Carly Fiorina really should have bought CarlyFiorina.org

The race for President has a new candidate: Carly Fiorina, former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. But while Fiorina is a former tech head -- and therefore presumably savvy in the ways of the Web -- her campaign didn't manage to snap up a major site for its candidate: CarlyFiorina.org. Instead, the site was registered by someone who is bringing up Fiorina's controversial tenure at HP.

“Carly Fiorina failed to register this domain," the site says. "So I'm using it to tell you how many people she laid off at Hewlett-Packard." That's followed by 30,000 frowny faces. Web site-squatting has become a fairly common form of protest against candidates. Given that domain names can be purchased quite easily, and that there are many options to choose from, it's a cost-effective way to embarrass candidates (or presumptive candidates) publicly for a lack of forethought and to get one's message across. For example, "jebbushforpresident.com" is famously owned by a gay couple who use it to foster discussions about sexual orientation, identity and politics. The owner of CarlyFiorina.org isn't quite as clear in his or her motivations and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The directory record for the site points to a service that protects the privacy of Web site owners, which obscures CarlyFiorina.org's owner's identity. But the site's owner clearly has a grudge to bear against Fiorina.