Should a Website Name be short or long?

I posted a thread a few weeks back about the amount of funding needed to fund a new venture. Well, me & my partner have come up with a great idea for a social network. We hit a snag when choosing a name. He's very attached to one in particular (won't disclose the actual name) & I think it's entirely too long (5 syllables), somewhat cheesy & won't brand as easily.

I think a website name should be short, easy to remember, somewhat attached to what the actual product is & easily transferable to a verb. I cite Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Zappos, Groupon, Paypal, Linkedin, eBay, uBid, Dell, Amazon & Youtube as examples. They all exemplify one of those features. My partner feels a long name won't matter as long as the product is good. He cites Wikipedia as an example.

Opinions?

 

For a social network, the shorter and catchier the name, the better. 5 syllables is too much IMO.

In Wikipedia's defense, their name has sort of become a verb, but shortened. ("Go wiki it")

 

short and easy memorize is the best

 

Short names are usually always good. But when I pick a domain, I just go for a name I like. It usually takes me many many hours to pick the right name. I always prefer a memorable name over a short name any day of the week. If the name your business partner likes is memorable, and not likely to be mistyped, I would probably go with it (If I can see it being branded). But I don't want to advise you to do that without knowing the actual name. Good luck picking the right name for your site.

 

Short is better. Especially if you are advertising somewhere and they don't have a link and people actually have to type out the url of your site. I am guilty of not checking out sites because the url was too long and I was too lazy.

 

short is always better and is easy to remember, stuff with your brand or key product that should drive in more traffic

 

Short names are usually better - because people can remember, and it can easily become a brand.

 

short and easy memorize is the best

 

As vninfo said, the shorter the name is usually the easier people will remember it. However if you can form a nice word usually people will also remember that.

~ Slutz ~

 

should be short, simple and easy to remember.

 

Short is always better, the number of syllables I feel is irrelevant (although all but one you mentioned are 2), as I have a domain gta100, short and easy to remember, (for those who it's specifically targeted at, anyone else it doesn't matter) with six syllables.

 

Short if you want a brand

Long if you are targeting long tail keywords

 

website name should be keyword base and also user friendly.

 

For a social site, I think the keyword is irrelevant. Instead a short and catchy name that stick on
peoples mind.

~Mike

 

This is good question so help me about that.

 

I prefer short domain names

 

I'd go for a name that's like the sound of an emotion. Whoever came up with "Yahoo" - like a whoop of triumph - was a genius IMO. People remember the sound - it's happy - rather than a complicated word. "Google" came from a misspelling of googol which I believe is a billion billion. You can't compare a social networking site with Wikipedia, (don't know where "wiki" came from), but "pedia" makes it clear it's a knowledge resource. Base your domain name on NLP principles - try to come up with something that's associated with good feelings. I don't think cheesy or syllables matter, (unless it's not obvious how to spell it when it's spoken), but emotional resonance is essential.

Just my 2 cents' worth!

 

Short domain names are better but It doesn't mean that complicated domain names won't have popularity. Wikipedia is the example.

 

Everyone is saying short....I say that it depends. Longer domains can be keyword-rich.

 

I appreciate the feedback....seriously. Thanks.