Lessig reports that Cheney used the wrong TLD (that’s “top level domain” of course) when referring to the factcheck website. The real site is factcheck.org, which points outs inconsistencies on both sides of the political spectrum. Cheney mentioned factcheck.com, which redirects to the home page for George Soros, a wealthy investor and adamant anti-Bush crusader. Haha!

I think it’s unreasonable to expect perfection in a live debate, and I don’t expect everyone to remember the difference between .org and .com either. “dot com” is one step short of habitual – requiring almost no thought to produce. It’s almost synonymous with the internet (.net just couldn’t compete).

This site is andrewsinclair.org because andrewsinclair.com wasn’t available, but I like the .org. It’s a personal site, and I think, as a person, I’m closer to an organization than a commercial entity. Unfortunately, andrewsinclair.com is now lost in domain name purgatory (my thoughts on that here) and will only surface again when a squatter and buyer agree on a value (which will only happen when someone sharing my name becomes famous - or, less likely, when I become famous).

Law School Discussion is a .org too. That one was by choice (I saved .com from it’s paid-link fate). A discussion board is more of an organization (ie community) than a commercial enterprise – even though it is a commercial enterprise. tortfeasor is unquestionably a commercial enterprise, and thus a .com. A law student is trying to use tortfeasor.org, but tortfeasor.net is a paid-link site owned by the good folks at KenyaTech.

You have to expect that people will get confused, but politicians and brand owners should be extra careful about where their opponents live on the internet. Even the presidential abode has been hijacked by TLD confusion: whitehouse.com.