Longest address on the web

Longest address on the web

A website devoted to part of a Welsh village features in a list of the longest internet addresses in Europe.

A Birmingham man registered the 63-character address named after Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Anglesey.

The address - www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.eu - actually refers to the upper part of the Welsh-speaking village.

It is the maximum number of characters allowed and is recognised as the longest valid internet name in the world.

Keith Wood registered the domain name with EURid, the group managing the new European .eu domain.

He also registered an alternative to its full name - www.llanfair.wales.com - to spare internet users the hassle of using the village's full title.

Eryl Roberts, who maintains the village website, said: "We registered the village as a domain name to prove a point that home pages don't have to be short and they don't have to be made up names either."

Six other people last year registered the longest possible internet addresses possible.

One German user registered thisisthelongesteuropeandomainnameallovertheworldandnowitismine.eu .

EURid said almost 2.5 million .eu addresses were registered last year after its launch in April.