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> The phone companies China Telecom and China Unicom simply reappropriated their well-known customer service numbers as domain names, 10086.cn and 10010.cn, res
by twiss 7y ago
> The phone companies China Telecom and China Unicom simply reappropriated their well-known customer service numbers as domain names, 10086.cn and 10010.cn, respectively.
https://9292.nl https://9292.nl is an example of this outside China, taking its name from 0900-9292 (a phone number you can call to get public transport travel directions, now largely replaced by the website/app).
- Cenk 7y agoOr https://www.1177.se https://www.1177.se for Sweden, the health care number/website. The NHS in the UK has https://111.nhs.uk https://111.nhs.uk as the URL for their new online emergency service.
- tapland 7y agoHere's some more info about 1177 who recently had a security breach: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19190346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19190346 It is a great service.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- stordoff 7y agoNitpick: 111 is the urgent but non-emergency service. The first page asks you to "Check it’s not an emergency" (signs of a heart attack/signs of a stroke/severe difficulty breathing/heavy bleeding/severe injuries/seizure), and to call 999 if it is.
- auscompgeek 7y agoIn Australia, http://131500.com.au http://131500.com.au is also a very similar example (in that it also borrows the PT directions phone number), although it redirects to Transport for NSW's newer domain name these days.
- croisillon 7y ago1588.lt in Lithuania ;)
- bonzini 7y agoIn Italy telephone companies customer service had (and still have) short numbers beginning with 1, so 187.it and www.190.it redirect respectively to Telecom Italia and Vodafone. Strangely enough, 190.it doesn't work...
- teknologist 7y agoIn the UK, 118118(.com) is a directory service provider that picked up a lot of popularity before mobile phones became the primary way to search for local businesses. They are still around though, and operate a website that is like a simplistic Yellow Pages / Yelp. They immediately came to mind because of their really catchy advertising back in the day.
- dangrover 7y agoThey forgot the most notorious, 12306.cn. Basically Healthcare.gov for train tickets.
- hbosch 7y agoI believe this is in the article.