Importance of the relationship between business and domain

[matrigaldo]

Hello.
My question is kinda complicated, even because my english is ... well.. no comment :D

With all new web 2.0 sites, the domain name seems to become less important than before, so we're going to find big and established sites with nosense domain name, brandability of the domain has became more important than the connection between site contents and domain name.

At least that's what i see lately.

Now, i'm planning to start an online business whenever i will come back to home (i'm out for work right now). Hosting, dedicated servers, vps etc (cheap prices if you're wondering that). My intention is to use a very catchy 5 letters domain name i've been owning for 2 years (received up to mid $xxx offers) instead of looking for an hosting-related domain name and trying to acquire at reasonable prices, at least not for now.

What do you think? Have you had any experience with not related but catchy and brandable domain names for your websites?
Could it penalize the business in some way?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Jaco]

(warning- bloggish)

I think we can all agree that web2 domain names are simply an evolution of creative people carving out their place in the web world, around an existing namespace that is so completely spoken for. If Zillow was founded in 1994 when an array of top generic domains were still available for registry, does anyone seriously believe they would be called Zillow?

Although “google” has some logical synergy with it's eponymous search engine, it's still a semi-esoteric math term that certainly doesn't mean “search engine” as a matter of textbook definition.

Jeff Bezos was one of the first to show the world how powerful an unrelated generic keyword can be, when he based his online book seller on a keyword platform that, while being totally unrelated to books, was universally recognized and memorable to the anyone who would be buying them... Amazon. It could've just as easily been Sahara.com or Ocean.com or Fox.com; he would've succeeded either way, but the fact that the name he used was so memorable and sensical definitely played a role, in those early days... No one knows if he would've succeeded to the same degree using glibber.com, but I kinda doubt it.

A friend and I were IM'ing the other day and discussing the efficacy of web2 names. He insisted that if it's pronounceable, short and memorable, it's just as good as a keyword. See: Bing. Obviously, billions of Gatesbucks can't be wrong... Call me a bit conservative, but if given the opportunity, I'd much rather have a name that people immediately know and comprehend, as a default matter of being a literate human. Something that already has a niche whittled out in the “word comprehension” space of their minds. Established mindshare. A name they don't have to work to remember. A name that doesn't require itself to be defined. This is where generic keywords- like, Amazon used as a bookseller- absolutely crush.

Obviously, a great, generic domain name doesn't equal a great online business as a matter of default ( owners of business.com just filed for bankruptcy :D ). Indeed, a great idea on a web2 domain platform will crush a stupid or poorly implemented idea with a great name. Go.com is definitely a better domain than Google.com, but the product certainly isn't...

People don't visit websites to stand in awe at the greatness of the domain name. They visit websites that have content or functionality they desire and if a good site is put on a terrible name, yeah, it can still succeed. Still, the web world is filled with some of the smartest people on the planet and I don't think it's a very good idea to underestimate the advantage a good, generic name can provide in the face of competition with a similar idea, but on an inferior, web2 type name.

I think one of the biggest mistakes a lot of us make is that we get too caught up in 'the e-world', chatting on webmaster forums, domain name forums, coding forums, and forget that there's an entire planet out there who isn't nearly as sophisticated about web matters as we are. We are the producers, they are the consumers, yet all too often we try to sell them on stuff that is made by us, for us.

As best I can figure, one of the first steps to 'winning their hearts and minds' is using a name they can instantly relate to. This year, my goal is to acquire a one-word generic, suitable for a certain type of retail branding. It will be tough (and expensive- I'll have to gnash my teeth and watch a lot of names I really, really want slip through my fingers due to their high costs) but I'm convinced there's just too much power in these names to ignore, especially while there's a domain name buyers market going on...

Cliffs Notes- Web2 names suck IMO (even though I own a few). Great, innovative content on a crappy name can still win, but great, innovative content on a great name will probably do even better.

 

[Andr3w]

great post @Dongsman.

btw, tried to add some reputation to you but the 'Add Rep Points' button isn't visible for you. Have you achieved greatness or something, lol ?

 

[namewaiter]

btw, tried to add some reputation to you but the 'Add Rep Points' button isn't visible for you. Have you achieved greatness or something, lol ?

that would be "account closed"