Category Archives: Domains

McCain vs Obama.com

johnmccain.com and barackobama.com are both registered with GoDaddy, but McCain appears to have registered through GoDaddy India via Domains By Proxy… (Why does his campaign need to use Domains By Proxy, which is designed for anonymous domain registration? Maybe they just love outsourcing?)

JohnMcCain.com has been around since 1998; BarackObama.com since 2000.

McCain uses IIS running on Linux (?). Obama uses PWS running on Linux.

And the running mates? joebiden.com has been around since 1998; sarahpalin.com is not owned by the campaign, but is registered through the same proxy company as McCain.

Sarah runs Linux with Frontpage extensions (yeuch!); Biden’s running Apache.

Typical URLs and how to shorten them

Some web sites have very well designed, brief, URLs.

But some have URLs that are way too long. And you don’t always want to be putting them through TinyURL.

Here’s how some of them can be shortened if sending them via email (when they might break when text wraps) or in print.

Anything that’s not bold can be chopped out. And remember when putting it in print, drop the http:// — it’s not necessary to key in, and only slows people down. The same is usually true for the www — though I’m in two minds about that. For publicity etc, it sometimes helps to jog people’s minds that we’re talking about web addresses.

Amazon — it’s the ISBN or other identifier which is critical here
http://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Who-Complete-David-Tennant/dp/B000UVV2GA/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1212896155&sr=8-1

YouTube — remove the country, and any extraneous arguments such as “Featured”
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-BOYAl0F6xs&feature=user

The Age (and other Fairfax sites) — remove the headline text. (This works for their older articles/older URLs too.)
http://www.theage.com.au/national/clouds-loom-as-oil-price-soars-and-petrol-hits-170-20080607-2n9n.html?page=-1

Google Maps — the co-ordinates and zoom quotient (or whatever it’s called) matter the most. Though if you’re trying to specifically point out an address, you’ll need to leave the query in.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&q=247+flinders+lane,+melbourne,+vic,+AU&ie=UTF8&ll=-37.813751,144.964621&spn=0.011188,0.018196&z=16&iwloc=addr

Realestateview — gets really messy depending on how you find the property. Some of the arguments tell it what navigation options to show, but when it all comes down to it, it’s the OID which is the critical argument. Mind you, leaving the “rev=on” stuff gives you the area map by default, so better to leave that on if emailing.
http://www.realestateview.com.au/cgi-bin/view.pl?OID=1136439&rev=on&s=102294592&Sub=bentleigh&BeL=0&BeH=9999&PrL=0&PrH=99999&Surr=&IKW=bolinda&PT=hou&PT=uni&PT=tow&PT=stu&PT=lan&PT=dev&PT=inv&PT=ter&PT=vil&PT=sem&PT=dup&PT=pen&PT=wac&PT=hol&PT=rta&PT=alp&PT=car&PT=bof&PTr=&CS=VIC&OrderBy=listed&OrderStr=&Con=S&SearchPage=/buy/residential/melbourne.shtml&Bkmk=_&OFI=&OFIDays=&BS=10&Thu=&Qui=n

BBC News — these aren’t overly long, but can still be shortened.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7442323.stm

MS KB — all kinds of different versions of their URLs fly around the place, though a lot of their new links use the most sensible, concise version.
One of many of the old style: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q917925
Better: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925
(Of course to many geeks, just say Q917925.)

For other sites? No doubt people will have their suggestions.

For myself, when I’m sending a URL to someone, and I have the time, I tend to muck about and remove what look like the extraneous parameters and see what still works. Mind you, some sites don’t work very well for this — Dick Smith (dse.com.au) for example, relies on some kind of weird-arse session parameter, so it’s best to use their own “email this link” feature.

And always check it before you send it.

The joys of the international money market

I use gandi.net for a lot of my domain registration. They allow payment in your choice of US Dollars ($15 per year), Euro (12) or UK pounds (8.30). So when today I had to renew a domain, I checked what the cheapest option in Australian dollars.

US $15 = A$17.38
EU €12 = A$20.05
UK £8.30 = A$19.38

So no contest, USD is the way to go. Thanks for providing the option, Gandi!

(Yeah I could switch to a cheaper registrar. But I don’t have the time or energy to do so at the moment, thanks for asking.)

YouTube goes international

Google just launched a number of YouTube international sites: “Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Ireland, and the UK.”

Given Australia has its own Google, can we expect a YouTube Australia any time soon? Maybe. But it looks like first they’ll have to kick off the domain squatter that owns youtube.com.au — some guy called Aaron whose contact address is a Hotmail account. Which is interesting, because normally to own a .com.au address you have to have a registered company or business name that is related to the domain.

NZ is more liberal, and similarly youtube.co.nz is owned by someone on an india.com account.

No doubt there will be similar issues in other territories. Which makes you wonder why these companies don’t nab their domains around the world when they get their first million or two in venture capital (like Amazon has; they’ve owned amazon.com.au for years). It’d save heartache later.

www-australia.info – what kind of domain name is that?

I found this ad for an amazing site when doing a google search:

 
      Sponsored Links
Photos Of Australia
Find out everything you need to
about this amazing destination!
www-australia.info

Someone has just paid money so that I’d click on that link, and see that site. Look at the photos along the bottom. First, there’s a left-hand-drive vehicle, then a naff sunshade and beachchairs at sunset, followed by a grey road with a yellow centreline driving through a conifer forrest, and finally some people skiing past a maple or something. Search the entire continent, you’re not going to find any of that stuff.

I don’t know if it’s covered in ads, perhaps it is (my ad blocking works really well, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to some dodgy site with IE).

Somebody: Please explain what the hell is going on here? I’d especially love an economist to explain what the heck that site is about – rational decision making my shiny metal butt.

Update: This is a Made For Adsense site. Still doesn’t make sense, but whatever. They too shall pass.

.id.au rush on now

Well, if .id.au domains are free, why not grab yourself a .id.au domain? You can transfer it to another domain seller when the free six months are up. I guess they’re planning on you stumping up the $67.50 for the remaining 18 months when you’ve found it to be indispensable, rather than moving it somewhere else.

Now, how am I going to remember to move mine in five months?

A few brief things

How to snatch an expiring (.com) domain — basically, the action happens 75 days after the expiry date.

Ah, the joys of the pr0n industry, always so quick to grab hold of the latest throbbing new technology. They’re already making use of the video iPods.

Some Swedes name their kid after Google. Thankfully only the middle name.

Dimitri Kokken of Belgium is selling his humungous collection of old computers. Gawd knows how he’s collected them all, but they appear to include just about every 8-bit computer every built, including such obscurities as the Oric Atmos, Spectravideo 318, Commodore CD-TV, and a bunch of MSX machines. No Microbees though.