My name is Dave Robins (that’s something like me on the left) and I am the Managing Director of
Laughing Banana Enterprises Ltd. We specialise in generic domain names which can improve brand awareness and search engine visibility. Our own domain name lbe.uk is an example of a short (3 letter) domain name which is easily remembered by our clients. In our case the domain name came first. In the summer of 2006 I was experimenting with writing software for dropcatching .uk domain names. This involves registering a domain name the instant it is deleted from the registry. This typically happens 92 days after the expiry date of the domain if not renewed by the previous owner. At his point it becomes available for anyone to register on a first come first served basis.

In October 2006 my software was able to register lbe.co.uk within one tenth of a second! of it becoming available to register (a random time on a known date). Three letter domains are very sought after because they are short and memorable. Only a limited amount (17,576) exist and as they were all initially registered many years ago it is rare for one to be deleted. In 2006 a 3 letter domain was the shortest all letter .uk domain you could register as single and double letter domains were not released by Nominet until 2011, so when one becomes available there will be many other people with similar software to mine also attempting to register it. My success therefore proved that my software was competitive enough to develop further.

In recognition of the success I decided to not sell the domain (despite many offers), but instead to keep it for my upcoming business venture into the world of domains. The only problem was that I needed a business name to go with the initials LBE. After getting some feedback from friends relatives etc. the decision was made to use Laughing Banana Enterprises. I am not sure what that tells you about the friends I have or how much alcohol may have played a part in the process, but now several years later I can honestly say that it was a very good decision and people I meet are intrigued enough to ask me what I do and more importantly, they remember the name and website at lbe.uk

Dave Robins LLB