It doesn't seem that long to me, but I registered the first domain (cyrcus.com) in 2002 and started building websites. I don't want to say "everything was better in the past", but can you imagine what a huge choice of top level domain names we still had back then? Apart from the fact that in the beginning the internet was much more experimental, carefree, animated and colorful.

I'm annoyed today that I wasn't forward-thinking enough. Some really good domain names were available back then that I wish I had today. The bad part is that most of these awesome short and generic .com domains aren't even in use. They simply bob along without content until someone comes along who pays a utopian price.

Then there are sites like directory[dot]com. I know the owner fleetingly for many years, but he never seems to want to do anything really useful with this great domain.

Domains that are properly used:

• login.com (I would really like to know the price, it's for sale, too!)
• developer.com
• javascript.com
• coder.com
• html.com
• templates.com
• snippets.com
• ceo.com
• nerd.com
• frontend.com
• marketing.com
• freelancer.com
• backend.com (since it's "backend.com" it doesn't need a frontent ;))

Domains that are cool but already taken and totally abandoned:

• coding.com
• programmer.com
• css.com
• webspace.com
• webmaster.com

Of course, today there are many other domain extensions, but if we are honest: Most of the good and short generic names have all been bought by the big players by now. There is hardly anything left to create short domains with 3-4 characters that make any sense. At least if you consider that Google and other search engines still prefer .com .net or country specific domain extensions like .de or .es.

For example, if I create a domain "costaricabusiness.club" and then it goes viral advertising. How would people pronounce it? Costa Rica business dot club, right? That's weird, I think. Maybe I'm too old though, haha. I just think "Costa Rica Business Club Dot Com" sounds much cooler....

Many people are also still used to the "old scheme", and are far from knowing all the domain extensions. So if I want to start a new project in 2023, I really need to take my time and think carefully about which .com domain I may need to create with hyphens or filler words to best represent the project.

What are your experiences with domain name search?

I would be especially interested in the opinion of the younger generation born after 2000, when the best .com domains were already all "on sale" or "in use". What are your favorite domain extensions? Do you prefer to hyphenate domain names to then use .com, or do you just go with another extension that isn't as tried and true?

What are your best .com or .net alternatives?