Afraid of the domain search box? If you are, you're not the only one. A number of people have told me that they were leery about typing in a name. For one thing they feared making a commitment before they were ready; for another, they thought the name, if it was a good one, would be scooped up by the registrar if they didn't pay for it right then. Some feared being harassed by banners and having their browser taken captive until they followed through and purchased the domain. And then there was always the worry that somebody somewhere was taking note of what they were doing and somehow putting it on their bill.

Take heart! This side of porn there's nothing more fun on the net then feeding a domain search box. Well, Ok, that could be an exaggeration. Still,if you give it a run you'll find it's fun to feed the box names and numbers and watch what comes out of it; and unlike porn,no matter what names or numbers you use, the police won't come banging on your door with a warrant to seize your hard drive. The worst that can happen is that you won't get the domain name you wanted.

First of all, you're not committing yourself to anything until you've given the registrar your credit card number. You can feed the box all day for free; some of us do exactly that day in and day out. And even after you've paid for the name you still have five days to get your money back. As for fretting about somebody stealing your domain name before you made up your mind, I've heard rumors of registrars pre-loading domains, but in all my time on the web I've never stumbled across the guy that does that(or maybe none of my names were worth stealing). I have however, lost plenty of good names to guys that were willing to move first.

On the subject of banners and browser hijacking, I've experienced that myself when I walked away from a domain name. That happens. But it's easy to shake them by exiting the browser and starting over; and look at it this way, you've narrowed the number of registrars that you might be interested in doing business with by at least one!

Keep trying those names and numbers even if your perfect name is already gone. If it wasn't important to have a net address you wouldn't be there; something almost as good or even better is only a few letters away. Go with your first impression; the name may sound silly, but so did "Yahoo" and "Google," and you know where they are now. Keep the name as short as you can but don't be afraid of long names if they sound right to you; after all,you're going to have to give your friends and customers your domain name, and if it runs "trippingly on the tongue" to you it will probably be memorable for them.

The domain search box is a free service. Every registrar on the web has one he wants you to use. Don't be afraid of it grabbing the money out of your purse or billfold before you're ready. And whatever you do, don't be afraid of wearing it out!