Gurgaon to Gurugram: Dash for website domains with proposed name

Gurgaon may not officially be Gurugram yet but that hasn’t stopped hundreds from making a dash to book website domains featuring the proposed name.

Gurgaon may not officially be Gurugram yet but that hasn’t stopped hundreds from making a dash to book website domains featuring the proposed name.

Gurgaon, known for swanky malls and offices of IT hubs, will be renamed to Gurugram, the Haryana government has decided. (Abhinav Saha/HT Photo)

Over 1,000 new website domains – the name of a particular site, such as google.com – have been booked with the word ‘Gurugram’ in them since Gurgaon was renamed on Tuesday.

This is unusual, Noida-based entrepreneur Amit Bhati told HT, as only nine websites had registered domain names with Gurugram as the choice name before the renaming announcement.

Read: Gurgaon to Gurugram: The RSS connect in the name change

A choice name is what websites use before the dot in the domain. For example, abc is the choice name in the domain abc.com.

“Domain registration with Gurugram as choice name went up to 32 within 20 minutes and to 58 in one hour of announcement. More than 90 domains were registered with Gurugram choice name by Wednesday morning” said Bhati.

He said he booked domains such as gurugram.news, gurugram.property and others.

The district administration said the land was given to Guru Dronacharya by his disciples in the Mahabharata era, and hence renamed the district as Gurugram (teacher’s village).

Read: Gurgaon will turn Gurugram, Haryana govt says people want new name

The new name is outstripping even Gurgaon in popularity on the web. Bhati said only 86 domains were registered with Gurgaon as choice name in the past two years .

But the name switch has worried those whose websites have Gurgaon in their names as they fear becoming redundant. Website developers feel they will have to work from scratch as it will not be easy to get domain names with Gurugram in them.

“Booking a domain name can cost from Rs 300 to Rs 4,000 depending on the name and those who booked Gurgaon domains in bulk are in the lurch now,” said Bhati.

Deepali Chugh, a resident of south Delhi’s Greater Kailash who booked gurugram.net, said domains with Gurgaon will not become obsolete immediately but lose usage with time.

A Gurgaon-based web developer Raj Gupta said all important domains with Gurugram in them have been taken.

The name change is also effecting changes on Facebook, where at least 10 new pages devoted to Gurugram have come up.

Read: A walk down memory lane: The many changes Gurgaon has seen