Uses for short domain names

[mhdoc]

A few days ago I "invested" $5.00 on a collection of three character domains. I have checked, and almost all tld's are taken for all of them. In a few cases the .info is available. For the fun of it, I then tried to visit the .com domain. A few have sites, many are placeholders or for sale, a few aren't even hosted. Obviously registrants are convinced that short is good and one of these days someone will pay big bucks for them :)

I like to keep a few of these around and use them for

1. Mail accounts. It saves me lots of typing to have throwaway email addresses which are very short.
2. I use short domains when I advertise in the newspaper classifieds. If a friend wants to sell a used couch I take a picture, published it until sold and take the site down.
3. It's convenient to have a few domains around for testing new software, a new hosting company etc.

Anyone using them for something besides speculation?

[scottj]

If only I had some 3-letter domains! How did you find a lot of them for $5?

[mhdoc]

They were all due for renewal within 24 hours and the seller didn't want to do that. Now I have 23 .biz and .org of them that will cost me $10 each to renew :)

In real estate the concept of buying land outside "The path of progress", then leasing it to a business such as a used car dealer to generate cash flow while you wait for the right time to actually develop it, is well understood. I am trying to think of a domain equivalent.

All the domains start with "00" which has a potential tie in with "Double Ought" as in buckshot. It could also relate to "Zero Zero" for which there are some sites. I guess it could become "The Double ought business network; blow your competition away" :)

[wasistdas]

Short domains are always good not only as investment. My opinion - it is too bad to let them to park at PPC. It is better to launch a site with short domains

[Raiko]

I agree that 3 character domains are good for the long term but I think most of them are just held by speculators all hoping for the long term gain. That being said I remember when I could have bought as many 3 letter dot coms as I could few a couple hundred each. Those days are long gone. Not sure if the 3 letter .info's and .biz's will follow but it's a reasonable bet that they will.