Tag: domain names

Google Public DNS announced

Google announced a Public DNS service, which is extremely easy to configure and which will improve your web browsing speed and security.  This service is not revolutionary however.  There were a few ones before, and the one that seems most popular these days is OpenDNS.  In case you wonder what’s the difference between OpenDNS and Google Public DNS, take a look at this Google Groups discussion.

From the end-user point of view:

Right now the difference is that Google Public DNS does not use any sort of redirection or display any ads. If a host (domain name, web address, etc…) doesn’t resolve, it will just fail. With OpenDNS, they hijack these failures and redirect you to a search page that displays ads and makes them money.

From the administrator or customer point view there are things like stats, control panels, and more – all in OpenDNS.  Google Public DNS seems to be focused differently. At least for now.

Update: Jason Kottke explains why Google did it.

Forget the URL

Just yesterday I was talking with a few people about the Web and how things are changing, and the subject of URLs came up.  And I shared my opinion on the matter – URLs don’t matter.  Before you start arguing, I want to make it clear that I do understand that there are exceptions to every rule and no assumption stays true forever.  But on the other hand, that’s what I believe.

I think every Web surfer answers this question to himself at certain point in time.  Are all these URLs that I visited, searched for, and bookmarked over the years matter?  And I suspect that quite a few of those people will answer as I do – “no”.  I had a sneaky suspicion for some time, but it was delicious social bookmarks web service that made me confident about this.

The thing with delicious is that initially it was available at http://del.icio.us .  And as you might guess, there quite a few problems with this URL.  Firstly, the word “delicious” is not in the active vocabulary of most non-native English speakers.  Secondly, even those who know the word, have troubles spelling it correctly.  Thirdly, those who know how to spell it, never seem to guess where to put the dots.  And fourthly, the logical line between the meaning of the word “delicious” and a social bookmarking web site is vague at best.

However, that didn’t stop del.icio.us from becoming the most popular social bookmarking web site on the Web.  And that was when I became confident in that the URLs don’t matter any more.  Very few people will remember them.  Most people will find the site with the help of a search engine.  And those who are really interested in getting back to it, will bookmark it.  It’s that simple.

What about brand names, you ask?  Brand names are important.  But you can avoid linking brand names to URLs.  What about people’s names?  Only a few will remember them.  What about original, non-standard domain names?  Only few of those will be remembered, the rest will search and bookmark.  Why do I have mamchenkov.net domain name then?  Because it was available and because it links to my name nicely.  If it wasn’t there, I’d use something else.  And, in fact, I did use a couple of other domains before I registered mamchenkov.net .

Why all of a sudden I started talking about it?  Because today I came across someone else saying practically the same thing – “Do URLs matter anymore?” article over at CNET News, and I quote:

People still try to trade the most simple URLs for hopeful hundreds of thousands. They will still line up in the hope of getting a vanity URL from Facebook.  But don’t most people simply go to the little search box, type in the name of what they’re looking for, and search?  If it’s something they want to go back to, they’ll bookmark it. But they won’t remember what the URL is. For the simple reason that they don’t need to.

The cheapest way of finding the domain name

I came across this post at Blogging Pro. It is about this other guy – Darren Rowse – who is looking for a good (and available) domain name for his new project.

Instead of spending hours upon hours (or was it after doing so?), Darren started a contest for the best domain name suggestion. The prize is $100 USD. He claims that only after 8 hours, with majority of his readership being a sleep (time zone issue), he received a whole bunch of suggestions that will be difficult to choose from.

It struck me as a very efficient way of finding a domain name. If you’ve ever looked for one, you know what I mean. For those of you who haven’t – it involves numerous itterations across the dictionary, thesaurus, and some sort of “check domain availability” tool. Often there is also a good mix of scripts that generate suggestions. The procedure can go on for hours, days, and even weeks. That is, of course, unless you don’t get enlightened, which also happens, albeit rarely.

Many people enjoy looking for domain names. Just for the sport of it. Give them a subject and they’ll occupy themselves for a good half of their corporate time. Throw in a few bucks and you’ve got yourself the best place ticket for a bloody battle.

In this particular example, the prize is $100 USD. It’s a nice number, though people would certainly participate for less. If you are still doubtful, try it. And consider for a moment, what is a $100 USD. In terms of your time.

No more WWW

I am trying to stop using the “www.” part when typing in URLs. The web has gone a long way and most of the websites don’t need to start with WWW. Just the domain is fine.

But I have been typing “www.” into the address bar for so long that I don’t do it on purpose anymore. My fingers just remember it and use it every time I switch to address bar. I type it even faster than I can realize that I’m typing it. I got better at realizing in the last few days though. Now I catch myself when I’m done only with a couple of first “w”.

It becomes really annoying. Imagine your hands doing something you’ve forbidden them to do. Won’t that freak you out?

When I will finally get rid of the “www.” in my address bar, I’ll start to get rid of “http://”. I know that protocol is much more useful than those stupid domain parts, but when browsing the web, HTTP is the default protocol and even if you don’t specify it, the browser knows ho to handle that.