Change Your Name

Re:Change Your Name by baddox on Sunday August 09, 2015 @03:14PM (#10031188)

It sounds (unsurprisingly, of course) like the perspective of an investor or other tech industry insider. Notice the phrases like "it signals weakness" and "suggests you're a marginal company." Those don't seem like phrases most people are ever going to think about a company, and especially not based only on their domain name.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by beambot on Sunday August 09, 2015 @03:45PM (#10031303)

I disagree.

My parents are typical web users. Fairly tech savvy, but not tech insiders. I recall telling them about bit.ly. It took a while to explain that it wasn't bitly.com, bit.ly.com, etc. They ended up just searching for it instead of typing in the domain name.

Think of the added friction this causes... and as we all know, every added interaction detracts from the conversion funnel. Taken in aggregate, many startups cannot afford the attrition of a shitty domain name.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by baddox on Sunday August 09, 2015 @03:51PM (#10031328)

Isn't that a slightly different point? You're talking about ability of a user to discover or find the site, not the user's perception of the strength of the business.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by just_had_coffee on Sunday August 09, 2015 @04:07PM (#10031383)

...but the point is that to some non-technical users a "new" TLD won't even look like a full URL.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by baddox on Sunday August 09, 2015 @04:14PM (#10031404)

That is beambot's point, and it's valid, but it's different than the point in this essay.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by rwallace on Sunday August 09, 2015 @04:14PM (#10031407)

Don't typical web users these days always search instead of typing in the domain name?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by untog on Sunday August 09, 2015 @04:39PM (#10031502)

They ended up just searching for it instead of typing in the domain name.

And they found it. That's how a large, large number of people find web sites these days, and it works fine.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by petercooper on Sunday August 09, 2015 @04:39PM (#10031499)

Insiders usually have ungainly phrases for things that outsiders sense but cannot/do not put into words themselves.

The public are hugely influenced by branding, advertising, look and feel, and experiences. They might not put the feelings they have into words like insiders do, but those things absolutely exist and insiders to the retail, advertising, and similar industries have all sorts of jargon to analyze the behavior of the public.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Change Your Name by brudgers on Sunday August 09, 2015 @03:58PM (#10031351)

In B2B weakness in the form of undercapitalization is important because companies don't want to make middle term or long term bets on a technology with uncertain prospects for support, maintenance and further development. Signaling "this product might be legacy in 18 months" is worth avoiding.

A rose by any other name still smells sweet, but thornbush isn't the way to market it.

[ Parent | on HN ]