The longest domain in the world?
For some reason, conversation in the office earlier this week turned to long domain names. Specifically, we were wondering what the longest domain name in the world is.
A quick bit of research suggests that you can have up to 63 characters in the ‘main’ bit of your domain name - the bit that comes before .co.uk or whatever. Certainly that’s what the Nominet rules say.
Of course, when you stick ‘longest domain name‘ into Google, you see a slew of competing websites, all claiming to have the longest long name out there. And they’re all 63 characters long.
Still, for my money, the one that most deserves the title of ‘best longest domain name’ is this one:
http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.org.uk/.
The owner has registered it through 123-reg, but there are a couple of other reasons I’d rate it above the others:
- It’s not a domain that’s been stuffed with letters or words (like this one) just to make up the length. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf is a real name; it means the upper part of Llanfair-PG, a village on Anglesey.
- It goes an extra mile (ok, an extra seven letters) by ending in .org.uk, one of the longest domain extensions you can have.
Do you own any outrageously long domain names? Is there any real point to them? Leave a comment to say what you think.
On February 15th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I think the long name there is cool and you’re right that it is better than just shoving a load of words in there! But in my opinion a bigger achievement is to actually get hold of a short domain that is worth having! they are the ones people will remember
and more importantly will be able to spell!!!
To answer your question though … my longest domain…a tiny 25 characters plus the .org.uk! whatfootprintwillyouleave.org.uk — nothing there yet so i can post it
On February 15th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Yeah - I agree with you actually. Long domain names can have good novelty value and might generate a chuckle or two. But it’s the short ones that people remember - and that are most valuable. Of course, they’re also harder to get hold of!
On February 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
One trick is to make up a word, which John blogged about previously (and got some heated feedback about as well lol!) http://inside.123-reg.co.uk/archives/where-do-website-names-come-from/
On February 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
They are indeeed harder to get, which is so frustrating when you find a great one and it has been registered and is not being used! grrr!
On March 31st, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Hah! I’ve just spotted this response from the Book of Records on another longest domain name in the world site.
“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.”
You can check out the full response here:
http://www.thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensomeandthensomemoreandmore.com/record.htm