Tech Crunch reported today that Apple had not secured any iPad related domain names prior to launching the iPad.

Obviously as a bunch of people passionate about domain names we feel that Apple’s launch of the iPad would have been even better had they secured the domain names for their brand prior to the launch. If you visited some of the ipad websites today looking for information this is what you would have found.

ipad.com

Not much to see here.

ipad.com.au

An Australian property developer’s website.

ipad.co.nz

Cute, but not much here.

ipad.co.in

A good old fashioned parked page.

ipad.org

iPad.org is the only relevant domain name and the registrants deserve to be congratulated for their foresight in registering the domain name. Whether they get to keep it is up to the Apple lawyers.

The lesson is pretty clear, unless you can create the same hoopla Apple did with the iPad, you should register your brands in all markets where you intend to compete before you launch your product.

McAfee just released their Mapping the Mal Web report (PDF 4.78MB) which lists the world’s riskiest domains for nasty malware and phishing.

McAfee rated more than 27 million domains in the report and the results are interesting:

• 5.8% of all websites are rated as risky. This is up from 4.1% in 2008;
• The top 5 riskiest domain are:
  • .CM
    The Cameroon domain space is a common typo for .COM and the report found “significant malware activity”.
  • .COM
    The world’s largest and busiest domain.
  • .CN
    China’s domain space is growing rapidly.
  • .WS
  • .INFO
• The top 5 least risky domains are:
  • .GOV
  • .EDU
  • .IE
  • .HR
• Last years riskiest domain space, .HK has improved dramatically due to enhanced fraud processing;
• Australia’s .AU is one of the world’s safest domain spaces.
• Social networking sites represent an increased risk for hacking and virus attacks as they gain in popularity and change user behaviour.

The world can often be a risky place and the web is no exception. If you’re sensible then you should be fine on the streets and on the web. We recommend:

• Never click a link from someone you don’t know or trust;
• Register your brand in all major spaces to prevent squatters;
• Change your passwords often, particularly on social networking sites;
• Use an up-to-date virus scanning tool.

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Jonothan Stribling works with all things web for registerfree.com and can be found on twitter at@jonstribling and @registerfree. He also blogs occasionally at http://www.jonstribling.info/

To some folks a domain name is just a fancy way of abstracting IP addresses via DNS.

To us, a domain name represents the core of what drives the Internet. A domain name can be a great brand already or a great brand in the making.

It is impossible to create a great brand online without a great domain name.

Here are seven reasons we love domain names (and we think you should to).

They are a good investment

Protecting your business and product brands as domain names is a great investment and good insurance. It’s a really easy way to make sure that no one hijacks your brands and damages your sales and reputation.

If you’re keen to make money from your investment you can create some niche blog sites and monetise with Google AdSense or just sell the domain on the secondary market.

You can register as many as you want

Some domain spaces have special rules but you can register as many as you want. And collecting them is fun.

Searching is free (and fun)

Remember the porno name game? You take your first pets name and the street name of your first house and there you have it. Mine is Doba Kennedy.

Choosing names is fun. It allows you to dream a little and imagine new brands, businesses or monetisation opportunities.

No one can take it away from you

So long as you obey the rules of each domain name regulator and do not squat on anyones brands or trademarks you are entitled to keep your domain for as long as you renew it.

Search engines like them

A good domain name with relevant keyphrases is likely to be picked up faster in search engines like Google. The power of having a domain name like comfortablesofa.com.au cannot be under-estimated.

They come in all kinds of colours

There is a domain name space for your every desire. Want a site for mobile phones – choose .mobi. Want a site targeting Asia – choose .asia.

Plus if you’re super clever you can do some domain hacking and create some smart domain names like the del.icio.us or cr.yp.to or Blo.gs.

Nowadays hosting a blog with your own domain is easy

With tools like WordPress coming pre-installed with RegisterFree hosting, creating a new website with a customised WordPress blog is really easy.

Why not have a blog for every part of your personality. Create a blog for your work-self, your home-self and your party-self.

Go forth and love domain names.