Random factoid about Cluetrain Manifesto and URL longevity

Here’s something I put together while on hold on the phone. Everyone remember “The Cluetrain Manifesto”? I came across a copy of the book a couple days ago, full of references to “electronic mail.” After the 12 years or so the book has been out I wondered what the longevity was of the URLs they mentioned. Of the 16 domains written about in Cluetrain (including a couple of joke domains which should have been set up at some point), nine are active. Of the active domains, seven are still up-to-date, two haven’t been updated in a while.

I thought of doing this after the repeated experience of revisiting a list of new startup websites a year or two after seeing them launch publically. After 12 years, the Cluetrain domains (though only around half were small companies or startups) have held up quite well.