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From time to time, I've noticed that some web tools/services adopt a domain name of the format try[productname].com. I've also noticed that these are typically run by and marketed to developers (or at least that's my perception).

A couple questions arise:

1) Is this style of URL... acceptable for lack of a better term? Do users understand it?

2) If I do use that style URL, is there anything special I should be doing design-wise? (Since I'm setting some expectations of them to try something.)

3) Are these style URLs really only common within developer areas, or is that a false perception of mine?

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In my experience these domains are used because of availability issues.

If you look at tryproductname.com (and variants like getproductname.com and productnameapp.com) domains you'll nearly always find that somebody else has already got productname.com.

I've, personally, not noticed them being used by developer oriented products - but I have no numbers to back that up.

As for design - I guess that depends on the intent of the site. If it's purely targeted at acquiring new users then design that way. If not - don't ;-)

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  • Hah, you hit it spot on. I'm going for this kind of domain because the domain without "try" is taken. :P Oct 21, 2012 at 17:09
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I've seen them used in many things, specially food and beauty products. Usually for a short time, related to specific campaigns or important dates, like christmas, valentine's day, etc.

Design wise, it should be attractive, very attractive, combining the slogans and theme of the campaign and the fact of the try this.

But most important than the design side, I'll mention that you have to pay close attention to the association with getting the product free or cheaper. Usually those pages have ways to get the product mentioned free (or cheap) if you print something, or call a number, or something like that. If you visit a place like that without the engaging part, you feel cheated or that the site is incomplete.

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I have had a personal experience developing a niche market app and choosing a domain name for it. I choose [searchterm]app.com and it worked out really well, both in the Android market place (google play) and the web. My app is named the same as my website. The addition of "app" at the end differentiates my website from hundreds of competitors without a product, and I've seen consistent ~20k user per month without any advertising, with about 7k repeating users per month.

I was able to fairly easily put the website into #1 spot in google (within the niche market).

Off the top of my head, if I search for a product, I usually type "buy [product name]", so buyproduct.com might be a better choice if there's an actual product being offered.

I'd say such domains are prevalent within niche markets (as a developer, you are a part of a niche market seeking some tools).

PS. if you are interested, here's the website I'm talking about http://luciddreamingapp.com/

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