Many people like to use web services like Ow.ly and bit.ly which enable them to shorten domain names and the .ly is especially popular because of the memorable domain names they can create ("For those without their own adverb indexes, the company helpfully posted a list of "8,742 words ending in ly." While cruel.ly, gris.ly and smel.ly are taken, inept.ly, violent.ly and psychotical.ly remain available, the company said."- read the entire Wall Street Journal article here).
In fact, most of the users of .ly are not actually Libyans, 43% of .ly users come from the UK, US and Canada.
This, naturally, has created a small scandal for those who do not want to be supporting Gadahfi, not that the $75 is costs to create a .ly is his main income source, but it's the priniciple.
(Side point- everyone needs to get together and decide on one way to spell Gadahfi (WSJ) Qaddafi (NYTimes) Gaddafi (Washington Post) etc. etc. What's up with that?)
I think since this .ly is owned by Gadahfi- by people supporting him and using this it gives him more power and it makes him feel like he has more control than just over Libya which i view as a problem because the last thing this man needs is more power to go to his head. It is interesting how big this has become- because people love shortcuts these days- but someone should come up with something else.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find it ridiculous and unprofessional that the media has so many ways of spelling his name- stick to one spelling- its bizarre.
The spelling thing is some strange artifact of how to transliterate Arabic into English. The British do it one way, the State Department does another.
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