As many other Guardian readers (I believe), I have used gu.com for a long time to reach the front page. Since some time back this URL started to end up in a 404 error page (with a link to the proper front page). And since just a few days ago, the URL goes to a domain selling page: "Offers invited above $2.5m".
I guess Guardian must be the seller? Why are they doing this? I understand that a two letter com domain is a valuable asset, but $2.5m? By doing this they are breaking millions of links. Are they in such desperate need for cash?
But are they? I don't know how to search for pages that link to gu.com because the Google link: prefix doesn't work anymore, but up until a few days ago the gu.com domain appears to have been used to immediately redirect to the main theguardian.com site. Perhaps it was rare for users to post a gu.com link because they would copy whatever was in their browser address bar, which would not be a gu.com address after the instant redirect?
With browsers all now doing 'smart' URL searches from the address bar, and autocompleting domain names, maybe this shows that a short domain is not as valuable as it used to be? Particularly for a company like The Guardian which is already well known at its normal longer domain name
That could mean the domain is much more valuable to another company than it was to the Guardian, so it might be smart for them to sell it? Maybe they just couldn't find a way to monetize it that was worth more than $2.5 mil for them? As time goes by, maybe the domain was in fact getting less valuable?
It would be interesting to know how much The Guardian originally paid for gu.com
Very interesting anyway, thanks for posting this!