Boing Boing: How to avoid the dotcom shakeout: buy a better domain name

Thursday, March 6, 2003

How to avoid the dotcom shakeout: buy a better domain name

Red Herring founder Tony Perkins' new project, the AlwaysOn Network, launched with a conspicuously awkward domain name: alwayson-network.com. Web usability rule number one: hyphenated domains suck. So what was already occupying the simpler alwaysonnetwork.com? A hideous Goth-Flash-diarrhea website from self-described "Bay Area Hyper-Rock band NAKED APE" (screenshot at left). Our of "sheer frustration," 18-year-old BoingBoing reader Numair says he's created a website at aonw.com, which forwards visitors to Perkins' new venture -- with some observations on the value of a wisely-chosen url:

"Tony (the guy who started Red Herring and Upside, both now defunct) obviously didn't put much thought into the domain name he used for his project, as it is one of the longest and most annoying URLs I have to type each day. Plus you can't explain it very easily to other people when talking to them, as it comes out something like 'always on dash network' ... then you have to explain that the dash isn't a word, it's a dash ... NOBODY uses a dash in their domain names. (Even T-Mobile bought tmobile.com).

After searching WHOIS for all of about, oh, TWO minutes, I discovered a much-easier-to-remember-and-use domain name, AONW.com, was available. I registered it and created the site you see here. So now you and I and all others fed up with AlwaysOn Network's absurd URL can simply type 'aonw.com' to get to the website.

The message on the front page of this website is a take on the title of Tony's book from 1999 - The Internet Bubble: Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks--And What You Need to Know to Avoid the Coming Shakeout (apparently he has been skilled at pathetically-long names for some time now). There was one lesson Tony obviously missed out on while doing research for that book, so I wrote it in big letters to help him remember for next time. I should note that I like AlwaysOn a lot, and that I have no real grudge against Tony... I just want a shorter domain name to type, dammit."

Link to the AlwaysOn Network site, Link to "The Orifice of Naked Ape," link to Numair's AONW.com site, Discuss

posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:27:29 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	Thursday, March 6, 2003 How to avoid the dotcom shakeout: buy a better domain name Red Herring founder Tony Perkins' new project, the AlwaysOn Network, launched with a conspicuously awkward domain name: alwayson-network.com. Web usability rule number one: hyphenated domains suck. So what was already occupying the simpler alwaysonnetwork.com? A hideous Goth-Flash-diarrhea website from self-described "Bay Area Hyper-Rock band NAKED APE" (screenshot at left). Our of "sheer frustration," 18-year-old BoingBoing reader Numair says he's created a website at aonw.com, which forwards visitors to Perkins' new venture -- with some observations on the value of a wisely-chosen url: "Tony (the guy who started Red Herring and Upside, both now defunct) obviously didn't put much thought into the domain name he used for his project, as it is one of the longest and most annoying URLs I have to type each day. Plus you can't explain it very easily to other people when talking to them, as it comes out something like 'always on dash network' ... then you have to explain that the dash isn't a word, it's a dash ... NOBODY uses a dash in their domain names. (Even T-Mobile bought tmobile.com). After searching WHOIS for all of about, oh, TWO minutes, I discovered a much-easier-to-remember-and-use domain name, AONW.com, was available. I registered it and created the site you see here. So now you and I and all others fed up with AlwaysOn Network's absurd URL can simply type 'aonw.com' to get to the website. The message on the front page of this website is a take on the title of Tony's book from 1999 - The Internet Bubble: Inside the Overvalued World of High-Tech Stocks--And What You Need to Know to Avoid the Coming Shakeout (apparently he has been skilled at pathetically-long names for some time now). There was one lesson Tony obviously missed out on while doing research for that book, so I wrote it in big letters to help him remember for next time. I should note that I like AlwaysOn a lot, and that I have no real grudge against Tony... I just want a shorter domain name to type, dammit." Link to the AlwaysOn Network site, Link to "The Orifice of Naked Ape," link to Numair's AONW.com site, Discuss posted by Xeni Jardin at 12:27:29 AM permalink \| Other blogs' comments Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: