Major Toy Site, Um, Er, Sucks
Wired News Report 
12.21.99
12.21.99 To say there's bad blood between eToys.com and supporters of the Swiss art site etoy is a grotesque understatement.
And now, EToys.com apparently has pulled the equivalent of an end-around against its David-sized rivals: Type in etoyssucks.com and voila, you're at the regular eToys Web site.
Since eToys.com won a court order preventing etoy from using its long-standing domain two weeks ago, etoy supporters have called for "virtual riots." Message boards are boiling with invective against eToys.
This latest development seems to have caught everyone by surprise.
"Companies buy potentially derogatory domain names all the time," said Charles Lukaszewski, senior VP at eWatch, a firm that helps corporations police their brands online. "But this is the first occurrence I've heard of someone using the domain like that" -- as a redirect that drives traffic to the main site.
Most companies that buy up potential slam-site URLs take them out of commission. Call up schwabsucks.com, for instance, and you get an error message, not the latest stock quotes.
EToyssucks.com, by contrast, drives a little extra pre-Xmas traffic to eToys.com (eToys did not return calls seeking comment).
"This, to me, seems absolutely fruitless," said Lukaszewski. "If someone enters the domain name etoyssucks.com, they're doing it for a very specific reason. The likelihood of their buying something if they end up on eToys.com is zero."
If etoyssucks seekers are steamed after winding up at regular old eToys, they can always head to etoys-sucks.com, where they'll find the sort of fare they likely expected in the first place.
And now, EToys.com apparently has pulled the equivalent of an end-around against its David-sized rivals: Type in etoyssucks.com and voila, you're at the regular eToys Web site.
Since eToys.com won a court order preventing etoy from using its long-standing domain two weeks ago, etoy supporters have called for "virtual riots." Message boards are boiling with invective against eToys.
This latest development seems to have caught everyone by surprise.
"Companies buy potentially derogatory domain names all the time," said Charles Lukaszewski, senior VP at eWatch, a firm that helps corporations police their brands online. "But this is the first occurrence I've heard of someone using the domain like that" -- as a redirect that drives traffic to the main site.
Most companies that buy up potential slam-site URLs take them out of commission. Call up schwabsucks.com, for instance, and you get an error message, not the latest stock quotes.
EToyssucks.com, by contrast, drives a little extra pre-Xmas traffic to eToys.com (eToys did not return calls seeking comment).
"This, to me, seems absolutely fruitless," said Lukaszewski. "If someone enters the domain name etoyssucks.com, they're doing it for a very specific reason. The likelihood of their buying something if they end up on eToys.com is zero."
If etoyssucks seekers are steamed after winding up at regular old eToys, they can always head to etoys-sucks.com, where they'll find the sort of fare they likely expected in the first place.
