Cyber squatters sitting on valuable VP web addresses

Many of the most intuitive Internet addresses that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton might use to help unveil their vice presidential picks were snatched up months or even years ago. The most obvious dot-com addresses with the last name of the presumptive nominees alongside their most likely running mates redirect to a mishmash of blank pages, domain auction sites, high offers to sell, and, in one case, Clinton-"Harry Potter" fan fiction. Donald Trump is slated to unveil his vice president choice on July 15, and the Republican's most likely picks in betting markets include Gov Mike Pence (R-IN), former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Gov Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Sen Jeff Sessions (R-AL).

Owners, both named and anonymous, have been squatting on addresses associated with those names for a while now. As of July 14, the website TrumpPence.com redirects to a page that is under construction, TrumpChristie.com directs to a blank page, TrumpGingrich.com is a scaled down site with a host of related political search terms, and TrumpSessions.com has a months-old announcement that the site is "coming soon." Each of the domain names was claimed in the last year, going back to June 2015. The registry information for both the Gingrich and the Gov Pence sites has been updated as recently as July. The stories make for amusing headlines, but it remains unclear just how valuable those addresses are when many people primarily use search engines or social media to find candidate websites.