All popular .ly

12.07.2009 | Author: Marko | Posted in .LY, Analysis

An everyday dictionary of an average Englishman is just about 800 words. Unbelievable, but a fact. When building brands, good marketeers pay attention to what rings bells, focusing main.ly on top 3000 words. Among those 3000 top English words, we found 73 ending with "ly" and tried to analyse how they will map on .ly domain names:

on.ly (85), usual.ly (300), fami.ly (311), real.ly (341), ear.ly (355), probab.ly (427), slow.ly (441), quick.ly (449), final.ly (473), careful.ly (489), sudden.ly (535), f.ly (645), near.ly (651), easi.ly (727), exact.ly (749), especial.ly (782), actual.ly (1,011), simp.ly (1,107), hard.ly (1,194), certain.ly (1,203), Bil.ly (1,204), supp.ly (1,233), direct.ly (1,324), complete.ly (1,351), quiet.ly (1,386), correct.ly (1,390), like.ly (1,420), clear.ly (1,448), close.ly (1,450), friend.ly (1,487), rapid.ly (1,495), general.ly (1,520), immediate.ly (1,528), Ita.ly (1,558), soft.ly (1,632), particular.ly (1,714), most.ly (1,766), love.ly (1,779), gent.ly (1,837), Sal.ly (1,840), frequent.ly (1,847), gradual.ly (1,853), slight.ly (1,882), sure.ly (1,938), dai.ly (1,989), great.ly (2,015), mere.ly (2,026), safe.ly (2,102), entire.ly (2,108), recent.ly (2,116), high.ly (2,149), part.ly (2,165), lone.ly (2,183), Ju.ly (2,208), fair.ly (2,423), eventual.ly (2,470), natural.ly (2,536), perfect.ly (2560), tight.ly (2580), bad.ly (2585), main.ly (2603), firm.ly (2,610), wide.ly (2,655), equal.ly (2,760), ful.ly (2,784), proper.ly (2,791), occasional.ly (2,806), deep.ly (2,869), original.ly (2,872), happi.ly (2,874), constant.ly (2,891), sil.ly (2,958), and possib.ly (2,992)
* - (the numbers in brackets represent popularity in top 3000 English word ranking)

So which are the most popular? Is "sudden.ly" real.ly more popular than "f.ly"? It all depends on how you look on it. According to Google, the most popular search engine, this is how they spread:

quickly (1,370), family (935), July (828), early (643), only (429), Italy (374), finally (340), friendly (299), fully (270), nearly (258), likely (250), eventually (237), closely (226), supply (203), clearly (162), mostly (154), really (129), fly (119), widely (107), directly (97), usually (94), recently (92), daily (92), slightly (89), lovely (84), carefully (82), especially (72), particularly (70), actually (68), probably (63), highly (63), simply (63), rapidly (62), fairly (61), slowly (59), easily (59), perfectly (59), originally (56), generally (53), suddenly (51), immediately (50), naturally (49), completely (48), hardly (47), deeply (47), exactly (40), silly (38), safely (36), lonely (35), certainly (34), frequently (34), partly (33), possibly (30), properly (28), Sally (28), mainly (27), badly (26), gently (23), entirely (22), happily (21), firmly (21), greatly (21), correctly (20), equally (18), Billy (18), constantly (17), quietly (17), merely (16), tightly (16), surely (13), occasionally (13), gradually (12), and softly (7)
* - (the numbers in brackets represent million of Google hits)

And yet, some domain are jingly, like "quick.ly", and some are just domain hacks, e.g., "fami.ly". Obvious.ly, jing.ly names are worth more than hack.ly ones.

Googling the roots of jingling names will give us the following results:

exactly (1,100), slowly (901), likely (403), mostly (321), lovely (277), highly (271), partly (259), closely (232), really (229), friendly (224), mainly (223), greatly (220), recently (220), generally (218), completely (152), originally (144), finally (136), surely (129), hardly (124), badly (115), quickly (113), directly (103), clearly (99), particularly (97), certainly (91), nearly (87), naturally (80), entirely (80), perfectly (77), widely (71), actually (69), safely (56), correctly (55), softly (54), deeply (51), especially (51), fairly (43), firmly (37), properly (36), rapidly (34), immediately (31), constantly (29), equally (29), usually (25), frequently (22), tightly (20), quietly (19), merely (19), carefully (19), slightly (13), suddenly (11), occasionally (9), gently (8), eventually (6), gradually (5), and lonely (5)
* - (the numbers in brackets represent million of Google hits)

While the results for hacks are less impressive:

only (860), fly (406), daily (30), July (24), early (16), Italy (15), Sally (14), Billy (11), silly (6), family (5), fully (5), supply (2), happily (2), simply (2), easily (1), possibly (1), and probably (0.2)
* - (the numbers in brackets represent million of Google hits)

It seems there is no one right answer. We tried many other metrics, then weighted them in many possible way. Final.ly, the top three winners emerged:

  1. on.ly
  2. quick.ly
  3. slow.ly

Which one is your favourite?


Short link: http://name.ly/~IhVL$3T

9 Responses

  1. Marko December 7th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Indeed, let us not go too far. Take a recent article in The Economist on music piracy, the three sentences go as follows:

    “ROCK and roll is dead,” sang Lenny Kravitz. It is certain.ly poor.ly. Music was the first media business to be serious.ly affected by piracy and has suffered most severe.ly.

    Source: http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14845087

  2. Marko December 12th, 2009 at 9:56 am

    Talking about available domains, “shy.ly” is a one.

  3. Marko December 24th, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Surprising.ly, sing.ly and sign.ly are still available while surprising.ly is taken.

  4. Marko January 2nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    Proud.ly and Tip.ly can be yours for just 500 $US!

    http://www.sedo.com/search/searchresult.php4?start_search=1&linkurl=&partnerid=44384&language=e&session=a25198f22c75afd0c14f9baa77115642&tracked=1&keyword=&cc=ly&kws=2&cat=113&price=%25&listing_type=all&age=%25&len=%25&no_idn=1&checkeddomains=1&checkedprojects=1&visitors=%25&rel=1&pagesize=25&search_language=e&search_type=advanced

  5. Marko January 4th, 2010 at 10:27 am

    Another one to grab is sore.ly – a funeral agency maybe?

  6. Marko January 14th, 2010 at 5:16 am

    Until 10th of January, coward.ly was still available. But as cowardly.com is now promoted on Sedo’s Great Domains – .ly version of the jingle was gone in seconds.

  7. Sedo Watcher February 6th, 2010 at 7:36 am

    Just looked up fatal.ly – goes as of November last year.

  8. Marko February 27th, 2010 at 10:10 am

    For your information close.ly was sold for $5000 in last December.

    At the moment the page is parked with this disclaimer:

    We’re here to make real-time social networks work better for businesses and consumers. We’ll connect you to offers from local businesses you know and trust.

    We’re putting promotions in the right place — around you.

    contact us – info@closely.com

    A nice thing about the page, is that if you reload it, by pressing F5 key, you will get it in different colour.

  9. Marko August 29th, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    Among those top 73 in global top 3000, this is how they are represented by the number of hits found on Google (first numer represent position in top 3000 ~ the second number represent number of hits found on Google in millions):

    only (85 ~ 429), usually (300 ~ 95), family (311 ~ 935), really (341 ~ 129), early (355 ~ 643), probably (427 ~ 63), slowly (441 ~ 60), quickly (449 ~ 1370), finally (473 ~ 340), carefully (489 ~ 83), suddenly (535 ~ 51), fly (645 ~ 119), nearly (651 ~ 258), easily (727 ~ 60), exactly (749 ~ 41), especially (782 ~ 72), actually (1011 ~ 69), simply (1107 ~ 63), hardly (1194 ~ 48), certainly (1203 ~ 35), Billy (1204 ~ 18), supply (1233 ~ 203), directly (1324 ~ 97), completely (1351 ~ 48), quietly (1386 ~ 18), correctly (1390 ~ 21), likely (1420 ~ 250), clearly (1448 ~ 162), closely (1450 ~ 226), friendly (1487 ~ 299), rapidly (1495 ~ 63), generally (1520 ~ 53), immediately (1528 ~ 50), Italy (1558 ~ 374), softly (1632 ~ 7), particularly (1714 ~ 71), mostly (1766 ~ 154), lovely (1779 ~ 84), gently (1837 ~ 24), Sally (1840 ~ 29), frequently (1847 ~ 34), gradually (1853 ~ 12), slightly (1882 ~ 90), surely (1938 ~ 14), daily (1989 ~ 92), greatly (2015 ~ 21), merely (2026 ~ 17), safely (2102 ~ 36), entirely (2108 ~ 22), recently (2116 ~ 92), highly (2149 ~ 63), partly (2165 ~ 33), lonely (2183 ~ 36), July (2208 ~ 828), fairly (2423 ~ 61), eventually (2470 ~ 237), naturally (2536 ~ 49), perfectly (2560 ~ 59), tightly (2580 ~ 16), badly (2585 ~ 26), mainly (2603 ~ 28), firmly (2610 ~ 22), widely (2655 ~ 107), equally (2760 ~ 19), fully (2784 ~ 270), properly (2791 ~ 29), occasionally (2806 ~ 14), deeply (2869 ~ 48), originally (2872 ~ 56), happily (2874 ~ 22), constantly (2891 ~ 18), silly (2958 ~ 39), possibly (2992 ~ 31)