NBC snaps up ‘today.com’

NBC, which began using the domain “todayshow.com” to advertise its morning program’s Web presences appears to have snapped up the rights to the domain “today.com.”

The domain’s WHOIS record (the official listing of its owner) lists Microsoft Corp. as the owner, which is logical considering NBC and Microsoft are partners on many Web ventures (the domain msnbc.com is also registered to Microsoft).

It’s interesting to note that as this morning, NBC isn’t using the domain on-air; the bug still reads “todayshow.com.” Entering www.today.com does redirect you to the official Today Show site.

It’s also interesting to consider how much NBC may have paid for the rights to the domain. Generic, short domain names such as today.com are often sold big bucks since they are easy to remember and the pool of available domains quickly dries up.

NBC does, however, appear to be using the subdomain “on.today.com” as a URL shortener for its social media networks. For example, the URL http://on.today.com/drByII directs you to a Facebook voting page for the show’s wedding series, rather than having to use the longer and more cumbersome “http://www.facebook.com/todayshow?v=app_129502487082129” which is the actual URL of that page.

More about URL shorteners and TV news in a future post!