It may sound totally ridiculous but coming up with a name that has an available .com domain name is the part I despise the most about new projects. There is just something wrong with trying every single permutation at a domain registrar only to end up with a crappy, "settled for" name hours later. Naming tools kind of suck too in my opinion.
So, a month or two ago, I got fed up of this and decided to use my programming skills to tackle this problem. Using drop lists, algorithms and quite a few metrics, I finally managed to produce something that gives interesting and available .com domain names as results!
The daily quantity of both suitable and available domain names varies, but I generally get 20-40 without a problem.
To give you an idea, here is the list I generated yesterday:
arcticpack.com
basetable.com
bashtracker.com
bulletstocks.com
campusrally.com
carbongenie.com
chilltree.com
codesmell.com
crowdcome.com
earthunit.com
extrasmiles.com
fiberoasis.com
filmshout.com
foxyflyer.com
gatorhire.com
geekimpact.com
goodprog.com
mailshaker.com
metafollow.com
ownerfind.com
phonemama.com
calltap.com
racerapp.com
rubycoach.com
snappyapp.com
sourcefully.com
stripspots.com
targeteyes.com
topicbased.com
writerslate.com
Not the best I've seen (there are good and bad days!) but it sure beats looking at the 86000 domains expiring everyday, or even worse, trying your hand at coming up with something that isn't already taken. All of them where available yesterday and could still be right now... As a bonus, the names generally also give startup ideas! ;)
I'm imagining I was not alone having [domain] naming issues and am simply wondering if this is useful and/or interesting to anybody else. I can easily do it everyday if I get a good response. The important thing for me is to keep it in the startup/hacker community. I don't want the domainers/squatters on these too. I would also like ideas on how to potentially monetize this a bit if you have any. I was thinking of making a daily newsletter with the names and maybe sell 1-5 at a very reasonable price like 30-50$ or not selling names but charging a small yearly fee to get on the newsletter.
Anyhow, I'm waiting for your comments and ideas. Bonus points if you register a name from the list!
My observation from being on that list for the last couple years: it seems like a great idea but nothing ever pans out. Just so you get an idea, a few examples of my targets: personal domain for a generic computer consultancy, budget around $300; publishing company e-reader, budget around $20k, friends' projects from yoga studio to nightclub to astronomy, budget around $100, etc. Criteria: relevant, easy to remember, easy to pronounce, no competitors in the same space... the usual.
Try it for yourself. Make a quick list of 10 real-world businesses. Then take a week's worth of your mailers, put yourself in a prospective owner's shoes, and try to match them up. I suspect you would see that it doesn't add much value. There are kinda sorta cool names on your list for sure, but nothing that a few friends over beers (or thesaurus.com) couldn't come up with in 15 minutes.
Sorry to be a downer... I very much agree that domain generators suck. A better offering would be killer.
Perhaps it's just not a "computer problem" (i.e. a repetitive task with well-defined parameters). I'd love to be wrong on this one.