domain generator Archives

Q&A with Mohit Aggarwal creator of NameMesh

If you are looking for a complete and one-stop domain generator Mohit Aggarwal, the creator of NameMesh, might have the answer for you.

You see, a lot of domain generators cater to finding brandable domain or a keyword rich domain name. Typically most web entrepreneurs or startups find themselves using several generators all to accomplish the task of finding a good available domain. Mohit's aim is to make it easy to find a brandable domains or keyword rich domains in the same place, saving people time and hassle.

Since I was curios about NameMesh and Mohit has been hard at work on his generator I had short Q&A with this web entrepreneur about his latest project. We discussed how he built and came up with the idea for the domain generator and why he feels it is filling a void in the domain generator market.

Adam Yamada-Hanff: What is your background with domains?

Mohit Aggarwal: I don't have much background with domains. I took the leap of faith in September last year and started my entrepreneurial journey.

AY: Why did you decide to build NameMesh and how do you think it is different from other generators out there?

MA: I read this article which talks about 16 ways of generating names with examples of successful startups. The idea of NameMesh was to take the original domain name you thought and apply all the 16 ways like synonyms, misspellings, portmanteau, prefix, suffix, clever extensions etc. The thing was that I would have been disappointed if I missed some common naming pattern which was available for the domain name idea (keywords) I had but instead settled for less desirable domain name.

Existing domain generators all seem to target one thing or the other like short url, mixing, suffix etc. So I was basically typing the same keywords in multiple sites.

AYH: What code and software did you use to build NameMesh? How does it generate names?

MA: I mainly used Python, Django, [and] PostgreSQL. I used them because I wanted to learn them 😉

Name generation is mostly having algorithms running on words dictionary. Different algos for different things like removing vowels, etc finding substrings, adding prefixes, suffixes list, synonyms, antonyms etc.

AYH: How did you come up with the domain? Did you find NameMesh with a beta version?

MA: Yes, I searched ‘name* tube' but it wasn't available but NameMesh was. Mesh sounded good and meaningful.

AYH: What are you futures plans with NameMesh? When do you think it will be out of beta testing?

MA: I mainly want to focus on marketing NameMesh, mainly because I have seen very good retention rates (> 70%) and a lot of good feedback.

On technical side, I want to make it more ‘intelligent' and ‘dynamic'. Will be launching SSL shortly. I hope I can dedicate more coding time to it in future.

I am planning on removing the beta tag soon as it has been a long time since its launch in October 12, 2013.

AYH: Tell me a little bit about yourself? IT background, location, etc.

MA: I am based in Delhi, India. I have about 3-4 years of experience in product development and have worked with both startups and giants. I quit my job in September 12 after saving some money that can keep me going for about 2-3 years. I love being an entrepreneur and I hope that I can find a way to sustain myself in this time.

AYH: Have any tips for the best way to utilize NameMesh which you have not shared before?

MA: NameMesh Domain Search Tips has some tips on using NameMesh effectively using wildcards.

AYH: How do you keep the domain searches and saved data in accounts private

MA: The domain searches are not stored. There is no search history, mostly because of domain theft and privacy concerns. The saved data (favorite domains) is stored in our database and requires authentication. The framework (Django) is very mature and widely used.

To enhance the security I am working on SSL version. In fact, its working at – https://namemesh.com. Since, it does slow down things a little bit, I will be making it optional to choose SSL.

END

If you are interested in keeping up with Mohit Aggrawal and NameMesh developments you can follow @NameMesh on Twitter.

Did you enjoy the interview? Do you have any questions about NameMesh? If so, leave a comment below.

Lean Domain Search is now Free

If anyone is disappointed that Lean Domain Search shutdown their brandable domain and domain name trends section recently you can at least be happy that the domain name generator is now completely free to use.

Some people might be thinking, “Hey wasn't Lean Domain Search free to use before?” While technically it was free but it would only show you a partial list of the available domain names with your keyword (or keywords). I believe it originally only showed you about 150-300 domain names depending on what keyword you used. Now you can see a list of 4,000-5,000 domains (depending on your keyword) to find the perfect domain name for your needs.

The old model that Lean Domain Search worked off of was what is known as freemium. That means the service is free to use but for premium services you have to pay. In the case with Lean Domain Search you would have to pay to see the full list of domain names. The subscription pricing was $79 for two months or $199 per year which worked out to $16.58 a month.

That wasn't too expensive considering how good a domain generator Matt Mazur, the creator of Lean Domain Search, built. Especially since you got a big list of available domain names you could register and start using immediately.

However one of the issues with freemium models is that it is hard to convince someone to pay for a service even when you are providing them good features. I assume one of the reasons Matt Mazur decided to show people the full list of available domain names was not too many people were signing-up for the paid subscriptions. There is a better chance of him making money if people can see a wide range of domain names and register one they like.

Lean Domain Search uses affiliate links from domain registrars. If you click through and buy a domain name Matt gets a little money from that sale. This is a win-win since you found a good domain name to register and Matt gets some cash for his efforts.

Whether the Matt will bring back the paid subscriptions for Lean Domain Search and this is a temporary switch for the domain generator I am not sure. I would imagine it is permanent as it would annoy users to go from a paid model, to a free model, and then back to paid model again.

The only other comparable domain name generator I have seen is Impossibility.org. This allows you to be a little more specific if you want a shorter domain name and searching for verbs, nouns, or adjectives. I'd check that out if you are having trouble finding a good domain name for your new website.

Still I think Lean Domain Search should is an excellent place to find a great available domain name. I am glad to see the change to a free model to but that means it will be that much harder for me to find a good domain name.

Lean Domain Search shutsdown Brandable Domains and Domain Name Trends

Some of you that follow this blog might remember that I recommended a great domain generator called Lean Domain Search in my article “4 Awesome Tools for Finding the Perfect Domain Name.” In the article I had mentioned that Lean Domain Search had a nice brandable domain name generator. Technically it wasn't a generator as Matt Mazur, the creator behind Lean Domain Search, would release one of the brandable domains name every hour. A lot of those names were very good and apparently a lot of people were registering these quality brandable domains. As far as I can tell Matt Mazur shut it down a within the past week or two as the page is returning a 404.

This was what Matt Mazur said about shuttering the brandable domain section of Lean Domain Search in email.

The service was fairly popular but it was very time consuming to keep adding new domain names to the list. I wound up removing it to focus on the keyword-based tool which is what most folks were using anyway 🙂

The brandable domain generator for Lean Domain Search was launched in March, 2013 meaning it was a short lived offering. I can understand that it would be difficult to release new names if people are registering the domains faster than you can can come up with new ones. At least that is what I assume was the issue.

On May 16th, 2013 Matt wrote a great blog post about how he finds brandable domain names and the algorithm behind it. I am glad that he wrote about it since it should help people if you searching for a good brandable domain and haven't been able to think of anything. (In case you don't know what a brandable domain name is it would be something along the lines of Yahoo, Google, Instagram, etc.)

Matt also seems to have shuttered another one of Lean Domain Search useful offerings, Domain Name Trends. This was a section that allowed you to research and analyze domain trends in the .COM space. Matt used Verisign's Zone file to analyze domain name trends and what sort of interesting domains were being registered overall for the week.

I haven't seen an explanation of why the domain trends section was shutdown as well. I assume it was time consuming and took a lot of work to make sure the reports were accurate and to download the .COM zone file everyday. I can really only speculate though.

As far as I can tell there are no plans to shutdown Lean Domain Search's domain name generator. In fact Matt did away with paid subscriptions so anyone can see a the full lists of available domains for keywords entered. (The site used to work off a freemium model.) This probably has brought more affiliate revenue from domain name registrars since people are more inclined to buy a domain name they really like on the spot if they see more good domains.

I will keep using Lean Domain Search as I think it is one of the best domain name generators out there, if not the best. It is easy-to-use, well laid out, fast and generates good domains you would actually want to use.

Impossibility.org, a Great Domain Name Generator

Searching for the right and available to register domain name for your new website or online venture can be a frustrating and difficult process. A lot of good domains are taken and to alleviate this problem a lot of domain name generator tools and sites have popped up over the past few years. A lot of these domain generators don't work that well and churn out odd word combinations few people would want to register. However, recently I found a great domain generator, Impossibility.org.

Impossibility claims to be “The Best Domain Generator Ever.” While that is a fairly lofty claim considering there are some pretty good ones out there, I think Impossibility definitely deserves to be on any list for great, good, or useful domain name generators. I've used a bunch of them and have found few that match the usefulness and quality of Impossibility.org.

The only other comparable domain generator I have seen is Lean Domain Search which I have recommended before on this blog in my post, “4 Awesome Tools to Find the Perfect Domain Name.” If I had known about Impossibility.org when I wrote that article I would have included it.

The difference with Impossibility.org and Lean Domain Search is the ability to be more specific and drill down words. You have the option to include adjectives, nouns, or verbs in the beginning or end of the domain name. You can choose 4, 5, or 6 letter word domains with your keyword. There is also an “anything” option which will generate a much broader list of domains. If you are not sure you like the list of domains you can just “Get more” and it will generate more domains. (Sometimes it just shows you the same ones from before.)

I found a few great domain names while using Impossibility.org for a some website ideas I had the other day. (I tend to have an idea for a new website every week.) My usual go to domain name generator is Lean Domain Search but it really was not cutting it. I needed something more specific and I noticed that several people recommended Impossibility on webmaster and domaining forums. So I gave it and shot and was pleasantly surprised.

Even though I really like Impossibilty.org, and will surely recommend it in the future, it could use some work. I think the user interface could use sprucing up. The keyword you type-in should be a different color than the other words in the domain. Right now all the text is in white which can make it a bit hard to see your keyword against the other words. The words that it matches could be in blue or green and the keyword could stay white or something. One of the reasons I like Lean Domain Search is the user interface and ease-of-use.

Also John Forsythe, the developer, should add different domain registrar affiliate programs to the domain name generator besides GoDaddy and NameCheap. That way he can capture more revenue and keep the site going. (These domain generators make money via affiliate links when you buy a domain.) John knows what he is doing as he spread out the generator across different servers to make it fast. The last update was back in November 2011 though sooo the frontend of the site could definitely be updated in my opinion.

Typically a domain name generator will throw out a lot of word combinations and domains. When you are looking for a domain name you want quality over quantity. It could give you lists all day but if the domains are not good, then it is not worth your time. Remember a domain is your “frontdoor” to the internet.

To save time and your sanity while searching for a domain name I recommend Impossibility.org and hopefully you will be as happy with it as I am. Thanks to John Forsythe for making this awesome domain name generator.