The author of the part in quotes above is talking about spaces. In particular the spaces we mentally insert in URLs, left to our own devices. The result is now the subject of a book: Hilarious web addresses revealed in new bookA list of the internet's most inadvertently amusing web addresses such as the home page for celebrity agent database Who Represents, or www.whorepresents.com have been compiled in a new book.
The compendium of ill thought out web addresses, largely from companies who naively slurred their innocent-sounding names into a single word without noticing the resulting double entendres, lists more than 150 "slurls", or slur URLs. One example of what can go wrong when choosing web addresses is Big Al's bowling alley in Vancouver, which presumably did not notice when naming its site that "I love Big Al's" with spaces removed could equally be read as "I love bi gals". Also included in the list is the Mole Station Nursery, a business in Australia selling gardening goods which adopted the web name "molestationnursery" before changing it to "molerivernursery". Andy Geldman, author of Slurls: They Called Their Website What? said: "In a world without spaces we mentally insert out own. And you might not stick yours where I stick mine." Among the 150 web pages featuring in the book are Pen Island's home page, www.penisland.net, and Les Bocages, a British firm of tree surgeons working in France who are named after the French word for "groves" but also have the unfortunate web moniker "lesbocages". The potential for amusement has also led to a number of spoofs, notably the website purporting to be the Italian home page for energy company Powergen powergenitalia which is really unaffiliated with the company. For the firms affected, however, the errors are not always taken lightly. A spokesman for Choose Spain, a holiday company found at choosespain.com, told the Sunday Times: "It was too late to change it once we realised". Five of the funniest web URLs Experts Exchange a site where programmers can trade advice is found at www.expertsexchange.com La Drape a British company selling high-end quilted bedspreads is listed at www.ladrape.co.uk American Scrap Metal a scrap metal recycling firm has its website at www.angelfire.com/alt/americanscrapmetal Speed of Art a collective or art designers are online at www.speedofart.com Therapist Finder a directory for therapy services can be located at www.therapistfinder.com
