The 4 letter .com domain niche, better known to domainers as LLLL.com names, is soon to be moving into a new phase. The amount of remaining four letter combinations for the dot com TLD as of the time of this posting is estimated to be a mere 450 names. It has taken many months for the remaining registrations of “non-premium” names (those which contain the letters Q, X, Z, V, U) to take place. It seems that sometime today the chance of registering ownership of an LLLL.com domain will no longer be possible except for when they are allowed to become expired.

LLLL vs. CCCC

To clarify in common domaining terms, there is quite a big difference between 4 letter domains and 4 character domains, which are referred to as LLLL.com and CCCC.com respectively. “Characters” can include hyphens or numbers.

The LLLL.com Countdown

DYYO, the unofficial authority on four letter domain names, has a feature which allows you to browse the last few names that are available to register. This is not 100% accurate and can be a little behind in updating but is the only freely available bulk data.

You can also check out this 90+ page long discussion topic on NamePros:

The LLLL Buzz

NamePros member c4smok comments that “I am glad to see it finally over. I have followed this for the last 4 months. It’s a great day for the internet, but I am worried about the economy. Can only hope this will last.” NoRest remarks “End of an era or end of an error? We’ll find out soon enough…” Vurg exclaims “99.9% Registered. Cool!“

Oh man! I just refreshed the NamePros topic and it’s been reported that only 400 LLLL.com are remaining. The last letter to go was “U”, why that’s relevant I have no idea!

The Aftermath

It’s official! Every four letter combination dot com domain has been registered at one point in time. Aftermarket sales, expired drop catching or backordering are now your two options for acquiring an LLLL.com domain.

The prices are not expected to sky rocket but they will increase some, especially for those few good quality words and abbreviations. I will do my best to follow the trends on sales, LLLL domain drops and report on the latest news from around the domain industry blogosphere related to this event.