So, the NewYork.sucks billboard outside Fenway Park, just above the Mass Pike, is some sort of joke, right? Some Yankees-hating Bostonian dreamed it up and shelled out the cash to tweak the hated rivals from the Bronx and plaster it right outside the home of the Red Sox, eh?
Nope. As it turns out, the eye-catching billboard that was first noticed last week is a legitimate advertisement for Vox Populi Registry, which sells actual Internet domain names — including ones ending in .sucks.
“The .sucks domain is for websites that want to launch snarky, savage attacks on a target — stupid politicians, corrupt corporations or a certain East Coast city,” BetaBoston’s Hiawatha Bray writes. “Typing newyork.sucks into your Web browser takes you to the website of (CEO John) Berard’s company … where you can buy a .sucks address aimed at the victim of your choice.”
[tweet https://twitter.com/Domainsatcost/status/622060473760878592 align=’center’]
Unfortunately for Berard, the Federal Trade Commission has been asked to investigate Vox for the company’s allegedly “predatory, (exploitative) and coercive” practices.
That makes some sense, considering Vox Populi charges $2,499 or more per year for a .sucks address, according to Bray. We wonder if any disgruntled customer has tried to register “VoxPopuli.sucks” as a domain — so far, Bray reports, the company hasn’t put that ironic Web address up for sale.
