On the defensive, a number of celebrities and brands have secured unsavory web domains all in an effort to keep others from destroying their public image. SiliconANGLE takes a look at a few of the more notable domains that were quickly usurped by wary Hollywood and Fortune 500 elite.

In 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) — the entity responsible for top level domains — announced the expansion of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This meant that aside from seeing the familiar .com, .gov, .edu, .org, there would be other domains available, more than 2,000 of them, which include .xxx, .porn, .adult to name a few.

It’s going to take some time, likely years, before all the TLDs have been awarded and activated, and this gives celebrities, companies and the general public enough time to secure the TLDs they want. But be warned: Not all of these TLDs may still be available, as some brands, artists and educational institutions were quick to grab these sought-after TLDs before they were made available to the public.

If you’re asking why these TLDs are being bought by brands and celebrities, the answer is simple: they don’t want trolls to get their hands on them and do major damage to their brand names.

Celebrities, brands and other institutions that have secured unsavory TLDs

Celebrities

Award-winning singer Taylor Swift has secured TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. This means trolls and haters of the singer can no longer purchase those domains in the hopes of tarnishing the singer’s career or reputation, not because Swift is planning on launching her own adult website.

No news yet which other celebrities have registered for their own .porn or .adult domains, but the fact that Swift has done her part, I’m pretty sure others will soon follow … unless they don’t mind having their name associated with pornography.

Universities

In 2011, the University of Missouri and Washington University bought mizzou.xxx and washu.xxx, respectively, to prevent pornographers or trolls from associating malicious content to their school’s name. The University of Missouri also registered missouri.xxx and missouritigers.xxx, while the Washington University also added washu.xxx, washingtonuniversity.xxx and wustl.xxx.

Other universities that have secured these adult-themed domains include Indiana University, which bought 11 porn-related domains; Southern Illinois University, which bought siu.xxx, siuc.xxx, southernillinois.xxx, southernillinoisuniversity.xxx and saluki.xxx; and even Harvard University, which has allegedly taken off porn-related domains from the menu.

Brands

According to Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, which operates the .porn and .adult top-level domains, Microsoft has registered Office.porn and Office.adult. Just like the others, it’s unlikely that the domains will be in use, but the move is more of a preemptive one to prevent trolls from doing damage to the brand’s name.

Apple seems to have registered apple.porn and apple.adult; the same goes for Google, which has taken google.porn and google.adult off the menu. You can go to http://icmregistry.com/domaincheck/ to see which brands, celebrities and other entities may have secured their .porn-related domains.

The purchasing of the TLDs is currently in the sunrise period, which means only a select number of entities can purchase their intended domains for a hefty amount, about as much as $2,500. By June 1, the .porn, .adult, and .sucks domains will be available for anyone with $199 to spare.

photo credit: letter X via photopin (license)