This is what happens when you let the bizarre lust for a “pure” dot com dictate your name, via ValleyWag. Click pic to engorge:
“Bitly, Borkly, Barnly, Molestly, Strinkingly, Happily, Crappily, Maply, Morply, Dottly, Dootly, Godly, Angrily. It’s bad enough when every new startup is just based on the one that came before it. Now they all sound the same, too.
The Wall Street Journal says there are 161 startups that end in “ly,” “lee, or “li.” They’re all trying to get the same money, from the same people, and probably doing a lot of the same things. It is a sea of suffixes, sadly apt in the age of digital me-too-ism.
Looking at this Pinterest collection (Pinterestly.com is taken) will make you nauseous, a massive Milky Way of non-inspiration.
The Atlantic Wire quotes one startup “name consultant” who says all that needs to be said, really: “They’re planning on getting bought in a year, their name essentially doesn’t matter.” That worked for Summly, didn’t it?”
Startup Names Hurting Startups
In 2002 when we named Igor, Igor.com was not available. Sure we could have registered Namingpedia.com or Igorly.com. But the name is more important than the dot com, so we live at IgorInternational.com. Just ask Elon Musk, he doesn’t own Tesla.com, they are at Teslamotors.com, and rightly not Tesla.global or Tesla.company or Tesla.guru (or any other silly gTLD)).
All single-word domains were taken back in the last century. Here is a list of the most common domain prefixes and suffixes to help you find a workaround and register a great dot com name.
And make sure to enter your new dot com name in Verisign’s Internet Official Contest for a chance to win up to $35,000.