Slashdot Mirror
The Curious Histories of Generic Domain Names
cheezitmike writes "ITworld.com uses the Wayback Machine to document the histories of five generic domain names: music.com, eat.com, car.com, meat.com, and milk.com. 'In this brave new Web 2.0 world, it's almost a badge of honor to have a Web site name that only hints at what the user will find there (see Flickr) or is so opaque as to offer no clue at all as to what the Web site is about (see del.icio.us). It's easy to forget the first Internet gold rush of the mid-to-late '90s, when dot-com domain names based on ordinary (and, investors hoped, marketable) nouns and verbs were snapped up by hopeful companies from the humble geeks who had purchased them (often ironically) in the early '90s.'"
I'm still waiting for someone to make me an offer on my domain: thissitewillmakemerich.com
This guy's the limit!
I'm no marketing genius, but who the hell thought domain names like meat.com and milk.com were going to be goldmines?!?
porn.com
...it's almost a badge of honor to have a Web site name that only hints at what the user will find there...
The only reason companies resort to those names is because (a) all the good ones are taken and/or (b) there are potential trademark infringement issues with using more common sounding names.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Remember that domain names pre-date the world wide web. Someone may have been using barf.com as a simple FTP site and never had a web page associated with it.
purple.com always delivered what it promises.
I, for one, hate seeing common, general words be misused like that. It's a lower-than-low attention grab.
I had a couple offers to buy my domain by 2 different owners and eras of skinny.com. I decided that an easy to remember URL and email address was worth more than they offered. The big bid was $5k, but half in cash, half in services I didn't need.
I wasn't holding out for the $big, but would take it of course. It was a personal investment, not a financial one.
The biggest advantage to a generic domain name is that you'll get lots of type-ins; for example, freemusic.com* I'm sure gets hundreds of hits a day, just from (unknowing) users typing it in, hoping for something good.
But in the new era, sites become popular because they are viral; flickr didn't become popular because of type-ins, it became popular because it offered a good service that people found useful, and it spread.
--A great name does not a great site make; but a great site can a great name make.-- Heck, just at Google! Verb, noun, and fun to say!
(*Disclaimer: I have no idea what's at freemusic.com, but I'm guessing it's parked by someone)
Nemilar http://www.techthrob.com - Visit Me!
"Hello, internet? I'd like some meat, please."
"Just send it right over. Thanks, bye"
XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen
http://www.anus.com/
Never a greater disappointment in a web site's contents in my WHOLE LIFE.
I have sometimes wondered what Opera aficionados make of opera.com
I am sure someone at Slashdot will know how Opera got its name. I kind of guessed that some geek way back bought the domain name thinking it would be worth millions, then in the end used it for a company cause it was cool to have a generic domain.
Some domain names have been useful though. In Australia people sell ".au.com" domains, which are obviously sub-domains, quite different to Australia's official ".com.au" domains.
If the pattern goes 9am, 10am, 11am, why isn't noon 12am?
I love the FAQ milk.com! It's so appropriately craptastastic, I almost feel nostalgic...
I'm not waiting 3 days or more for milk from milk.com when I could: 1 - Go to any store and be back within 10 minutes, if that. The only shipping and handling that will be done is driving it home and putting it in the refridgerator, and I don't even have to pay for it. 2 - Go learn how to milk a cow and properly process the milk. It can't be that hard, right? These domain names look like a waste of space.
Well, I must say I never thought of making a /. article out of this one, but since about 1999 which is when I started working on my own computers for hobby, I would use stupid.com as a network test to see if I was online or not and not just loading a cached page (since I only go there when I am testing my network once in a blue moon...) One thing I have noticed about this site, it still feels like I'm in 1999 when I load it...
...and it should be known by now
Well... whatever it is, it's likely been slashdotted off the Internet by now. Well done!
My contempt for the behavior and beliefs of the two major political parties cannot be adequately expressed in 120 chara
imeem is an odd site - it used to be a p2p im + social network + filesharing (hence the im part) but it changed and now it's one of the biggest music sites on the web, with a name which really doesn't have any hint at all about music. The funny thing is, now it's an established player there are a few music startups who're playing on their name (meemix.com is a good example)
There are still a few domains where you get what you pay for =).
Funny stuff.
Whoever got apple.com must have been sitting on a goldmine.
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
"Milk was a BAD choice"
Something.com always delivered something.
What, were you going to have a Web site dedicated to your favorite MIDI files?
.. it *IS* cool. .. and *I* am cool.
But.. but I did have a website dedicated to my favorite MIDI files.. and it was cool
Th.. The Mommm- Mo moldy pp Peaches told me so.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
I always found it strange that CNet decided to make news.com the name so they registered com.com and made the site news.com.com. Nowadays news.com.com just redirects to news.com, so they must have figured out that it was weird before. I remember there was much lampooning with com ad infinitum.
~ I am logged on, therefore I am.
How cute! Did you think of that all by yourself?! You're so smart! Someday, you may get to wear big boy clothes!
:)
Here's a cookie! Now, go play with the other tards.
Badge of honor to have an opaque domain name?
Not so.
Try registering a domain name that isn't opaque. It's nearly impossible these days - people bought all the obvious ones, and most of the non-obvious ones. Most of them are just domain squatters hoping to get rich, or spamvertising sites.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
I was the original owner of "Codeplex.com" (Not so obvious of a name) before I sold it to Microsoft for a eye whopping $600. The site is now Microsoft's official opensource repository.
Microsoft created an umbrella company who specifically designed a horrendous website with no links back to them. Even after the research (which I found nothing), I thought I would be a nice guy and sell it to this nobody.
I know they did that so they didn't have to payout larger sums of money, but I still feel as if I was screwed first hand by Microsoft.
www.myepeenisbiggerthanyours.com Waiting for this puppy to make me some money!
According to the LA Times http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-domain24jan24,1,2623693.story?ctrack=1&cset=true. I too would have thought that searches would have put an end to this annoying type of speculation.
Blocked Site Error.
http://www.whitehouse.com/ is not available in the Wayback Machine.
Ahhh.. the good old days, when Poop.com was a shop for fossilized dinosaur dung. Endangered feces, indeed.
Josh Woodward
Who remembers when this took you to a web page showing a pile of poo and "Automated Turd Industries"... I always assumed it was a shakedown on ATI the video card manufacturer.
"Don't belong. Never join. Think for yourself. Peace." V.Stone, Microsoft Corporation
[Yorkshire accent] Luxury! We had to manually scratch the message using an old matchstick onto paper tape - I say paper, it were skin - our own, if dad were in a bad mood - and attach it to t'pigeon. And if it had to go more than thirty miles, you had to attach another message asking t'recipient to attach it to one of his pigeons and forward it on. If it had to do more than three hops, you had to send another pigeon with even more forwarding instructions, or their little legs'd fall off, bless 'em, the poor little buggers.
But we were happy. [/Yorkshire accent]
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Does anyone else remember zombo.com (requires flash)? Amazingly the site is still active, and still the same after 10+ years.
Back in the day, CmdrTaco was a total bottom. I think he got religious, turned straight, and got married after Emad died of AIDS. He still takes one in the brown eye every so often, for old time's sake, of course.
We always used to use sex.com at my first job to make sure the content filter was working properly... ahh... the days of Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0. At first we did it just because it was the most obvious thing we could think of. Later someone suggested using other adult orieted websites, to which, we decided that if it did go through, we didn't want to have to explain why backdoorsluts.com was on the report that went to management (to the female city manager).
:)
Its one thing to test a proxy, another to explain to management your choice in samples.
Forgive my spelling from time to time. I'm often posting during short breaks.
Remember when ati.com would change 'names' every once in a while?
"I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. It's the one thing I am indebted to her for."
Reminds me of art.com, a web site I consulted for (different company from current owners of that domain). Before the site specializing in selling posters and prints was launched in the late 90s, the art.com domain belonged to Advanced Rotorcraft Technology, some helicopter tech organization. IIRC, the poster company paid something like half a million dollars for the domain.
"Hmm, I see you haven't become any more coherent over the years, Internet."
"Just meet me there later. Thanks, bye"
Apparently according to Dan on Milk.com, purple hair can upset the balance of the universe!
Phil
Laugh, it's good for you!
Eventually, www.Kickmycockroach.com will be the only one left. Then I'll make my millions!!
"Teach a man to build a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."
I suspect that in the next 10-20 years there will be a big rush on people's full names. Currently only web developers and bloggers have their own name as a domain but as the web becomes more and more popular and a part of people's life, they will eventually buy their own name and point it somewhere.
That's why I own http://www.nealgrosskopf.com/ and grosskopf.name. Having your last name as a domain is nice because it allows you to create sub-domains of family members and create email addresses such as neal@grosskopf.name.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
In fact I myself avoid sites with generic names, as this is a good sign for me that the site is maintained by non-nerds or is full of flashy ads, so possibly there is nothing of interest there.
http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction_history.php?language=us&auction_id=23763&tracked=&partnerid=
gak! sorry about that. I should have linked here instead!
If only I'd had more foresight and kept southwest.com for at least a few more years...
*sigh*
The airline tickets were fun while they lasted, though...
What? Clearly, this will be the only domain name left: http://slackdaddy.org/node/1122
Links.net was the first site with pages of link collections that I used regularly. It was actually the personal site of Justin Hall -- still is, I think -- who was also the first one I recall seeing chronicle events of his life on his site regularly. The earliest capture at the Wayback Machine is an example of what he used to post, but at this point the site was more blog and less link collection.
I suppose if you want to see what's hosted at that domain now you have to know what you're looking for.
And the brethren went away edified.
Back in 1997 or so I remember going to a computer lab and a TA warned us not to type an extra "h" in yahoo.com (yahoo.com). That site actually made the news because it offered up porn for people who mis-typed.
The guy was threatened and sued I believe. He even made the news... Anyways I think the owner succumbed and let the domain lapse.
That's when I found it and registered it for fun. I remember setting up a catch-all email address, and would get thousands of emails (back during when spam wasn't that bad yet). It was interesting reading love letters, business proposals, nude pics, etc...
But then it got old, so I let it lapse too.
eTrade SUCKS