11/3/2014
By Ivan Pereira
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears to be going the extra mile to make sure his web presence isn’t tarnished in the city’s new domain name.
Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP, the law firm that represents Bloomberg, recently registered at least 400 .nyc websites related to his name, according to data available on several online domain listing databases. In addition to bloombergfamilyfoundation.nyc and officialmikebloomberg.nyc., the firm also registered several sites that could possibly be set up to jeer the 72-year-old billionaire, including mikeistooshort.nyc and mikebloombergisadweeb.nyc.
Andrew Allemann, the editor of the blog Domain Name Wire, which first reported Bloomberg’s registrations Monday, said it’s common for celebrities and politicians to register domains with the idea of preventing salacious webmasters from taking those sites. But he’s never seen an initiative this sweeping to that end.
“This is a pretty extreme extent, but granted there’s never been a domain name for a city,” he said.
Last month, the city became the first city in the country to have its own domain name when it launched .nyc. New York City residents and businesses owners are eligible for the domain for their personal and professional sites.
A spokeswoman for Bloomberg Philanthropies said the domain registrations was “news to us.”
“This appears to be overly-aggressive legal due diligence, and we’re only keeping the straightforward addresses,” she said in a statement.
