There are over a thousand TLD’s (top level domain names) available in 2017. From the well known .com and .net all the way to the lesser known .int, which is, according to Wikipedia, used by “organizations, offices, and programs endorsed by a treaty between two or more nations.”
We’ll be damned.
As of July 1, a new TLD became publicly available: .africa. It joins the long list of geographic locations that have their own TLD, such as .us and .eu. The domain has been around since April, but was only made available to the general public last month. One man was ready to jump on it with the best possible domain name.
Registrations recently opened for the new .africa TLD. I speculatively applied to register one. I got it.https://t.co/qBgM3Sznut
— Dylan Beattie (@dylanbeattie) August 2, 2017
Here it is in all its glory: http://ibless.therains.downin.africa/
That’s right, Dylan Beattie now owns a website based on the classic Toto song “Africa.” A song so good it made Paul Ryan almost tolerable. Currently, the site just plays the original 1982 video for the song on a loop. Making it quite possibly the best website on the Internet.
For those that are interested, Beattie registered downin.africa, which is parked with the Africa Registry. The site sits on a subdomain of that.
People loved it, as you would expect.
https://twitter.com/shanselman/status/892775613991223296
Domain registration humor is my jam
— Dan V 🐒🗄🏁🛰⛱⛹🚳🦂🤬💺🐲⚜️🔨🛴🥨🧤🕥🗾🧙♀️🥌🔡 (@DanIsTheBest) August 2, 2017
Of all the things I've seen today, that is the most deserving of congratulations, hands down.
— Innocent Loverboy (@innocentlb) August 2, 2017
Beattie is a software developer who lives in London, but was actually born in Africa. Kenya to be precise. He also bears at least a passing resemblance to Steve Lukather, the singer/guitarist for Toto.
According to Beattie’s Twitter bio, he’s “into classic rock music, cats, skiing, Lego, scuba, beer and Africa.” It’s nice he could combine at least two of those passions into his new website.
And if you’re now jonesing to hear some of the sweet, sweet Toto sound (who wouldn’t be right now?), you can either visit Beattie’s site or check out the video below.