SchoolClosings.com: Nice Domain Name Not Used to its Fullest

We received a decent amount of snow in Massachusetts yesterday, and of course, that got me researching some winter-related domain names. One such name that I wanted to share with you is SchoolClosings.com, a domain name owned by local NBC television affiliate WHDH.

When an area receives several inches of snow and/or ice, especially if it falls during the morning commute, many local school districts will close. Growing up, my city had a loud fog horn that was only ever used if school was cancelled, and on days we received snow, I set my alarm to 3 minutes before the fog horn to build suspense about whether school would be closed. I was superstitious and wouldn’t look out my window to see how much snow fell – I just waited in bed to hear the fog horn.

Generally, television stations in our area will have school closing listings scrolling alphabetically at the bottom of the screen during the newscast. If you just missed your letter, you could wait 10+ minutes to see if your school is closed. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes, especially if there are many school districts in the area that are closed.

It’s a smart move for a local television station to own SchoolClosings.com. However, WHDH isn’t exactly using it optimally. When you visit the website, there’s a message for users to enter user ID and password. I imagine this is for district administrators to inform the station of their status.

In my opinion, a better use for this domain name would be to actually have the school closings listed, making it easier for people to find them rapidly. They could still allow administrators to log in to list their closings, but why not actually utilize the domain name in a consumer friendly manner.

It’s a great domain name for a New England-based television station, but I think it’s underutilized.