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One of the very first things you will have to do in the MAESTRO program this summer is to pick a name for the website you will build. This document gives you some things to think about when choosing that name. There are really two important considerations this choice:
The way to check if your desired website name is free is to go to a web browser on some Internet-connected device (Firefox or Google Chrome or Internet Explorer on a computer; maybe Safari on a Mac or iPhone...) and type the name you have thought of into the location bar (the place you would usually type google.com, reddit.com, csupueblo.edu, or something like that) and see what it does. If it takes you to some site, that means the name is already in use — too bad. If it says something like Server not found or This site can't be reached, that means the name is free — that's a possible choice!
Note that the name you will chose should not have spaces or special symbols, but should just be letters and numbers. In fact, a website name doesn't care if a letter is upper case or lower case, both will count as the same thing. For example, your instructor's site poritz.net can be found also with the name Poritz.net.
The other thing about the name you choose is that it will have two pieces: the main name, then followed by a two- or three-letter piece. That last piece is called the top-level domain [often just TLD] and must be one of the recognized ones from this list:
| com |
| net |
| org |
| us |
| name |
| info |
| ca |
| uk |
| co.uk |
| org.uk |
| eu |
| ch |
| de |
So if the name you like the most is already in use as a .com website name, you might try one of the other TLD options above, and feel free to go with some combination which is available. [Of course, if your choice of isaacnewton.com is taken but isaacnewton.net is free, you might think for a while before choosing that .net version — you may find yourself saying "No, I'm the .net version, not the .com, that's someone else" so often that it starts to drive you crazy. Still, the choice is yours.]
It's probably not reasonable to choose the TLDs com or org as those are usually for commercial entities or non-profit organizations, respectively. Likewise, ca, uk, co.uk, org.uk, eu, ch, or de may not be good ideas, as they refer to other countries (Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland, and Germany).
What about the second consideration mentioned above: expressing your personality/identity? Probably the easiest way to do this is to use your name, in some form. This might work very well, if you have an unusual enough name. If not, you might include also a nickname or some other decoration on your name. For example, while souder.com is taken, drsouder.com is free (at the time of this writing).
You could also choose some phrase which is familiar to you or that you think expresses something important to you. For example, fishareourfriends.com seems to be free, if pescophilia is your thing.
Whatever you choose, it is important to realize that a website name on the Internet is visible to everyone on the planet. It will be visible to your professors at CSU-P, admissions committees at other schools to which you might someday apply (e.g., for graduate or professional education), selection committees for scholarships or grants, friends, family, future romantic partners, future clients for that business you might someday start, etc. So try to imagine where you want to be in a few years and whom you might want to be able to direct to your website, and pick a name which will not be embarrassing to you then.
Once you have a good name which seems to be free, please send an email saying
Or, if you are having trouble finding a good name, please send your name and some of the things you wanted to use, but tried and found were taken, to your instructor's email address jonathan@poritz.net.
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Jonathan Poritz (jonathan@poritz.net) Last modified: |