2012 Holiday Specials: Internet Real Estate

So I don't know if you know about this thing called 'squatting'; that is, using someone's unoccupied house without their permission while they are away for long periods of time. It's an issue that's popped up a few times around New Zealand, most recently with that million dollar Wellington house back in November. Providing there is proof that the occupant broke in, it's a pretty simple case.
In terms of the internet real estate world however, it's a different story.

Cybersquatting, also known as domain squatting, is essentially purchasing a domain in order to:

• Make money off a company you know will want the desirable domain for their own
• Use it to make derogatory and/or misleading remarks using a similar-sounding domain to an already existing company

Now this could be accidental or on purpose, but it's usually the latter.

With the advance of technology and the variety of sites that can issue or reserve domains quickly and cheaply, domains are being snatched up and companies are essentially being held ransom.

It's almost the same case if you've had to pick an email address, username, or blog URL and you find out that the one you really want is taken, and not only that, its not even being used. It's a kick in the face, but that's what you get when Blogger has been around for over 10 years, and doesn't delete accounts that have been inactive for years.

If you haven't guessed already, this post is just a bit of a gripe that I wasn't able to get the blog URL csu.blogspot.com (back when it was called Current Status: Untitled), mainly because sontaiknu.blogspot.com was hard to forward people to, because of spelling, and everything...

That's trivial compared to disputes like Microsoft vs. MikeRoweSoft, where settlement for your luckyness/unluckyness could result in thousands.

It's also spilled into social media, notably Twitter, where since 2009 they implemented "Verified Accounts" in order to weed out the fake celebrity accounts from the real ones.

I'm not recommending you consider this an easy way to make money, but to the companies out there, if you leave the 'house' open by forgetting to register a domain, expect someone to walk in...

Feel free to add to this blog... comment below and pass it on!