Of Hurricane Ike And Disaster Domains
Hurricane Ike is headed my way. It’s current target is Freeport, Texas, which is just 70 miles south of Houston. Many of you have not heard of Freeport yet, but you will eventually and not because of the hurricane. Freeport is often thought to be the next big port in the U.S.;It’s a huge energy port that could play a key role in the upcoming years when things like liquefied natural gas (LNG) become bigger household terms.
I live in southwest Houston at just a one hour drive from Freeport; we should see a good portion of Ike this weekend. I spent my day today boarding up the buildings of the company I work for, and will start making preparations to my property. Most of the zip codes east of me are in mandatory evacuation and the highways are already packed. All of this is reminding me of Rita; the skies were a beautiful clear blue most of the day. I’m completely fascinated by hurricanes, tornadoes and other wonders of weather (my first dream job was a tornado chaser). If I can, I’ll take some pictures of the storm and get em up here.
Anyways, this blog is about real world trends and how domainers can take advantage of them. I try not to report actual domaining trends, such as LLLL.com’s or hacked domains, etc. That’s because there are oodles of other blogs and news sites that already report these. I’m going to somewhat break that rule of mine today.
You’ve read in the news this week about domainers needing to take a stand and start policing themselves. This has been mostly focusing on trademarked domains. But disasters are another facet that needs to be addressed. If domainers wish to do some PR, then they need not register these names with intentions of flipping and/or profiting off of them. If you do end up with a hurricaneike.com or a katrinarelief.com, then by all means please donate it to an organization that can make good use of it and actually help people that desperately need it.
Profiting off of these disasters gives us a black eye.
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5 Responses to “Of Hurricane Ike And Disaster Domains”
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I am in SW Houston as well. We should get together at some point and meet up. Drop me an email.
Steven
Are you in Sugarland?
I agree. But I think most of the people registering disaster domains are people that aren’t even “domainers”…just some guy who has a few domains at GoDaddy. Unfortunately the mass media loves to write about these things.
***EDIT***
I’m on the border of Houston and Missouri City. My mailing address is Houston, but live in Missouri City so I can’t vote on Houston issues.
I think it’s a little bit of both. In order to register HurricaneIke.com you need to do so years in advance when they assign the name. I think domainers would be far more willing to do that.
-Scott
I haven’t seen many of these domains do well. I remember many Prince Di domains that hit ebay after her death. Despite initial traffic, I suspect most domains in this space will cease to exist or matter.
***EDIT***
I first noticed it with Katrina, and I wasn’t even in domaining yet at that time. You’re right, most don’t do well. But the press still reports it and it looks very poorly on the industry.
-Scott
Conditions on Bridge City Texas, family evacuated and have not received much news of that area.
I live in Orange,Tx. and am from Ill. and have never seen anything this devastating, even Katrina.Instead of bailing out these giants of business,why not send a billion to these disaster areas. It would sure help the poor people in these areas instead of an elite few. Wake up America.