From the Inquisitr.com:

Low-character names may be all snatched up when it comes to domains, but nearly 18,000 three-character names are still unclaimed on Twitter, one monitoring service says.

Domain Pigeon says it’s detected 17,855 available three-character names on Twitter as of this morning. Unfortunately, you have to pay to sign up and see what the names are, but it’s still interesting to know that many are open.

The site’s creator tells CNET he’s found “quite a few good” names still available on Twitter. I’m hoping that these, which are currently featured on Domain Pigeon’s home page, are not among them:

@potties, @smelled, @orally,@erects, @dampest, @skinned, @gropers, @piggery, @elfland, @vinegar, @atticsalt, @spermoil, @cervix, @rapists, @garbagetruck, @umbrellatree

“Potties”? “Spermoil”? “Umbrellatree”?! Actually, “umbrellatree” isn’t half-bad. Maybe I’ll go snatch that one up.

So, yeah.

I should have vetted the names this week more closely to avoid this type of criticism. Even on the CNET article, the Twitter name he demoed in the screenshot was for ‘potties’.

Lesson learned: Be beyond reproach.

For the record I think ‘garbage truck’ and ‘elf land’ are cool names. :)

From WebsiteMagazine.com:

Domain research engine Domain Pigeon now enables users to search and browse unclaimed Twitter usernames in addition to domain names.

Much the same way domain name research works on Domain Pigeon, users can  filter results to display recently added Twitter names, view them alphabetically, gauge popularity or see only names with three or four letters (there are over 17,000 remaining) although you must be a paid, registered user of the site (a one time payment of $39.95) for that priviledge.

Membership might provide you with valuable access to a lot of interesting information, but even the free service offers a lot of valuable data and insights and is worth checking out. Hundreds of Twitter usernames are added each day and there are quite a few that are available right now that might make for a good Twitter brand. One of the interesting features of the service is that you can see how many other people are also interested.

From CNET:

Domain Pigeon, the domain finding service that lets you search and browse unclaimed domains, now does the same thing for Twitter usernames. It shows you which names are unclaimed, and puts some of the most recent or popular additions on the front page, where you’re able to see which ones other users are clicking on.

As with domain names you can filter down the results to see only names with three or four letters, although to do so you must be a paid, registered user of the site. Those users can also see a larger, and more complete index of names.

Creator Matt Mazur tells me that his service is indexing a few hundred names a day, and that there are “quite a few good ones left.” In what feels like an amusing throwback to the days when low-digit ICQ numbers were a hot commodity, Mazur’s put a live countdown of how many three-letter usernames are left. As of me writing this there are a little more than 17,800 still available.

Why is this such a big deal? Three is the current minimum Twitter users are able to have. And for a service where the number of followers matters, the smaller your name the more important you may appear to be. More importantly, someone starting a site can check to see if both the domain and Twitter URL are open within the same search.

The one area where this service may become a problem is that could greatly increase the pace in which people are hoarding usernames. This means good business for Domain Pigeon, but a potential surplus of registered–but inactive–users for Twitter.

So do users who snatch these up get to cash out like they can with domain squatting? Potentially. Brands and businesses with trademarks could send Twitter a legal notice to claim what it rightfully theirs (like Marvel did), but for users simply trying to get their first or last name it’s turning into a mad, mad rush.

Josh Lowensohn was the first person to write about Domain Pigeon when it launched in late January and with this post, he becomes the first person to write about the addition of Twitter names. I don’t know about you, but I think this guy has some great taste in web apps. :)

Here’s the remarkable thing about Josh and about blogging in general:

I emailed him at 7:50p to tell him about the updates to the site, figuring he might be interested.  At about 9:00p, a little over an hour later, he posted this insightful article where he keenly picks up on a lot of the big picture ideas behind the new features.

Tomorrow’s going to be a good day.

Follow the buzz on Twitter

Let’s see what happens.

http://www.domainpigeon.com/

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=552112