Ask HN: Domain hacking

I actually just released <a href="http://sit4.us" rel="nofollow">http://sit4.us</a> as a tool for coordinating your existing network of babysitters. I kind of figure that having to deal with lost traffic is like having to deal with scaling, it's a problem I wouldn't mind having because it means that people are at least trying to find my site. On the other hand, this is really just a little tool I built because I wanted to use something like it and I couldn't find any existing tools out there. If I was really banking on it becoming a business than maybe I would have covered my bases a little better with the domain name.

The answer depends entirely on what kind of startup you're trying to make and who your audience is. If you want businesspeople and grandparents, having a snappy dot-com is crucial. If they're more tech-savvy, what they remember to punch into Google is a lot more important than the URL. From memory, I believe the domain for Scriptaculous is scripta.culo.us, but I would <i>never</i> type that into an address bar blindly.

If it's not too late, adding "(like del.icio.us)" to the title would make it obvious that this is not a post about DNS security.

I think it's a novelty, however, I would not use a domain hack for a business unless I knew I could plug the leaks in traffic. For example, del.icio.us was a domain hack but they ended up buying delicious.com.<p>The average Hacker News reader knows domain hacks (I think?) but their parents probably do not and will just add .com at the end.

I always had a hard time remembering the del.icio.us domain. I knew it was a .us tld but couldn't remember if it was delicio.us or de.licio.us etc.

I haven't done what you are talking about. I did have the domain califmichele.com at one time. I was going by "Michele in California" online at the time and my email was califmichele (@ something). I wanted the domain name "michelesworld" but it wasn't available. It was a personal site of just stuff I was interested in, with no particular focus.<p>Trying to tell people the domain name verbally was a huge problem. My name is spelled with one L and many people automatically spell it with two. They also tended to think I meant Kalif or Caliph rather than short-hand for California. (As an aside: This was making me increasingly concerned that the site would attract the wrong kind of attention for the wrong reasons.)<p>I eventually left California and broke the site up into several sites, each with a specific topic focus. When I did so, I worked hard to find natural language domains that are easily conveyed verbally without having to spell them or add verbal explanations/provisos.