Bush Library Pays $35,000 to Reclaim Domain Name
Dubya's Web-design contractors forgot to pay for georgewbushlibrary.com — and ended up paying $35,000 to get it back.
What makes this more embarrassing is that this is the second time our outgoing president has paid for the domain name. Yuma Solutions, a Web-development firm based in Tallahassee, Fl., which has done campaign-website work for both Dubya and his brother, former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Yuma bought the domain name in March 2007, but didn't notice it was due to be renewed. George Huger, a Web developer for North Carolina-based Illuminati Karate, saw it on a list of expiring domain names, and snapped it up.
The thing is, I'm in no position to point and laugh, since the same thing happened to me a few years ago. I bought a domain name, mistakenly thought I'd renewed it for two years, and missed the renewal notices when they went to a defunct email address. I didn't spend nearly $35,000 to get it back, but it still hurt. So I'd cut Dubya some slack on this one: He is no stupider than a gossip blogger.
Oh, and? After Yuma finishes spiffing up the library website, it might want to work on getting better search-engine placement. Right now, if you search for "George W. Bush Presidential Library," one of the top results is georgewbush.org. Which is funny, but not the correct website!