You've got enough to worry about with your new Web 2.0 startup without having to come up with a clever name - never mind a matching domain name that's actually available.
Well, why not take advantage of Dot-o-mator, a crafty little web app that reaches deep into its dictionary and outputs a list of possible domains that would make Dr. Seuss proud.

Of course, coming up with a combination is only half the battle. You've got to somehow find one that hasn't been snatched up by some underhanded domain prospector. Dot-o-mator makes that easy, too, giving you one-click access to a multi-name availability check.

It's a great brainstorming tool, and can be a huge help in the struggle to brand your new web venture. We like it for the possibility of setting up private Gmail service on a domain like "skablab.com."

A far reaching transformation of domain names could be in store as Internet guardians, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meets to discuss changes to top level domain names.

According to a report from the BBC, ICANN has plans to deregulate top level domain names to allow any string of letters to be used as a top level domain, paving the way for long proposed domains such as .xxx, for company names like .Disney or even personal names such as .gordonfinlayson to be used as a domain name.

The proposed system would also allow for internationalization of domain names so that additional new languages and characters could be used to register domains which will be a plus for the billions of people who don't use Latin alphabets.

ICANN will vote on the proposal on Thursday on the last day of a series of public meetings which are being held in Paris this week. ICANN acts as the guardian of all Internet domain names and more informally as a global regulator of the Internet, but such services don't come cheap and the new domain names could see the cash rolling in for ICANN.

The release of a new domain name system could see a feeding frenzy as people individuals and companies compete to acquire catchy or unique domain names, and will no doubt be a considerable disappointment to all the poor saps who have paid good money for quality .com, .net or .tv domain names. All this is is inevitably going to result in a ton of new disputes over precedence for registrations, trade marks and issues like obscenity so lets hope ICANN has a really good dispute resolution procedure in the works.

[Via the BBC]

Ever wondered where in the world .to or ..tv is located? (Tonga, and Tuvalu) How about how much it costs to get a domain in Sweeden or Lithuania? Polish web developer Julek Fruda put together a pretty comprehensive list that answers all those questions and a few more.

The most expensive domains on the list? Antigua and Barbuda, at $300 a pop for names in the .ag space -- there's got to be a joke in there about Ag being the periodic symbol for silver -- and the cheapest domains are in .info($2.98), which was practically rendered useless by giveaway schemes shortly after its launch, and has since become the low-rent housing of the web.

Ever mis-type a domain name and end up somewhere you weren't expecting? Owning domain names which are intentionally close to the domain names of popular companies is a well known, although ethically questionable practice. The kids in Redmond have had it up to their skinny tie laced necks with the practice and, their putting their legal team where their mouth is. They've announced a campaign of lawsuits against stubborn holders of squatter domains, presumably owned by persons who've so far been uncooperative with non-litigious attempts to settle.

One such squatter did settle; Dyslexic Domains -- there's a company name you can trust -- a UK based company who reportedly held over 6000 squatter-esque domains not only handed back those which were targeted at misspellings of Microsoft and Microsoft products, but also coughed up $46,000 US.

WordPress.com has finally unveiled a feature that a lot of people have been waiting for for a long time: domain registration and mapping. Until now, your WordPress.com blog could only have an address like example.wordpress.com, but today you can set up your own domain name like example.com and have your WordPress.com blog show up there, which previously was only possible using lame tricks like redirection or frames. This is a trick TypePad and others have been doing for a long time, and which the WordPress.com folks have been promising for almost as long, so I'm happy to see it finally happening. If you already own a domain name, domain mapping will cost you $10 per year, or you can register one on the setup page for a total of $15 per year, which isn't a bad deal. As an added bonus, if you already have readers that know your .wordpress.com address, they'll automatically be redirected to your new domain name. Cool.

Ajax domain search has been done before, but nevertheless I'm fond of Domjax's shiny interface. Like other services, it pulls up domain information as you type, but presents rather more information in a nice, clean interface. In addition to telling you if the domain name you enter is available with any TLD and giving you three registrar options, Domjax also shows SEO tools like Google and Yahoo! information, code and usability validation tools, and research tools including WHOIS information and links to Alexa and the Internet Archive. For available domains, it also has a "domain list," which is just a handy scratch pad for you to save domain names you're interested in buying. Oddly enough, Domjax completely omits .org domain names, which may be a deal-breaker for some, but the slick interface might be enough to keep me coming back.