So imagine we decide to take over the world through The Heavy Chef Project. We realise, hell yeah, this thing has legs, but what if someone tries to rip us off? What if someone copies us with a similar name so that if someone types in ‘HeadyChef.com’ they get our traffic? Hey! Why not let’s buy all the similar sounding domain names just to be sure. It’s not like it’s going to cost us a lot of money…

Consider the case of Google. Of course, they have more of a case for global domination, but surely this is a bit ridiculous? Check out the names that Google owns…

Close…perhaps?
gewgol.com
goolgel.com
geggle.com
glogoo.com

Erm, what the…?
goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com
1p0g0og1e.com
googlelovers.com
googlereligion.com
googlepaperproducts.com
google-yahoo-porn.com
google-yahoo-sex.com
googlefools.com

And then, our personal favourite:
googlepoo.com

Que? Google Poo?

If you’re interested, check out the full list here.

This is a question that has come up before: Where do you draw the line? For most of us, the answer is to buy the country domain, and then the .com. If you’re feeling frisky, then I suppose maybe some of the other Top Level Domains (TLD’s) are worthwhile (.net, .biz etc.), but in most cases, it’s just going to waste your money going any further.

Fred is the CEO of digital marketing agency World Wide Creative. Fred co-founded The Heavy Chef Project, as well as Ideate, a forum for African entrepreneurs. Fred focuses on online brand building, marketing strategy and loud Hawaiian shirts. Fred is famous for his sartorial excellence, long diatribes about music and fanatical attention to detail when making pizza. Follow Fred on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Fred_Roed