30 January 2009
"Cybersquatter"
So I spent about 12 seconds researching the concept of inactive but unavailable domain names (I have a really short attention span) and learned a new word: Cybersquatter. This word is funny to me. And it seems like it defines someone who snagged a name that they think (or hope) someone else will want to buy for a pile of money. I don't think it describes someone who just started a website then lost interest...does it?
29 January 2009
Use It or Lose It
When you set up a blog or a website, the first thing you do is decide what to name it. Since I wanted this to be called Suburban Rantings, I of course wanted the url to be suburbanrantings. blogspot.com. It wasn't available. I checked out the blog to make sure I wasn't unknowingly being a copycat, and discovered that the blog, called--I'm not kidding--Eschewing Obfuscation, has exactly one, one-sentence post dated Tuesday, August 26, 2003.
Then I tried sububurbanrants.blogspot.com. Unavailable. Checking it out, I was happy to see that it is actually called "Suburban Rants" but in a post dated January 1, 2008, the author announces that he's done blogging. Yet, the blog remains.
So, I wonder...how many hundreds of thousands of "dead" urls must there be out in cyberspace? Perfectly fine urls that could be put to good use but are UNAVAILABLE because someone once, for a second, thought they had a great idea for a website?
It seems like there should be a limit to how long you can hold on to a url (especially a free one) without doing anything with it. But then, what is that limit? A year? Two? With the lightning speed at which the internet changes, maybe it should be just a few months. I really have no idea--perhaps a little research is required.
Last year a girlfriend and I got a wild hair to hop on the environmental bandwagon and start some sort of "easy green" site. So the hunt for the perfect url began. We head to godaddy.com and start typing in names to see what's available. EasyGreen - taken. SimpleGreen - taken. SimplyGreen - nope. This went on and on and on; some sites were active, most were not. After a really, really long time, we found that OneGreenChange.com was available. Snag it!
Needless to say, we never developed the site. And the irony of this little tale? My friend continues to hold on to the url...although last time I looked it appeared to have been taken over by a Turkish Hacker. Really.
Then I tried sububurbanrants.blogspot.com. Unavailable. Checking it out, I was happy to see that it is actually called "Suburban Rants" but in a post dated January 1, 2008, the author announces that he's done blogging. Yet, the blog remains.
So, I wonder...how many hundreds of thousands of "dead" urls must there be out in cyberspace? Perfectly fine urls that could be put to good use but are UNAVAILABLE because someone once, for a second, thought they had a great idea for a website?
It seems like there should be a limit to how long you can hold on to a url (especially a free one) without doing anything with it. But then, what is that limit? A year? Two? With the lightning speed at which the internet changes, maybe it should be just a few months. I really have no idea--perhaps a little research is required.
Last year a girlfriend and I got a wild hair to hop on the environmental bandwagon and start some sort of "easy green" site. So the hunt for the perfect url began. We head to godaddy.com and start typing in names to see what's available. EasyGreen - taken. SimpleGreen - taken. SimplyGreen - nope. This went on and on and on; some sites were active, most were not. After a really, really long time, we found that OneGreenChange.com was available. Snag it!
Needless to say, we never developed the site. And the irony of this little tale? My friend continues to hold on to the url...although last time I looked it appeared to have been taken over by a Turkish Hacker. Really.
28 January 2009
Why Rant?
So, one might ask, why rant about the suburbs? More to the point, why would someone live in a place they don't like? Well, like many of life's decisions, you never really know what you're getting into until you're there. After all, everyone (well, everyone we know) who has a decent job and children wants to live outside the city, in a too-big house surrounded by "good schools" and chain stores. So perhaps it was peer pressure that brought us here.
And, it's not all terrible...we've just decided that we'd be happier in the city. Our kids are leaving and we have this big house that eats up all our time, energy and money. Unfortunately, we came to this conclusion at the precise moment that the housing market fell apart. So, we'll have to stick it out for a few more years. In the meantime, I think it will be fun to make some observations about, well, just about anything that comes to mind. I'm sure that all my thoughts will be frighteningly witty.
And, it's not all terrible...we've just decided that we'd be happier in the city. Our kids are leaving and we have this big house that eats up all our time, energy and money. Unfortunately, we came to this conclusion at the precise moment that the housing market fell apart. So, we'll have to stick it out for a few more years. In the meantime, I think it will be fun to make some observations about, well, just about anything that comes to mind. I'm sure that all my thoughts will be frighteningly witty.
ego + time=blog
This, as I understand it, is the equation for a proper blog...I have them both, plus the need to do what everyone else seems to be doing--so here we go...
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