Almost every word in the Oxford English Dictionary has now been bought up as a .com domain name – and the same is true for the 66 book titles of the Bible. However, five names are back on the market, including Philippians.com. Simon Jenkins reports.
In the scramble for .com names on the Internet, Jonah has missed the boat. Jonah.com was snapped up by an enterprising businessman several years ago, along with Genesis.com, Revelation.com and all the other 66 books of the Bible.But all is not lost for the tenacious biblical domain name hunter. Five coveted names have bounced back onto the market. Habakkuk, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Philippians and Thessalonians are currently up for sale, and offers are invited in the $500-5000 price range. Anyone writing a commentary on one of these books might be well advised to join the queue of buyers. Single-word domain names are big money at the moment. The Oxford English Dictionary has been raided almost completely, with only a handful of obscure words remaining. Many companies, such as MacDonalds and the BBC, have been forced to buy their own names from people who got there first, at vastly inflated prices.
At the other end of the Bible, it's the same story. Jude.com is an online dating agency, offering "1,100,000 hot people interested in 'adult' activities." The site offers a number of categories: sports friends, Chinese friends, and "Out Personals" for gay relationships. Other biblically-named websites include a Paris jeans company (Nahum.com), the Florida Circuit of Judges (Judges.com), the official pages of the Sacramento Kings American football team (Kings.com), and a trucking company in Cincinatti (Hosea.com).
Only three of the 66 biblical book domains are owned by religious groups – Psalms, Proverbs and Malachi. The Psalms.com address directs surfers straight to the website of LordofHosts.com, an American organization which has amassed a heavenly host of domain names so that Christians can witness through their email address. Believers can choose from an impressive list of addresses, including BornAgain.com, PraiseGod.com and Yahweh.net. Intriguingly, the first ten books of the New Testament, including Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, seem to be owned by "cybersquatters" – people who have bought up the addresses but do nothing with them. Top of Page | Archive | Ship of Fools Central
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Many of the 66 books of the Bible have fallen into unorthodox hands. Esther.com is the sumptuous homepage of Esther Hwang, an American model and pageant queen. Esther acknowledges that she is "named after perhaps the most famous and influential beauty queen of all time – Queen Esther of the Bible," and offers photographs of herself in a biblical state of undress for those who join her fan club at $10 a month.
Getting there first can have its problems. Joshua Wach, a one-time magician who snapped up Joshua.com for his personal homepage in 1994, receives regular email from hundreds of other Joshuas around the world. "Some are upset that I have 'their' domain," he says. "Oh please!"