I know all about the problems of money too. I had to shelve a J/E dictionary site I was planning due to nothing but bad experiences with investors. So I’ve put that idea sort of on the back burner for now (saves having to find a domain name for it too =)). I say sort of, as I’m developing a kind of sister site/service intended for in-house use where I currently work. Instead I’m concentrating on my game related site and as I said, I don’t think an informative name actually helps in that field.

Oh, and I’ll be keeping an eye for that tornado of yours. I certainly would like to see it in action. So good luck with that.

anyway, the most relevant links are at the top.

so it’s all really about marketing really and MONEY (which I don’t have)
oh well…

I apologize if all of this has been too far off-topic but I think it’s relevant to what we are talking about… what kind of domain name one should buy. what the rules are, etc.

I see what you are saying. You prefer short brandable names over descriptive names. But I guess you are adding another layer … that the brandable name (in this case tornado in a box) needs to have some scintilla of meaning to it ?

Google for example is a brandable word that does have some deeper underlying meaning (a googleplex of data) which fits with a search engine.

My idea with tornado in a box is this. Hopefully it will have that feeling of a search engine place:

1. tornado’s are fast ………. search engine’s are fast
2. box ……… a server

so it is going to be a fast search engine

but it’s going to be a search engine that helps you discover things, more like stumble upon than google.

however, I am adding a semantic layer to this thing.

when you search for ‘Athena’ you will see links in a tornado-like directory structure:

Greek Mythology (44)
Greek Gods (23)
Athena (3)

and you will see related terms separated out on the side:

Candy Bars (21)
Brands ( 16)
Athena Candy Bar (4)

The numbers don’t add up – just made them up for this.

And the other part of Tornado that I like … which ties in with the whole notion of ‘discovery’ is this:

You will start out on a page called Kansas.aspx

and you can then let the Tornado take you somewhere else
and learn / find interesting things.

So that’s why I like Tornado In a Box.com better than discoveryengine.com.

Of course, ideally it would be nice to own all these:

search.com, searchengine.com, discovery.com, discover.com,
discoveryengine.com, tornado.com, tornadoinabox.com, etc.

but like you said, some “darn” people in the world own ALL of the good domain names and it makes me mad.

But I … hee hee… I repeat I with a capital ME … own the great fantastic name Tornado In a Box !!!!!

hee hee. I’m just having fun with it.

Anyway, I’m a programmer for a living. I will hopefully get this thing on-line soon. I made a firefox extension already and designed my database… just need about 3 months of free time darn it… and eventually I’ll get it done.

thanks for your comments.

David