Ain't She Sweet
Note: I've moved my blog to my own web site - you can read this post at: www.nonaverage.net/insomanywords/
Comments can only be left at the new location.
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Today we're discussing Internet domain names - the names you type into your browser, like microsoft.com or yahoo.com, to get to your favorite web sites. For those of you who glaze over whenever computer geeks begin talking about computers, you are forewarned that this posts contains some computer terms and references, but I will try and keep it simple. And if you are involved in managing an Internet web site or need information about domain names, you may find this post helpful.
I began my computer career in the mid-90s building web sites for local area businesses, and since that time have been involved in helping to set up every aspect of a web site, including the domain name. A domain name is simply the main address name - it's a user-friendly name that makes it easy to remember a web site's address. The Internet actually works on a numbering scheme - for example, Microsoft's address number is 207.46.232.182. If you paste that number into your Internet browser, you will see the Microsoft Corp. main web page. But "microsoft.com" is easier to remember and deal with than "207.46.232.182", so domain names are a big help and are pretty much required for promoting a web site, and because of that they have become important. And buying and selling domain names is a big business on the Internet. Now, you can make up your own domain name and register it as long as no one has used it before. But if the name you want is taken, your only choices are to think up a different name or offer to buy the name you want, which may not be an option at all because the person owning the name may not want to sell it. To register your name, you would use a Domain Registrar. Network Solutions was the first domain registrar, and for the first years of the Internet they had the monopoly on registering and selling domain names. But the monopoly was ended and now many companies are available for registering domain names, which has brought the prices down considerably - Network Solutions used to charge $70 per name/per year when they were the only game in town. Now you can register your domain name with many companies for less than $10/year.
One of the most popular and visible domain registrars is GoDaddy. They have registered a large percentage of domain names, they have low prices, and many people know of them from their "titillating" ads, especially their Super Bowl ads. I've been using GoDaddy for a while now - I started using them when they were new on the scene so I've been with them for several years and, up until now, have all of my domain names registered through them. Their tech support has been good for me - you can search the Internet and find customers who have issues with them, but by and large I think they do a good job, and I've always been able to get support when I need it. They tend to be heavy-handed with their sales promotions - when registering a domain name, the customer will have to click through a few pages of colorful ads designed to sell more products like GoDaddy web hosting or GoDaddy email services. And they send out similar full-color ads to customers, advertising GoDaddy products and sales promotions. But that's not the worst of it for me, and that's not why I'm leaving GoDaddy.
I'm leaving GoDaddy because of the GoDaddy girls. The female race car driver on the GoDaddy website who's also in all of my GoDaddy email ads. The buxom scantily clad models in those Super Bowl ads. The perfect-looking faces that smile at me while I'm using the GoDaddy site. These are the reasons that I'm leaving GoDaddy. Don't misunderstand - I'm not a misogynist, and I'm "hetro from the word go". But the sales philosophy of GoDaddy seems to be "put a pretty girl in front of guys and they'll buy anything". And that bothers me on several levels, starting with my pride. Because even though I've done some stupid things in my life, I'm not a stupid person. So when GoDaddy thinks they can get me to use their services because they show a large-breasted female in their Super Bowl ad, I am insulted. Instead of appealing to my intelligence or common sense or even my wallet, they appeal to my hormones and apparently think that that's all it takes to win me over. And the more I think about it, the more offended I feel - that's what GoDaddy thinks of customers like me, that all they need to do is put a female in our line of sight and we simply start salivating and pull out the credit card to order.
But besides my self-important pride, there is another issue here. I am opposed to the sexual objectification of women. Because I like women. I've met a lot of them, and they're some of my favorite people. Many of them have helped me during my life. Some of them have been very good friends. One of them is my best friend. And using their image as a sexual lure, appealing to a base instinct for the purpose of selling product and making money, is more than a bit disgusting to me. Yes, I know lots of businesses do it, and I know that "sex sells". I know I'm not going to change the world with my little Internet diatribe. But as I've watched this marketing campaign develop over the years at GoDaddy, I've become more and more uncomfortable with it, and now I no longer want to do business with them. So I am in the process of moving my domain name management to other registrars.
I did my online research and came up with two registrars who received consistently good reviews - NameCheap and Moniker. Both offer good prices and have good reputations, so I opened accounts with both of them to explore their services and support. The basic experience with both has been smooth - easy sign-up and domain transfer - but NameCheap offers free email and URL forwarding, and Moniker charges extra for these services. In fact, with their web interface and features, NameCheap seems the best candidate for GoDaddy's former customers. Over the next few months, as the yearly fees for my domains with GoDaddy come due, I will be moving my domain names to one or both of these registrars. If you need to register a domain name, either of these two domain registrars would serve you well - unless you're just looking for boobs.
Comments can only be left at the new location.
----------------------------------------------------
Today we're discussing Internet domain names - the names you type into your browser, like microsoft.com or yahoo.com, to get to your favorite web sites. For those of you who glaze over whenever computer geeks begin talking about computers, you are forewarned that this posts contains some computer terms and references, but I will try and keep it simple. And if you are involved in managing an Internet web site or need information about domain names, you may find this post helpful.
I began my computer career in the mid-90s building web sites for local area businesses, and since that time have been involved in helping to set up every aspect of a web site, including the domain name. A domain name is simply the main address name - it's a user-friendly name that makes it easy to remember a web site's address. The Internet actually works on a numbering scheme - for example, Microsoft's address number is 207.46.232.182. If you paste that number into your Internet browser, you will see the Microsoft Corp. main web page. But "microsoft.com" is easier to remember and deal with than "207.46.232.182", so domain names are a big help and are pretty much required for promoting a web site, and because of that they have become important. And buying and selling domain names is a big business on the Internet. Now, you can make up your own domain name and register it as long as no one has used it before. But if the name you want is taken, your only choices are to think up a different name or offer to buy the name you want, which may not be an option at all because the person owning the name may not want to sell it. To register your name, you would use a Domain Registrar. Network Solutions was the first domain registrar, and for the first years of the Internet they had the monopoly on registering and selling domain names. But the monopoly was ended and now many companies are available for registering domain names, which has brought the prices down considerably - Network Solutions used to charge $70 per name/per year when they were the only game in town. Now you can register your domain name with many companies for less than $10/year.
One of the most popular and visible domain registrars is GoDaddy. They have registered a large percentage of domain names, they have low prices, and many people know of them from their "titillating" ads, especially their Super Bowl ads. I've been using GoDaddy for a while now - I started using them when they were new on the scene so I've been with them for several years and, up until now, have all of my domain names registered through them. Their tech support has been good for me - you can search the Internet and find customers who have issues with them, but by and large I think they do a good job, and I've always been able to get support when I need it. They tend to be heavy-handed with their sales promotions - when registering a domain name, the customer will have to click through a few pages of colorful ads designed to sell more products like GoDaddy web hosting or GoDaddy email services. And they send out similar full-color ads to customers, advertising GoDaddy products and sales promotions. But that's not the worst of it for me, and that's not why I'm leaving GoDaddy.
I'm leaving GoDaddy because of the GoDaddy girls. The female race car driver on the GoDaddy website who's also in all of my GoDaddy email ads. The buxom scantily clad models in those Super Bowl ads. The perfect-looking faces that smile at me while I'm using the GoDaddy site. These are the reasons that I'm leaving GoDaddy. Don't misunderstand - I'm not a misogynist, and I'm "hetro from the word go". But the sales philosophy of GoDaddy seems to be "put a pretty girl in front of guys and they'll buy anything". And that bothers me on several levels, starting with my pride. Because even though I've done some stupid things in my life, I'm not a stupid person. So when GoDaddy thinks they can get me to use their services because they show a large-breasted female in their Super Bowl ad, I am insulted. Instead of appealing to my intelligence or common sense or even my wallet, they appeal to my hormones and apparently think that that's all it takes to win me over. And the more I think about it, the more offended I feel - that's what GoDaddy thinks of customers like me, that all they need to do is put a female in our line of sight and we simply start salivating and pull out the credit card to order.
But besides my self-important pride, there is another issue here. I am opposed to the sexual objectification of women. Because I like women. I've met a lot of them, and they're some of my favorite people. Many of them have helped me during my life. Some of them have been very good friends. One of them is my best friend. And using their image as a sexual lure, appealing to a base instinct for the purpose of selling product and making money, is more than a bit disgusting to me. Yes, I know lots of businesses do it, and I know that "sex sells". I know I'm not going to change the world with my little Internet diatribe. But as I've watched this marketing campaign develop over the years at GoDaddy, I've become more and more uncomfortable with it, and now I no longer want to do business with them. So I am in the process of moving my domain name management to other registrars.
I did my online research and came up with two registrars who received consistently good reviews - NameCheap and Moniker. Both offer good prices and have good reputations, so I opened accounts with both of them to explore their services and support. The basic experience with both has been smooth - easy sign-up and domain transfer - but NameCheap offers free email and URL forwarding, and Moniker charges extra for these services. In fact, with their web interface and features, NameCheap seems the best candidate for GoDaddy's former customers. Over the next few months, as the yearly fees for my domains with GoDaddy come due, I will be moving my domain names to one or both of these registrars. If you need to register a domain name, either of these two domain registrars would serve you well - unless you're just looking for boobs.
Labels: domain name, Godaddy, Moniker, NameCheap
posted by Ruben at
9:22 AM
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