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Gail.com
- stewx 5y agoThe one that scares me is gamil.com. I have made that typo numerous types, and the domain is owned by some guy in Florida who runs a small business.
- xupybd 5y agoA four letter .com domain must be worth a lot of money. I'd want to cash in.
- warent 5y agoLast I heard they easily fetch 7 figures even for garbled acronyms. gail.com is a word, a name, a typo of gmail... in other words it's worth a fortune
- Tempest1981 5y agoYes, but a homophone of "gale", so some people confuse it. So probably half a figure less.
- CyrusL 5y agoNope, only a couple hundred bucks: https://shortnames.com/llll https://shortnames.com/llll . Two-letter .coms are often sold in the high 6 and low 7 figures.
- MontyCarloHall 5y agoGiven that this [0] is very likely Gail’s husband (the guy who purchased the domain as a birthday gift for her in 1996), I don’t think they need the money. [0] https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkevinwatson https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkevinwatson (I found this by Googling “Kevin Watson La Cañada”, the defendant mentioned in the domain takeover lawsuit.)
- neom 5y agoTechnical co-founder of DigitalOcean owns wit.com (and he loves telling people) - he told me he's had offers well into 7 figures for it. 10000% sure he'll never sell it, ever, he loves it. :)
- zwayhowder 5y agoI own several 3 & 4 character .com/net domains and have never had any requests to purchase them. They are all too obscure to be useful I guess. This one would only be super valuable to Google (Catch gmail.com typos) or if someone wanted to launch a product called Gail (in my opinion). Paying a million or more for a domain to consolidate branding is common for example pop.com https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28223515 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28223515 and I know Puppet Labs paid a pretty penny for Puppet.com when it became available, and they were able to rebrand once they had that domain.
- tsjq 5y agoNot only GMail, many of those hits might be people trying to reach Gas Authority of India : GAIL website . It is www.gailonline.com
- SevenSigs 5y agoI got a cheap 4 letter .com for you, only $10k
- dangrossman 5y agoI own awio.com and nobody's ever offered to buy it from me. It's not for sale, but 4-letter domains that aren't real words must not be so valuable.
- rubatuga 5y agoTree fiddy
- Matheus28 5y ago$3.51 final offer
- johnasmith 5y agoI'll give you $5 for it.
- granshaw 5y agoaws.io is what you should’ve bought instead ;)
- icedchai 5y agoI have one. I also have a /24 IPv4 address block. Back in the old days, you often registered both at the same. They were also free.
- duud 5y agoThe floor for random four letter .coms is only around $100 currently. Gail.com would go for 1,000-10,000x that though.
- achow 5y agozoom.com sold for $2,000,000 on 12/14/2018 https://shortnames.com/llll/sales#0U https://shortnames.com/llll/sales#0U
- zomg 5y agothe shop that services my porsche owns epe.com. they have had several offers for $1M plus, but they will not sell it. i only take my vehicle there because they own a 3-letter domain! ;)
- warent 5y agoThere are only two valid e-mail addresses on the gail.com domain, so it is extremely likely that your photos were rejected by my e-mail provider and tossed into the bit bucket. Good to know their rejected emails are instantly uploaded to a hosted git server ;) I've actually never heard bit bucket used like this before. Is that the origin of the name for bitbucket.com?
- jsnell 5y ago> I've actually never heard bit bucket used like this before. Is that the origin of the name for bitbucket.com? Yes, it's ancient as far as computer jargon goes. The etymology is pretty grounded in the real world though! It's where chads that were discarded by card punching machines go.
- warent 5y agoChad has a very different meaning to me. Good lord I've never felt more like a baby millennial Fascinating info, thanks :)
- geerlingguy 5y agoHaha, my brain seems to still bit-flip on the term "chad" nowadays. Before the current usage, the biggest thing was the "hanging chad" in Florida in a US presidential election.
- mattowen_uk 5y agoAs a mid-aged Gen-X, 'Chad' when I was growing up was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here#:~:text=Chad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here#:~:text=Chad Then I did Comp. Sci. at school, and I learned that the whole Chads from punched cards was a thing, so my association with the word changed. re: Bit Bucket. Again due to my age I guess, it was always a term for where thrown-away data went, along with 'Into the Ether' for lost network packets.
- xapata 5y agoI love learning the etymology of jargon. For example, loops were once physically looped paper.
- dang 5y agoPast threads: Gail.com - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21854961 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21854961 - Dec 2019 (9 comments) Gail, not Gmail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13817969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13817969 - March 2017 (154 comments)
- rainsil 5y agoI didn't think typosquatting actually worked. I wonder if there's a general way to figure out the most common misspellings of a given domain name...
- warent 5y agoOh god, this sounds like it could be an interview question
- MontyCarloHall 5y agoEasier to just do bitsquatting: register all the domains that are one cosmic ray induced bit flip away from a common domain name, e.g. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hijacking-traffic-to-microsoft-s-windowscom-with-bitflipping/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hijacking-tra...
- bitexploder 5y agoWe did this for a customer and to see what leaks. It’s very surprising and sometimes very bad from a security perspective on popular and high traffic domains of service providers.
- sbarre 5y agoI remember when this hit HN a few months(?) back, for me it was the first time learning about this and I assumed this might be an obscure thing. I ran the python script against my (very large) employer's domain name and was pleasantly surprised to see we owned all the bitsquatted versions already (there were maybe 10?)
- micromacrofoot 5y agothis domain is probably worth more than all the money I've ever made, not selling it is quite impressive
- paulpauper 5y agowhy sell. just sit on it and watch value go up and up
- micromacrofoot 5y agobecause you can't take it with you
- Tempest1981 5y agoIn the world of hashtags and search, are domain-name prices still increasing? Seems like they should have peaked.
- junon 5y agoAwesome site, the owner(s) seem like good people.
- hirundo 5y agoQ: Don't you know that you could throw some ads up and make money? A: Yes, I know, thank you. For those who feel they need more advertising in their life, please have a look at our swanky Electronic Frontier Foundation ad below. If you believe in a free Internet, please consider clicking on the link and donating to the EFF. Yep, classy dame, Gail.
- pbiggar 5y ago> faq at gail period com There's a typo at the bottom of the page, I think you mean faq at gMail period com.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mcphage 5y agoI can’t tell if you didn’t notice the site you were on, or if I missed your joke.
- Kye 5y agoAt this point I'm sure it's a joke, but I still don't get it.
- solarkraft 5y agoMakes you wonder how many e-mails aimed at gail.com accidentally land at gmail.com.
- q-rews 5y agoIf you read the page it would tell you, no need to wonder.
- admax88q 5y agoIf you read the comment you'd realize your mistake, no need to be snarky.
- TeMPOraL 5y agoEspecially given that at least some autocorrect systems helpfully suggest correcting to "gmail" when you write something similar-looking in the domain part of an address.
- TonyTrapp 5y ago
- hermannj314 5y agoReading the legal arguments of the Gail ceramic company makes me never want to do business with that horrible company. >> "Respondent’s domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. The domain name <gail.com> is nearly identical to the trademarks owned by the Complainant and was registered to prevent the Complainant from reflecting the trademark GAIL in a corresponding domain name. Furthermore, because the Respondent registered the domain name exactly when the Complainant increased its sales of GAIL products to the United States, this should be identified as an abusive practice" Ugh. Seriously? Who pays a lawyer to write horrible stuff like this. It is so pathetic and there was no evidence any of it is true. At least the respondent won the case.
- walrus01 5y agoIf you think that's bad you should see the extended legal battle a guy with the family name Nissan had to engage in when he was sued by the car company.
- duud 5y agoAnd the theft of France.com. This kind of behaviour is all too common. https://domainnamewire.com/2021/03/25/court-rules-france-can-keep-france-com/ https://domainnamewire.com/2021/03/25/court-rules-france-can...
- nix23 5y agoLego is pretty bad too.
- ChrisArchitect 5y agoless than a month ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27957877 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27957877
- mometsi 5y agoI love the domain squatting complaint-- > vii) it is unlikely that the Respondent was unaware of the Complainant’s trademark considering the fame and tradition of the trademark GAIL; Can the respondent really be so ignorant of overseas manufacturers of extruded architectural ceramics, which were available in the respondent's home country as recently as 1990?
- kc0bfv 5y agoRecent relevant XKCD. Average Familiarity. https://m.xkcd.com/2501/ https://m.xkcd.com/2501/
- buzzy_hacker 5y agoI felt this when I, an avid chess player, surveyed friends and fewer than half knew who Bobby Fischer was.
- Waterluvian 5y agoI took two earth sciences classes and even I can’t name any. The best I can do is that silicate is SiO4. I think. And it’s this tetrahedron thing that makes for really tough minerals like quartz. Maybe.
- jasonhansel 5y ago> Another interesting gail.com factoid: my amazing e-mail provider, ProtonMail, rejects about 1.2 million mis-addressed e-mails per week to the gail.com domain. Would be interesting to set up mail servers on "mistyped" domain names. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get sensitive information that would be useful for spear phishing.
- paulgb 5y agoThere's a similar attack involving registering domains that are a bit flip off from a well-known domain. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/windows-com-bitsquatting-hack-can-wreak-unknown-havoc-on-pcs/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/windows-com-bitsquat...
- zimpenfish 5y ago> I wouldn't be surprised if you could get sensitive information that would be useful for spear phishing. I know a bunch of people with common names who frequently get misdirected gmails that include car rentals, doctor appointments, hotel bookings, etc. I've only had a few (<10), alas, and they were mostly about buying art. (Although who knows? Maybe those "misdirected" emails are themselves a sophisticated attack to get people to click on the "unsubscribe" or "this is not me" links...)
- notJim 5y agoI have a relatively common name in South America, and get all kinds of stuff. Travel itineraries, legal documents, info about kids soccer matches, all sorts of stuff. I used to try to help people but it’s honestly pretty annoying, so I just delete it now.
- verve_rat 5y agoYeah, I have a firstname.lastname@gmail address and I have received mortgage documents for two different people in two different countries.
- tephra 5y agoI created a little python script that took a list of domains and created various misspellings of those domains, checked for MX records set for them. I ran this on a list of "sensitive domains" (law authorities, government agencies etc). For example there were 2-3 domains for misspellings of "polisen.se" (the Swedish police) that had MX records set and were presumably receiving some emails they shouldn't.
- anonydsfsfs 5y agoThere's a great little Easter Egg if you view source: > <!-- Okay, if you really want to see a photo of my cat and have resorted to looking at the source HTML, here is a photo: https://gail.com/boxcat.jpg https://gail.com/boxcat.jpg -->
- p2t2p 5y agoI have read the FAQ on the page. What a wonderful, pleasant person.
- gillytech 5y ago> Q: Interested in selling gail.com? > A: Sorry, no. I wonder if that answer would stand if Google offered her $3M USD so they could recover some of their lost traffic.
- mike_d 5y agoSomeone who was registering domains in 1998 might be in a position now where $3 million dollars is inconsequential.
- zimpenfish 5y ago> Someone who was registering domains in 1998 might be in a position now where $3 million dollars is inconsequential. looks at bank account IF ONLY. Although I did get one offer for a domain, it was extremely low and they seemed like shady people.
- gillytech 5y agoI actually did register a domain in 1998. Playstationcheatcodes.com. I was 12 and had no idea how to make a website, and my stepdad had some words when he got the bill. Good times!
- rswail 5y agoAs the owner of a domain that matches with an ISP in Washington state (except for a missing "M" in mine), I feel Gail's pain. I send back a canned response to most people once, then blacklist/drop the incoming address. The worst I had was when someone decided that I was the one doing the wrong thing and demanded that I forward the email to the correct person. I engaged them back and forth for a bit, then eventually found the contact details of the company, forwarding the email chain to them and pointing out their customer service person's stupidity. I got a nice reply from the CEO thanking me and an apology email from the CS person.
- sideproject 5y agoahh typo-squatting... it creates so many interesting stories.. I have a few products related to domain names [1][2] and in the past I knew some users who owned "none.com.au" (which is a typo for nine.com.au - one of Australia's TV channels) and "gail.com.au" (similar to gail, but with .com.au) - which all attracted pretty decent traffic without any effort. They had some pages with Google AdSense going. I also knew this user, who had the same domain name as one of the more popular YouTube video downloading tool, but with ".net". He put up an adsense that attracted 8k clicks per day. Internet is filled with these fascinating stories. [1] https://www.newsy.co https://www.newsy.co [2] https://www.domainy.io https://www.domainy.io
- tsjq 5y agoNot only GMail, many of those hits might be people trying to reach Gas Authority of India : GAIL website . It is www.gailonline.com
- slaymaker1907 5y agoAlso very similar to gaiaonline.com
- bartkappenburg 5y agoOur company is the owner of kamer.nl (kamer=room/chamber) and our government in the Netherlands has a first and second chamber (eerstekamer and tweedekamer) as a parallel to Congress/House of Commons. We're getting a lot of emails (due to a catch-all) because politicians type foo@tweede.kamer.nl, foo@eerste.kamer.nl or just plain foo@kamer.nl instead the correct foo@tweedekamer.nl or foo@eerstekamer.nl. It does sometimes contain some privacy-sensitive information and we always reply and point them to the mistake. We do this because hopefully they learn (most do...) and they can get the information to the right person.
- gnyman 5y agoout of curiosity, why do you maintain a catch all? would it not be easier (and less of a privacy issue) to just reject them outright?
- bartkappenburg 5y agoIt has a business reason: we let customers email each other on an anonymized email address ($hash@kamer.nl) to keep their info private. I know the structure of the hash (length etc) but no clue how to filter on the mail-server side using this characteristic, that’s why a catch-all. We’re thinking of sunsetting the feature and that would mean that a catch-all won’t be necessary anymore :-)
- Aissen 5y agoGood that they still have it. In France, a seamstress named Milka infamously lost her shop's milka.fr domain to a food giant owning the brand. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka_contre_Kraft_Foods https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka_contre_Kraft_Foods
- Tade0 5y agoMeanwhile Mr. Nissan's legacy(he passed away last year) lives on: https://nissan.com/ https://nissan.com/
- csharpstack 5y agoI was just 1 year old in 1996. For my generation it’s sucky that someone can squat on a domain by virtue of being first.
- nodejs_rulez_1 5y agoAs boomers who also worked in IT they have a house and all the money they need. Might as well have a little gimmick hobby on the side!
- pulse7 5y agoBetter answer for the question "I tried to send some photos to my girlfriend and typed gail.com instead of gmail.com in the address field. The photos were of a very personal nature. Can you please delete them?" would be: "Don't worry! Your photos of a very personal nature are safely stored at NSA and will be scanned for all possible (ab)uses, many times, even in the future. In case of artificial intelligence false positives, they will also be manually scanned and reviewed - many times, even in the future. So please send the removal request to the NSA."
- moreshadow 5y ago<font> elements! It really is from 1996. I haven't seen code that outdated since the frontend of Hacker News.