Short-term findability versus longer term brand awareness?

Internet Car Company Dot ie

I wonder if they decided to name their company based on keywords car buyers are using in Google, and if so, did they get it right?

Generic or DAFT?

In a highly competitive marketplace, is the answer to join the flock with a generic domain name or go a little bit out there?

Screenshot of Google Search results for property ireland

Take the extremely competitive online property space. In the glut of generically named websites, there are plenty of property-some-generic-words-here.com’s and then there’s Daft.ie that kind of stands out that little a bit more.

But here’s the big question…
are you chasing short term findability in search engine results at the expense of long term brand awareness and differentiation?

I’m sure Seth Godin would have something to say on this

Categories Design, Search Engine Optimisation, Spotted