And now, back to marketing - For the rest of the century

Also, from the technology section of the washingtonpost.com site, comes good news for companies with deep pockets and sought-after domain names.

A dozen unnamed companies have already taken advantage of Network Solutions' offer to register domain names for 100 years, for just $1,000 each. Network Solutions is positioning the service to appeal to the about 550,000 of its 4.5 million customers it has identified as "power users."

This might seem like a high price to the majority of Network Solutions customers (and, based strictly on multiplying current rates by 100, it is.) But, for companies like Microsoft and the Washington Post, both of which suffered outages due to domain registration renewal glitches, it seems a small outlay to virtually guarantee ownership of their domains into the next century. Network Solutions has not named the twelve companies who have signed up so far.

Of course, this offer begs the question of whether domain names will even be something our progeny will find necessary, as well as the consideration of the consequences should Network Solutions cease to exist. Technically, Network Solutions registers the domain for ten years at a time, and will automatically renew it at the end of each decade.

Some quoted in the article questioned whether such a move is ethical, given that no one who signs the contract will be around in 100 years to make sure the service is still provided. Even so, companies that depend on their domain names for branding may find it easy to justify the outlay, since the cost is less than one ad and downtime from a forgotten renewal could add up to far more.