TheDomains.com wrote a great article that received a lot of attention between yesterday and today about the Chicago Tribune’s domain name, ChicagoSlate.com. With all of the talk about Apple’s iSlate, there has been some talk amongst the domaining industry that this could be a case of cybersquatting. And for those of you who believe that the Chicago Tribune would be involved in cybersquatting, think again.

The word “slate” is defined as a writing tablet. While it does seem to be a rather sketchy coincidence that the Chicago Tribune registered ChicagoSlate.com with all of the recent news about the iSlate, look at the company who registered the domain and consider what the domain could mean. The Chicago Tribune clearly wouldn’t ruin its reputation to cybersquat a domain that’s going to bring them negative attention. And like I stated previously, a slate is a writing tablet. It makes sense for the Chicago Tribune, a news company, to own a writing tablet.

One of the things that TheDomains brought up in their article was that the first ad on the page was titled, “Apps On Your iPhone”. I happened to be very impressed that TheDomains covered this story so quickly after the ChicagoSlate.com domain was registed. After checking a couple of times between yesterday and today, ChicagoSlate.com quickly changed their ads to revolve around the city of Chicago. Had ChicagoSlate.com kept the ad regarding the iPhone app on their site, then it would be a case of cybersquatting.

As a Chicagoan, I just wanted to clear that up for everyone. Feel free to comment, especially if you feel differently. I look forward to your comments. Enjoy your weekened!