Should You Let AI Pick Your Next Domain Name?
Reading Time: 3 minutesNew AI tools keep hitting the web, with one of the latest picking a domain name for you on a given prompt. But should you let AI pick a domain name?
Getting a new business or web venture off the ground is hard, and one of the most difficult parts is choosing a name for your new enterprise. Machine Learning tools can make your life easier by doing a lot of the hard work for you, but should you let an AI help you with choosing your next domain name?
Choosing a Domain Name Is Vital, but Difficult
Your web address is the shopfront of your business, and like any business on the High Street, you need it to be easy to find, and easy to remember.
What makes a good domain name? There are a few key tips for picking one. A good domain name needs to describe what you do in as succinct a way as possible, while being distinct enough to differentiate your business from the competition. If it’s catchy enough to stick in your head, all the better.
Typically, the process involves founder meetings, brainstorming sessions, and late nights to produce a longlist of suitable names, which are whittled down to a shortlist, as you and your fellow entrepreneurs realize that the relevant domain names are either already in use, or have been squatted for the last decade by domain name speculators.
It’s a long, frustrating process, and can end with your business sputtering against the competition of better named rivals. Luckily, there’s an AI tool that can help with the process.
What Is SmartyNames and Can It Generate Domain Names?
SmartyNames is an AI-powered tool, which can take a description of your business idea as an input, and generate interesting domain names for it. It’s a simple idea, and one which can save you days or even weeks of creative thinking.
To generate domain name ideas, visit SmartyNames, and type in a description of your business. The site uses OpenAI’s GPT3 in the backend, meaning that it’s adept at processing and understanding natural language. There’s also no ‘best’ way of formatting your input, as the tool can understand conversational language.
After a few seconds, Smarty Names will return a list of nine domain names with a .com domain name. These are color coded green if they’re available, brown if currently registered, or gray if SmartyNames is unable to find out.
As a test, we fed SmartyNames the following prompt:
My business creates acrylic fine art paintings of dogs and other beloved pets
We clicked on the big blue Find Domain Names button, and SmartyNames returned nine domain names, of which five were already registered. Of the four, we judged that furryfinearts.com was the best. Other variants, such as FurryPassion.com, were eminently unsuitable.
If you don’t like any of the domain names, just hit Find Domain Names again, and you’ll be given a fresh selection.
Should You Use SmartyNames to Generate a Domain Name?
While using an AI tool to generate domain names sounds like a better idea, should you actually use one? You could argue either way, so we’ll look at some advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
- Helps you to come up with a shortlist of suitable names, fast.
- Automatically checks availability of domain names.
- Comes up with variations on names that you may not have thought of
- Saves a tremendous amount of time, allowing you to get on with setting up your business.
Disadvantages
- Only .com top-level domains are available–TLDs are essentially the ending of domains. So, if you want your domain name to be country specific, you will have to check availability yourself. This also limits the possibilities of domain hacking.
- The available status doesn’t differentiate between standard and premium price domains. You can waste time by settling on a domain which will cost thousands of dollars, and then have to start again from scratch
- The domains presented, sometimes contain common misspellings of words, For instance ‘technolgy’ instead of ‘technology’. This can trick you into thinking you’ve found a great domain name.
Use AI to Help You Find a Great Domain Name
Some minor niggles aside, SmartyNames, is an excellent way of finding a new domain name for your business or hobby. It’s quick, easy to use, and comes up with some excellent suggestions. All you need now is some inspiration to get your new enterprise up and running.