLD to anything and get a domain that "might" exist? Or am I missing something?
deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]
1718627440 1mo ago
That's also the old behaviour of browsers and the current one of text browsers. I fail to see how this is wrong. $ lynx doesnotexist2 Looking up doesnotexist2 first Looking up www.doesnotexist2.com, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.edu, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.net, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.org, guessing... Can't Access `file://localhost/home/user/doesnotexist2'
- Retr0id 1mo ago
  I hate this behaviour because it means if I typo an internal hostname suddenly it gets broadcast to everyone's DNS resolver, and wastes some time in the process (and in the worst case, takes me to a random website I never intended to visit). I always have to rummage around in about:config or whatever to disable it, because that behaviour is never what I expect nor intend.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1mo ago
  "That's also the old behaviour of browsers and the current one of text browsers." As a daily text-only browser user for over three decades, using it as a "daily driver", I'm no doubt biased. I was a lynx user before links was released. I would never go back to using lynx. When I see HN comments suggesting lynx as an example of text-only browsing I question whether the commenter is actually using it as "daily driver", or looked at the source code and compared it with alternatives links doesnotexist2 does not trigger a DNS lookup Unlike elinks, w3m, etc. One of the many reasons I prefer links (no graphics) I use links as an offline HTML reader; I am opening local HTML files every day That said, it's relatively easy to modify these programs to behave according to personal preference; they are relatively quick and easy to compile One could remove the unwanted DNS lookups, for example Contrast this with the so-called "modern" browser that almost zero users have the time and resources to modify and compile themselves Instead, we see dissatisfied browser users beg browser vendors to make changes To no avail There are other ways to prevent unwanted DNS lookups besides modifying the source code For example, I run own authoritative DNS on the loopback, with custom root.zone All lookups by default return the same address: the address of the local forward proxy The proxy's memory contains DNS data precollected periodically in bulk from a variety of sources. At startup/restart, the proxy loads the data into memory from a plain text file (a "map") The map would not contain any DNS data for "doesnotexist2" There is no way for DNS lookups to leave the loopback nor any way for HTTP requests to be sent to destinations other than the ones I approve No Javascript engine in text-only browser For use with "modern" (read: uncontrollable) browsers the proxy can deny requests for URLs ending in .js, add a Content-Security Policy response header that disables Javascript and, if the CSP were to be ignored, can rewrite pages to comment out or delete inline JS

pierrefermat1 1mo ago

Yes, OP seems to have completely lost touch with what is actually useful vs optimizing metrics for the sake of it.

deleted 1mo ago
[deleted]
lnenad 1mo ago
But there is a cool blog post about it though.

bawolff 1mo ago

The autocomplete seemed to suggest real domains to me. If you typed in garbage it suggested the garbage plus a bunch of common TLDs - that seems like a reasonable choice to me. In any case, if your issue is the list of domains to suggest, its trivial to change that to a different list.

addag 1mo ago

This behavior seems to happen only when there is no more words in the list that can complete the current string. Otherwise, it shows only existing domains. I guess this behavior helps to autocomplete the domain extension for less-known domains that are not in the search list.

Symbiote 1mo ago
It doesn't work correctly with third level domains. speedtest.me.uk exists, but typing speedtest.me does not suggest it, and speedtest.me.u suggests speedtest.me.us first (doesn't exist). (.me.uk is a second level domain category in .uk, intended for personal domains.)

pul 1mo ago

Author here. Yes, it will autocomplete the most popular domains first, then known registered domains, and then fall back to appending popular TLDs. The reason is that it's impossible to enumerate all domains. gTLDs (like .com, .info) mostly publish their zone files, but ccTLDs (like .cn, .de) usually don't. But maybe you're right. After reading these comments, it's clearly confusing to people.

8organicbits 1mo ago
There are limits to how accurate you can make this. Zones like .xyz renew at 18%, so you'd expect 0.2% of those domains to expire without renewal each day. The tranco list is based on a 30 day look-back and I've seen a small percent of those domains lack name servers, even for the latest list. Similarly, domains can be registered since the last time you downloaded your lists. So you never have a complete or accurate list. I think it's perfectly reasonable to suggest names that have recently expired or domains that could have been recently registered. The alternative requires an NS lookup.
andai 1mo ago
I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind appending the TLDs? Can't you just append any TLD to anything and get a domain that "might" exist? Or am I missing something?

deleted 1mo ago

[deleted]

1718627440 1mo ago

That's also the old behaviour of browsers and the current one of text browsers. I fail to see how this is wrong. $ lynx doesnotexist2 Looking up doesnotexist2 first Looking up www.doesnotexist2.com, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.edu, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.net, guessing... Looking up www.doesnotexist2.org, guessing... Can't Access `file://localhost/home/user/doesnotexist2'

Retr0id 1mo ago
I hate this behaviour because it means if I typo an internal hostname suddenly it gets broadcast to everyone's DNS resolver, and wastes some time in the process (and in the worst case, takes me to a random website I never intended to visit). I always have to rummage around in about:config or whatever to disable it, because that behaviour is never what I expect nor intend.
1vuio0pswjnm7 1mo ago
"That's also the old behaviour of browsers and the current one of text browsers." As a daily text-only browser user for over three decades, using it as a "daily driver", I'm no doubt biased. I was a lynx user before links was released. I would never go back to using lynx. When I see HN comments suggesting lynx as an example of text-only browsing I question whether the commenter is actually using it as "daily driver", or looked at the source code and compared it with alternatives links doesnotexist2 does not trigger a DNS lookup Unlike elinks, w3m, etc. One of the many reasons I prefer links (no graphics) I use links as an offline HTML reader; I am opening local HTML files every day That said, it's relatively easy to modify these programs to behave according to personal preference; they are relatively quick and easy to compile One could remove the unwanted DNS lookups, for example Contrast this with the so-called "modern" browser that almost zero users have the time and resources to modify and compile themselves Instead, we see dissatisfied browser users beg browser vendors to make changes To no avail There are other ways to prevent unwanted DNS lookups besides modifying the source code For example, I run own authoritative DNS on the loopback, with custom root.zone All lookups by default return the same address: the address of the local forward proxy The proxy's memory contains DNS data precollected periodically in bulk from a variety of sources. At startup/restart, the proxy loads the data into memory from a plain text file (a "map") The map would not contain any DNS data for "doesnotexist2" There is no way for DNS lookups to leave the loopback nor any way for HTTP requests to be sent to destinations other than the ones I approve No Javascript engine in text-only browser For use with "modern" (read: uncontrollable) browsers the proxy can deny requests for URLs ending in .js, add a Content-Security Policy response header that disables Javascript and, if the CSP were to be ignored, can rewrite pages to comment out or delete inline JS