After my last “big office” job, but before I decided to avoid offices altogether, I came up with the idea of “domain roulette” where two co-workers would take turns typing in a random, plausible-sounding .com into their web browser.
First one to find porn loses. Or wins. It all depends on who in the area was dumb enough to leave their computer unlocked. What, you’re not going to play this game under your own login, are you?
Anyway, I don’t work in cubicle-land anymore, but I have this urge to type random domains in from time to time (loading GoDaddy for this purpose takes too long.) So, inspired by Grant Hutchinson’s Available Domain Name of the Week, I figured I’d share some of my findings.
And to be clear, I don’t just look for random porn all day. Most of the time I’m driven by the idea that something cool might be behind these names. It just happens that this episode’s theme is a little pornish, is all. I’m a family man, honest.
Today we have a twofer: microporn.com vs macroporn.com.
And in this case both exist, but both are parked.
I wonder, did they originate as two separate companies with grand visions of the future of internet pornography, which as we know fuels most, if not all, technical innovation? Did these two companies wage war against each other, gathering affiliates in exclusive agreements, or whatever else it is that porn companies do to compete with each other? Was there an IPO that was narrowly averted by a market spike?
There’s a story in there somewhere. The whois information doesn’t yield anything conclusive in the “where are they now” afterstory, thanks to domain privacy settings, so this might be lost to the ages. My great-grandchildren may start a foundation to uncover the truth someday, which is as much of a paternity test for my son as anything else I can think of.
I’m going to award bonus points to microporn.com, whose parking page is funnier:
Also, that “make this your homepage” link? Pure gold. I’m installing 5 more browsers just so I can make it even more my home page.
OK, back to work – this is just the thing that distracts my brain when I’m entering database seed data, is all, and it’s the only way to get it out of my mind. Trust me, you don’t want the terms microporn and macroporn in your head when you’re seeding a database. See? It makes phrases like “seeding a database” sound dirty. Dirtier, anyway.
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