A Hyphenated Future?

[tolkein]

I have this weird feeling that most domain names will be hyphenated in the future. It certainly makes sense because search engines read "wireless-email" the same as "wireless email" - most of .de domains (German) are hyphenated.

Opinions?

 

[monaco]

Just wait until IDN becomes more widespread. Then you'll have 50k+ choices for each character by using chinese kanji in utf-16 charsets

 

[RJ]

Problem with hyphenated domains is there is always the confusion factor/fall-over traffic with the non-hyphenated version.

As the supply of "good" domains gets short, instead of hyphens we'll see two, three, and perhaps even four word domains become more commonplace. Another alternative to using hyphens is to make up catchy suffixes to tack onto common words.

I can't see IDN names ever gaining widespread use in English speaking markets.

:imho:

 

[monaco]

Problem with hyphenated domains is there is always the confusion factor/fall-over traffic with the non-hyphenated version.

As the supply of "good" domains gets short, instead of hyphens we'll see two, three, and perhaps even four word domains become more commonplace. Another alternative to using hyphens is to make up catchy suffixes to tack onto common words.

I can't see IDN names ever gaining widespread use in English speaking markets.

:imho:

It's possible...its as much a pain for chinese people to type addresses in english on chinese radical-aligned keyboards as it is for americans to type in pinyin and have the computer turn it into kanji...at least conceptually at least. Ya never know...we could see a return of 1 character .coms

 

[tolkein]

What I mean is the way people key into their browsers. There should be a reason why most German addresses are hyphenated, right?

 

[monaco]

Hmm...maybe a german keyboard layout has the hyphen in a more convenient place than a standard 104key english one? I've never seen one, but it could be a reason...

 

[MissFlora]

Asian-created computers and cellphones have asian fonts printed on their keys and natural, asians have no problem typing that just like American typing english alphabets into a browser. What I guess we'll see is that browser letting users choose to type english fonts or asian language fonts in their browsers. And that IDNs will be greatly improved. Right now we have external chinese encoders programs to type chinese words, so why won't it be possible for them to simply imput this function into future browsers and work the same way? Highly possible, IMO.

As for hyphenated domains, SEO does not care about hyphens. So that might be one of the many reasons I guess. Since most premium domains are already registered.

Flora.

 

[primacomputer]

It's possible...its as much a pain for chinese people to type addresses in english on chinese radical-aligned keyboards as it is for americans to type in pinyin and have the computer turn it into kanji...at least conceptually at least. Ya never know...we could see a return of 1 character .coms

I have no problem typing English on my Chinese keyboard, and I'm pretty sure that's not just because I'm a gweilo. But I agree, taking input in Chinese Pinyin and then translating that into Japanese Kanji would be no fun. Personally I type Japanese in Romaji because I never really got Hiragana down pat and I can't find a Kana keyboard. But that is because I'm a gaijin

Hmm...maybe a german keyboard layout has the hyphen in a more convenient place than a standard 104key english one? I've never seen one, but it could be a reason...

It's next to the right shift key. Guess that makes sense.

As for hyphenated domains, SEO does not care about hyphens. So that might be one of the many reasons I guess. Since most premium domains are already registered.

You realise that's the only thing I've ever hear anyone say about hyphenated names that makes any sense? Good call.

 

[tolkein]

I guess what you mean is "wireless-email.com" is more search engine friendly than "wirelessemail.com"?

 

[CrazyTech]

The problem with hyphenated domains is exactly the one RJ outlined above. They are much too easily confused with their non-hyphenated counterparts which could result in a healthy loss of traffic - especially if a competitor owns it. I think you'll see a growth in other extensions and longer names before you'll see a big growth in hyphenated names. Sure now, they aren't bad to have and to run but I don't think they'll be a major trend or anything like that.

 

[barefoottech]

I think my Hyphenated Names like
Reg-Fee-IMHO.info are Great

 

[hape]

There should be a reason why most German addresses are hyphenated, right?

It is language specific. In German new words made by two or three individual words are merged into one word - so there are some real long ones.
e.g. domain name = 2 individual words with 2 meanings --> domainname = new word with one particular meaning
Hyphens are used to visually separate individual words
A habit
Have immobilienheute.de but forgot to register immobilien-heute.de ( = real estate today ). My fault, people in Germany tend to type in with the hyphen first. Too late, domain with the hyphen got registered a few days later.

 

[harkster]

Buy a hyphenated name in the best extension available. Buy the non-hyphenated in a who cares ext. Develop the hyphenated name with SE friendly content. Get the SE's to stop by for a visit (the hard part but having a PR4/5 site(s) to link from are a very good thing). Park on/redirect the non... to the hyphenated. Use the non-hyphenated as the text for links, in print advertising etc.

The SE's (at least right now) do not see the hyphen and hopefully send traffic for the seperate words. If the content is of interest a good percentage will come back. Many will bookmark so the hyphen is a church of the IDM (It Don't Matter). Will there be type-ins lost? Yes, but thats life.

Just my $0.02.

 

[monaco]

Hyphenation can be useful in making a site's url readable. Consider:

somethinggreat.com
something-great.com

Which one's meaning is clearer right off the bat?

 

[primacomputer]

I guess what you mean is "wireless-email.com" is more search engine friendly than "wirelessemail.com"?

No. Completely untrue, but a popular myth. Hyphenated names are more wallet friendly. Search engines don't care either way.

 

[worldstar]

Hyphenated names are not brandable! I personally not like them!

 

[barefoottech]

I recently was looking at a list of the First 100 .com's ever regged and One was a hyphenated name . This was when you could virtually reg anything at all.

 

[Mark]

http://www.m-w.com/ Nice for a hyphen wouldn't you say ? - lol ..... Seen the site , had to come find a Hyphen thread to rejuvenate ....

I'm still not a fan of them - But Merriam-Webster isnt scared of them (Who would be with their recognition already though?)

 

[Grrilla]

Another alternative to using hyphens is to make up catchy suffixes to tack onto common words.

zilla, ster, bot, pedia, belia, iana, rama, meister, "o", "a", among others.
I also like good letter number combinations, but I may be in the minority on that one. ie 4MD, 4Rx, B4by, (for baby- a new one), pro2o, and other brandable letter combos, Xience, brXnd, seeq etc and even some l33t ie l33tskillz, (but I'm *really* in the minority, there.)

I've sold a few non .com/.net N-L and L-L and topkeyword-topkeyword .com names for peanuts- the only one that I can recall that was a decent sale was e-zBay. even the good "i-keyword" or "e-keyword" names seem to get alot of resistance in the market place, unless they are super strong and have been strongly marketed ,usually short like i-pod, T-mobile, e-pay, e-rate, etc

 

[AdoptableDomains]

As Hark said, the ideal situation is do develop the hyphen since it's easy on the eyes and the search engines for some words. However, non-hyphens are easy on the ears, because for word of mouth, TV, or radio advertising you don't want to be saying "hyphen" or "dash". Can you image if ebay were pronounced "E hyphen Bay dot com", or this site was "name dash pros dot com".

There are some names where you absolutedly want the hyphen name. For example if you wanted to create a college book exchange and call it "Students Exchange". Without a hyphen, the SE's could potentiall read it as "Student sExchange". You'd either be listed in the wrong SE lists, or maybe even be banned. In this example, you'd register and use students-exchange.com, and as long as you had studentsexchange.com, you would never have to pronounce the hyphen because misstypes would end up there anyway. You'd always want to use the hyphen anyhwere eletronically readable, and could use a space or hyphen for magazine type ads.