Editor’s Note (2025): This post was originally published in July of 2009 on my earlier blog at iangoldstein.com. While much has changed in the digital landscape since then, the core ideas around securing your name online still hold up. Minor updates have been made, and a 2025 update has been added below.

Working on the initial content for my blog got me thinking about the value of grabbing an available “name” before someone else does. I registered the domain name iangoldstein.com back in January of 2001, with the eventual plan of putting together some sort of personal blog. This blog, of course, is the evolution of that original idea.

Domain Names

We all know that most domain names have been grabbed up either by legitimate people and businesses, or are held onto by cybersquatters and other morally questionable enterprises. I’ve always been of the strong belief that if you have an idea for a good domain name for a project, it is far better to register it and hold onto it for the day when you need it, rather than take a chance it will be unavailable when that time comes. Today, it’s relatively inexpensive enough to register a domain; I really don’t see a good reason to not grab the names you plan to use while you can. At worst, you’ll be out of pocket only a little bit of money if you decide to go another direction. If you don’t know a good place to register your domain names, I recommend you consider using ISG Development — my company, if you didn’t figure that out ;-).

Of course, as inexpensive as they can be, with enough domains registered the costs can slowly start to add up. Eventually, you may want to drop a few that you’ll never use. A good strategy is to set a time limit for yourself, some point at which if you haven’t developed the site you can let it go. When I was registering the name NovoOps.com for an early business venture, for some reason the related name MindOps.com sounded good to me as well. After years of holding onto it, I realized in all likelihood I was just never going to do anything with it. On the other hand, back in 1999 I had registered the names IdWatch.com and IdProtect.com with grand plans that unfortunately just never materialized. These names, however, were too good to just let go, so I held onto them with the slim hopes I’d one day get around to those projects. Ultimately, I sold them to Naveen Jain, the founder of InfoSpace, so in the end they were definitely worth keeping, but that’s a story for another day.

.COM Children

Are you wondering if I registered my kids’ names as well? Maybe it is a bit of a geeky thing to do, but wouldn’t it be nice for them to have them when they are older?

Four days after my older son was born I thought of this and registered his name for him. As far as my younger son, I’m almost embarrassed to admit it, but I actually checked the availability of the domain name before he was born. I’m not suggesting I would have wanted to give him a different name if the domain wasn’t available, but the fact it was available was a nice bonus. However, although I’m really not a superstitious person, I did wait until the day he was born before registering it.

I guess I’m not the only one who thinks like this. I have a friend who called me from the hospital shortly after his son was born. After I congratulated him, he asked me to register the domain name for him!

Social Networking Names

But what about the other “names” out there on the web? There’s Twitter and Facebook, and a whole host of other social networking sites which let you stake your claim on your “name”. This name then becomes a unique URL to your presence on their site. Are these names also important pieces of property that must be claimed before others do so?

I guess it depends on what name you are trying to protect or promote. If it’s your brand, and particularly if exposure via these social network sites is part of your marketing strategy, I think it is a wise move to secure these names earlier rather than later. Although a trademark should protect you from any cybersquatters even in these realms, it’s far easier (and cheaper) to protect your brand and/or identity in advance, rather than recover it from another in the future.

How Many Ian Goldstein’s?

Coming full circle, what if it’s not your brand you are trying to protect, but perhaps your own vanity? I had registered IanGoldstein.com back in 2001 in an exercise to protect my own personal identity on the web, but when I setup my Twitter account I was just a little too late. Another “Ian Goldstein” had beat me to it. Damn.

In fact, at the time there were actually 3 other Ian Goldsteins on Twitter, and since I set up my Twitter account there’s been another addition. [Editor’s note (2025): Twitter is now known as X, and there are likely even more Ian Goldsteins there today.]

Since I don’t have a clever nickname or handle that I like to go by, I did the next best thing. I used my middle initial and can be found on Twitter as @IanSGoldstein. I may not score points for originality there, but at least I don’t have to worry what would happen to my ego if another Ian S Goldstein had taken that name on Twitter. On a related note, I’m certain that somewhere in this world there is another Ian S Goldstein that will one day want to use that name on Twitter and will not be so happy with me.

Facebook Name Landrush

For those of you on Facebook, you probably know they recently added the ability for a user to select a unique “vanity name” which will forever be associated with their profile. ‘Of course, in typical Facebook style, it is a permanent setting that once selected can never be changed. That makes no sense if you ask me [Editor’s note (2025): Facebook has since allowed limited changes to usernames, but at the time this was permanent]. Regardless, I knew exactly when these names would be available — the night of Friday, June 12th precisely at midnight. It was my plan to grab the name IanGoldstein before anyone else could. Besides what’s the likelihood that another Ian Goldstein really cared as much as I did? Either way, at midnight I knew I’d be in front of the computer.

Surprisingly, I apparently do have a life outside the computer world, and as it so happened June 12th was a busy day. In the morning I attended my son’s second grade play and in the afternoon I had made plans with some friends to go wine tasting on Long Island’s North Fork. It was a great day, but I’m sure you’ve already figured out that I was not at the computer at midnight. While I imagine you’re assuming I “tasted” too much wine (and we did somehow manage to visit 7 vineyards that day), sadly I cannot blame the wine for my screw-up. Despite the reminder from my Blackberry that I had obviously set to receive way too early, by the end of the day I simply forgot.

Early Saturday morning, while sipping my morning coffee I realized my blunder. I immediately logged into Facebook and quickly saw that the IanGoldstein name had been taken. In fact, this really shouldn’t have been a surprise to me as there are currently 32 people on Facebook with the name “Ian Goldstein”. Well, IanSGoldstein wasn’t taken yet, so as per Facebook’s bizarre rules, that is what I will forever be known as on their site.

In the end, using IanSGoldstein makes my Twitter and Facebook accounts match quite nicely, almost as if I planned it that way.

The only problem, though, is that they don’t quite match exactly with the domain name for this blog. Now does that really matter all that much? Do I really care if someone else was to go ahead and register the IanSGoldstein.com domain name? I guess the answer to that should be obvious. Yes, I actually went ahead and registered it. It’s now an alias to IanGoldstein.com, inspired by this very entry.

2025 Update

It’s been more than 15 years since I first wrote this, and while some of the platforms and services have changed, the core idea still holds: your name matters online.

Domain names are even harder to come by now, and consistent handles across platforms are even more valuable. It’s not just about branding or vanity; it’s about making things easier to find, remember and share. Whether you’re protecting your personal identity, a side project or a business, it’s still worth grabbing the domains and usernames you care about before someone else does.

Today, there are even more platforms where name consistency matters — not just X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, but also Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Bluesky and others. You don’t need to be everywhere, but it’s smart to secure your name in the places that matter to you and your audience.

I’m not obsessive about claiming every variation, but I still register names I think I’ll use. It’s a small investment that continues to pay off.