David Neal

Can you spot the difference between the following two URLs: preparingforemergencies.co.uk and preparingforemergencies.gov.uk?

That's right, one has a .gov.uk suffix, the other a .co.uk. To the uninitiated that probably means little, but more savvy internet users will know that the former is an official government URL, which can only be registered by the chaps from Westminster, while the other - a .co.uk domain - could easily be registered by anyone, from the government itself to a bored student. Which, indeed, it was.

The .co.uk site is a spoof. Admittedly, it would be a lot more obvious as a spoof if the address were www.funnyjokelaughtershow.com/spoof/government/preparingforemergencies, but it's not. Instead it bears all the hallmarks of the real McCoyð an unfortunate embarrassment for the government.

It does include clues that it is jokey, such as this advice: "If you are involved in any emergency it is important to: Run like hell, particularly if you caused the emergency. Trample all others in your desperate attempt to escape. Loot on the way out." But in a country in which Robson and Jerome can sell a million records we cannot underestimate the intelligence of the population, many of whom are undoubtedly looking forward to upgrading their television sets before the long dark nuclear winter.

Of course the government should have seized all variants of its new domain as soon as someone sitting around the board table suggested the project and someone else went, "by Jove I think he's got it". Instead it saved a few quid and stuck with the easily recognisable government domain. But there lies the rub. It's easily recognisable to you and I, but it could confuse a lot of people.

There are myriad domain extensions that the government could have registered, including the aforementioned .co.uk and others such as .info ð the domain reserved for disseminating information, which is undoubtedly the aim of the site in question. So it is unfair to brandish the stupid stick only in the direction of the general populace who know enough about the internet to at least put .co.uk on the end of a UK internet address.

Like the government, firms have a couple of choices to make when coming up with a new domain name. First they have to find a new name to register, and second they have to decide where to register it. The government got the first part right ð it ignored my suggestion of www.panicstations.gov.uk ð and chose a title that would appeal to the marketing bods at Ronseal, but it failed in the second instance.

The vagaries of the online ranking system mean the spoof version has a higher place on Google than the official one, so in the split second after the bomb and before the power goes out, hapless internet users looking for help will be told they should: "Try to remain calm and try to reassure others. Or, trample them in a desperate attempt to flee as the building you're in is consumed by a radioactive cloud."

This is not ideal, and although by the time the nukes fall it will be too late for their customers, firms do still have time to learn from the government's mistake.

When registering a domain it pays to cast your net wide.

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