Did anyone try http://www.lfs.com lately??? It's one of those advertisement hells, but this one clearly builds itself on the audience of LFS, as all the "links" are racing games and simulation related. That sucks... I bet the devs could take over it..
If you actually liked LFS even a bit, you'd know that its www.liveforspeed.net and that that isnt even LFS related and its like when you type in a webiste but put say .com istead of .net and it takes you to a random search engine, simular thing happend there illepall
It would be, in an ideal world, better for LFS if lfs.com belonged to the devs. It's unfortunate that it doesn't, because there is nothing to lead you here from there at present, and plenty to lead you away.
I suspect that the owners of lfs.com may have, or may at some point, approach the devs with an offer to sell the domain. If LFS were a registered trademark™, I think it would be quite feasible for the domain sitters (which they would BE, if it were LFS™) to be forced to hand over the domain for a nominal fee. I don't think that's the case, however
If it transpired that SIMbin or EA owned the company that owns lfs.com, there is actually an argument that they'd be breaking the law. It's now against the law (both US and EU, I believe) for Porsche to buy bmwcars.com and steer those visitors away from BMW (and towards Porsche?).
All different stuff - I'd hardly call lfs.com hijacked. Also I can't see how they benefit from that. If I'd type lfs.com, expecting Live for Speed, and then land on this weird site I'd just take it as a lesson learned and not use the wrong url anymore. But maybe that's just me.
Yes, however all the domains you've noted have nothing to do with the respective game, and all seem to be legitimate websites. lfs.com OTOH is clearly gaming/racing advertisement site, which obviously expect LFS users to get into their ads maze. So these are not the same.
I think the point is that word of mouth goes something like "Go to the LFS website and download it. It's the best thing since sliced bread" I know I've told people to do that. Many have probably then gone to the LFS website (lfs.com) and some may have trawled, desperate to find what I had been talking about, until they turn up a link to GPL at Best Buy for $30, or whatever. Not everyone is as net-savvy as us guys
Record created on: 1998-09-22 00:00:00.0
Database last updated on: 2006-06-01 02:09:59.597
Domain Expires on: 2006-09-21 00:00:00.0
They've had it for quite a while The racing simulation stuff on that page is most likely just because the keyword "LFS" in google for example comes up with racing simulator related links, so they display ads based on that context.
That's regular practice. From early on, all the 2- and 3-letter domain names have been registered, mostly by domain squatters. At first, the goal was to get a hefty ransom from the company who owned the brand name. That's illegal now, but domain squatting can still be profitable, if they plaster the site with ads.
Maybe, but googling is not the only explanation. The lfs.com site has no ads about Linux From Scatch, the London Film School or the Landesfeuerwehrschule. They must have done some marketing research.
The number of three letters domains is quite limited, therefore some people get them before they have any use, thinking they'll have a use. Some end up in advertising pages. I remember ati.com once sold fake poo, and with fake poo I mean some brown plastic fake poo. Nothing in common with display adapters, except the three letter acronym... I guess that was a particularly fun (or disturbing) way to put some pressure on ATI to buy the domain name for a nice amount of money.