These domain registrations don’t make a lot of sense.
John Furner. Photo courtesy Walmart
Walmart has registered over 20 domain names related to its Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner.
Companies make these sorts of “defensive” domain name registrations all the time, with the hope of keeping domains out of the hands of detractors. It’s mostly a futile effort.
or example, Intuit registered a bunch of domain names last year when it came under pressure for hiding the availability of its free filing option. But comedian Hasan Minhaj found another derogatory domain to use.
That’s the problem: no matter what names you protect, there are always others that someone can register.
Walmart registered these domains:
ceo-furner.com
ceo-j-furner.com
ceo-jfurner.com
ceo-john-furner.com
ceo-johnfurner.com
ceofurner.com
ceoj-furner.com
ceojfurner.com
ceojohn-furner.com
ceojohnfurner.com
j-furner-ceo.com
j-furner.com
j-furnerceo.com
jfurner-ceo.com
jfurner.com
jfurnerceo.com
john-furner-ceo.com
john-furner.com
johnfurner-ceo.com
johnfurner.com
johnfurnerceo.com
(Update: Jamie Zoch pointed out that Walmart also registered a lot of these names under the .CEO top level.domain.)
Yet it didn’t register obvious domains like JohnFurnerSucks.com. If someone wants to write something bad about Furner, it’s going to choose that domain instead of ceo-j-furner.com.
The timing of the registrations is curious, too. Furner was named to his current position last year. Why register these domains now? And why hasn’t Walmart registered the equivalent domains for its main CEO, Doug McMillon?
Is Furner about to be tapped for a promotion, or is something derogatory about him or Walmart about to come out?
Source: (https://domainnamewire.com/)
