Domain Name Blog

What is the latest rumor on the net? Facebook’s chatty users love to gossip. Rumors of buyout talks between the student-focused social networking site and any number of high profile media and technology players have been circling since Facebook earned its first round of venture funding in 2004. According to an article published by the Forbes magazine the latest bout of speculation, reported Thursday, involves Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) and an asking price near $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s not a bad bid given that Facebook has about 10m active users and that number is still growing!
The speculated sale comes after an ongoing series of changes to the site’s privacy settings, which at first infuriated many users though the furor has quieted since Facebook honored some of their wishes. Last week the company said it would eventually open the site to the public rather than limit it to people affiliated with certain organizations like schools or companies.

I can’t hesitate to question the motivation behind making public Facebook content through google indexing and making it open to any ‘other’ interested parties, groups and organizations. I understand Yahoo! wants to make more money through ads but let them leave membership open for every other dick and harry and we’ll see what happens–we will all leave Facebook. The fact that it consists of students only is what makes Facebook so special, however an oversight might predict that employers could be lured into Facebook to scout for talent of potential employees once it is made public. Nevertheless, I highly doubt any progress thinkers would laud Facebook for making their personal info public available in the internet!!!

Oversee.net, a technology-driven media company, today announced it has acquired 10 domain portfolios over the last two months. The Company continues to aggressively build its portfolio of successful domain names and then quickly monetizes them. Oversee monetizes more than one million domain names per month and has more than 100 million unique visitors per month. The Company owns DomainSponsor, the industry leader in domain monetization.

DomainSponsor is the leader in domain monetization—a service that enables domain owners to maximize earnings on the traffic generated to their domains via direct navigation.

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.

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.

Welcome to DNSBlogs.com “World Domain News Blogspot”. I have decided to start this blog to discuss and share views with domainers and other web enthusiasts..
DNSBlogs.com is a blog to present analyses on current world domain news and events. Themes discussed on this blog range from on technology, politics, and economy as these are related to how they might affect your web presence. The blog is a quasi interface for a domainer like me who started from scratch this year and made it into the four digit within a few months. I would also aim to share my thoughts with my fellow friends back at home in Kenya, those from Germany (where I study) and from the rest of the world not forgetting my business partners, affiliates and acquaintances.

The first news topics for “World Domain News Blogspot” will be:
-Reached 900 posts @DNForum
-Adsense @Sitepoint and Digital Point Forums
-EarnersForum

Reached 900 posts @the DNForum
Today I have clocked 900 posts in the top domain discussion forum DNForum. This is not small achievement given that have only been a member there for only 5 months. I have benefitted quite tremendously out of the DNForum. If i had not joined, I would neither have made the great business partners that I have nor hatched successful business deals that I have. I owe the moderate success that I have made with domains to the DNForum. I am looking forward to upgrade my status soon from my current level Platinum to Exclusive. Althouth I would not asking you to join but if you have been interested in the DNforum after reading my review please click here

Adsense @Sitepoint and Digital Point Forums
In my quest to diversify my business, I have finally decided to apply for a Google Adsense account. I am crossing my fingers and hope that I will be accepted. Meanwhile, in order to boost my internet business repertoire, I have decided to join two more forums namely Sitepoint and Digital Point. These are free forums. They are fairly large forums with a lot of information for any internet interested parties. What matters is the quality of research that I would like to do in order to sift chaff from wheat. These two sites will bost my R&D in enhancing my ROI which I hope in the long run will improve into decent revenue. I will keep you posted with details on any future updates on this one. Besides if you would like to join either of those forums above feel free to apply here:
Sitepoint @ sitepoint.com
Digitalpoint @forums.digitalpoint.com

Earnersforum.com
Last but not least, I have decided to join a leading forum for internet business earners. EarnersForum.com is the place to be for anyone who would like to triumph in internet business. However, I am only one week old since I joined I have already been able to make a friend which I consider an achievement. To learn from each other is the best business model that we should all emulate. I would keep you posted with further details about my activities there.