The launch of the online fashion project dubbed ‘Shop-EDGE.co’ ran into confusion and angry reactions as fashion-lovers, believing the name would lead them to a website, instead found porn content when the .co was switched with a .com.
The brouhaha led the project’s leader to explain that there is no actual Shop-EDGE.co but rather a catch-all brand name for indigenous fashion on social media sites.
It was all a big misunderstanding, project leader Rodney Powers, told Barbados TODAY. He categorically denied any foul play intended for people who were interested in viewing the new project.
“It was never a website first and foremost,” Powers explained.”Shop-EDGE.co is for Facebook and Instagram. In [Barbados TODAY’s} article [posted last week] it did not mention anything about a website. If it was miscommunication between the general public not reading [correctly], they would not have gone to a .com or .co where we did not send persons.
“If you look at the magazine it sends you to Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business. We have not developed a website so that was never something we promoted throughout the project.”
It was not immediately clear if the project’s organisers were aware of the existence of Shop-EDGE.com as a porn aggregator.
Powers also insisted that the project, which is backed by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Caribbean Export Development Agency, the European Development Fund and the Caribbean Market Centre, directly focused on developing island fashion businesses with no dishonest intent being involved.
“The word EDGE means to Educate, Develop, Growing Entrepreneurs,” Powers added. “It has nothing to do with pornographic material, it has no association with anything that is negative.
“It’s about focusing on developing young Barbadians small fashion businesses, putting them into clusters and providing them with the opportunity to generate income and help themselves.”
The confusion between the legit Shop-EDGE.co and the illicit Shop-EDGE.com is easily understandable.
Domain names like .co and .com are for listing sites on the Worldwide Web, not social media channels. Hashtags – ‘#” before a name drive traffic to social media sites.
Among the younger domain names in the 28 years since the Worldwide Web began to enter general use, .co is used as a second-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) used to route internet traffic. Barbados is among a handful of countries to use ‘.co’ but would be used together with the country code – .co.bb.
As a top-level domain, .co is the country code for Colombia but is currently marketed internationally as an alternative to .com
But .com is one of the oldest top-level domains, which was introduced when the DNS was first brought into use on the internet in 1985. Derived from the word commercial, .com is among the most widely used and most lucrative of domain names.
According to domain registrar GoDaddy, Shop-EDGE.co has already been “parked” – acquired for a future website. But it is still available for sale, starting at USD119.99 ($239.98). (SB)
