Nora Brown Design

Useful domain name search tools

I wanted to find out what domain names are registered that include the term “textpattern” or “txp”. I thought surely Google would provide such functionality, but it doesn’t, at least not on their Advanced Search Page. Other tools return only your exact search term. So whois.org, for example returned only textpattern.com, .org, .info, etc.

Finally I found a tool that does what I want: www.namedroppers.com allows you to drop in a search term, and get a list of all the registered domains that incorporated that term. It also generates a list of unregistered, possible domain names.

The site is kind of obnoxious, and it opens the resulting urls in an annoying frame, but it gets the job done. Also, not all of the names are really registered — some link to godaddy, some other registrar, or a page of ads.

UPDATE (4.10.10) I recently came across a second tool that may be even better than namedroppers.com! It’s called www.bustaname.com. You can put in keywords, generate domain names, and specify several different settings. Really handy! Be sure to check out all the options across the bottom of the screen, including “Check with hyphens”.

Once you find the domain name that’s right for you, buy it for cheap at godaddy. Between client websites and my own domains, I have many registered with godaddy, and haven’t experienced and significant problems.

Why search domain names?

I can think of a few reasons:

• To discover sites you may not know about on a topic that interests you
• To judge what the competition may be in that area of interest (for example, if you’re thinking of starting a blog on the topic)
• To help brainstorm possible domain names for a new site (remember, your domain name is an excellent place to put keywords)