Show HN: My new domain search tool

by chaosmachine • 13 years ago

95 57 13 years ago

I've been working on this for the last couple weeks, let me know what you think. It's written in Node.JS, served using nginx, and I'm using Redis to store the data.

stephanos2k• 13 years ago

Very intuitive, slick and fast UI!

chaosmachine5• 13 years ago

Thanks, I spent a lot of time speeding up the search feature.

I still find it a bit difficult to visually scan the results list, particularly at full length, but I'm hoping the various filtering options help with that.

goldfeld• 13 years ago

Any chance that is open source or at least you'd be willing to post a bit of a tutorial on your setup, on getting that up with node, nginx and redis? Maybe you're using containers?

Nice job!

larrys• 13 years ago

Would like to point out that when you click on the link that takes you to godaddy you are given a choice of alternate domains in other TLD's.

So when I clicked on cry.bz it gave me the ability to "backorder" cry.com for $20.98

I'd like to point out to anyone not familiar with the business what ripoff this is. That is to suggest that there is a waiting list for any 3 letter .com and that you can simply pay $20.98 and get on that list. (Same with .net for that matter).

What's ironic is that particular domain cry.com is owned by a seller that won't sell really any domain for anything but an exorbitant price. (Way of of wack with whatever people think "ordinary" domain sellers do.) So this is even more of a waste of money.

Once again this isn't a comment on the site but on anyone who ends up at godaddy by using the site. (And of course since we are talking 3 letter domains there will be many who do this).

Separately I'm not a proponent of using any TLD such as .bz, .us etc. My opinion from being in this business for 17 years.

personlurking4• 13 years ago

Likewise, I came across Randomainer (www.randomainer.com) which lists premium domains on the lower half of the page, below their available invented domain names. If the premium domains aren't squatted on/for sale, they have no price attached, and if you click on any one with no price it takes you to a 3rd party site (sedo.com) to "make an offer" on it. So I went to GoDaddy out of curiosity and found the domain I could "make an offer on" for the base price (on GD).

Sneaky buggers

update• 13 years ago

Separately I'm not a proponent of using any TLD such as .bz, .us etc. My opinion from being in this business for 17 years.

Why?

kintamanimatt5• 13 years ago

Really pretty excellent. Thanks for helping me name my new programming language!

ArekDymalski• 13 years ago

Let me guess. You have chosen wreak.me ;)

cschmidt2• 13 years ago

Nice site. I like how it suggests xerox.io. I imagine all you'd get for your $49 there would be a nice letter from a lawyer. (Reminds me about the famous Wired article from 1994 pointing out how many big companies, like McDonalds, didn't have their own domains. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/mcdonalds_pr.html)

RKearney2• 13 years ago

Sure, if you end up using xerox.io to sell copiers then I can see that happening.

However, if you use it for a clothing site or food delivery service I do not believe you would be infringing on their trademark.

cschmidt2• 13 years ago

Companies and products like Xerox, Kleenex, Hoover, Jell-O, that are used generically have the most twitchy trademark lawyers. They need to actively defend them to keep them from becoming generic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark

personlurking4• 13 years ago

I know someone who had intel in their new business name/URL and they got a very clear letter from Intel's lawyers saying 'so sorry, can't use that', even though the business was transport-related.

vnchr• 13 years ago

My first dozen attempts were kaput within 3 letters. The search is so quick, I almost thought the product was broken. Examples would be nice, though I understand that's difficult since any example domain could be bought and become irrelevant.

afandian• 13 years ago

It's a nice touch that GoDaddy encourages you to register a geographically correct TLD as well.

mumbi• 13 years ago

Looks like I need to start thinking up some startup ideas.

cliveowen• 13 years ago

crap.io and barf.bz look promising.

sczkid• 13 years ago

Very useful product and very nice UI. +1

klausjensen• 13 years ago

Nice work.

Would love to see a custom TLD setting (inputbox?), so I can add relevant TLD's

arbutus• 13 years ago

Well I just learned people are paying a ton of money for .io domains.

RKearney2• 13 years ago

I got a 2 letter .io domain for $50 from Gandi (they're $39 now).

About 4x more than a .com, but the 2 letter domain was too attractive to pass up.

kanakiyajay• 13 years ago

Please include .in domain

IanChiles• 13 years ago

.im would be nice too - if we're making requests

personlurking4• 13 years ago

and .it (please)

hadem• 13 years ago

Namecheap.com has a sale on .pw domains, $3.98/year.

JayNeely• 13 years ago

After SOPA support, the sexist superbowl commercials, countless customer support horror stories, etc., would you consider making NameCheap the default registration option rather than GoDaddy?

kamjam2• 13 years ago

I would imagine there is some sort of affiliate link scheme set up, so you know, the guy can pay for stuff... most of us should probably use this as a resource and then then use NameCheap ourselves.

chaosmachine5• 13 years ago

Yeah, unfortunately Godaddy commissions beat NameCheap by about 10x, but there's an option on the top right of the site to switch the outgoing links to NameCheap, if you'd rather use them.

antihero• 13 years ago

This is kinda awesome. Just bought blit.cc :)

xeroxmalf• 13 years ago

Reminds me of http://domai.nr/

ashaikh3• 13 years ago

I just bought cry.bz... anyone want to make an airbnb clone targeted at high end crybz? I'm also open to other ideas, I can finance the development of the site etc if there is a good idea out there.

And great site though, its really easy to use, nice work!

ashaikh3• 13 years ago

I'm not sure the site is updating though. cry.bz still shows up for sale and I bought it a few minutes before the comment above. Might need to update that feature

csomar• 13 years ago

Not sure what buying the domain implies here. Otherwise, nice to see someone from Tunisia in HN :)

ashaikh3• 13 years ago

I guess I meant register the domain. Thanks for the TN shoutout :)

zefi• 13 years ago

I own crybs.com if you fancy that too.

bodge• 13 years ago

A .pw TLD would be nice.

shazow• 13 years ago

Speaking of domain search tools, I built one for finding domains collaboratively with your cofounder/partner/friend/whatever.

http://wedomainsearch.com/

It's using Domainr's API and Firebase, though honestly it's not the best for super short domains. Short Domain Search definitely does a better job at that.

amitdugar2• 13 years ago

How risky or bad is it if you don't own the .com domain for your app or service ?

nlh• 13 years ago

I think it depends on your market. If you're aiming for mass-market consumers (i.e. not the people who are reading this comment ;), then .com is pretty important, since many folks don't even know there are other TLDs out there. This is especially true if there's a competitor with the .com -- because lots of people are going to just type your name directly into Google or the search bar and hit enter, and if you're not #1 for your name, you're in trouble.

If you're building something that's targeting our community (hackers, programmers, etc.), there's a lot more flexibility since we "get it" ... I'll just as easily find you if it's .io, .cc, or something more obscure like domai.nr, etc.

jeffwilder• 13 years ago

I bought a .se domain for a project of mine. In Google Webmaster tools the geographic target is set to Sweden with no way (that I saw) to change it. I got very limited traffic from natural search.

I recently bought a .com domain for the same project and I am already seeing an increase in natural search.

kintamanimatt5• 13 years ago

Just to add to this, here's the list of TLDs Google considers generic/geotargetable: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1347922?hl=en

amitdugar2• 13 years ago

This is not good.

I mean why should a smart search engine like Google limit a TLD to a particular region. Especially since squatters buy good .com domains and charge premium prices. They of all people should know the difficulties of finding relevant domains.

ianstormtaylor2• 13 years ago

Would be awesome if you'd let me choose the length of word I want. I'd still consider a 6-letter domain pretty short, and would love to look through the available 6-letter .io domains.

chaosmachine5• 13 years ago

I just added a few thousand six-letter domains, enjoy :)

ianstormtaylor2• 13 years ago

Awesome, thanks so much for the fast response!

hippich2• 13 years ago

I found a domain i liked on your page, but godaddy.com charges 5 bucks more then namecheap.com and in general not very friendly to clients. So I had to go to namecheap.com and buy it manually..

chaosmachine5• 13 years ago

You can use the "links" buttons on the top right of the site to change where the links go (there's an option for namecheap and name.com). It'll even remember your choice for next time :)

hippich2• 13 years ago

crap... did not notice these =(

may be make an jump page where user can select registrar and possibly show price? Although not sure how many users are like me :) May be totally not worth it.

pbreit• 13 years ago

.com, .net, .org?

anishdeena• 13 years ago

Great work and the site is fat-free and very intuitive. Just a thought, grouping the domains by name and showing various TLDs for each name would be nice. And .in TLDs would be nice!

puredemo• 13 years ago

no .ly?

Show HN: My new domain search tool

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