Then I thought, who does this anymore anyway? Is this still an issue? Hosting companies sold a lot of shared domains back in '98, but are they still doing it? Do people ask for them?
Is the issue worth mentioning in an article?
With the price of domain names nowadays, I don't know why anyone would bother. IMO, probably not worth mentioning except perhaps as historical background.
Then I thought, who does this anymore anyway?Not to many people!
Is this still an issue?
Hosting companies sold a lot of shared domains back in '98, but are they still doing it?
Is the issue worth mentioning in an article?Yeah!
In the UK for example, most ISP packages come bundled with some kind of free web space linked to a subdomain. So, use widget.net as your ISP and you'll get yourspace.widget.net as your subdomain. Quite commonly, I've found a large number of small businesses and sole traders use this subdomain actively and actually promote it as their main URL, although some do purchase a cheap domain name and use a redirect to the subdomain.
On a larger scale, CentralNic have been selling fairly large amounts of subdomains for a number of years now. Their portfolio of 'alternative' domain extensions includes .EU.COM, .UK.COM, .FR.COM and the like. What they're doing however is simply selling subdomains - albeit well thought out subdomains! The difference here is that these subdomains can, and do, carry a fair bit of weight with users and are fairly easily recognised and remembered in comparison to a 'normal' subdomain.
Is the matter worth mentioning in an article? Quite possibly - I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain to a Client that 'their' domain name is actually a subdomain, isn't actually theirs and can't be transferred. I always meant to put some info down on paper, but never quite got round to it!
R.
I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain to a Client that 'their' domain name is actually a subdomain, isn't actually theirs and can't be transferred.
This is a good point to mention. I mean about not being able to transfer a subdomain. I almost forgot that one.
I was focusing on the fact that people will not NOT put www in front of a URL. I have so much trouble with this. I put a clients site on a shared domain first, and have them give me feedback while I'm working on it. So I tell them, go to fuzzywidgets.domainname.com.
They call me later saying that www.fuzzywidgets.domainname.com doesn't work. So I put the link in an email...and they STILL get it wrong! They refuse to leave the www out! So I figure a URL without www is worthless.
They call me later saying that www.fuzzywidgets.domainname.com doesn't work. So I put the link in an email...and they STILL get it wrong! They refuse to leave the www out! So I figure a URL without www is worthless.
It always amazes me why people don't set up www.subdomain.domain.com as well as subdomain.domain.com.
