What's in a Name?

I was looking to purchase a domain name today on GoDaddy.com. I haven't gone through this exercise in a few months but was astounded to realize that about five out every six searches proved to be fruitless - the domains that interested me had already been sold.

I wasn't searching for typical or mainstream words but a short domain name was a must. This exercise has made me realize how saturated the Internet has quickly become. Not only are there over one billion users now, but these users are more engaged and proactive - i.e. they buy and build websites like never before. There are also those who speculate on website domain names and regularly purchase and sell these digital assets.

So what does this mean? Since most agree that a short domain name is still better, a new Internet language is evolving. That's why the likes of Flickr and Twitter and Zappos are becoming household names. The growing scarcity of common words and combinations of words for domains will also drive the price up. And the ".com" standard will become less important - as bit.ly has shown.