Rays of flourescent yellow emanate from my lamp on a winter evening, landing on the left side of my face as my index finger hovers over the left button of my computer mouse. “Buy gabeguo.com for $11.99”, the screen reads.
My fingertip descends to rest on the button. But there’s no click.
My left eye squints. I squirm in my chair. I can’t bring myself to do it. Is gabeguo.com really what I want to name my website? The name of your website sets the tone for your whole brand, they say. And gabeguo.com just sounds so basic.
Who uses their own name as their domain name anyways? Bill Gates doesn’t: his site is gatesnotes.com. Mark Cuban kind of does: his site is markcubancompanies.com, although even as he uses his name in his site, there’s a third word — companies, a descriptor of his brand, his vision, his purpose. Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk don’t even have their own personal websites; their personal pages are just subpages on their larger business sites: facebook.com/zuck and tesla.com/elon-musk, respectively. I guess that makes sense: their personal pages are tied to their major creations and accomplishments; after all, it was through Facebook that Zuckerberg became wealthy, and it was through Tesla (among other companies) that Musk became Twitter’s favorite techie.
The only person I can think of who uses their name as their domain name is Donald Trump, at donaldjtrump.com. But he’s kind of a loser, or so CNN tells me.
So, what should I name my site instead? Maybe I’ll be like Mark Cuban and name it gabeguocompanies.com. But, it’s kind of disingenuous to name my site like that if I’ve barely started one company, let alone fifty-eight (last time I counted).
gabeguowebdesign.com? That shows direction and purpose. But, do I really want to be just the website guy? What about my music, my writing, my inventions? The same problem would arise if I followed Zuckerberg’s example and made my name a mere page on a larger site for my business.
I’m much more than one pursuit, one activity, one idea. I suppose I could name it gabeguowebdesignmusicwritinginventions.com. But, that’s kind of a mouthful. Nobody will ever be able to remember that one, let alone have the patience to type it.
Let’s try it Bill Gates style, then. Come up with something that incorporates my name, but doesn’t have my name as the main focus. Well, my name is Gabe Guo, which means that my initials are G.G., like good game. But if we go lowercase and take out the periods, it becomes gg, or interpreted as a mathematical expression, g2, like the physical constant of gravity multiplied by itself. That sounds nice and clever, without sounding like too much of a flex. But wait! You can’t type superscripts into a search bar. It would have to be gsquared.com, but a quick Google search tells me that’s already taken by some venture capitalists in the Bay Area. And besides, gsquared.com obfuscates the meaning, my purpose. It could stand for anything, as evidenced by the site that I just saw.
I need a domain name that shows who I am, that represents me: the entrepreneur, the engineer, the musician, the writer, the scientist, the dreamer, the person. It has to be boldly and unambiguously about Gabe Guo. It has to be Gabe Guo, embodied on the World Wide Web.
I exhale. What to name it? What to name it? I bounce my leg up and down and tap my fingers on the sixteen-year-old wooden table, as has been my habit ever since I was a kid.
I freeze. Ever since I was a kid. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been Gabe Guo. Ever since I was a kid, that’s who I’ve been. I’ve never been anybody else. So why would I change that now, as I prepare to establish my presence on the Internet?
I look back at the computer screen. It continues to say: “Buy gabeguo.com for $11.99.” The offer still stands.
Maybe it is basic. Maybe it is true that only losers use their real names as their website names …
… but it serves its purpose. A domain name is like a picture, imperfect in its details, but valuable in the ideas it holds the key to. And I know one thing for sure: at least it’s me — the entrepreneur, the engineer, the musician, the writer, the scientist, the dreamer, the person who someday will be going somewhere. It’s all of those names at once, summarized into one name: gabeguo.com — short, sweet, concise.
My index finger pushes down firmly on the left mouse button.
Click.
gabeguo.com is officially mine.