Is the dropped vowel trend here to stay?

[Truespin Domains]

Flickr
Grindr
Tumblr
Scribd

Nowadays it seems like a mainstay of domains. But some people seem to really hate it and call it a fad - despite being a 'fad' for well over a decade at this point.

The biggest criticism is the so called "radio test" implications, but with a generation completely used to disemvoweling, I'm not convinced this is a real problem. Especially if the domain is short and can be spelt, or if you can say something simple like flicker without the e".

What are people's thoughts? Again, I personally really like it if used sparingly and with the tight word.

 

[creataweb]

Yes

 

[Truespin Domains]

Thanks for clearing it all up

 

[Kate]

For sure, there are a couple high-profile websites that use 'disemvoweled' names like these, but it's not a mainstream trend at all.
They are able to differentiate themselves precisely because not everybody is doing it... But the primary motive was obviously not paying a premium for a good domain, so they went for names like these, whatever was unregistered and short enough.

Building a strong brand on a typo is not easy and not always sustainable in the long term.
For example Flickr was leaking a lot of traffic to flicker.com and there are other examples of website operators who ended up buying the 'right' domain. Delicious is another example but with the double dot in their original domain the brand could only be crippled forever.

 

[karmaco]

No doubt these will continue to have some usage for people unable or unwilling to pay the price for the real name. Also an option if the real word is in use.

Doesn’t affect the pronunciation in the examples given. More confusing are ones with the last letter removed.

 

[Truespin Domains]

For sure, there are a couple high-profile websites that use 'disemvoweled' names like these, but it's not a mainstream trend at all.
They are able to differentiate themselves precisely because not everybody is doing it... But the primary motive was obviously not paying a premium for a good domain, so they went for names like these, whatever was unregistered and short enough.

Building a strong brand on a typo is not easy and not always sustainable in the long term.
For example Flickr was and there are other examples of website operators who ended up buying the 'right' domain. Delicious is another example but with the double dot in their original domain the brand could only be crippled forever.

It's far more than a handful. Even domainr does it.

 

[hxp]

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I think droppd vowls are here to stay !

(Being serious though, thanks for drawing our attention to an interesting trend. I think with so many .com names not just being registered but also being unavailable too, has driven branding people to see this as a way to find legally unchallengeable ways to brand (sort of like they replacing y with i movement).

Does anyone know the degree to which the domain industry is taught in colleges/universities in courses dealing with brand identity, marketing, and related issues?

 

[urlurl]

its not a new thing, most likely used by bootstrapped new startups because of money constraints - obviously these co's became bigger.

dropping the vowel or double consonants at the end are ok i certain circumstances and must evaluated on a case by case basis... along with all the other suffix's currently being used.