callingshotgun

I was furiously thumbing a rather long URL into my cellphone (standard 12 key pad) yesterday when I had a thought about how to optimize domains for mobile.

The thought was this: Instead of evaluating the value of the domain name the way you would a .com or any other, place some emphasis on what it's like to type it in on a standard keypad.

What I mean is this: "abcdef" is the worst conceivable 6 letter domain name. Typing it goes something like "tap 2, pause 2 seconds, tap 22, pause 2 seconds, tap 222, tap 3, pause 2 seconds, tap 33, pause 2 seconds, tap 333" Even if typing were instantaneous, that's 8 seconds worth of pausing, rife with the possibility of typoing even though you hit the same key. It creates a barrier of entry that just doesn't exist if you're going to a website on a device with a qwerty keyboard (blackberry, desktop, laptop, iphone, whathaveyou)

So, my thought was to optomize based on this. Given all the standard rules (shorter is better, words are better than random letters strewn together), place some sort of higher value on domains where the letters are closer to the front of the number you use to type them, and penalize for every two consecutive letters which exist on the same key.

I would also go so far as to say, place a premium on domains where EVERY letter is the first letter on a key, and there are no two consecutive identical letters (no AA, for instance).

Using my cellphone as a reference, the key-to-letter relationship is this:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI
5 - JKL
6 - MNO
7 - PQRS
8 - TUV
9 - WXYZ

Which would mean all-else-being-equal, mobile domains consisting only of the characters [ADGJMPTW] would be the most ideal.

I've already taken this idea and run with it, and grabbed some LLLL domains consisting of the [ADGJMPTW] character set. (pawd.mobi, pawg.mobi, dawt.mobi, dawj.mobi, dawg.mobi, damg.mobi... I rocked some AW's )

At this point I have a python script that'll generate all permutations of that first-letter-of-each-key idea, given the max length I want to go. If anyone's interested in complete sets for a certain length, let me know and I can put some zip files up (assuming the sizes don't get ridiculous, of course). Also, if anyone has thoughts on how to expand on this idea, please share!