|
property
management - not so much. According to story
at NBCMiami.com
Thursday, the local police department let the
far more intuitive and desirable domain MiamiPolice.com
drop because, citing a tight budget, they didn't
want to pay the renewal fee. They are
however paying to keep the far less desirable,
hyphenated domain Miami-Police.com - go
figure.
|
|
|
As
if that weren't misguided enough, the department
has also let the expiration date for MiamiPolice.org
pass and it is now in Redemption.
Apparently no one there got the memo about
hyphenated domains losing large percentages of
their American audience to the non-hyphenated
versions. MiamiPolice.com and MiamiPolice.org
both have high value for redirecting
visitors to the less memorable Miami-Police.org
if nothing else. Cybersquatters certainly
know that, which is why one quickly pounced
on MiamiPolice.com when it dropped and now has
it on a parking page to take advantage of
the traffic created by those typing in the more
intuitive abandoned name (the domain is under
WhoIs Privacy). Believe
it or not, the Miami Police Department was notified
repeatedly by a knowledgeable local citizen
that they were about to lose MiamiPolice.com and
informed why they should spend the modest
renewal fee to keep it. The citizen even offered
to pay the renewal fee for them but they still
weren't interested. A
police department spokesman told NBCMiami
reporter Jeff Burnside the department
didn't need the domain because they already had
their Internet presence covered. The police
statement said, “From the time we established
an Internet presence, we have always used miami-police.org
(we also own miami-police.com) and our internal
network is miami-police.net..." I
can hear everyone who knows anything about
domain names groaning loudly right
now.
|
|
Ari
Goldberger |
Leading
domain industry attorney Ari
Goldberger was interviewed for the
NBCMiami story and he pointed out that a
lot of people looking for the Miami
Police Department online are winding
up at the wrong place because the
department failed to keep the address
many surfers would automatically assume
leads to the Miami PD. Goldberger noted,
"some people might think it’s the
actual Miami Police
Department...it's a very valuable asset
and should be treated as such."
Aside
from confusion and someone making a few
dollars off the Miami Police name, there
is the possibility of more serious
public safety issues arising if the
domain ever falls into more malicious
hands.
These
things are all obvious to most of our
readers but the situation illustrates
how oblivious many on main street
still are about the nature of Internet
traffic and the powerful role
domain names play on the web. |
|
Hat
tip to Scott Ross for the
NBCMiami link and to their reporter,
Jeff Burnside, for recognizing the
importance of the story and bringing it
to light. We're hopeful other entities
learn from it. |
|
