IT.COM

Impact on domains when voice to text is prevalent?

NameSilo
Watch

TRY

StrongPunch.comTop Member
Impact
1,166
2
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I agree. Domain names that pass the Radio Test or The Domain Test will be a requirement.

Brandable domains will be long forgotten. If the domain name is not easy to pronounce and easy for a computer to determine the spelling of, without error, it will be essentially worthless. There will be exceptions programmed into the software for large company names like Google and Uber, but startups and new products being launched will have no choice but to use descriptive, easily pronounceable domain names.

Prepare for the future, friends.
 
2
•••
I agree. Domain names that pass the Radio Test or The Domain Test will be a requirement.

Brandable domains will be long forgotten. If the domain name is not easy to pronounce and easy for a computer to determine the spelling of, without error, it will be essentially worthless. There will be exceptions programmed into the software for large company names like Google and Uber, but startups and new products being launched will have no choice but to use descriptive, easily pronounceable domain names.

Prepare for the future, friends.
I agree, that's why I also believe the people that invested in random unpronouncable 5l's will be stuck with most of them.
 
0
•••
Brandable domains will be long forgotten.

I highly doubt twitter and google will be long forgotten. :D

Those can't be spelled easily by default either. :P
 
0
•••
Twitter is an English word and properly spelled; that's irrelevant here.

The correct phonetic spelling of Google is Googol. The only reason the technology will know to change Googol to Google when spoken will be based on the context and it being taught to do so in those circumstances. The technology will be designed to account for those big brand names that have this problem, but for everyone else, they'll be out of luck.

Only the most successful and well-known companies in the world using made-up or misspelled brandables won't be affected by it. The rest will become worthless unless users take the time to spell them out: "you" ... "bee" ... "ee" ... "are" ... "dot" ... "com" for Uber.com would have to be spoken if it were not a famous company name.
 
1
•••
.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
:P

I tried saying uber numerous times and voice to text gave different words, none of which was uber.
Another reason english dictionary keywords will have an advantage.
Brandables imo will always have value as long as it sounds good.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Maybe the software will improve?
1) it could get better at understanding made up words like Corado that are not too ambiguous spelling-wise. Of course, that could be Korado..but..
2) ..it could determine what is the most likely spelling based on the popularity of the site or how often each variant is searched. so if corado.com is parked and korado.com is an active site with people searching for it, you'll be taken to korado.com.
 
3
•••
Brandable will be gone......
 
1
•••
0
•••
I agree. Domain names that pass the Radio Test or The Domain Test will be a requirement.

The Domain Test was interesting, yet I think skewed because of my own personal interests. If your name is familiar to your target niche, retention will be higher than some random sample.

In general, this also has the potential to give numerics have a new benefit, shorter the better, no wonder they are popular.
 
0
•••
Well.. Seo/MetaTags/Descriptions.. is all it matters.. IMO..
 
0
•••
I disagree. There will always be demand for domains that are brandable or somewhat unique.
Domain names are essential advertising tools, and they have not become irrelevant because of search engines either.
Domains that pass the radio test are often preferable, but they could fail the test and still be viable.
 
1
•••
Some posts seem to make the assumption that voice search queries are navigational in the sense of finding a web site ... I don't see that...
So far, questions predominate, and mobile voice searches are 3x more likely to have local intent. Where is the nearest Starbucks? Are unicorns real? Who won the World Series? Does someplace near me rent carpet cleaners? What does it cost to rent a carpet cleaner?
So I don't see it killing brandables. I guess if you have a business name with an odd spelling and someone's asking a question about that particular business it might have trouble parsing what you say at first, but they're programmed to try to put the entire question in context which should help. They also learn as you use them and will start to recognize new words you use often.
 
3
•••
I believe enlytend is right. You can't think of voice commands as a new way of browsing the web. It will just allow you to achieve certain tasks faster. Kind of tasks that shouldn't require desktop computer or web browser, but currently do due to inefficient technology. If you want to visit a website 10-20 years from now, the easiest way of doing it will still probably be on your portable computer/smartphone, typing in the url yourself.
 
2
•••
Some posts seem to make the assumption that voice search queries are navigational in the sense of finding a web site ... I don't see that...
So far, questions predominate, and mobile voice searches are 3x more likely to have local intent. Where is the nearest Starbucks? Are unicorns real? Who won the World Series? Does someplace near me rent carpet cleaners? What does it cost to rent a carpet cleaner?
So I don't see it killing brandables. I guess if you have a business name with an odd spelling and someone's asking a question about that particular business it might have trouble parsing what you say at first, but they're programmed to try to put the entire question in context which should help. They also learn as you use them and will start to recognize new words you use often.
Im talking about the subpar brandables people are registering that are difficult to pronounce and spell. imo I see generics as a means to introduce your unknown brand to the public online more efficiently. I think majority of users in the future will use voice and not type to navigate via the url bar.
 
0
•••
I understand your point, I just think that voice search may not be adopted in that manner.
It definitely won't be if people try it and frequently find themselves on sites they don't want!
 
1
•••
Personally I think voice search will never trully catch on until it can take into consideration the thousands of different accents and dialects all over the globe. Think of someone with a very strong chinese accent trying to voice search an english word.
 
1
•••
Back