Use brute force to find an available domain name for Web 2.0 projects

by datageek • 16 years ago

57 17 16 years ago

mg1313• 16 years ago

Or maybe just look at deleting names which happens every day and pick one which actually means something... pool.com, namejet.com and snapnames.com.

chc• 16 years ago

This sounds like a cool idea, but after looking at it, I think the odds that you'll come across something better than brute-forcing could produce seems a little low. I mean, let's look at the most realistic deleting names on the list today. I'm actually selecting the least nonsensical ones here (e.g., not the long list of names like "o6fg29ra.com"):

cafebrucenyc.com, dubai-companion.de, obamacoolbrother.com, raceto11.com, oasistaxi.com, wacko.us (this last one was actually the best I saw on the whole list)

notahacker• 16 years ago

a decent deleted name could potentially cost more at auction as buying from a squatter.

rradu• 16 years ago

Nice.

I'm a big fan of http://www.bustaname.com/ - particularly the random generator: http://www.bustaname.com/word_maker

rubyrescue2• 16 years ago

yes, and http://domai.nr

datageek• 16 years ago

Bustaname.com has some neat functionality, whereas Bruteforcenaming.com is super simple.

jackowayed• 16 years ago

How do you check if domains are available? I searched a little for a domain name API not too long ago, but all I found were things that required you to sign up (and almost always pay money, I think).

il• 16 years ago

The quickest way, without hammering anyone's server is to download the Verisign zone file daily and just search it.

They frown on using it for domain lookups, but you might be able to get access anyway.

rubyrescue2• 16 years ago

bustaname just uses a DNS lookup for an A record at the root of the domain. they say it's not 100% reliable but it's much faster than whois and i guess they don't want to use the zone file.

js4all• 16 years ago

You can do Whois lookups. This standard is as old as the Internet.

mike-cardwell• 16 years ago

DNS is much faster. whois is usually rate limited and a lot of whois services have restrictions on automated querying. Obviously, whois is more accurate though.

So. When I need to test if a bunch of domain names exist, I first of all do a DNS NS lookup. If you get a result, you know the domain exists. If you don't get a result, then do a whois.

treitnauer• 16 years ago

We'll have one soon at http://iwantmyname.com

The only reliable way for domain checks is to query the registry database directly through a registrar instead of going through whois / DNS.

Derferman• 16 years ago

My favorite name creator (and domain name search) is http://www.wordoid.com. Created by someone on Hacker News, not sure whom.

nerfhammer2• 16 years ago

Looks like it's using a markov model. I made a tool just like this a few days ago...

nerfhammer2• 16 years ago

... which is http://www.dotcomroulette.com/

dLuna• 16 years ago

Thanks! This tool is such an easy thing, and still extremely useful. Will use it for my own domain searches in the future.

tdoggette• 16 years ago

I just registered a matching .com and.org that I got from here, and they don't even sound Web 2.0-y.

Use brute force to find an available domain name for Web 2.0 projects

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