GeorgeAlexanderLouis.com: Royal baby websites registered by cybersquatters seconds after name is announced
Cybersquatters rush to website registrars as soon as the Prince's name was made official
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Royal family are one of Britain’s most carefully managed brands but it seems they’ve fallen foul of one of the cardinal rules for 21st century PR: always register the website before you launch the product.
Minutes after the announcement of the Prince of Cambridge’s name cybersquatters jumped to their keyboards, registering a whole range of sites beginning ‘georgealexanderlouis dot something’.
Whilst some of this precious cyber real-estate has yet to be capitalised on (the .org domain just says it’s ‘under development’) others are already cashing in on the clicks – the .co.uk URL currently hosts a mirror of ‘Tyras Kids’, a site apparently dedicated to spamming news about American teen idols.
It seems that many enterprising webmasters were hoping to get their hands on the right name, with one internet hosting company reporting a four-fold increase on website registration featuring possible royal names in the 24 hours after the birth.
As well as domain names dozens of parody accounts for the royal baby were registered on Twitter following the announcement. Names were changed to the young prince's name although no offical @ handles were registered - Twitter's 'Name Squatting' policy explicitly forbids any "attempts to sell or extort other forms of payment in exchange for usernames."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments