MySpace Wins UK Domain Name From Web Company

For years, millions of expectant web users have hit up MySpace.co.uk, only to find a site adorned with ads and unrelated to the social network. But now Stockport-based Total Web Solutions, the company that registered the domain back in 1997, has been forced to cough up the name to the News Corp-owned site. TWS would have been in a stronger position had it stuck to its original aim to use the domain for an email and web publishing service, but it had quickly parked the name and automatically added adverts. Yesterday, Nominet said that constituted abusive registration and handed the name to the social net. The irony that TWS loses out for running ads, when MySpace is raking it in from that channel, comes in dollops. “It highlights how automated web content of any sort can get people into real difficulties, NetNames COO Jonathan Robinson tells The Graun. God only knows how much UK traffic MySpace has lost over the years from this.