01. 15. 2006
urls for your baby
The NY TImes has an article today about parents snatching up domain names and email addresses for their babies even before they are born. The 2 babies portrayed in the article already own a few websites and addresses between them, with inboxes already filled with messages from friends and relatives. Never mind that they can't read. I read the article with some amusement, but actually rolled my eyes a few times:
"The motivation, parents and other experts say, is akin to securing a good street address in a fast-developing city a decade early, so the children do not have to live on virtual Main Street..."
People are moving away from free accounts, their name at Hotmail, or John Doe at Aol.com," she [Nima Kelly, a vice president of one of the country's largest domain providers, GoDaddy.com] said. "What's happening is that if you don't have a personalized e-mail address, it's seen as having a lack of credibility."
So these parents are squatting urls and addresses for their kids because competition might be fierce later on when they're old enough to think about securing one of their own and god forbid they end up with something generic. Personally, I don't like having a url with my name on it (and yeah, I checked, it's available surprisingly enough), AND I think I would be super annoyed as a tween or teen if my parents already picked a domain name for me because I'd probably want to pick my own anyway. But I did find one thing interesting. Baby Carter already has a growing inbox full of messages. It's like a time-capsule sort of thing that he could read later on. Given how many parents are choosing to document photos and milestones online to share with family and friends (I don't really know any new moms that were diligent about keeping their baby books current), I suppose it's not really surprising.
Still, this doesn't mean I'm going to rush out and secure a url for my toddler. And you know, with her last name, I'm pretty sure it's still gonna be around if she chooses to use it (yeah I checked, it's available).
Read the full article.
Posted by Jenna
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When I was pregnant with my daughter, I set up a Gmail account for her and sent e-mails in her "voice" to the grandparents about what was happening (notes on fetal development, what happened at our last doctor's appointment, what she was doing to keep busy - "jumping on Mommy's bladder, if she didn't want me to, she should've installed a Ninetendo..."). It became a great joke with the family, and everyone looked forward to "Peanut's" e-mails. I also sent notes to "Peanut" about my feelings about impending motherhood, etc. Then, right before we left for the hospital, I posted "Ollie Ollie Oxen Free - Ready or not, here I come!" and sent it to everyone to let them know I was in labor.
Since she was born, I've stopped sending notes to everyone from her (now that she has her own voice, I hesitate to speak for her). I still send her notes, though, on the 10th of every month (she was born on August 10), and when she does something new or interesting. I attach pictures, I copy the text of articles on the web, I do everything I'd do with a "real" baby book, only it's online. I knew I would never keep a real baby book, I just don't have the discipline.
When she's old enough, I'll turn her loose with the password, and she can read all her mail.
I'm already planning for Baby #2 - it'll be "Elvis" and all the subject lines will be song titles. "Love Me Tender," etc.
Posted by: Amy | January 16, 2006 2:09 PM