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Covid-19: It’s official, domainers are faster than journalists
The .com domains matching the new name of Coronavirus were registered today before even the first news reports emerged.
The World Health Organization today officially named the deadly disease Covid-19. CO for Corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for 2019, the year in which it was discovered.
The announcement was made at a WHO press conference in Geneva this afternoon. The press conference, which streamed live on YouTube seems to have kicked off shortly after 1500 UTC.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus officially named the disease Covid-19 not too long after the press conference started.
At 1509 UTC, WHO’s official Twitter account tweeted:
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
"We now have a name for the #2019nCoV disease:
COVID-19.
I’ll spell it: C-O-V-I-D hyphen one nine – COVID-19"
–@DrTedros #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/Kh0wx2qfzk
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) February 11, 2020
Within five minutes, an anonymous domainer had picked up covid-19.com — according to Whois records, it was created at NameCheap at at 1513 UTC.
But domainers hate hyphens, right?
Even after Tedros spelled it out for clarity, including the hyphen, a domainer with an even fastest trigger finger decided to omit it, registering the domain covid19.com at 1510 UTC, three whole minutes before the hyphen version and an extremely impressive ONE MINUTE after the WHO tweet.
As far as print journalists go, you have to wait a full thirty minutes before you start to see lines from the likes of Reuters and the AFP.
The lesson here is clear: if you’re one of those domainers who tries to snap up novel terms from the news as quickly as possible, you need to cut out the middleman and go directly to source.
And ignore the bloggers, too. It took me two and a half hours after the WHO tweet to publish this post.
I’m pathetic.
Hi Kevin,
I liked your above article on COVID-19’s meticulous grab by some domainer. I am a dark-horse domainer and published poet.I have been contributing to the evolution of internet businesses by creative domains for many years but for affordable prices.
I want to contribute towards Caronavirus by way of offering very creative domains distilled out of my poetic skills.
Anyone who really want to make use of it for better purpose, I can transfer , it to him her free or just a nominal cost.
Covidology.com
Covidologist.com
CrornaCapsule.com
CoronaTablet.com
CoroTab.com
CVpill.com
CoronaFund.com
CoronaFund.org
CVout.com
CoronaHospital.com
CoronaFoundation.com
CoronaFoundation.org
Thanks for your time to read,
Sincerely,
ASH
* I am making site http://www.covid19domains.com to offer these domain for rock bottom or even donate it if anyone interested and prove his better useage.
http://www.CheapestDomainsEver.com
Well he barely beat me to it on the name. I just listed the following names on GoDaddy auction for sale, and these are damn near the best:
covid19.us
covid19info.com
covid19news.com
covid19help.com
coronavirusinfo.com
coronavirushelp.com
wuhanvirus.net (I just missed the .com lol)
Looking forward to watching the auction. Just listed in the 7 day auction with a min bid starting at 5k. Curious to see what happens.
No you didn’t, Ryan. I registered WuHanVirus.com back in January. You missed it by months.
I also got some very similar covid ones to yours.
I hope you sell them at good prices. It will be mutually beneficial since our domains are practically identical.
We have over 400 Corona Names for sale at http://CoronaNames.com
Hope one of those is coronadomainersshouldrotin.hell.
Rubens Kuhl:
Are you saying all domainers should rot in hell?
Or just any person who registers corona domains in hopes of profiting should rot in hell?
Please clarify your comment.
Just the ones registering corona domains.