Welcome to Thought - Less Design 101

In the heady days of the dot com era, every man and his dog was rushing to get on the gigantic money making machine that was going to be the Web. A few Aspros and a lot less cash later, reality came crashing back to earth.

Some of those in their rush to register their 'must have' names should have taken just a wee bit longer, it seems.. [Adults only: No rude pictures]

I've registered a few domain names in my time, hopefully none that approach these ones in 'multi functionality'.

When it comes to building websites, sometimes Clients get so enthusiastic that well...

Sometimes a website name sounds good at the time, but after its registered, the business is up and running, another way of saying it proves to be quite embarrassing, often hilarious.

Some businesses may have been running for years and decide to get a web site. A fairly innocuous name suddenly, when stringed together as on the web gets an entire different meaning.

Usually these err.. misnomers are picked up and the odd hyphen or extra word in between changes things, sometimes they're not picked up and we're left.. laughing.

The common example that appears on the Internet is a website called Experts Exchange, where techies(Guys who prefer computers to Girlfriends) gather to answer each others questions.

The founder of the site was using what seemed like the very nice domain name of ExpertsExchange.com, and it became very popular. But, early on, he found out that some were reading the the domain name differently, mispronouncing it as ExpertSexChange.com. LOL!

The website has since changed its name to Experts-Exchange.com . Now people are less likely to think its a rather specialist website for experts wanting gender reassignment.

Everyone now understands he is not in the business of performing sex change operations for experts(??)

Other classic mispronounced domain names.

One is the site WhoRepresents.com, with the unfortunate alternate enunciation of WhorePresents.com. What ever you do, I strongly recommend you don?t buy the present on your credit card! (If your into that kind of thing.)

Another is TherapistFinder.com, for those looking for California marriage and family therapists. Unfortunately, the wrong clientele might stumble upon the site as TheRapistFinder.com.

And then there is PenIsland.net, where you can buy custom pens. However, someone could mistake their site name for something else if they pronounce it PenisLand.net.

Adding to the hilarity - it seems the site owner has written some of his product descriptions with this misnomer and ambiguity in mind:

"Whether you're looking for a long and skinny pen, a thick pen, a fountain pen that squirts ink, or even a black pen, we have just the one for you."

Mmmm seems they've got one for every body.

And if the first website name ExpertsExchange.com was one you were hoping was still working, and your looking for ..ahem Gender reassignment then I'm pretty sure, even if you were an expert looking for a sex change these guys will accept your dollar.

You can head over to DollarSexChange.com. Oh sorry, that was DollarsExchange.com.

Another blogger used Whois.sc's Domain Explorer function to find all registered names that ended in "sexechange.com". There were dozens that were obviously meant to have meanings other sex change. But, the owners must have figured out the problems with them because about all are not in use. These are names like:

• Comics Exchange.com (ComicSexChange.com)
• VeteransExchange.com (VeteranSexChange.com)
• MusiciansExchange.com (MusicianSexChange.com)
• ActorsExchange.com (ActorSexChange.com)
• ExoticsExchange.com (ExoticSexChange.com)
• GraphicsExchange.com (GraphicSexChange.com)
• HomesExchange.com (HomeSexChange.com)
• KidsExchange.com (KidSexChange.com)
• MomsExchange.com (MomSexChange.com)
• PlayersExchange (PlayerSexChange.com)
• WomensExchange.com (WomenSexChange.com)
• StudentsExchange.com (StudentSexChange.com)
  .....and last but not least
• Plastics Exchange http://www.plasticsexchange.com/
  In their FAQ, last question: - Do you know that, if separated, your name spells
  "The Plastic Sex Change"? Answer: "Yup" That's respect.

Some other active sites with interesting names:

Here's a list of some funny URLs, where the designer didn't thinking about how people would read the name of the site:
1) Who Represents?, a database for agencies to the rich and famous:
http://www.whorepresents.com

2) Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange
advice and views:
http://www.expertsexchange.com

3) Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island:
http://www.penisland.net or maybe www.penisland.org

4) Need a therapist?
http://www.therapistfinder.com

5) Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
http://www.molestationnursery.com

6) Gas central heating anyone?
http://www.gasheating.co.uk

7) New to Milan and you need electric light? Why not sign up on-line with
Power-Gen?
http://www.powergenitalia.com

8) Ever wanted to visit beautiful Lake Tahoe ?
It seems they offer more than wildlife experiences
http://www.gotahoe.com/

9) Seems awfully cruel , I thought your first hair cut as a child was traumatic..
http://www.achildshaven.com/

10) If you're sick of stalking Movie stars there's always models..
http://www.modelstalking.com

11. This one must be for voyeurs??

http://www.opticsexpress.org

12) Those Stock brookers party hard on the week ends..

http://www.tradersexpo.com

13) I've never really been into pain but hey...

ChooseSpain.com is also ChoosesPain.com

14) And last but not least, seems I'm even catered for if I decide on Gender reassignment..

GraphicArtsExchange.com is also GraphicArtSexChange.com

It would be near impossible to thank all the blogs, websites that have collected names on this list. Even if I thanked a certain website the chances are, they got this name or that name from another blog/website. In the spirit of sharing a laugh, thank you to those that contributed, and those that want to use this post. just don't use my hosting. If you want to use my picture at the top say thank you on your blog.
Aaron
Bagelblogger

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Google , thanks to all the websites that provided links.
: * Funny Web Names * Thoughtless domain names * Humor * Bad Design * Domain name spelling * Domain name shame * Domain name mistakes * Website disasters * Website funnies * Change of business * Website disasters * Israel * Jewish * BagelBlogger * Bagel Blogger