However according to Network World, a lawyer already predicted that there would be a Pope Francis three years ago and bought the domain. Go Daddy registered more than 500 papal-themed domain names in the first hour of the new papacy. Keywords such as Pope, Francis, Bergoglio and Habemus Papam were used in identifying the new domain names registered with Go Daddy. Within the first 10 minutes of the announcement, more than 100 domain names were registered.
But the bloke who got the top prize and who clearly had been taking his Nostradamus tablets was the laywer Christopher Connors who took the name PopeFrancis.com in 2010. He was tracked down by Smoking Gun last night. Connors is not saying why he registered popefrancis.com in April 2010, or what he had planned for the site.
Connors specialises in representing whistle-blowers who seek to "report anonymously information about corporate bribery, fraud, or corruption to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.” Hard to see how that could lead to anything popish. He might have wanted to represent the old Pope’s butler who was arrested for passing on secrets to the local media, but then he would have to be pretty sharp to realise that there would be a new Pope in 2013 called Francis.
Thursday, 14 March 2013 10:37
Pope Francis was cyber squatted more than three years ago
Written by Nick Farrell
That is some prediction
Cyber squatters rushed to the Internet last night to try and get a quick buck by taking the name PopeFrancis.com before anyone else thought about it.
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