Could this study affect the value of domain names?

[grcorp]

The human brain has always been a thing which has interested me. Especially when it comes to things which trigger certain reactions from people.

A very good book on this topic is called "Buyology", which studies peoples' behaviours behind why they might purchase one product over another, or stay loyal to one brand over another, based on research of their neurological reactions to certain things.

Interestingly, this article came up the other day on WSJ, which suggests that the letters which make up a given word can be associated with "positive or negative". Not based on the way they sound, but on the way they are positioned on the keyboard.

Yes, you read that correctly. The keyboard placement.

http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2012/03/09/the-qwerty-effect-can-typing-shape-thinking/?mod=e2tw

To be honest with you, this makes perfect sense. A smaller area of the keyboard is meant for the right hand, which means that use of the right hand is much less burdensome.

I thought that this could interestingly be applied equally to domain names, in terms of how people perceive them, and become an inherent effect on how "good" a particular domain name is.

To boot, the right hand side is where both the period key and enter key are. So, this weighs the effort of typing any given URL towards the right hand to begin with.

Of course, the "c" in "com" will require use of the left hand. But this could also perhaps be used in the selection of an alternate TLD, should the case call for it. Though I can't think of many "right handed" TLD's (.com, .ca, .co, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .ws, .ru, .cn, .fr are all requiring of some use of hte left hand).

Anybody got any thoughts on this? I found the article to be quite fascinating from a psychology standpoint. Just thought it might be rather interesting to apply it to domains as well.

 

[JB Lions]

[h=2]Could this study affect the value of domain names?[/h]No

 

[grcorp]

Could this study affect the value of domain names?

No

As a whole, certainly not. I assembled the title somewhat hastily, as I am multitasking, so please excuse any inaccurate implications it might have made.

I was referring more specifically to certain types of domains which might be different than others based on the parameters of this study.

 

[ksinclair]

prob more effect on mobile, where its harder to type

 

[cbk]

I was referring more specifically to certain types of domains which might be different than others based on the parameters of this study.

Again, the answer is NO!

 

[AtTheLake]

I do not know if it would effect the percieved value of a domain but I can see what you saying. I type enough day to day to take casual notice of what websites might be easier to type vs. others.

 

[grcorp]

Again, the answer is NO!

Okay! Looks like I stand essentially alone here

I shall keep my fascination with the subtleties of the human brain to myself then.

 

[Biggie]

Okay! Looks like I stand essentially alone here

I shall keep my fascination with the subtleties of the human brain to myself then.

lol, don't let being the only one who believes, defeat you


i'll try and explain the fault



how the brain perceives a word, based on the letters when just looking at it, is much different when it comes to the "desire" to visit a particular domain, website or search for service or product.


there is no positive or negative action required to assess a word at that time, there is only the anticipation and how long it will take for the website to "resolve" and what info is there, after typing it in or clicking the link from an SE

thus, "desire, curiosity and anticipation" will always trump over where the letters are on the keyboard.

but that's just my opinion

 

[MAllie]

Interestingly, this article came up the other day on WSJ, which suggests that the letters which make up a given word can be associated with "positive or negative". Not based on the way they sound, but on the way they are positioned on the keyboard.

I read the article, but I find it interesting that it failed to distinguish between trained typists and hunt-and-peckers. To a trained typist the positioning of the letters means very little, unless he or she has a particular physical problem with typing any of the letters. Both hands work equally efficiently and therefore there is no left-hand/right-hand weighting.

But presumably you are thinking of those who are slow to enter a domain name into the search engine or tool-bar? Or is that what you were getting at?

 

[grcorp]

I read the article, but I find it interesting that it failed to distinguish between trained typists and hunt-and-peckers. To a trained typist the positioning of the letters means very little, unless he or she has a particular physical problem with typing any of the letters. Both hands work equally efficiently and therefore there is no left-hand/right-hand weighting.

But presumably you are thinking of those who are slow to enter a domain name into the search engine or tool-bar? Or is that what you were getting at?

What I was getting at is that the keys on the "right hand" part of the keyboard are easier to type as the right hand is burdened with less keys to be responsible for.

Additionally, with the dot, "o" and "m" of ".com", as well as the enter key being on the right hand side, for a name to be, say, 95% "right handed", would, from what this study has concluded cause a "happier" feeling to be subconsciously associated with that particular URL.

It is not as tedious as other URL's might be to type out. As out there as that might sound, I do find that I'm subconsciously discouraged from typing in certain URL's because of the complexity. For example, I'm a big wrestling fan. But I find that typing in www.wwe.com is difficult to do, given the confusing aspect of having two "w"'s at the beginning of the second level domain.

Believe it or not, this discourages me from going to the site. And yes, I typed the URL wrong in the post the first time around and had to correct it.

This was the downfall of del.icio.us. The combinations of dots and short strings of characters was very difficult to remember, and that's exactly why they had to buckle down and get "delicious.com".

By making it not just easy to type, but also make it so in such a way that is easier for the human to input, I think is absolutely key if you are relying on regular type-in traffic to make your site go. Because even the slightest resistance can be detrimental to getting repeat visitors.

Why do you think mall stores have astronomically higher sales than traditional storefronts? The mall stores don't have doors on them. You walk right on in. There is no resistance, no barrier to let people come in and spend money. And guess what? That's just what they do. If you're carrying a bag, otherwise preoccupied, or just too lazy to open a front door, then that could very well be costing the merchant sales.

 

[MAllie]

What I was getting at is that the keys on the "right hand" part of the keyboard are easier to type as the right hand is burdened with less keys to be responsible for.

Well, speaking as the trained typist to whom I referred, the training has ironed out any preferences for either side of the keyboard or either hand. If I couldn't type equally fast and comfortably with left or right, I wouldn't be a typist. This, of course, also removes any sense of 'handedness' - although I am naturally right-handed, as far as typing is concerned I am ambidextrous.

Apart from this, even for someone not as comfortable with typing as I am, I can't really see a problem with particular domain names. After all, people so often use links or bookmarks nowadays to get to where they want to go on the computer. In fact, one of the things I most hate on the net is the way people write I in lower case, and I is a right-handed letter in your terms. Anyway, where does this leave left-handers?

I truly can't imagine being discouraged from going to a particular site because the name is too difficult to type in, and I'm not talking about trained typing or nontrained typing here, but plain common sense.

I don't really think the comparison of mall and street shopping is particularly valid, either. What keeps me out of the city is the difficulty in parking, the cost of parking, the uncertainty of the weather and the traffic (both motor and pedestrian) that needs to be negotiated in order to get somewhere. Once I've reached the door I have no problem giving it a good shove.

 

[grcorp]

Well, speaking as the trained typist to whom I referred, the training has ironed out any preferences for either side of the keyboard or either hand. If I couldn't type equally fast and comfortably with left or right, I wouldn't be a typist. This, of course, also removes any sense of 'handedness' - although I am naturally right-handed, as far as typing is concerned I am ambidextrous.

Apart from this, even for someone not as comfortable with typing as I am, I can't really see a problem with particular domain names. After all, people so often use links or bookmarks nowadays to get to where they want to go on the computer. In fact, one of the things I most hate on the net is the way people write I in lower case, and I is a right-handed letter in your terms. Anyway, where does this leave left-handers?

I truly can't imagine being discouraged from going to a particular site because the name is too difficult to type in, and I'm not talking about trained typing or nontrained typing here, but plain common sense.

I don't really think the comparison of mall and street shopping is particularly valid, either. What keeps me out of the city is the difficulty in parking, the cost of parking, the uncertainty of the weather and the traffic (both motor and pedestrian) that needs to be negotiated in order to get somewhere. Once I've reached the door I have no problem giving it a good shove.

The study does refer to the trained typists, but the way the keyboard is engineered, there are actually fewer keys which are "meant" for the right hand than for the left hand.

I've been typing on a laptop keyboard since I was about 6 years old, and can type 80-100 words per minute, so I would certainly consider myself to be of the trained variety. I checked this out for myself, and was, indeed, able to conclude that only 11 of the 26 letters of the alphabet are "right handed" letters. Those letters being h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, u, and y. I would also say I'm ambidextrous in that respect, but I fully believe that the perceived "easiness" of using your right hand can contribute to a "happy" or "joyous" feeling. It's all subconscious, and I pay a great deal of attention to subconscious behaviours, which is why I appear to stand somewhat alone here.

Re: the mall vs street shopping analogy - in my opinion, what you said only further strengthens what I said. Besides having no doors, malls are generally enclosed, thus removing any possibility of being rained on, or anything else discouraging, when roaming from one store to another.

The basis of the comparison is a lack of resistance. Which, when applied to domains, I think by all means can make the difference between encouraging and discouraging.

Going back to the del.icio.us example, don't you think that when people were used to typing urls such as yahoo.com or google.com, having to remember those extra steps was at all discouraging? The more you have to remember, the more resistance that is there. From the research I've done on neuromarketing, this resistance can play a major role.

This is exactly why I don't like domains with words such as "center" in them, in which there is US versus UK spelling (i.e. center/centre). If you have to think about it, that is resistance. Whereas, for, say, dnf.com, as an example, there is very little to remember.

Now, mind you, most browsers do allow you to type URL's off of its memory (i.e. when I go to facebook, I only type "fa" and hit enter), but whether you're on a new computer, somebody else's computer, or anywhere else that you can't necessarily rely off of pre-remembered URL's, that is where domains have their value, and all attributes of what makes a domain good or bad come into play.

 

[MAllie]

Well, if you see some value in the theory, perhaps you should do a thesis on it. I can't see any value in it myself, even if you could convince me that the effect was present.

In the end it really doesn't matter either that you and I can type well - it is those looking for our domains who are the important ones. And I can find no evidence that any, let alone many, find that they are drawn towards names with a right-handed typing bias, or resist entering those with a left-handed bias into the search engine or tool bar (presuming that the same holds true for left-handers with names that have a left-handed or right-handed keyboard bias).

 

[grcorp]

Well, if you see some value in the theory, perhaps you should do a thesis on it. I can't see any value in it myself, even if you could convince me that the effect was present.

In the end it really doesn't matter either that you and I can type well - it is those looking for our domains who are the important ones. And I can find no evidence that any, let alone many, find that they are drawn towards names with a right-handed typing bias, or resist entering those with a left-handed bias into the search engine or tool bar (presuming that the same holds true for left-handers with names that have a left-handed or right-handed keyboard bias).

Well, you'd probably never be convinced that...

- You see the iPhone as being technologically advanced because it weights more than it needs to
- You feel inclined to stay in a Hyatt hotel because of a specially formulated scent they spray their rooms with, engineered for that very purpose
- Simply seeing the shade of "marlboro red" could cause someone trying to quit smoking have a craving in a matter of seconds

But the reality is, studies to prove these very things have been done to prove all these points true, regardless of peoples' opinions on their behaviours

I guess it's really up to the neuromarketers to take advantage of this.

 

[MAllie]

Well, you'd probably never be convinced that...

- You see the iPhone as being technologically advanced because it weights more than it needs to
- You feel inclined to stay in a Hyatt hotel because of a specially formulated scent they spray their rooms with, engineered for that very purpose
- Simply seeing the shade of "marlboro red" could cause someone trying to quit smoking have a craving in a matter of seconds

But the reality is, studies to prove these very things have been done to prove all these points true, regardless of peoples' opinions on their behaviours

I guess it's really up to the neuromarketers to take advantage of this.

I hadn't realised that I was being studied so closely by neuromarketers.

Ah, joking of course. You mean other people. Because it's a bit of an assumption, based on my arguments above, that I would think anything heavier was necessarily more advanced. Surely to believe the opposite is more instinctive nowadays? Neither can the scent in a hotel touch me, as I am anosmic. I do understand the third, although I have never smoked myself. I think this is just plain common sense, though, rather than something mysteriously to do with neuromarketing. Isn't it through colour and design that branding for biscuits (cookies) and most similar items is built up?

Are you still in school? I'm at the other end of the life spectrum and always look for the meaning behind the words rather than at the words themselves.

Where does all this leave you in relation to domaining? Are you buying your domains now based on how right-sidedly attractive you believe they are? Hmmm, that could make an interesting sales pitch for someone selling.

 

[Tedgeman]

I bought XgoX.com and OifO.com on how they looked and how short and easy they where to type in, also thought that OifO looks like a bike or motor bike, thought what a great brand it would make. So, I think your theory holds some water.

 

[cbk]

Tedgeman brilliant I would have not noticed that about the bike unless you brought it to our attention, you could morph the letters to look like a motor bike (It looks like a frickin chopper) have it zoom away followed by a .com. That concept of having the name look like a picture is extremely rare, I cant think of another one on the top of my head that short, way cool.


Maxwell you are very wise. You are like the Sigmund Freud of dnforum, that may come in handy.....

 

[MAllie]

Tedgeman brilliant I would have not noticed that about the bike unless you brought it to our attention, you could morph the letters to look like a motor bike (It looks like a frickin chopper) have it zoom away followed by a .com. That concept of having the name look like a picture is extremely rare, I cant think of another one on the top of my head that short, way cool.


Maxwell you are very wise. You are like the Sigmund Freud of dnforum, that may come in handy.....

Centuries from now when they are trying to trace the origin of the word OifO, they will come upon the DNForum archive and realise that the word was once 'bike.' Which gives me an idea: if we find meaningless words that are still available to reg, we can give them the meaning of some current keyword and then set about making the change viral on the net. After a while the original word (book, money, whatever) will be forgotten and we will have all the current keywords for reg fee.

---------- Post added at 06:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:23 AM ----------

Actually, this is not going to be as easy as I thought. Having settled on the letters 'e' and 'o' to represent folded notes and coins, I then discovered that oooeee.com (for money) has already been taken. Oh, well. Back to the drawing-board.

Yes, Maxwell, while learning typing has trained a warmth for particular letters out of me, I can see that you are definitely on to something here in the idea of some words being more attractive than others, whatever the reason.

 

[Tedgeman]

Hey, thanks for the affirmation on my visual domain choice, cbk and the humour MAllie, regarding OifO.com. There is more to this as well as the visual, as the "oh if only" expression could easily imply something, we wish we had or could afford, so in domain branding, this is oh so Kwool. Now all I need is a Bike company thats looking to brand, lol. All of it discovered here on DNF
I bought Xlbs.com on the same idea, and later the show xweighted came out, so again the idea is fun to play with.

 

[Biggie]

I hadn't realised that I was being studied so closely by neuromarketers.

it's more like.... "stimuli/stimulus applications" that illicit certain responses from a known group. while tabulating the variables of the unresponsive.

I'm at the other end of the life spectrum and always look for the meaning behind the words rather than at the words themselves.

nice!



to Maxell's point about those 11 letters:

a few of them are not considered "premium", according to some dn'ers standards, so how does/would that fit in with the theory/study or is it totally irrelevant?