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What About Acronyms?

August 7, 2008 | Uncategorized | RSS 2.0

If you want one of the 676 possible two-letter sequences, for instance for an acronym or abbreviation, you’re out of luck: They’re all taken. Even allowing for digits, giving 1296 combinations, again every single variation is taken.

Of course, that’s ignoring the fact that .COM registrars now mandate a 3-character minimum length, so it wouldn’t be an option anyways.

Of the 17,576 possible three-letter sequences, again every single one is already taken. Adding digits to the mix (note that I’m intentionally ignoring obtuse dashes for such short domain names, though technically they are legal from the second character onwards), giving 46,656 permutations, yields a larger number of garbage domain entries (either REGISTRAR-LOCKED, REDEMPTIONPERIOD, or with no nameservers), giving a false hope of 228 seemingly open domains, yet they aren’t actually available.

If you’re dying to acquire great domains like 8VZ.com or Q6X.com, they’ll free up within a month, though it seems evident that there are swaths of domain speculators acquiring every variant when they come available, so they won’t go without a fight.

Stepping up to four letter sequences, choosing among the 456,976 combinations, yields a vastly greater availability — perhaps the set is a bit too large for domain speculators and their unlikely success with random sequences — with 97,786 showing as open. A quick check verifies that most are legitimately available. “Choice” domains, such as AGJV.com, EIYK.com, GZVW.com, and QFEV.com. Adding digits into the mix and there are a massive 1.16 million open domains, so long as you’re looking for something like 7RG8.com, or U3JZ.com. Choose one and then manufacture a ridiculous backronym to explain it.

Going to 5-letter sequences (yet another five-letter acronym? YAFLA?), and of course the possibilities are rich, again presuming that you’re willing to accept an arbitrary sequence of letters and/or digits, creating a backronym to match. Using just letters you have a rich 11,881,376 possibilities, of which approximately 11,015,028 are unclaimed.

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What are Four Letter Domain Names?

July 9, 2008 | Uncategorized | RSS 2.0

Four letter domain names are quite simply domains containing only four characters with each of these characters being a letter. Very recently, all four letter domain names in the popular dot com extension have been registered. This leads to some interesting observations and opportunities.

Not too long ago, a small pool of four letter dot com domain names were available for registration. The number steadily declined over the past two years as individuals and companies began to realize their unique value. On November 22, 2007, the scales tipped and the last of the available names in the pool were registered. Now whenever one expires it is immediately captured through a drop catching service or registered by a new holder.

Four letter domains have many benefits. Primarily, they are short and easy to remember while remaining economical for most individuals and businesses. Any shorter and the name would be much more difficult to acquire. Any longer and the name would start to lose some of its cache. A short, memorable identity provides a powerful tool for marketing and brand building. Look at some recently created brands which fit into this category: xBox, iPod, Digg, Hulu.

Four letter domains are relatively scarce. There are only 456,976 possible combinations. While this might seem like a large number, compare this to the total registered dot com names of over 55 million. As increasing number of individuals begin to see the unique value of these names, there may not be enough to go around.

In the wide world of domain names and the internet, four letter domains are certainly an area that bears watching.

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