The letter U : Premium or not ?

[italiandragon]

I disagree about the letter U being non-premium.

Why?

- it`s one of the 5 vowels.

- according to this survey:

http://www.mcgees.org/fourletterdomains.html

the letter U has been the 4th preferred letter as starting letter:

Registration rate for domains beginning with a certain letter:
Most popular:
a: 72.7%
w: 70.4%
t: 68.0%
u: 66.4%
i: 66.3%

- and according to these statistics :

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=914452

the letter U in English is used more than letters like M , C and F and is right in the middle of the list (same in the italian language).
If we analise the stats regarding French and German , then the U is used even more.

So based on all of this , from now I personally will judge the letter U as premium and I suppose that who wrote originally the 3 char price guide has done this little mistake and since that all domainers followed that mistake.

But certainly since I am not perfect either , I`d love to hear all opinions about this.


Let`s find out what NP members think about the letter U once for all!

Thank yoU

 

[DNK.it]

This is almost all sale of LLLL.com with U in it... hope this is useful

http://www.tdvr.com/domain.php?search_fd1=%u%

 

[Alex]

I myself consider U and K good letters.

How would I split them:

Premium letters
A, B, C, D, S, T M, N, P, E, I, O, L

These are all very strong ones. I agree that E is better than P for example, but all are exceptional letters.

Good letters
F, G, U, K, W, H

Average letters
Y, J, V, (V being the best here)

bad letters:
Z, X, Q (Z being the best here IMO)

Anyway, this was a guesstimate, and I do not base my selection on any criteria. But certainly the letters can be grouped in many categories.

We must pay attention to two things:

1. Languages: X may be premium in one language and may be the worst letter in another. H is not premium for example in French, while U is very popular in Germany, X is popular in China, Y is not popular in many European languages etc. The premium/non premium letters are classified in the English language (where the most prospective domain buyers might come from).

2. When judging a letter for being premium or non premium we have to look at its acronym potential. So it does not matter how often it is used in the middle of the words, but how often does a word start with that letter and how used that word is. Considering this Q doesn't look that bad at all. Q is bad because it is not that brandable.

I once started making a list of all potential acronyms for some letters, if you say so, I might do a list to help us forming acronyms etc.

I like U

 

[VURG]

What does mean "pedantic" ?

I mean that our discussions are often about issues that most people consider trivial such as ranking letters and debating on the issues of the definition of premium.

that report shows the number of ALL domains so it`s not good as we`re talking here only about 4 letter domains.

I thought the thread was in relation to the definition of the word premium in related to letters. I may have misunderstood the thread a bit.

I did some personal stats on letter frequencies of available 4 letter domains before that report came out that showed similar results.

The definition of a "premium letter" is usually in relation to the probability of a letter being used for an acronym. While looking at stats on letter frequencies on words might show some information, you have to understand that:
a - Frequency of letters fluctuates based on the position within a word and acronyms are usually only related to the front letter within a word.
b - Some words are more frequently used than others in acronyms and hence the letters are more frequently in acronyms. (e.g. University, Church, Mortgage, Consulting, American, Sex, Real Estate, etc...)

Personally, I think that the yafla stats are great as they are looking at what letters are at the start of 10's of millions of domain names and the letter "U" only has around 600,000 domains in the analysis registered when most letters have over twice that.

At the end of the day, the definition of a Premium Letter is always going to be controversial.

 

[italiandragon]

I mean that our discussions are often about issues that most people consider trivial such as ranking letters and debating on the issues of the definition of premium.



I thought the thread was in relation to the definition of the word premium in related to letters. I may have misunderstood the thread a bit.

I did some personal stats on letter frequencies of available 4 letter domains before that report came out that showed similar results.

The definition of a "premium letter" is usually in relation to the probability of a letter being used for an acronym. While looking at stats on letter frequencies on words might show some information, you have to understand that:
a - Frequency of letters fluctuates based on the position within a word and acronyms are usually only related to the front letter within a word.
b - Some words are more frequently used than others in acronyms and hence the letters are more frequently in acronyms. (e.g. University, Church, Mortgage, Consulting, American, Sex, Real Estate, etc...)

Personally, I think that the yafla stats are great as they are looking at what letters are at the start of 10's of millions of domain names and the letter "U" only has around 600,000 domains in the analysis registered when most letters have over twice that.

At the end of the day, the definition of a Premium Letter is always going to be controversial.

uhm....maybe it`s my English and if so I apologies but the purpose of this thread is to define if the letter U is premium when it comes to ACRONYMS not words. This would be useful for both LLL and LLLL

Thanks

 

[Nsane Domain]

It fits well when used for an acronym because there are many longer words that that are easily shortened by using just "U" and for the purpose of shortening the word "you".

One example of a long word that nobody has mentioned yet is University. Would you rather own SouthDakotaStateUniversity.com or SDSU.com? How about UniversityofCaliforniaatSantaBarbara.com or UCSB.com? It is a no brainer in my opinion.

University
Unlimited
Ultimate
Universal

If it is not considered "premium" it has to be the "next best" letter IMHO.

I like it!

Nsane