Ask HN: Contractions in domain name? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Contractions in domain name?

2 pointskeiferski5 comments

Is it best to avoid a contraction in your domain name?

On one hand, the contracted version is slightly shorter and catchier. It just sounds more natural, casual and true-to-speech. Seeing as this will essentially be a personal blog, the less 'stuffiness' the better.

On the other hand, a contracted domain name obviously can't have the apostrophe in the url. It also may be an issue with non-US readers.

The good news is that both versions are available (ex - cant.com and cannot.com). The question thus becomes: which one should I use, and which one should redirect?

Thanks.

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Usually when I'm thinking about domain names I also weight in the marketability factor. Would the domain name potentially make a nice main logo as-is, or would it be kind of bland? In the case of cant and cannot.com, I think I would opt for cannot.com. I can just visualize it at the top of a webpage a little easier than I can with 'cant'. Plus, I think cannot, in this case, rolls off the tongue much easier.

That's pretty much why I'm hesitant to do "cant.com". The only issue is that 'cannot' adds another syllable and doesn't sound as...casual;

JoeCantDance.com JoeCannotDance.com

I get your point about the logo though. That's definitely something worth considering, especially as some (a minor fraction, likely) of my target audience might not realize that typing "can't" into the url bar won't work.

I'm curious - are you a native English speaker?

I am picky about language and grammar to the point of obsession, yet I would not think twice about using a contraction in my domain name (if it felt better) nor would I be concerned about omitting an apostrophe. I don't think you should either :)

Yup, I'm a native English speaker. And thanks for the thoughts. Seeing as it's just a blog, and not a real "business," going with the more comfortable contraction may be the better move.

The trend seems to be that the long url is the actual webapp location whereas the contracted one is for the short url (ff.im vs friendfeed, google vs goo.gl)

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