5px; float: left;" />Ever wondered why we're ShinyShiny.tv and not '.com' or '.co.uk'? Well, apart from those URLs already being taken, the '.tv' domain is widely used amongst online media companies, hence why most of our blogs end that way. You may be surprised to hear the whereabouts of the domain suffix though, have you ever heard of the miniscule South Pacific island nation, Tuvalu? Several years ago they sold their '.tv' domain name, and made a huge wad of cash through it, all the while making online media companies such as ourselves rather happy with the widely recognised abbreviation for 'television'. Sadly, news today reached me through the Guardian Unlimited that the '.um' name has recently been deregistered...
Apparently there are many minor outlying islands off the US, (one including Johnston Atoll, pictured), which had the rights to this suffix, but they never actually used it, so last week the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided to deregister it. This has sparked quite a bit of controversy throughout the interweb, with many people asking how this could happen, when the domain suffix has so much potential. One writer, David Utter, claims 'tedi.um' would've been great fun, with others saying 'cerebell.um' and other medical words would've been useful.
Can you think of any clever URLs which could have made use of the handy '.um' domain finish? 'Conundr.um', anyone?