Over 100 Osama bin Laden domains registered per hour.
Yesterday I wrote about how people were snapping up domain names related to Osama bin Laden and then trying to sell them on eBay. Although VeriSign’s Domain Tag Cloud showed that people were certainly registering a lot of them, I now have some concrete numbers.
GoDaddy, which registers about half of all new domain name registrations these days, registered 1,517 domain names related to Osama bin Laden in the 15 hours or so after the news broke. In April the domain name registrar only registered 92 domains related to the late terrorist leader.
As I wrote yesterday, I don’t see much value in these domain names. But I suppose it’s not like the distasteful registrations that follow natural disasters.
Joe says
I agree it’s different from the usual registrations that follow natural disasters, since this event has been given a joyful connotation by all the people celebrating the day in the streets. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t buy any of these domains for registration fee, let alone aftermarket prices.
Rick Schwartz says
This is called chasing yesterday’s news. The time to buy these type domains was in 2001 and only a small handful have any real value.
Bo says
“then trying to sell them on eBay.”
The key word is “trying.” Why would anyone want an Osama bin Laden domain? Looking to start and Al-Qaeda franchise?
How can anyone find a good domain name on Ebay when you have to sift through all the garbage domain names that people are asking thousands of dollars for?
Paul says
@Bo – Domain Auction Cleaner attempts to filter out the junk:
http://domainauctioncleaner.com
Frank says
I bought a few of the domain names as soon as I heard he was killed. I don’t think it’s far fetched to think that the place where he was killed could become a big part of the bin laden story, which I’m sure, books and movies will be made about. I bought:
OSAMABINLADENSCOMPOUND.COM, BINLADENSCOMPOUND.COM, OSAMABINLADENSMANSION.COM and BINLADENSMANSION.COM
It wasn’t too expensive so the risk to reward is small. Who knows, maybe someone will make a video game or movie !!!