Brain teasers gone numeric

'Priscilla Gone Missing,' an escape-adventure-flash game like the famous 'Crimson Room' brain teaser mystery, utilizes a wordnumber for one of the steps. Translate a string of four letters that appears on the ground into the corresponding numbers on an on-screen keypad and 'you're in' [the elevator, that is].

Play the game at http://www.a123.com/games/969/Pricilla_Gone_Missing

Gold mining - numeric domainers get your pans ready

While we are watching our previous list get whittled down daily, we thought to help build the momentum for NNNNNN.com's, 6 digit numeric domains, with the mac-daddy of all NNNNNN.com lists. Here's a list of the most common 6 letter words that we found as compiled by Princeton University. That list yields 2,891 words and of that amount 2,156 words are not registered in their dotcom wordnumber. For example, the wordnumber for the 6-letter word 'Genius' is 436487. Genius is indeed a brand of a company and its dotcom wordnumber (domain) 436487.com is not registered; it's available. So are over 2,000 wordnumbers for generic words that are currently brands and others that may be brands one day.

New-Zealand based WordDial has registered tens of thousands (or more) numeric domain wordnumbers for GENERIC WORDS. Many of these generic words below probably are duds, but like the good ol' days of panning for gold, you gotta keep swirling the sand and you're certain to find a few nuggets.

For a bunch of reasons including our efforts to try to keep all blogposts to a consistent length, we decided to take down the list and provide a short sample instead. At some juncture in the future, we'll repost the list in its entirety.
222837.COM abater
223828.COM abduct
225328.COM abject
225283.COM ablate
225293.COM ablaze
226273.COM aboard
226863.COM abound
227233.COM abrade
227623.COM abroad
227368.COM absent
227672.COM absorb
227873.COM absurd
222368.COM accent
222378.COM accept
222673.COM accord
222783.COM accrue
222873.COM accuse
223842.COM acetic
224464.COM aching
224342.COM acidic
227848.COM acquit
227677.COM across
228825.COM actual

Masterlist of dotTLD wordnumbers

Masterlist of dotTLD (com/net/mobi/co.uk) brand wordnumbers owned by internet companies; only hyperlinked TLDs are set to resolve:

ChaCha - 242242.com/net/mobi/co.uk
3663 First For Foodservice - 3663.co.uk
Expedia - 3973342.net
4Info - 44636.com/net/mobi
Gmail - 46245.com - doesn't resolve
Google - 466453.com
GoogleMail- 4664536245.com/net - doesn't resolve
Sony - 47669.com/mobi
Reuters - 7388377.mobi - doesn't resolve
Yahoo - 92466.mobi/.net/co.uk
Where 411 - 94373.net
WordDial - 96733425.com

This list - currently under construction - is for informational use only and comprises soley brand (non-generics) wordnumbers.

Masterlist of dotTLD wordnumbers

This post moved

By phone, by web...by golly, what a good idea!

3663 First for Foodservice, the largest foodservice distributor in Britain, doesn't use the domain 3663.co.uk just because it's easy to type and it spells the company's core product, 'food.' The main service hotlines of 3663 actually include the numeric string '3663.' Enquiries to 3663's corporate headquarters for a multitude of services are made to 0870 3663 XXX. For instance, independent caterers may enquire about 3663's services at 0870 3663 100, while catering chains dial 0870 3663 720, catering equipment enquirers call 0870 3663 960, human resources is reached at 0870 3663 358, the business support center is 0870 3663 100, etc...

How easy is that? Caterers, restaurant owners and other clients of 3663 find that it's a cinch to remember the phone number to make enquiries, and even easier for the domain name (3663.co.uk). Do you know of any other company name that is a brand, a domain name, and part of the telephone number?

Other companies can learn from the success of 3663 First for Foodservice, which was recently ranked 19 in the 2007 Sunday Times list of the UK’s Best Big Companies to Work For. Although a vast majority of companies won't go so far as to simply drop their name in favor of a numeric one, companies could consider doing what 3663 did: register both a telephone hotline number and a domain name that are your brand's wordnumber. So, let's say, you are the CEO of Sproose, the 'user-improved' search engine. Why not obtain the phone number 1-888-777-6673, or one of the other toll-free equivalents, and also register the domain 7776673.com? 7776673 spells Sproose on most phone keypads. Once you 'spell' it out, customers will 'get it' and ever after remember your phone number and type your domain name with ease.

3663 for thought

If you have eaten out in Britain lately, you most likely ate food delivered by 3663. The company 3663 First for Foodservice is the largest foodservice distributor in Britain. Popularly known as just '3663', the company supplies raw materials to restaurants, pubs, canteens, and even the Queen - the firm holds a royal warrant for delivering "groceries and frozen goods" to Her Majesty. Some of their 10,000 products are fresh, high-quality ingredients and others are processed foods destined for the deep fat fryer of local fast-food outlets.

What is special about this highly successful yet discrete firm is that 3663 spells "food" on your telephone keypad. And that's no coincidence. That was intentional. According to their website, which is located at www.3663.co.uk, "3663 (three double six three) spells 'food' on your phone keypad. " In Britspeak, customers refer to it as "Three Double Six Three".

3663 is owned by a South African company, The Bidvest Group Ltd., which belongs to a growing group of Southern Hemisphere organizations that are pioneering the concept of the wordnumber.

DigitURL takes on short wordnumbers

DigitURL now provides users with a near replica of Google Number Search translation for short wordnumber (numeric) entries. It has done this without the use - so it appears - of a manually created database of urls with their wordnumber translations.

Take for instance the string '222.' DigitURL returns every popular brand associated with that wordnumber. You get ABC. You get BBC. You get CBC (Canada Broadcasting Company). And ALL within 4 keytaps of opening the DigitURL app or bookmarked link. Compare with typing out BBC.com, an incredibly long 14 taps (w/o the dot).

This is precisely the type of search query that, of all available web-services, only Google Number Search could handle (until now). View, for comparison, what results GNS provides for the same search query of '222': http://www.google.com/search?q=num%3A222

What is significant is that both services provide results for short wordnumber strings that are meaningful - the results for 2 or 3 digit wordnumbers are ranked in a similar sort of way that search engines provide. That is a pretty difficult task considering that any 3-digit wordnumber, for instance, could be associated with 27 dotcom domains (more for the numbers 7 and 9 which have four letters assigned to them) - assuming that every LLL.com is regged. The situation gets even more complex when you think of all the other cc TLDs. There is significantly less competition for wordnumbers (including dotcom wordnumbers) that are four or more digits in length. Yet DigitURL does both just fine - most major brands with URLs of a medium to long length are represented by their wordnumber (6977223 is MySpace) and wordnumber search queries for brands with tiny URL lengths go to the popular brands you know.

The problem - and it may be intentional - is that there is a local bias that we're experiencing using DigitURL, which is based in Australia; Jamptap is based in the U.S. A trial of the wordnumbers for the 3 digit domains listed in Alexa's top 100 sites in Australia work perfectly - but those in the U.S. top 100 don't. For instance, several domains (of brands that are 2-3 digits long) in the Australian Alexa top 100 including go.com (#50), NSW (#52), VIC (#65), IGN (#70), qq (#76) and even HI5.com (#85) are represented in the results (assigned with accesskeys) when their wordnumbers are entered. This is not the case with the Alexa U.S. top 100 - the brands of many wordnumbers aren't shown in the results.

This begs the question, is DigitURL positioning itself as an internet company primarily targeting Australian consumers? This was the initial posture of WordDial, which began with a near exclusive New Zealand base of users, and since has been building an international clientelle and user base. Without knowing how DigitURL completes its wordnumber translations, it is difficult to suggest how its results could be improved. It is our assumption that DigitURL's algorithm is linked to a search engine with local bias for Australia - we could be wrong about this. If this was the case, then changing that association to a 'global' search engine would be better - at least if maximizing profits is the goal of their business. Certainly DigitURL could do their own geotargeting based on users' ip addresses and provide search results accordingly.

Update1: DigitURL's algorithm also works on some 4 digit or longer wordnumbers - the algorithm is easier to test (and more impressive) using 2 and 3 digit wordnumbers, of course. We found success with the wordnumbers for nearly every single major brand/website in Australia and also for generic words such as 'match', 'money', 'chat', 'love', 'mobile', 'ymail', and others that aren't mentioned on the Short DigitURL list. In sum, DigitURL has stumbled upon an early-stage all-purpose DNS (DigitURL Number System) made for Australians. What about the rest of us?

DigitURL

Most internet users know about the webservice TinyURL.com, which allows users to create url shortcuts to lengthier ones. Tinyurl web addresses consist of a random code, usually 6 digits in length, appended to the end of the domain http://Tinyurl.com (i.e., Tinyurl.com/dw2f9k). A new webservice to address the keypad pressing woes of mobile internet users has popped up. It's called DigitURL and its concept is pretty much the same. Like Tinyurl, it is a URL redirection utility. Accessed via its mobile-friendly webpage or its mobile app, DigitURL allows users to create a numeric code to represent a web destination (perhaps a youtube video address); the code is always a random set of 11 numbers. Obviously, using numbers instead of a letter-number combination, as used by Tinyurl, makes more sense from a mobile phone keypad point of view. The main difference between 'DigitURL' and 'Tinyurl' is that DigitURL doesn't expect you to type in a full url (i.e. DigitURL.com/466453). The expectation is that you will remember in your head (or copy and paste) the DigitURL, the 11-digit numeric code, and enter that code in the DigitURL mobile app on your phone or bookmark DigitURL's website and plug in the numeric code there.

Users are given the opportunity to create their DigitURL for whichever address they please, however the numeric code they get is always a random array of 11 numbers and never the wordnumber. For instance, I decided to create the DigitURL for Craigslist.com and got this http://digiturl.com/85834397256 and got this http://digiturl.com/39767443628 for Furl.com.

Clearly, the concept of creating a DigitURL is not for common brands/major websites. For those, the webmaster has complete control over the assignment of wordnumbers as Short DigitURLs. And, so we must mention the 'Short DigitURL' list. The website states:

Short DigitURLs are for major sites and correspond to the letters on the phone buttons. To obtain a short DigitURL for your website/blog and get it included in this list, please include a prominent mention of DigitURL.com on your site and then contact me.

The moniker 'Short' is employed because using wordnumbers for DigitURLs will result in numeric arrays that are most often - though not always - shorter than 11 numbers long. Furl would be 4 digits and TDAmeritrade would be 12 digits.

At the time of writing this, many major web destinations aren't listed on the Short DigitURL list including Craigslist.org, which we singled out for no particular reason as an example. Is the webmaster expecting Craiglist's CEO to post a prominent mention of DigitURL.com at Craigslist.org and email him to get Craiglist's wordnumber set up as the DigitURL to be posted on the Short DigitURL list? I'm guessing DigitURL has decided to already set up some of the most popular destinations since I doubt CNN, ebay, ESPN, etc... all jumped through the hoops since the website was launched in November.

It seems the smarter concept would be to assign all the wordnumbers for major websites right away as Short DigitURLs - and show ads on the launch page (known as the URL Preview page). This is what mobile users need most. Why? The greatest impediment to mobile web surfing is that walled gardens don't allow users easy access to all their favorite websites and those websites have incredibly long urls to type with a tiny mobile phone keypad. The vast majority of brand dotcom wordnumbers are held by a small number of investors and one New Zealand company called WordDial. Until those domain properties are recognized for their value, purchased or leased and set up by major companies, there is no easy way to access urls on the mobile web. If all major brand wordnumbers as Short DigitURLs were all set to go, then more users would frequent the site, business would boom and ad revenue would soar. These DigitURLs would be most often shorter than 11 digits and would not require memorizing or cutting and pasting from emails random DigitURLs (like the ones for Furl and Craigslist above). Wordnumbers don't require memorization; all they require is the rote pressing of the number on your keypad that corresponds with the letter. Google once had such a solution and Google could put the Short DigitURL List out of commission in a second if it wanted to relaunch a version of that mobile webpage.

Certainly problems will creep up with DigitURL. How will multiple brands vie for the shorter DigitURL wordnnumbers such as 222 or 3776 (esso, espn, etc...). Who will win out when ABC and BBC both want the DigitURL 222?

And this gave me chuckle
I seem to recall that you don't need a URL redirection utility to access Google on a mobile phone. Google owns its own dotcom wordnumber; Google = 466453.com.

Changes at WordDial

It appears that some changes have been underway at WordDial, the New Zealand company that is the worldwide leading owner of numeric domain names.

Several of WordDial's top, unused domains, including 262966.com and 6984637.com, the (dot com) wordnumbers for Amazon and NY Times, respectively, are no longer parked - as they have been for years - but rather point to WordDial portals that currently are under development. Other wordnumbers, such as 2226397.com (ABC/BBC News), resolve to their own portal that simply read: 'This portal does not currently contain any information. If you would like to see information listed here then please contact us and let us know.' Other wordnumbers, such as 2378289.com (BestBuy) and 66542.com (Nokia), resolve to WordDial portals that link to sites unrelated to their word-numbers.

Other changes at WordDial: the wordnumbers for Microsoft, 642767638.com, and its Live brand, 5483.com, are once again portals. They were portals in 2006, but then parked for many months and now back to being portals.

So, what's going on at WordDial? I'd have to assume that parking numeric domains is really unprofitable for WordDial (as it probably is for everyone else!) and so forwarding domains to unrelated or undeveloped sections of their website is better than nothing. As for the portals that are allegedly under development, such as 262966.com (the dot com wordnumber for Amazon), I doubt that partnership deals were really stricken and rather these undeveloped pages are designed to illustrate - by both demonstrating mobile capability and showing the actual word translations for dot com wordnumbers (i.e., spelling out Amazon on the 262966.com page) - to prospective clients how the WordDial system could work for them.

I kind of feel bad for WordDial that its click through rates for numeric domains are so unappealing that they'd rather display a page that reads 'this portal does not currently contain any information...please contact us and let us know.'

WordDial would get better results and more partnerships by creating better demos and also advertising more widely. Why? The majority of corporate executives don't even know about the numeric domain market, let alone the wordnumber concept. The dot com wordnumbers for Google and Yahoo haven't caught on in the least. If those companies won't do the marketing, someone has got to.

In March, Yahoo signed a partnership agreement with WordDial, which has owned its wordnumber, 92466.com, for several years.