Fun_People Archive
12 Apr
Registering "nearby" doamin names...

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 99 15:24:27 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: Registering "nearby" doamin names...

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Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev@bostic.com>
From: Golan Klinger <falco@vex.net>

    Over the last few years website operators have been registering domains
that are similar to the names of popular websites in the hope that they
might get some traffic from those that misspell the intended URL. To combat
this, some clever companies are being a little more proactive. For example,
The Walt Disney Company registered "disnee.com".

    Computer Literacy, an online book seller, recently decided to change
its name as part of an image makeover. After what I can only assume was a
long and frustrating night of typing whois, they decided to change thier
name to Fatbrain. They registered fatbrain.com and then realized the
possibilities for misspellings and decided to cover their bases. They then
went ahead and registered:

	fatbrin.com
	fatbrin.net	
	fatrain.com
	fatrain.net
	fatrain.org
	phatbrain.com (for the hip-hop book buying crowd)
	fatbrian.com
	fatbran.com

	And my personal favourite...

	fartbrain.com

    I bet the folks at Amazon.com are kicking themselves for letting
amezon.com slip through their fingers...

© 1999 Peter Langston