 Wayne Rooney may be hitting the back of the net on the field in Euro 2004, but he is alsohammering it homewhen it comes todomain nameregistrations.
The young England star ison the verge of stealingMichael Owen's second place on the domain name chart, says web registration firm NetNames. England's hero already has 10 domains in his name, one behind Michael Owen. Even Sven Goran Eriksson has four. David Beckham still heads the field though, with 111 registered domains.
It is not just because they are good footballers either, it is becausecelebritiesand sports stars are increasingly becominglucrative"brands" in their own right, according to NetNames' Jonathan Robinson. Sites like Rooney Lookalike, which has been registered since January 2004, is just a taster of what is being created off the back of the striker's success. "What's fascinating to me is that the minute a brand or football star attracts attention, domain names just start 'happening'," Mr Robinson told reporters. "The key thing is that the domain name registration immediately picks up when the brand is news." People tend to associate fame with money, which drives many speculative web entrepreneurs to the net. NetNames has ways of tracking the volume of domain names registered on the net, using their own auditing software. Although this phenomenon is not new, Mr Robinson warns that celebrities and their crews of agents have to become more websavvywhen it comes to claiming a bit of the net for themselves quickly. "It has been something that has been prevalent for a while, but increasingly there is this concept of URLs and domain names being used for specific product launches," he said. The youth market in particular is very often the first to look to the web to find information on a product or celebrities. If they do not move quickly, they may have their name hijacked by someone else who could cash in on the name. "Many rising football stars have the potential to become huge brands in their own right, so they need to start protecting their online identitiesearly onin their careers," he said. (Agencies)
| 韦恩·鲁尼不仅在2004年欧锦赛赛场上屡次洞破对方的球门，他的名字更成为人们争相注册的网络域名。 网络注册公司NetNames称，在域名表上这位年轻的英格兰明星差点就超过目前排在第二位的迈克尔·欧文。 已经有10个域名用了这位英格兰英雄的名字，比迈克尔·欧文只少一个。即使是斯文·戈伦·爱瑞克森也只有四个域名。大卫·贝克汉姆仍然高居榜首，拥有111个注册域名。 据NetNames公司的乔纳森·罗宾森说，这不仅因为他们是优秀的足球运动员，而且名人和体育明星凭借自身的实力越来越成为有利可图的“品牌”。 一些站点只是回顾这个球场前锋成功背后的故事，比如注册于2004年1月的Rooney Lookalike网站。 罗宾森告诉记者说：“令我着迷的是某品牌或足球明星开始吸引众人目光的时候，域名就开始出现了。关键是当这个品牌成为新闻时，其域名注册跟着就多起来。” 人们往往将名誉和财富联系在一起，这使得很多网络投机商涌向这个领域。 NetNames公司使用自己的审查软件，有办法跟踪网上注册域名的数量。尽管这种现象已不再新鲜，罗宾森先生还是提醒说当名人和他们的代理公司想要很快为他们自己注册网站域名时，他们不得不对网络有更多的了解。 罗宾森先生说：“域名注册如今已经很流行了，但是将URL和域名用于特殊产品发布这种概念逐渐出现。” 对青年市场来说尤为如此，年轻人通常是最早上网寻找某种产品或某个明星信息的群体。 如果名人不赶快注册，他们的名字就会被别人抢先注册，然后再利用注册的名字来赚钱。 罗宾森先生说：“很多有前途的足球明星凭借自身的实力有潜力成为知名品牌，所以他们应当在职业生涯中尽早保护他们网上的身份。” hammer something home:进一步强调
domain name:域名
on the verge of :接近于，濒临
steal:偷偷地夺取，巧取；获得，赢得
celebrity:名人
lucrative:有利可图的
savvy:有见识的
early on:在早期 （中国日报网站译）
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Updated: 2004-06-25 01:00
