from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do long, [funny], descriptive URLs help?

by cjrd on 7/23/14, 6:22 PM with 6 comments

Looking at sites like

wherethefuckshouldigofordrinks.com

evenjesuswouldbuythis.com

Does this novelty effect _actually_ help ideas? I'm considering trying this "ploy" with some of my little side projects. Can anyone with experience running such a site provide feedback?

  • by bramgg on 7/23/14, 9:22 PM

    Don't use such URLs for your business or products. You want your name to be short, memorable, and work with social media.

    Long novelty URLs help micro content sites go viral, just make sure to include some prominent share buttons. The trick is to make many of these novelty websites that relate to your main product, and then link to that in the footers.

    An example of someone who's used this technique multiple times before is TheOatmeal[0], though the only one I can remember off the top of my head is ThingsBearsLove[1].

    [0] http://theoatmeal.com/

    [1] http://www.thingsbearslove.com/

  • by insky on 7/23/14, 7:31 PM

  • by minimaxir on 7/23/14, 6:47 PM

    Considering that such links are gimmicks and have little staying power otherwise, I would say that it does not help.

    It's hard to quickly mentally parse such phrases in URLs too.

  • by vtd on 7/24/14, 7:46 AM

    The long URLs are fine by me. See http://uniformresourcelocatorelongator.com/