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I can remember that some years ago several providers advertised the possibility to use the @ syntax instead of general subdomains with their DNS service. Today, I can't find any documentation or hints about this anymore, besides Google Chrome asking me whether I wanted to open http://test@domain.tld when entering the possible email address (without the protocol) in the search bar. What happened to this domain syntax?

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I can remember that 1&1 used to offer these '@' domains. Basically ended up being an alias to a subdirectory and rather pointless... – Dunhamzzz Jul 12 '12 at 13:06
That's what I was talking about. Now that you call it I remember it being called "@ domain alias". Well, I guess that means there is no DNS syntax that has been used, just a webserver based redirection. Thanks for your help, I guess that question is answered. – alexschomb Jul 12 '12 at 17:24

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@ has a special meaning, when used in a URL. Here's a URL with everything possible in it:

scheme://username:password@domain:port/path?query_string#fragment_id

The @ separates the password from the domain. So I think you're remembering something else.

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Well, maybe I do remember wrong. I know about the possibility to provide authentification information in the URL, but thanks for pointing that out :) – alexschomb Jul 12 '12 at 11:37
I also only remember ever using @'s in URLs for auth purposes. It still works, if supported(eg. used to be possible for Twitter's feeds until NewTwitter), but overall has long-since largely fallen out of favor. I don't recall it ever being too common in the first place. – Su' Jul 12 '12 at 16:25
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The reason it fell out of favour was because of a lot of phishing scams of the form "passwordreset.microsoft.com/reset.aspx?code=sandlewood/…; actually being a username link to banditry.cx – Aquarion Oct 24 '12 at 10:09

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