Ask HN: Ever seen two companies share a domain?

2 pointsby mitchellst5 lat temu2 comments

When I was in college I was helping a small business set up a website. The business's name was long. The obvious .com domain name, while available, would have been unwieldy to type in an email. The owner often abbreviated the company's name with three letters, and wondered if we could have the three-letter domain ".com." Of course, that domain was already in use, to which he asked, "can we have it too?"

I asked what he wanted people to see when they typed in the web address. On the one hand, every millennial has stories of explaining how the internet works to impatient, older people. He was especially scandalized (and I don't think he fully believed me) when he learned what registered domain names generally cost. Remembering that conversation now has me thinking... the internet is a weird place full of ad-hoc cooperative arrangements. In the age of JSON-LD schemas, well-known URLs, and EXTERNAL SENDER warnings, perhaps no corporation with a significant digital strategy will stomach sharing a domain. But do any of you know of examples of domain sharing among smaller firms? Does anybody make it work? How did the arrangement come about?

2 comments

arkitaip5 lat temu

I can't think of a single case. Most company websites can barely support the needs of their own organizations, often resulting in employees using SaaS to circumvent IT. Sharing a domain with a totally different corporate entity? Unimaginable. Domains are so cheap, so crucial and burden with so much bureaucracy that it just doesn't make sense.

quantumofalpha5 lat temu

Only for companies that share a corporate parent, e.g. @google.com for any Alphabet subsidiary, or free email provider - lots of small businesses operate from @gmail.com