Let's Talk Domains: Interesting Facts and Figures About COM and NET Domains. Part 2
In continuationa story about the .COM and .NET domains, we offer several interesting facts obtained as a result of the analysis of names registered in these domains.
There are a finite number of possible combinations of characters that can be combined to create domain names. Currently, all possible two-character combinations have already been registered in both the .COM and .NET domain extensions.
Three-character combinations are used 96% of the time. Companies typically prefer short domain names because they are easier to remember, easier to enter into the address bar, and often represent the organization's abbreviations.
Four-character .COM domain names account for 43% of all possible combinations. The .NET domain has even more freedom in choosing four-character names, accounting for only 17% of all possible combinations. With more characters, there's more scope for creativity when creating domain names, as five-character domain names account for only 3.4% of all possible combinations in the .COM zone, and less than 1% of all possible combinations in the .NET zone.
Of all the registered names in the .COM space, there are currently 26,000 palindromes (names that read the same backwards and forwards). By comparison, there are only 9,403 such names in the .NET domain.
Here are some examples of palindromic names:
SATOR-AREPO-TENET-OPERA-ROTAS.COM
OLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.COM
REFLECTION--NOITCELFER.COM
WONTLOVERSREVOLTNOW.COM
SLATEMETALS.COM
Just over 9% of names in the .COM domain contain at least one digit. (In the .NET zone, this figure is over 10%).
Since nearly every possible single-word or name is already taken, many domain names are created by combining multiple words. Since spaces aren't allowed in domain names, registrars simply concatenate words, such as the domain name DataGenetics.com (remember, domain names are case-insensitive, allowing for uppercase letters to separate words). Additionally, dashes can be used to separate words when creating a name, as in the case of Rat-Bikes.com.
However, over 12 million names in the .COM domain contain a dash, accounting for 11.8% of all names. Many of these were likely purchased defensively and ultimately simply redirect users to a more appropriate domain. In the .NET domain, the share of such names is 13.1%.
The most popular number at the beginning of a domain name is "1," and the most popular letter is "S." It's followed by "C" and "M." The least popular letter is "Q."
Once again, the letter "S" was among the most popular, but this time at the end of the domain name. This is likely because many domain names use plurals. The letters "E" and "T" were also among the leaders.
As the comparison chart shows, the letter "Y" isn't a popular first letter, but it's quite common at the end. Conversely, the letters "B," "F," "J," and "V" are more common at the beginning of a name than at the end.
