Domain Name Blog

As reported earlier on DnsBlogs.com, Microsoft has acquired Facebook.com. However, a series of drastic changes introduced on facebook including a RSS Newsfeed is bound to rebound the popular site for the worst. According to a campaign signed up to now by plus 350 Facebook.com members, 12th September, 2006 will be a boycott day. If the proposed boycott goes through, this is definitely would not be a good start for Microsoft who beat Yahoo to buy Facebook.

According to Forbes online edition, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004. The Palo Alto, Calif., company is privately held. ComScore’s MediaMetrix report said the site has about 9 million registered users, making it the seventh-most-popular Internet site in the United States. The site includes geographic, work-related, collegiate and high school networks.

I have just came across an article that discusses how Microsoft is once again on the receiving end from trademark violators. One domainer owns the domain IE7.com. IE7 is the name of microsoft’s new internet explorer browser schedueled for release later this month. Online users who key in www.ie7.com expecting to locate information on the upcoming Microsoft browser IE 7, will instead see a big logo of Firefox, the open source browser developed by Mozilla.

The logo includes a link back to Mozilla’s site, and a disclaimer statement at the top of the Web page that reads: “Neither this site nor Mozilla is connected with Microsoft.”

Mozilla Corp stated that the website was created by a web designer who is not affiliated with the company. main.

Last month Microsoft filed three lawsuits in a US federal court against cyber squatters it alleges reaped profits in bad faith. The suits revolve around more than 600 domain names.

According to domain news website Vino.com, there was a great domain sale at the end of last week. Vintners.com was sold by a Sonoma resident and Bulgarian wine importer Vance T. Petrunoff to a Pennsylvania web developer for $45,000.

This marks a strong summer ending for the dot-domain sales amid speculations that the domain industry is heating up. Nonetheless speculation among domainers is rife as a simple search of any other extension of vintner could tell. vintner.info, .org, .info, .net amont other IDNs are all taken!! Take heart, keep on registering more domain names for future profit. A dollar wisely invested today will be worth 2 tomorrow!

An announcement made this week by Apple’s CEO that it plans to sell full length downloadable movies online is soon or later bound to spark controversy. Apple has until now been selling mp3 music though its popular site itunes and boasts of over 40% control of all mp3 players through its now famous ipod. But this week’s revelation is bound to spark a controversy between Apple and retailer chain stores like Walmart which normally sell DVDs. Walmart, the largest supermarket chain store, accounts for 40% of all the $40bn DVDs to be sold this year. As the rumour mongering goes on that itunes will make online movie downloads legal, the Hollywood has remained silent neither without an official comment nor position.

However, the question of pricing is bound to make neither Apple nor Walmart a winner, according to analysts who say that both will offer nearly the same prices. Apple will sell a single flick for $15 and $11 for old movies. While Walmart currently charges $17 for each DVD, there seems to be no clear cut price difference separating the two.

I recently read an article published on eWeek.com that I found a bit stingy. The article entitled “Typosquatting, DNS Wildcards and sucky state of domain affairs” addressed several points about the internet that I found very controversial. According to the author of the articled, which can be found here, the domain industry is a lawless world where, unless you’re a large company with a trademark being violated, the system is set up to the advantage of fast-moving speculators with no sense of respect for rights of authors.

According to him, it is only the strong muscled internet companies like Google, Ebay, Amazon among others which could seriously fight off any violations on their trademarks. I would disagree with the part the article claims that those who capitalize on website typos. In my opinion, the owners of typo do not mislead internet users through ads on typo webpages but rather offer leads to a variety of other goods within the related category!
While I agree that this author knows what he is talking about, indeed he has a point that he is making. It is important to note his wishful thinking of a day when the internet will be free of speculators who in my humble opinion are what makes the bulk of the online business success story.
However, I acknowledge when he rebukes rogue domain registries, like Cameroon whose CTLD incidentally squats on the .com TLD, over their overly handy decisions to wildcard all domains with the .cm extension last month.

In a similar vein the article challenges a proposed tiered pricing of domains with .biz/.org/.info extensions which will obviously give registrars unprecedented powers.     Says the article “ICANN is famously uninterested in protecting the rights of ordinary people. And now it has shown a renewed interest in making things worse”.

In the ensuing blah blah and meandering, the author ends up discussing the controversy surrounding the .eu phony registrars during the landrush mid this year.
TO sum it up, the article correctly acknowledges George Kiriko’s credit for raising amongst domain owners and other internet entrepreneurs about the proposed unfair pricing by ICANN.

Who said that after the .eu domain name extension fiasco, that was the end of this now popular CCTLD? Well, even though there is controversy surrounding .eu after domain speculators colluded to obtain unfairly some premium domains during the .eu landrush, there is more to the .eu than just scandals. Shopping.eu and hotels.eu in July sold for $270,000 and $330,000 respectively.
This week according to the DNJournal, two of the past week’s top domain sales were .eu. Shopping.eu and hotels.eu went for a low six fugures. Althought it had been rumored earlier over the net that the sale involved a Non Disclosure Agreement between the seller and the buyer, it was disclosed later by the CEO of Sedo, a web domains market place, in an exlusive interview by CNN Business 2.0. You can read the article here.
Country specific domains names have become the latest sector to heat up, claims the article. While real estate prices are falling the internet virtual estate seems to be gaining in value. Might we be headed for another dot come bubble bust like that of 2001? The answer to this question is hard to come up with. It can be yes and no.
It is No, because of the fact that some internet properties might well indeed be a bit overpriced, take for instance myspace.com bought for $0.9bn by Google from News Corp Inc. The big question that remains is how Google might be able to monetize over 100m daily visitors to the site. If placing Google search ads on Myspace.com does not convert into revenue, what comes next?
Yes, in the sense that the internet is still growing in some parts of the world. It is estimated that only a measly less than 1bn people on the planet have access to the web. With the prospect of developing countries and emerging markets heating up, more and more people are becoming regular internet users day in day out. As a rule of thump the internet is expanding globally to many parts of the world.
As an investor of domains, one should not forget to turn around to Country Code Top Level Domains, where the potential lies. CCTLDs like .eu, .cn, .de and many more are quite promising markets for investors. My advice to you is not to be left behind. But do adequate research before you dive into the goldmine.
People might discourage you with such nonsense like only the dot com has a future but don’t listen to them. It is common knowledge that most the good dot coms have been taken. There there is hope in CCTLDs.

Domainstate Forum has carried out a feature story in one of today’s posts about internationalized domain names (IDNs). IDNencyclopedia spoke to one domainer. The article entitled “the founding father” basically describes the fortunes of the domainer who saw the potential in IDNs and dived with headfirst into the Japanese domain industry market. The articled continues, Craig Nine a seo consultant and web developer who is living in Japan, has one of the strongest Japanese IDNs portfolio.

This underpins the underlying potential of IDNs many domainers dont seem to realize. One discouraging factor for domainers from IDNs could be the the mapping system otherwise known as punnycode. I would say that many domainers think that internet users are going to type say Japanese in puny code which is not true. Another challenge to domainers is the low SEO value associated with English domains targeted at the Japanese.

But the outlook of IDNs has remained generally positive ever since Nine began a forum known as IDNForums.com for a better understanding of the IDN market.

However, the article concludes by saying there is no future just for everyone with IDNs. Those domainers who are timid of writing in other language will find it hard to establish themselves within the IDNs market.

After reading this article, I have decided to join IDNForums to gain a better insight into the IDNs market and development.

Apple is recalling at least 1.8m batteries after incessant overheating complaints. The laptop computers mostly affected are Powerbook G4 and Ibook G4. Apple’s decision comes barely one week after Dell announced a massive recall program of 4m batteries last week. Like Dell laptop computer announcement, Apple has recalled batteries for laptops sold between 2003 and 2006.

Important to note though is that the latest recall by Apple does not affect its new line of Powerpc and powerpro notebooks.

A statement posted on Apple’s official website read, “we discovered that some sony batteries in previous models do not meet Apples’s standards for safety and performance.”

The latest recall of batteries by the PC giants can been attributed to US safety officials who have explicitly stated that the faulty batteries were supplied by Sony.

As owner of a Dell Latitude D600 notebook, I have already noted signs of overheating signs. With one of the largest battery recalls underway, it is important for other PC giants to note vital lessons from what has happened to their two competitors and take adequate measures to prevent the same.

There is certainly a degree of image dent involved here for the two PC Companies. The Consumer Product Protection Commision (US) has come true on its promise to make public any PC customer complaints like in the latest case in which 9 people sustained minor burns from laptop battery explosions.

Oh, no! This has happened as I was just about to make a historical switch from being a PC to being a Mac user-cum-owner. I beg for a rest now.

Today’s news making headlines around the world are mainly technology related. Film giant Sony Pictures Entertainment has bought video sharing website grouper.com for $65m. This calls upon financial and market analysts to speculate what company might just buy YouTube.

On a separate story, it is now official that social networking site Facebook has entered into a deal with Microsoft.

Today’s topics are:
- Sony splashes out on video site Grouper
-Microsoft adCenters on Facebook

Some had long been speculating that Sony could just buy YouTube which has traffic at least 30 times that of Grouper.com. If YT was to sell today, in order to be fair it would go for no less than a $1bn.
Marshall Kirkpatrick doesn’t think the comparison is all that applicable, though. His thesis: Sony is buying Grouper for the P2P, and while $65 million might be a trivial expense for Sony, why not use The Torrents if all you are mainly interested in is P2P distribution?

That’s a fair question, but with all due respect to this type of argument, I think that YouTube is not about distribution so much as it is an opportunity to monetize the content contributions and associated product and lifestyle marketing choices that tie in with audiences of millions who create their own digital content.

Grouper has build three key technologies: an online video sharing site, a desktop video editor, and a closed p2p network for distributing media content. Sony was attracted to Grouper by is p2p client network which it says will help it to share low quality videos online and distribute DVD quality video.
The big question now remains who is going to acquire YT. I think that the rationale for a YT deal would follow more of a Flickr or MySpace acquisition model. Some of the potential buyers for YT include Yahoo or any of the media giants like Time Warner and News Corp.I still think Yahoo! would be the best acquirer, if only for the opportunity to build on their Flickr base.

That’s not to say some other companies would do well to pursue content distribution deals with YouTube. What about, say, Time Warner. affiliating with, or buying a minority stake in YouTube and then offering self-made video distribution to all those Match.com members?

Microsoft adCenters on Facebook
Microsoft is said to have entered into a search and ad banner deal with Facebook. This is seen as an opportunity for Microsofr to counter the most recent deal struck between Google and Myspace for search and ad banners.

Facebook has so far made light use of of advertising on its site. It has only experimented with light user generated “flyers” and sponsored groups by companies like Apple.

Facebook has about nine million members, compared to MySpace’s 100 million.

Today marks my first day of holiday. Finally I can afford some space to breath as my two week holiday commences. Although I am not actually resting because of several website design projects, there are many places to visit in Switzerland in addition starting with Lausane, Zurich, Bern and Geneva.

My topics of discussion today are:
-Africa Online ISP
-2 week holiday
-Future plans
-Mamboserver

Africa Online ISP
Today I learnt that everything is possible when I read about the story about Africa Online–an Internet Service Provider company–which was borne out of a small idea by two MIT students from Kenya. In spite having started as a news website, Africanonline has grown over the years to become an internet conglomerate in East, Central Africa and Southern Africa. I think everything is possible given those behind the idea have the determination and courage to accomplish it. When I lost a couple of hundred Euros at my registrar in July, I learnt that investments are a great risk. Entrepreneurs regardless of size should be ready to pay the price called risk.

2 week summer holiday
Yes, I will reiterate again that I on a 2 week holiday which started today. During these two weeks I expect to conduct a lot of R&D for my business. I have set a target to find or register at least 3o revenue domain names. I know it is a tall order for me to set but I am ready to work my ass off at the expense of a couple of my sleeping hours. Once again I expect the DRT tool to be of immense help when search for typos. Long live typos and TM as domainers look forward to milk them all through PPC business model.

Future plans
Well, there are other things that I need to attend to. First of all is to do research for a Masters School to join next year. When Fall semester begins, I will enter my penultimate year at the university. It is either break or die as the battle to improve my GPA hots up. I need luck from you all folks. It is time also for me to prepare for the GMAT/GRE exam. Until now it is not yet clear what exam I should take but I am more or less inclined to do the former.

Mamboserver
Last but not least I have to learn mamboserver software in order to update my website. Although not new to website design, mamboserver was not a piece of cake. It will take quite sometime to make real progress but there is an incentive to it that I would not disclose here. That’s it for now. Stay tuned for updates!