New domain name shortage

I was recently looking to register a new domain for a project I've been working on. I underestimated the amount of time it would take to find an available domain. What's incredibly annoying is that many domains have been registered purely in an attempt to make money by selling them on (especially .com domains). Let's face it, everyone wants a .com domain.

Here's an experiment to try. Think of an obscure word or combination of words that surely nobody would have thought to register, and do a whois check on it. You'd be suprised at the domains people have registered (I was).

Let's try some... How about eatbananas.com or flybot.com. Nope, both taken.

Ok, how about purpletree.com, happycow.com and satisfiedmonkey.com? Taken, taken and taken. Yes, satisfiedmonkey is taken.

Maybe the trick is to find something that's not really a word. Something cool like digg or boingboing. How about kerplunk.com, sproing.com, flugle.com or cartoo.com? Ah, no, all taken.

Maybe the trick is to leave out letters like flickr? How about shattr.com or shtterbug.com? No.

Should it really take a day of hitting whois with odd words until amazingly you manage to find one that is available and not completely ridiculous? Shouldn't domains have a use-it-or-lose-it rule? Should there be a limit to the number of domains one can register? Until then I guess we're doomed to having lots of startups with absurd names because that was the best .com domain name they could find.