Motley News

Just cruisin’ the internet and found a posting on Oddee.com about the “Longest Internet Name.” Technically, a domain name can have up to 63 characters (not including sub-domains or suffixes). Sure, there are loads of stupid ones – technically the “longest” domain name on record is:

http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/

followed closely by:

http://www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com/

which is a free email service for annoying people. But according to many websites, the winner is:

http://www.Llanfairpwllgw-yngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-Llantysiliogogogoch.com

which is the website of an actual single-word town in Wales.

I noticed a bit of domain-name-controversy when checking out these sites, though. On the first site above, www.thelongestdomain….., I found the following home page. Note the text in the middle states:

“This page is run by Az

The worlds longest domain name.
You won’t find a longer domain name currently on the internet.

Is this a world record? We asked Guinness.
Click here to find out what they said.”

So, I clicked on HERE to view what the letter from Guinness said (I have removed some of the email coding):

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From : <crm@guinnessrecords.com>

To :
Subject : Guinness World Record
Date : Wed, 25 Sep 2002 16:54:32 +0100

Claim ID: 33140

25 September 2002

Dear Sir
Thank you for sending us the details of your recent record proposal for ‘Registering the worlds longest computer domain name’

After having examined the information you sent, and given full consideration to your proposal, I am afraid we are unable to accept your proposal as a record.

This record is currently rested, which means that no one can attempt this record and become a new record holder. It has been rested because there is no merit whatsoever in this. It takes little to no effort and is similar to taking the largest number in the world and then adding 1 to it.

I appreciate you have gone to a lot of effort, and we are delighted to hear from people around the world with their record claims and suggestions. However, given the sheer scope of the records on our database, and the growing number of people contacting us with record claims and suggestions, we need to exercise some editorial control over what is and is not accepted as a record.

I appreciate this may be disappointing for you, but I hope this does not deter you from trying again. We are always keen to hear from people who wish to break Guinness World Records. If you should need any advice regarding breaking an existing record, please contact us again quoting the above reference number. Alternatively, you can contact us through our website at:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

Once again, thank you for writing. We wish you every success with any future record-breaking endeavours.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Christie
Records Research Services
Guinness World Records

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Okay, that sounds reasonable to me. So I move onto the NEXT longest domain, “www.abcdefghijk…..” Yes, it is an email service if you really want to be annoying – but not a bad thought, though, to help filter out spam.

Finally, the last domain, which is the longest-name town in Wales, “www.Llanfairp….” and lo-and-behold, apparently Guiness has changed their tune since 2002 and has now awarded the longest internet name to this website, rather than the website “www.thelongestdomain….” who originally applied for this Guiness honor.

Bummer, dude.

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http://3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592.com/  Pi to a million

Oh, yeah, baby. Found this site which, according to the home page, used to boast displaying Pi to the millionth decimal place. But now the flood of hits has “brought [his] server to its knees.”

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Honorable Mentions: The most expensive domain names

If you think Sex sells, think again. It’s INSURANCE that’s the big cash-grabber. In 2006, it earned the top spot by commanding $16 million dollars, topping Sex.com’s $14 million sale in Oct. 2010. Fund.com and Porn.com are next in line, no-brainers of course. But the luckiest in the bunch? The Farm Bureau, who sold FB.com to Facebook for $8.5 million.

According to Wikipedia:

1. Insure.com $16 million in 2009
2. Sex.com for $14 million in October 2010
3. Fund.com 2008 £9.99 million
4. Porn.com 2007 $9.5 million
5. Fb.com (Farm Bureau Insurance) bought by Facebook for $8.5 million in November 2010
6. Business.com for $7.5 million in December 1999
7. Diamond.com 2006 $7.5 million
8. Beer.com 2004 $7 million
9. Israel.com 2008 $5.88 million
10. Casino.com 2003 $5.5 million
11. Toys.com: Toys ‘R’ Us by auction for $5.1 million in 2009
12. iCloud.com by Apple for $4.5 million in April 2011
13. AltaVista.com for $3.3 million in August 1998
14. Candy.com for $3.0 million in June 2009
15. Gambling.com for $2.5 million in 2005