Optimizely (YC W10) launches super simple behavioral targeting for A/B testing(blog.optimizely.com)
blog.optimizely.com
Optimizely (YC W10) launches super simple behavioral targeting for A/B testing
http://blog.optimizely.com/optimizely-launches-behavioral-targeted-ab-te
1 comments
It's a little strange that, with a name ending in 'ly', they don't have the .ly domain name.
I think they made a good decision to go with a .com.
Thanks. FWIW, we do own optimize.ly but we have it set up with bitly Pro. This makes it easy for us to do short URLs (see: http://twitter.com/optimizely). Unfortunately it costs $995 per month to do the root domain redirect (see: http://bit.ly/pro/products). Hard to justify the cost considering how many delicious burritos per month this could buy.
Sounds like a good decision for now. Although I wonder if it's smart in the long run to be blocking out root redirect to optimize.ly, which is the URL many users may attempt to reach, in order to have shortened URLs of that form in tweets, where the domain name matters less since people would just be clicking a link. I really like the concept of the name showing up instead of bit.ly in retweets, but then that might lead people who hear about Optimizely on twitter to be even more confused if they try to go to optimize.ly. I wasn't aware of this kind of setup with bit.ly; is this a common issue since the pro price point is so high?
I do think that a .com is better than a .ly because we've grown sick of "cute" domain names, but we've (at least I've) mostly grown sick of non .com's because they often tack on top-level domains to create nonsensical English words (see: my HN username, chosen for lack of creativity). The strange thing about Optimizely is that they've gone for one of these nonsensical, top-level-domain-inspired English words, but not the domain associated with it; to me, it seems like the worst of both worlds (note: I don't personally care that much; I think the site and product looks great, it was just an interesting point I noticed). More importantly, I honestly think people would hear about Optimizely, and then get frustrated or confused when optimize.ly redirects to bit.ly (though I guess people who aren't then willing to do a quick google search might not be their target audience).