Sandor Panton of Top5Jamaica.Com, in association with the Gleaner Online, guides you through what's new, cool and interesting on the Internet. From Jamaica to the wider Caribbean and the rest of the World, this is the 'Week on the Web'.
WHY DO so many Jamaica-related domains go off-line (cease to exist) every month? In some instances, it may be a simple matter of the owner no longer wanting the domain (maybe their dreams of making millions on the Internet didn't materialise). In many other instances however, ignorance and carelessness are at the root; where for example the owner of the domain name 'forgot' to renew or simply missed or ignored the important renewal alert e-mails. From there, it's usually all downhill for the original owner, as failure to renew the expired domain within a specified period of time normally means the domain name is free for registration by anyone else that may want it.
The sale of expired domains is a big online industry, and there's no shortage of foreign-based individuals and companies who grab these Jamaica-related domain names at the first possible chance. Why do they want these domains? It's usually to either (a) profit from the existing/residual visitors that the domain may still be getting on a daily basis or (b) sell it back to the original owner (who may desperately want it back) for an exorbitant price and make an easy profit.
Over time, many Jamaican domain names have changed hands via this route, and seemingly even more so over the last year or two. Here are a few:
elephantmandj.com (formerly the official website of dancehall DJ, Elephant Man)
jamaicalottery.com (formerly the website of the Jamaica Lottery Company)
securities-jamaica.org (Financial Services Commission - which now uses fscjamaica.org)
tingalayas.com (formerly the website of a bed & breakfast in Negril)
gracethrillers.com (formerly the online home of the Grace Thrillers gospel group)
harrytoddler.com (another dancehall deejay's website, this time it's Harry Toddler's)
Take a walk back in online time with the Internet wayback machine
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine at http://www.archive.org is a free service that allows you to view archived "snapshots" of websites. So, in effect, you can see how a particular website or webpage looked at a particular point in time from the past.
WEBSITES OF THE WEEK
http://www.cricketworldcup.com - 2007 is just around the corner, and in that year, Jamaica as well as several other countries in the West Indies will host the ICC Cricket World Cup. The ICC recently launched CricketWorldCup.com as the official website for that event, and on it, you can get a range of information, including team groupings, fixtures, venue details and more.
http://www.reggaephotos.de - ReggaePhotos.De features an impressive archive of dancehall/reggae photos taken at events all over the world, from as far back as 2003. Most impressive though, is the hundreds of top quality photos they added recently, that were taken at Reggae Sumfest 2005.
