September 1, 1998. The Internet started out as a deserted ghost town. Very few people around, and not a lot of sites to surf to. Needless to say, today the Internet has blossomed to a metropolis town with hundreds, thousands, no, millions of sites to visit. All of these sites are known by their domain names. If you are planning on putting a site online, you will need to register a name with InterNic. But how do you know if the name is available when you want it?

Maybe you have set your heart out on purchasing the rights to www.hsjfhsdfhhjsfg.com. Answer is: who hasn't? We have all thought of registering that domain, and it's just a matter of seconds really, before that too will be a viewable address on the web. That, and www.jskfshswegdg.com. "I think liver is coming back. In fact, I am so sure of it, I bought the rights to the domain, www.liver.com, and now business is really going to boom," says chairman of Liver'is'Us. Business men all over the world take advantage of the early stage of the Internet we are in, and register all sorts of names on the net, in the hope that other business will be too late, and then will have to pay them big money to get the rights to the name that is really theirs.

"This is just the nature of the Internet. You cannot own a name on the Internet. You can register any name," says an experienced -- and stoned -- Internet surfer. "If CNN.COM had not already been taken, you could have bought it, and made Ted Turner pay millions for it," he added.

Rich Schott, who is boss of the main sponsor of CyberStones, Funmark Advertising Inc., says people are very welcome to contact him to register domains. "It is none of our business what people want to call their site. We are purely business," Rich Schott says. "Although the stifled grin is released at the end of each work day," he admitted.

"When Alex Hylke approached us first, he had tons of ideas on what to call his site," Rich Schott says. He went on to mention, that WienerStones, SloppyStones, VerySmallStones and SoftStones were among the suggestions. "We did not involve ourselves in the process of finding a name. It is just not in our interest to do so," Rich Schott says. "I still have to admit though, I think WienerStones was a way more appropriate name for the site," he says.

Funmark is still the place to contact, if you are looking to secure a domain before someone else does it. Here is a few suggestions, we think MAY be free at this minute: -- but for how long?

www.i-bought-this-domain-because-i-am-raving-mad.com
www.www.www.com
www.i-cant-think-of-a-name.com

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