Cool Domains for Cool People, Less Cool Domains for Less Cool People

Progressive Enhancement to Emoji Domains

Check this out: 😎🌐.ws

Did you see 😎🌐.ws in your browser address bar or cooldomain.ws?

Although the functionality is universal, interaction with that page depends on the capabilities of your browser.

Progressive Enhancement to Emoji Domains

For Web Developers, the idea of establishing a base layer of functionality available to most browsers while reserving the “special stuff” for more cutting-edge users is nothing new.

“Progressive Enhancement,” the strategy of more nuanced and technically rigorous layers of presentation and features on top of the content as the end-user’s browser/internet connection allow, is widely practiced in our industry.

If your browser supports HTTP2/0, we’ll hook you up. Better video? If your browser can do it, we’re happy to oblige. Sockets? You get realtime updates.

No One Likes Punycode

We’ve embraced punycode at i❤️.ws because that’s, like, our thing.

We get it, though: xn — i-7iq.ws is probably not a great domain name.

Millions of Phones Support Emoji Domains

There are a lot of Emoji Domains in the world. 99.9% of them forward.

Who can blame ‘em?

❤️🍺.ws is a great domain, but since only 25% of visitors have Emoji Domain capable devices, the site presents a “regular” url to serve both audiences.

Here’s the thing, though: 25%, that’s a lot of people. It’s a huge opportunity. It’s hundreds of millions of people.

You have a chance to blow your user’s minds. Emoji Domains might’ve established a solid reputation in the nerd / tech community but the regular mom with an iPhone has no idea this is possible.

She’ll love your domain. She’ll remember your domain. She’ll text her friends your domain.

Emoji Domains: It’s Not Either / Or

Why not have it both ways?

Conditional forwarding for Emoji Domains.

This concept isn’t some technological breakthrough and believe me, our UrlEmojifier [github] technology isn’t rocket science. It’s more of a shift in the way we think about domains.

It’s ok to have more than one url.

In fact, it’s desirable. Potentially, you’re serving two very different audiences.

70% of web traffic is mobile. For those customers, give them an expressive and memorable domain: something like 😎🌐.ws.

Then, for browsers which can’t handle Emoji Domains, downgrade to cooldomain.ws. It’s still… cool. It’s just not as cool.

Delivering Cool Domains

For a user visiting the site, the process of switching between URLs has to be efficient, quick, and work in both directions. That is to say, visitors to both 😎🌐.ws and cooldomain.ws get redirected to the right place, regardless of their entry path.

Also, the URL structure must be preserved: 😎🌐.ws/word/up?homeys keeps its path, regardless of the browser or domain.

Progressive Enhancement to Emoji Domains

People love Emoji Domains. They’re fun and mobile-first.

Emoji Domains are a concept which advertises itself. Once people see them, they’re consistently like, “Whoa. I didn’t know that was possible.”

😎🌐.ws and Progressive Enhancement points the way forward.

If you’re interested — especially if you already own an Emoji Domain — take a moment to look at the URLEmojifier on Github. Give your users a delightful experience.

Installation only takes 30 seconds: it’s just some dropin HTML with a quick edit to some initialization code. It’s been tested and works across all browsers.

Let us know what you think! Drop by i❤️.ws Emoji Domain Registration or hit us up on Twitter @ EmojiDomains