Apart from the surroundings in which we truly live and work, in the course of the past few years we have also been provided with our virtual versions of living and working environment. If we view the Internet as a large virtual city, a multitude of pieces of «immovable» real-estate – that, in reality, happens to be quite «movable» indeed - the analogy with the real-life homeless, subtenants and landlords becomes quite appropriate.
In today’s age, individuals or companies not present on the Internet can truly be called the Internet-homeless. No one knows their Internet address because they simply don't have one! They don't even have their own personal or business profiles on one of the social networks, nor do they use any of the free e-mail services that would at least enable others to find them on the Web and establish some form of communication. You can run into the Internet-homeless – people or companies that exist only in the offline world - only by chance or under serendipitous circumstances, should your paths happen to cross. Nowadays it is almost impossible to operate as a serious business person or company if, along with your physical address, you do not possess an Internet address as well.
In an attempt to settle down on the Internet, the first thing the Internet-homeless person does is find free “room and board” in one of the social networks. Many feel that it makes no difference where they are; many even prefer to have only a profile or a page in places such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn... thinking that it’s a good idea since "everyone else is already there". Well, yes, they are – not literally everyone, of course – but many are there, and they’re living as Internet subtenants! The landlord of the Internet location is a multi-national company and your place of residence, currently free, is a matter of the landlord’s good will. However, you may be evicted as early as tomorrow, without notice. In a blink of an eye you may end up going from being an Internet subtenant to being Internet-homeless again! You won’t even be allowed to take your own “furniture” with you (photographs, notes, friends…). Actually, you’ll be leaving it all to the landlords - it will be inaccessible to you, but they will be able to continue to use it without any obstacles, as they see fit and without asking anyone for permission. Remember: in a social network, the things that you think are yours are actually the private property of whoever owns the social network. The owner is the one holding all the information and making up all the rules.
A social network resembles a café in which your friends are constantly gathering; it's a wonderful place to hang out, but you can not live or work in a café, you have to have a home or an office. All the while, “the owner of the café” is allowed to kick you out if you violate certain house rules. This already happened in social networks, to many people and for various reasons – many were left without their profiles and, consequently, without access to pages that they considered their own only a day earlier. The Terms of Use which, by the way, almost no one ever takes time to read, explain in black and white that the owners are in no way obligated to their users and that having provided the service free of charge, they are allowed to erase someone’s profile whenever they wish In truth, all these social network profiles are free only because the owner of the Internet location is using the data that millions of users are providing about themselves, in order to make a better sale to companies that advertise their products or services on social networks. You are in fact nothing else than their Internet location's value added.
If you truly wish to have a place of your own on the Internet, you must build it using your own Internet domain name. Only then will you become an Internet homeowner. Your Internet domain name is a part of your web and e-mail addresses, representing the basis of your Internet identity. Each Internet domain name is unique and may be used by only one company or person. Your domain name will be your permanent, personally selected address through which everyone will always be able to find you or recognize you on the Internet! Only then will you have a "home, sweet home". Аs regards your "sweet home" it has been recommended that you create it using one of the national Internet domains, such as our local .RS and .СРБ domains. There are many sound reasons to do this, the most important being that in its search results Google favors websites created on local, national Internet domains.
In real life, residence addresses or
company seats are changeable categories. You have moved, or a state authority has
decided to change the name of your street... the reason isn't important. The
situation is the same with phone numbers, causing many personal and business
connections to become unnecessarily severed by outdated contact information.
When you register your own Internet domain name, you will have a permanent
address and you will own that piece of Internet space for as long as you keep
paying for the use of your domain name. You will be the owner of everything that
occurs on that specific address, and
you will be making all the rules, on
your own, the way it suits you.
Article Courtesy Predrag Milicevic - RNIDS
