The long-dormant Internet domain of “route66.com” was acquired a few months ago by the Oklahoma City-based marketing firm of Ackerman McQueen.
Route66.com’s home page has undergone an update. It’s still fairly rudimentary, but does contain links to POPS in Arcadia, Okla.; the OklaTravelNet site and the National Historic Route 66 Federation. A screen shot of the new site is shown above, along with the tantalizing words “Coming Soon.”
I e-mailed Debby Johnson, executive vice president and director of marketing at Ackerman McQueen, and asked about the domain’s ownership change. She replied:
Yes, we bought the domain for one of our clients. I can’t be more specific at this time but it’s in good hands.
I noticed on Ackerman McQueen’s Internet site that Oklahoma Tourism is one of its clients. That would be a more 
logical fit than the other clients listed. Also, the redesigned home page bears a considerable resemblance to Oklahoma Tourism’s well-executed Route 66 brochure that came out last spring (shown here).
According to online archives, David Williams started the graphic-rich and useful route66.com site in late 1996. But he seemed to lose interest after he ran from Chicago to Santa Monica in his own personal Bunion Derby in 2001. Sometime in early 2004, the site disappeared altogether.
At the Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla., in 2007, Williams told us that the site’s hosting company had been “hijacked,” and he seemed pessimistic that he would get the domain back.
We’ll see what happens to route66.com now. At the least, it will be semi-useful again.