We all know about the (now in-) famous Pen Island (www.penisland.com), and there are other fine examples, such as the very annoying Experts Exchange (www.expertsexchange.com), now sadly incorporating a hyphen.
Today, however, I came across a marvellous new example of this most entertaining genre: Big Bus Tours, London. The back of all their buses boldly advertises www.bigbustours.co.uk, and perhaps they’ve realised how it could be misinterpreted, because it’s carefully colour-coded: www.bigbustours.co.uk.
This, however, didn’t stop me from having a laughter-inspired breakdown in front of Baker Street station earlier this afternoon, when I realised how amusing the mis-reading could be. Big Bus Tours, now recommended by Jordan and Pamela Anderson…
Anyone else have other URLs which really should have been proofread better?
We have a local restaurant called The Pearl. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but used to be www.thepearl.com did not lead to the restaurant website. :dubious:
ETA: And of course that’s not what you meant at all. Sorry.
All I can say is if you’re looking for some nice cooking seasonings, especially if you happen to be at work, go to the spice house dot com. DO NOT GO to spice house dot com. Make sure, damn sure, you put the in there. The spice house dot com. You know what I’m saying here?
Yes, it was taken over sometime last year, according to Wikipedia.
I was, however, referring to things more along the lines of what **Flander **posted - where the URL itself has (accidental or otherwise) risqué-ness in it.
Flander, I’m very, very amused by the PowerGen story. Made people three desks away ask what I was laughing at.
(Since I’m at work, I whois’ed them rather than tried to go to the URL directly)
Well, that’s a relief. I’m at work too, and I ain’t going there. It was very naughty. I buy my spices from Penzey’s anyway.
This isn’t really what the OP is asking for but I once misspelled marthastewart dot com and got a big shock - it was not “A Good Thing”. I closed that window pretty darn fast and am not even sure how I misspelled it, I just make sure that I am very careful now when I type in the address. Who would think to make a porn site that’s a slight misspelling of Martha Stewart?
Ya, I accessed that from a library computer in the middle of class, lots of pop-ups so I didn’t get it shut down before a teacher cam over to try and figure out why all the students around me were laughing.
Also a little off track (but the on track stuff, although apairently rare, is hilarious) I needed to call my companies help desk for a password reset and dialed 1-800-555-HELP instead of 1-877-555-HELP. The 1-800 number was a porn number. I couldn’t have hung up faster if I tried.
Second, it’s a deliberate and rather obvious joke, especially if you (1) read the copy with a dirty mind and (2) try to actually get to an order page, because there isn’t one that works. It’s not a pen vendor, it’s a silly joke.
My son was doing research on George Washington Carver when he was in elementary school. He typed in georgewashingtoncarver.com and up popped a site that had NOTHING to do with this famous agricultural scientist.
I have no idea if that’s still the case, but it got me wondering…who, looking for porn, is going to think of George Washington Carver?
Lots of porn sites and other sleazy businesses buy up URLs that are typos of high profile sites. Smart high profile sites buy up these URLs themselves and redirect them to the main sight. So if you type in gooogle.com, gogle.com, ggoogle.com, google.net and so on, you should find yourself at google.com. I know I’ve accidentally typed a few of these and ended up at the google main site anyway.
No guarantees that any one particular typo will take you to google, so experiment at work at your own risk.
Several years ago there was a company that produced computer training videos called ViaGrafix. They changed their name to something more innocuous after lots of corporate purchasing departements refused to pay invoices for something that looked like a “male enhancement” product.
