Domain hacking is defined by Wikipedia as:
an unconventional domain name that combines domain levels, especially the top-level domain (TLD), to spell out the full “name” or title of the domain, making a kind of pun.
What does that mean? Well, it means taking the elements of a domain name (that is, the thing you type into your browser’s address bar) so that it spells out a word, or something similar.
For example, Delicious used to be found at del.icio.us – with the last element (known as the ‘top-level’) of the domain (.us, for the United States) forming part of the name of the site. Sadly, it’s plain old delicious.com now.
I recently registered a domain from the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands – which ends in .gs. The domain is vebrig.gs – can you see where I am headed with this? 😉
I’ve created an email address on my domain which is simple ‘d’ – so in full it looks like d@vebrig.gs which kinda spells out my name. I know this is very sad, but I like it!
By adding a sub-domain to vebrig.gs of da I can get the web address da.vebrig.gs which again is quite a neat hack. Not doing anything with the site right now though!
So, the main point of this post, other than making it clear to everyone what a total dork I am, is to let everyone know that the best email address to get me on now is d@vebrig.gs. My old one still forwards onto me, though, so don’t worry too much.
Now all I have to do is update all my social networks with the new address…
Presentationally, I think it’s a mistake to treat this as your ‘primary’ email address. If you’re talking to someone, like proper talking with voices and stuff, and they ask you for your email address… it’s exactly not going to roll off the tongue.
Hmmm. “dee at vee ee brig dot gee ess” ? You might have a point.
“davebriggs, all one word, make the a an @ and stick a dot between the two gs” Gah.
Anyway, with the glory of using Gmail to handle all my email, I just pop from the old one to this one, so can give out db@davepress.net over the phone if I need to, and I can send from that one too.
lol very cool – I’d definitely use it – albeit with having a friendlier version to give out over the phone & forwarded to the same address (good old gmail!)
I tried to register m.as but apparently my ‘domain’ has to have at least 2 letters 🙁
This is probably the neatest email domain hack that I’ve come across.