[Julian]

That's interesting.

Were you marketing as e-mail addresses or e-domains? The ICANN registrars I spoke with became very enthused only after understanding they could market them as an extention of .com domains - then they began to reply to e-mails and ask for more info. One actually visited me in Wales (5 hours journey) when he visited London, another had a meeting with me when I was in New Delhi. Whether they follow up is always another matter - these people get diverted and are always busy. I also have had interest from Germany (they published details on there web site within 24 hours) and China.

I think to make it work would require a core of enthusiasts marketing together- that is why I published the idea on the forum.

The idea is not complex, it largely dublicates software already in existance, so there is not much cost involved.

People generally are familiar with the idea of substituting an @ for an a - so there is no great hurdle there. But almost no-one knows it can be used to make domain addresses.

So I am looking for others to take up this idea and to write letters and market. It may take 5 years - but it will happen because it is chic, simple to understand and dot com

Does anyone know of any other forums? - and cheap an effective press release sites? Are there any experianced software people willing to build some shareware? I rely on one good chap to do it for free - he needs help.

Julian

[Xofia]

Woah, overload of new information.

Cool idea you have there. Can't help you though, I'm too young ;)

Still, it's good to learn of such things before people start using such domains for real. However, my browser interprets it as a request to login using the username F, lol. So others who don't use IE won't be able to just be redirected to www.therchristmas.com when they type in www.f@therchristmas.com.

Really interesting...

[Julian]

Netscape lets you see the full title IE F@therChristmas.com whilst the microsoft browser fails to show the script before the @ symbol - but it is reading it normally.

Microsoft could patch this very simply.

The pre-@ script is used in internet protocol. It is a legitimate and will never change - it is part of the system. There is a technical article abot this at this link: http://www.pc-help.org/obscure.htm

This means that both browsers (all browsers) will distinguish between JackT@ylor.com and JohnT@ylor.com - so www.ylor.com can be used as a base unit for millions of versions of anyname T@ylor.com

I intend to write to microsoft to see if they will listen to little me but I think if a group of icann registrars were to approach microsoft and tell them their browser is inferior microsoft would produce a patch pretty sharpish.

I am 50 and a technophobe - there is nothing here that is difficult - as a young person you could buy up a few key domains such as C@rRental.com

I got Don@ldDuck.com and sometimes use the e-mail address Har@ldDuck.com - I do not think walt disney (this is a guess, not legal advice) can stop me having this domain.

Once you have a small selection of key domains you have a vested interest in wrting arround and spreading the idea - that is one way you could help this happen. ignorance is the marketing hump we have to overcome. Meanwhile it is a sort of secret society!

My site is www.A-tails.com and www.myE-Name.com - very rudimentary and focused on selling e-mail addresses at present. I need help from some technical people

Julian

[logoleptic]

I like this idea. How about j@ilbait.com?
:beer:

[RuSher]

i wont think using @ instead of @ will actually work
however stuff like car@rentals.com or work@home.com is pretty interesting imo

too bad a lot of ppl arent familiar with the @
for instance here in holland a lot of people use the word monkeytail instead of AT

for instance we started a company called @vance (advance) especially for individuals because our 'main' company only works for business but we were getting more and more jobs from individuals

niw, the name seemed to be very confusing for most individuals so we now changed it to simple Vance :)

i did however see this change in the past 2 years and i think in the future it will be widely recognized so its a good id ;)

[Julian]

In the UK we use the @ in adverts a lot - for no other reason than it looks cool.

For instance shops will be called names like Sm@rt or The C@fe. Even though they have nothing to do with the Interenet

Five years ago hardly anyone had an internet address- now most grandmothers do. So things are moving really fast.

Since posting this thread I have learnt a lot about how to progress this idea.

My conclusion so far is that the web community is quite excited by having e-mail and website addresses that do match. This seems to be something that might catch on, or win acceptance, first.

For instance AOL could provide every subscriber with a mini website

Jim@AOL.com and www.Jim@AOL.com - why not? it is very simple to do and cheap to provide.

But the style kicks in when you insert the @ as an a

As in EricT@ylor.com and www.EricT@ylor.com

Style sells for a premium, style usually only starts happening in mature markets where people want to distinquish themselves from the rabble. (An example is computers which for years have been grey dull boxes, after ten years Apple started to produce coloured see through boxes - now othe companies are making their computers look better).

With e-mail we are still at the early stage where having an e-mail or personnal web site address is stylish, the next stage, where peple want to distinguish themselves, has yet to begin.

[logoleptic]

I'd like to bring back this old thread. It hasn't had enough attention. Unfortunately, not all browsers support the format http://www.doma@inhero.com. But still it's a good idea. Right?