Domain Names Made Simple

Hover is looking to make the domain name registration and management woes we all go through a lot easier. You get all the important basics like domain forwarding, email forwarding and even custom URLs. The prices are also very simple and easy to understand too.

Create Your Own Short Links

The best feature of Hover is the ability to create your own short URLs with your own custom domain, using the Hover tools. All you need to do is install the Hover This! bookmarlet, and then you can create your own list of shared links with your own domain name.  So, you no longer have to use somebody else’s domain name in your shortened links.

Great Domain Name Support

Hover’s support and tutorials are also top notch too.  They are very simply written, so you can easily understand all the steps and how to do this, that and the other.  You can check out the help resources yourself by visiting help.hover.com.

Overall, Hover gets two thumbs up from me.  I might even start moving my own domain registrations over from GoDaddy so that I can manage my own domains in a much easier to understand straight-forward interface.

Now how is this going to work?  From their press release:

Attendees will have access to vendors, sponsors, exhibit booths, and other web hosting enthusiasts through live chat.  There is no software to install.  Attendees log in from their computer and listen to the sessions directly, pick-up a chat, read about exhibitor’s product and services information and network – all through the live chat.  Representatives will be available via live chat to answer questions and provide further information.

If you are interested in reserving your spot, you can do so free here.  Now I haven’t been contacted by anybody involved yet, so that is pretty much all the details I know, however I do have to say it is nice to see people trying to something new out there, and the more we can all share and learn from each other the better the web hosting industry will be.

Out of all the domain name finder tools out there, DomainTyper might be the prettiest one, to date.  The idea here is simple, type in a phrase, word or series of words you would like to register as a domain name.  As you type you will see if the .com, .net, or .org versions of that domain (as far as you have typed it in) are available.  You can also add other domain name extensions, if needed.

The fun doesn’t stop there though.  They also give you a list of domain name hacks you can try.  For example, when I typed in “Mitch” they suggested mit.ch and mitc/h as domain name hack alternatives.  Down the left side of the page, they have the “Web 2.0 Domain Name Generator” which seems like nothing more than a wacky list of oddball names.

If you want to add the domain name lookup to your own site, they give you the code to embed it.  Overall DomainTyper is a nice alternative if you are looking for another way to find your next domain name you wish to register.

Once you visit their web site, you put your mouse over a domain name for additional information. The color of each domain listed (and there are hundreds to choose from) is color coded based on availability and popularity.  Over 12,000 domain names listed to pick from, with 1,000 more added daily at 2 PM EST.

If you sign up for a Domain Pigeon account, you can effortlessly keep track of all the domains you are interested in.  For anybody who loves to collect interesting domains to use at a future date and time, Domain Pigeon is a resource well worth checking out.

Domain parking usually refers to a domain name that has been pointed at a single web page, that may have a “coming soon” or “under construction” message on it.  It is a hold place for a domain name you might not be using right now, but you still don’t want to error out when somebody tries to visit it.

Many domain name registers offer this service, because it can be a way to monetize.  For an example, let’s say I have a really good domain name,  but don’t have the time to develop it right now.  I park the domain name with my domain name register, and they let me put a few ads up there to make money.

The domain name is likely to get a lot of type-in traffic, so for the time being, that domain name will be making me a little money with no effort until I have the time to develop a web site for it.

So, as you can see, domain name parking does have it’s practical uses.

So what does a domain sniper do?  This is when somebody registering a domain name as soon as the domain name expires.  For an example, let us say I really wanted the domain name webhostingradio.com.  After doing a WhoIs search on the domain name, I find out it expires on February 19, 2009.  So I wait until that date, and then pick it up myself as soon as the registration runs out.

The fact is though, that this can pretty much be considered extinct, for now.

Thanks to ICANN’s Redemption Grace Period (RGP) registrants are allowed 30 days to reclaim their domain name.  Before the RGP went into effect, the money made in domain name sniping was done when the sniper would try to extort money from the original registrant to get their domain name back.

Now let us fast forward, because unfortunately GoDaddy refuses to raise the bar…

• 2006 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial
• 2007 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial
• 2008 = Another Super Bowl Controversial Commercial

Ok, so GoDaddy has kind of run the idea of having a pretty girl in a controversial commercial into the ground.  They shoot a commercial, tell us the Super Bowl commercial gods refused to air it, release that one Online and then give us a “censored” one for the Super Bowl.

So that brings us to today, and myself reading a press release on theWHIR’s web site:

For its fifth consecutive year advertising during the NFL championship, discount hosting provider Go Daddy has shot two racy new ads this week featuring IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, to appear in the Super Bowl, following NBC’s approval.

Oh joy, another couple of racy ads for the Super Bowl.  Let me guess, one is “too hot for TV” and the other one is “just right for the censors”.

“We have two options and they’re both absolutely ‘GoDaddy-esque,’” Go Daddy chief executive officer and founder Bob Parsons said in a statement. “They are fun, edgy and slightly inappropriate; surely network censors will have a sense of humor, people could use a good laugh these days.”

Come on GoDaddy, I was behind you the first year, waited for the encore the second year – but after that I think you have run this idea into the ground.

The bookmarking service, del.icio.us started an entire trend of unique looking domain names that has continue to this day.  Mixing domain names, with extensions (and sometimes tossing in a subdomain) has made for some memorable and unique domains.  So what is the secret?  There are two services that allow you to type in a phrase and then figure out different ways it could be registered and setup.

Domai.nr and domainfinder.geekfg.net both offer this service.  My favorite out of the tool is Domai.nr – so let us focus on that one for now.  For example, lets say I typed mitch into the search box and hit enter.  Some of the domain name suggestions I got were:

• mit.ch
• mit.tc/h
• m.it/ch

They also give to you the registers for that domain type, the wikipedia entry for that top-level domain type and tools, where you can see the web site (if the domain is taken) and a link to do a quick WhoIs lookup.  They also have a blog and Twitter account to follow, so you can stay inside the loop with development.

There is a business out there based around the buying, selling and developing of Internet domain names not to reap the rewards of the web site, but instead to gain a profit on the resell of the domain name.  You can think of it as real estate.  Lets say you buy three houses, fix them up – but in all reality, you don’t need three houses – so you sell off two of them, after fixing them up.

A domainer (somebody in the domaining business) often builds up a portfolio of domain names, according to various criteria.  Most domainers sit on their stack of nice domain names, and don’t do anything with them.  They just keep them as an investment for the chance of reselling them later on down the road.  Now you might ask, how is this not domain name squatting?

Well, domain name squatting is more related to trademark infringement.  Those who stay on the legal side of things will stay away from domain names that infringe on intellectual property.  However, as with any business there are areas where the good guys and the bad guys mesh together to make a gray area of business.

As of December 2006, there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 individuals globally who make buying and selling domain names a part of their business.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 169!
Running Time: 10 minutes | File Size: 4.39 MB

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode:

• Find Secret Data Center Locations!
• How Was That Web Site Made?
• HP Performance-Optimized Datacenter
• What is Domaining?

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

• Aplus.net Launches Community Forums
• GoDaddy Goes After Illegitimate Pharmacies
• The Planet Sends Notice About Security Breach

Happy to have you back here with us on the web hosting industry’s number one podcast.