Pool.com sends out an email of their "Hot List" every day with a list of expiring domains (<a href="http://www.pool.com/hotlist.aspx?ia=hotlist" rel="nofollow">http://www.pool.com/hotlist.aspx?ia=hotlist</a>). They send about 30 domains a day, and I guess in an average week 5 are interesting and you can register for them at the various auction sites (Pool has no guarantee of getting them on the drop) and then bid on them. Very few domains that are usable go for less than $100 though.<p>Not as good as Ryan's AI but a nice easy way to occasionally catch a good domain.
Excellent idea. After spending 8+ hours trying to come up with a good name only to then find it was taken, it would be far quicker to instead be able to go through the non-taken names and see what pops out. Also good for starting the brainstorming process rather than just staring at a blank page or going through all the "positioning" and branding tactics for name generation.
MMmmm.... Yes and no. I remember the first time I heard of google, that probably wouldn't have been a highly valued domain at the time.<p>What really matters is links. You can put whatever you want in a link, since most people don't look at them too much.
Ryan, IMO this idea itself is worth pursuing as a service/company given the difficulties in finding a good domain name. Its not going to get any easier going forward .. looking forward your next steps on this. Great post btw!