The best domain name search tool I've used | Hacker News Reader

The best domain name search tool I've used

instantdomainsearch.com

25 pointsmattculbreth14 comments

This is the site we always use to figure out names for YC startups. Probably half got their names this way. And yes, this was written by Beau Hartshorne, founder of Snipshot. In fact, it was this app that made us invite him to apply.

And what happens if the domain is only being parked with one of those shitty search pages? Do you buy it or skip on to another name?

Buying domains rarely works. The owners either never respond to you or want a crazy price. Plus there are always good ones still untaken.

Fun. Hook it up to a thesaurus and synonym dictionary and it will kick everyone else's butt.

Meanwhile, I had fun seeing how many "a"'s I had to type before a .com became available. And it was this many - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.com

What were the first 50 guys thinking?

This one is from a YC guy so it's probably safe -- but in general it's good to be suspicious of any lookup tool like this. There have been instances of domainers using sites like this as a way getting users to generate lists for them.

It's very useful -- an example of good Ajax use. One of the guys behind YC-funded Snipshot made this.

I've been using it for a while, but recently switched to: pcnames.com. They're both excellent and once you use them you can't go back to the old way anymore.

instantdomainsearch.com's FAQ promises not to share your searching with anybody. But, pcnames.com makes no such promise. I don't trust pcnames.com

once you use them you can't go back to the old way anymore

The best apps are ones that simplify your life and change your expectations

I stopped using them because I've had two domain names registered away from me within 24 hours of searching for them on the site. Ironically, one I looked up before I got on the plane to the 2006 startup school and by the next morning when I had network access it was taken. It may just be bad luck but I've never had that problem with a generic whois or providers like GoDaddy.

I had something similar happen and I emailed the instant domains guy and to his enormous credit he took the time to look into it and dig through his logs. Odds are that you and me and tons of other people are just victims of domain kiting (google it). Bad guys register tens of thousands of domains on spec for nothing. It sucks, but wait a week or two and your domain may reappear

Incidentally he said the site is actually using an internal list of domains that I think he got through some sort of DNS trick. It doesn't make any outside queries.

For those interested: Slashdot has a link to an article about the toll that people using this loophole have taken on the DNS system: http://slashdot.org/articles/07/04/16/1515244.shtml

Usually in those cases your domain name might reappear in a few days, since there are some 5 day money back policies that the domain hogging companies take advantage of.

I don't think I've seen this here, and it's something I have fun with when thinking through ideas.

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