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Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label internet. Show all posts
Masters of their own domain
Iowa takes steps to stop website abuse
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.
The University of Iowa has come up with a proactive method for fighting Web sites built to criticize its coaches by buying domain names.
Web sites ripping college coaches have popped up in increasing numbers in recent years. But the ongoing battle between Internet sites and athletic departments took a new twist last summer when University of Iowa officials purchased seven domain names, including firekirkferentz.com, in order to keep them off the market.
The move didn't become news until this week when, ironically, it was posted on Deadspin.com, one of the most popular blogs on the Web.
The school also purchased the domain names for potential sites about women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder, men's basketball coach Steve Alford and athletic director Gary Barta. According to Iowa associate athletic director Rick Klatt, the move was made as an extension of the school's licensing program, which protects its name, image and logo, and to protect some of its high-level employees.
Each of the site names cost US$25 to purchase and $25 a year to maintain, Klatt said. Anyone who types those names into a browser is directed to the school's official Web site.
"In one sense, we're attempting to provide some level of protection to the individual," Klatt said. "On a much smaller scale, because they are all dot-com extensions, they could be commercial Web sites where people could make money off that Web site ... it just seems wrong that someone could benefit from that."
Iowa's move has raised questions of whether the school is trying to prevent its fans from criticizing its coaches, a tradition as old as sports itself. Klatt said Hawkeyes fans still have a host of venues for expressing themselves.
"There's plenty of opportunities for free speech. Letters to our director of athletics, e-mails to our director of athletics. There's multiple sites available for the fans of the Hawkeyes to express their opinions on coaches performance," Klatt said.
Though Iowa bought the rights to stevealfordmustgo.com, it missed out on one such site: firestevealford.com.
Founder Michael Handley, a former Iowa student who now works as a systems architect in Jacksonville, Fla., said he set up the site in late 2003 as a favour to a friend, who became frustrated with what he said were Hawkeye-based message boards that banned people who made negative comments about Alford.
Handley said the site now generates as many as 2,000 unique visitors a day during February and March. A lifelong Hawkeyes fan who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Handley said his site is simply a forum for discussion.
In fact, it carries just one rule: personal attacks on Alford or other site members is prohibited.
"If you don't like him as a coach, fine, but if you don't like him as a person or things like that, you're not going to talk about that. It's all about his ability as a basketball coach, not his personal life," Handley said of Alford, whom he has never met.
These days, anyone with a little ingenuity and a few bucks could start a Web site designed to blast any coach they want. To wit, redshirted.com — the company that sold firekirkferentz.com to Iowa — still had 20 coach-related domain names for sale as of Tuesday.
Klatt realizes the school can't stop every Web site that may pop up, but he said that, at a cost of $175 a year, it seemed like a reasonable investment for Iowa.
"In no way is this a perfect solution to a problem that's been created as a result of the many new ways people communicate," Klatt said. "This was an imperfect attempt to provide some level of protection."
Iowa takes steps to stop website abuse
Associated PressDES MOINES, Iowa — If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.
The University of Iowa has come up with a proactive method for fighting Web sites built to criticize its coaches by buying domain names.
Web sites ripping college coaches have popped up in increasing numbers in recent years. But the ongoing battle between Internet sites and athletic departments took a new twist last summer when University of Iowa officials purchased seven domain names, including firekirkferentz.com, in order to keep them off the market.
The move didn't become news until this week when, ironically, it was posted on Deadspin.com, one of the most popular blogs on the Web.
The school also purchased the domain names for potential sites about women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder, men's basketball coach Steve Alford and athletic director Gary Barta. According to Iowa associate athletic director Rick Klatt, the move was made as an extension of the school's licensing program, which protects its name, image and logo, and to protect some of its high-level employees.
Each of the site names cost US$25 to purchase and $25 a year to maintain, Klatt said. Anyone who types those names into a browser is directed to the school's official Web site.
"In one sense, we're attempting to provide some level of protection to the individual," Klatt said. "On a much smaller scale, because they are all dot-com extensions, they could be commercial Web sites where people could make money off that Web site ... it just seems wrong that someone could benefit from that."
Iowa's move has raised questions of whether the school is trying to prevent its fans from criticizing its coaches, a tradition as old as sports itself. Klatt said Hawkeyes fans still have a host of venues for expressing themselves.
"There's plenty of opportunities for free speech. Letters to our director of athletics, e-mails to our director of athletics. There's multiple sites available for the fans of the Hawkeyes to express their opinions on coaches performance," Klatt said.
Though Iowa bought the rights to stevealfordmustgo.com, it missed out on one such site: firestevealford.com.
Founder Michael Handley, a former Iowa student who now works as a systems architect in Jacksonville, Fla., said he set up the site in late 2003 as a favour to a friend, who became frustrated with what he said were Hawkeye-based message boards that banned people who made negative comments about Alford.
Handley said the site now generates as many as 2,000 unique visitors a day during February and March. A lifelong Hawkeyes fan who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Handley said his site is simply a forum for discussion.
In fact, it carries just one rule: personal attacks on Alford or other site members is prohibited.
"If you don't like him as a coach, fine, but if you don't like him as a person or things like that, you're not going to talk about that. It's all about his ability as a basketball coach, not his personal life," Handley said of Alford, whom he has never met.
These days, anyone with a little ingenuity and a few bucks could start a Web site designed to blast any coach they want. To wit, redshirted.com — the company that sold firekirkferentz.com to Iowa — still had 20 coach-related domain names for sale as of Tuesday.
Klatt realizes the school can't stop every Web site that may pop up, but he said that, at a cost of $175 a year, it seemed like a reasonable investment for Iowa.
"In no way is this a perfect solution to a problem that's been created as a result of the many new ways people communicate," Klatt said. "This was an imperfect attempt to provide some level of protection."
Canadians like hockey. Torontonians like bad hockey.
Domi dominates the web
William Houston
Hockey categories dominated traffic on Yahoo Canada in 2006.
That’s not a surprise, but this is: Of all the great sports figures in the world, Tie Domi was the most searched on Yahoo Canada.
Domi, a fourth line forward with Toronto Maple Leafs best known for his fighting, retired before the start of this NHL started. But Internet interest in him was related to his divorce, which became very public, and his romantic involvement with Belinda Stronach, the former Liberal cabinet minister and current Member of Parliament.
Four hockey figures made up the top 10. Todd Bertuzzi, the controversial Vancouver Canucks forward who was traded to Florida Panthers at the end of the 2005-06 National Hockey League season, ranked fourth. Phoenix Coyotes coach and hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who made news as coach of Canada’s men’s hockey team at the Turin Olympics and as the husband of Janet Gretzky, who was tied to an alleged gambling ring, was seventh. Sidney Crosby, the rookie hotshot with Pittsburgh Penguins, came in ninth.
Domi was followed, in order, on the Yahoo Canada list Zinedine Zidane, the French captain who lost his cool in France’s World Cup game again Italy; Tiger Woods; Bertuzzi; Canadian Winter Olympic gold medalists Cindy Klassen (5th) and Jennifer Heil (6th); Gretzky; Italian soccer star Fabio Cannavaro; Crosby and Olympic star Beckie Scott.
In Yahoo’s top 10 searches for sports organizations or events, the NHL ranked first, followed by FIFA World Cup, WWE, the Maple Leafs (one of only two sports clubs to make this list), Ultimate Fighting Championship, NASCAR, Fantasy Hockey, Winter Olympics, National Football League and Toronto Blue Jays (the second sports club on the list).
In the category of professional Canadian team searches, the Leafs ranked first, followed by the Jays, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Raptors, Calgary Flames, Canucks, Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions.
Domi dominates the webWilliam Houston
Hockey categories dominated traffic on Yahoo Canada in 2006.
That’s not a surprise, but this is: Of all the great sports figures in the world, Tie Domi was the most searched on Yahoo Canada.
Domi, a fourth line forward with Toronto Maple Leafs best known for his fighting, retired before the start of this NHL started. But Internet interest in him was related to his divorce, which became very public, and his romantic involvement with Belinda Stronach, the former Liberal cabinet minister and current Member of Parliament.
Four hockey figures made up the top 10. Todd Bertuzzi, the controversial Vancouver Canucks forward who was traded to Florida Panthers at the end of the 2005-06 National Hockey League season, ranked fourth. Phoenix Coyotes coach and hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who made news as coach of Canada’s men’s hockey team at the Turin Olympics and as the husband of Janet Gretzky, who was tied to an alleged gambling ring, was seventh. Sidney Crosby, the rookie hotshot with Pittsburgh Penguins, came in ninth.
Domi was followed, in order, on the Yahoo Canada list Zinedine Zidane, the French captain who lost his cool in France’s World Cup game again Italy; Tiger Woods; Bertuzzi; Canadian Winter Olympic gold medalists Cindy Klassen (5th) and Jennifer Heil (6th); Gretzky; Italian soccer star Fabio Cannavaro; Crosby and Olympic star Beckie Scott.
In Yahoo’s top 10 searches for sports organizations or events, the NHL ranked first, followed by FIFA World Cup, WWE, the Maple Leafs (one of only two sports clubs to make this list), Ultimate Fighting Championship, NASCAR, Fantasy Hockey, Winter Olympics, National Football League and Toronto Blue Jays (the second sports club on the list).
In the category of professional Canadian team searches, the Leafs ranked first, followed by the Jays, Edmonton Oilers, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Raptors, Calgary Flames, Canucks, Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions.
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