The domain name of an organization or Web site is one of the few aspects not under complete control of the organization in question. Domain names are centrally controlled assets, and each one, letter-for-letter, is a unique piece of real estate, which must be acquired separately from one another. Furthermore, there exist companies whose business model is exactly to squat on names and resell the rights to them at much higher prices.
As such, choosing a domain name or set thereof is not just a question of information architecture and findability, but the entire marketing platform and even risk management as well. Points are awarded for names that are short, easy to pronounce and hard to misspell. The steep increase in Web 2.0 assets with gibberish names (e.g. Meebo, Ooma, Zoho) suggests that companies are basing their entire corporate identities around domain names that map to the aforementioned criteria.
This segment makes recommendations around the following aspects of domain names: