This was an unexpected busy weekend.  I was not able to post anything on the blog due to my Son’s birthday this weekend.  This was the first time ever he decided to have a bday party at the house.  It was insane, we had everything for him, and I had to set it up to include run games for all 25 kids.  There were only suppose to be 10 kids.  I spent most of today cleaning all the mess they made.  

So I am back at it and will post a few articles here in the next couple of hours that I came across.  One thing is certain, I will never have another bday party at the house!  :-) 

Last week, I published an article on wikileaks.org being ordered by the U.S. District Court to shut down the site.  This week, Rights Groups are battling this decision as it violates first ammendment rights.  It is a good thing that we have organizations out there that battle decisions like this on behalf of the small guy.  If they did not exist, there would be many new laws and violations of ammendment rights.

I hope all turns out well for wikileak.org and the decision is overturned.  If it is not, it will only give corporate America even more power to shut down the little guy with a voice.

“The First Amendment encompasses the right to receive information and ideas,” the groups said in the brief. “The documents and materials posted on the Wikileaks website concern matters of great public interest” which each of the parties filing the motion had regularly accessed, they said.

(via NYTimes.com)

Yahoo! for sale, yeah right, at least not for now!  Today they announced the acquisition of Maven Networks for $160 million.  Maven sells a system that embeds advertisements into videos.  A smart move on Yahoo’s part, since some of Maven’s clients are several of the largest traditional media companies of the world.  

This technology will be embraced by many geopreneurs as we figure out strategic ways to utilize it in our game plans, especially those with .tv portfolios.  Something tells me that Yahoo! entertained the Microsoft offer just to get buzz going about their company.  It had been quite sometime since Yahoo! made the news, like its number 1 competitor Google.com who is consistently in the news.

Strategic marketing at its finest in my opinion as they got the World’s attention by entertaining Microsofts offer of $44.6 billion to acquire their company.  Not only did they get the buzz going with Microsoft, they additionally got things buzzing with a possible merger with Google.com. 

In the end they still may end up selling their company, but we can all be assured, that it will be for much more than $44.6 billion as Yahoo! continues to build their portfolio to compete with Google.com and bring additional value to the company.  One reason for this move may be to validate the $41 dollars a share that Yahoo! and many experts state Yahoo! is worth.

(via NYTimes)  Here is an additional story (via CNN.com)

The first Godaddy.com commercial of the Superbowl just came on, and it was not very impressive.  It started with everyone watching the tv waiting for commericials to come on, while a guy was in the background on the computer.  They say, commercials aren’t what they used to be, and all migrate to the computer to watch a beautiful girl walk toward the screen while unzipping her leather race suit.  Then the commercial ends.

While this may be effective marketing due to sex selling in ads, this is bad for the industry in general.  Then we wonder why no one takes this “Big Money Business”, the domain industry seriously.  It is a shame that Godaddy has to resort to such unprofessionalism to sell their product IMHO.  I Bet the next commerical is just as offending and insulting to the industry as well!   

Google finally commented on the possible acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft on their blog today.  It took them all week long before making a statement.  And of course what they have to say is Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo! poses a number of potential threats to competition that need to be examined by policymakers around the world. 

Of course, these types of words were expected from Google, and I am sure we will hear many more bad things about this acquisition.  Google, for the first time since its inception, is finally going to be challenged by a major player in the online tech world if this happens.  And you can bet they feel threatened by Microsoft.  Google was able to out perform Yahoo! and Microsoft individually, but can they do the same if Microsoft acquires Yahoo! and turns into a giant?      

(via NYTimes.com)

Google said in a blog post on its Web site that given Microsoft’s anti-competitive conduct in the past and its continued dominance in the technology industry, the proposed transaction could pose threats to “innovation and openness” on the Internet. But Google’s broadly worded concerns lacked detailed claims about the anticompetitive effects of the deal, and the company did not ask federal regulators to take any specific actions at this time.

I Came across this article about DomainFest that was published yesterday and it brought back some memories thanks to Frank.  Frank Schilling (Who is the only guy who can gain 150 RSS subscribers to his blog without blogging in the past 30 days :-) )always has a great way of communicating stories and the bottom line upfront.  I so remember the days when everything was secretive.  The only info you would get from anyone about expiring domains was in the Great Domains Chatroom between 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM.  That is when all the chasers would enter the chatroom and share some of the gems acquired during the drop, however even that was very limited.  

What ended the good ole days of “chasing” was the development of drop catching services that registered names to place on auction.  The playing field would never be the same after this.  They simply had the resources to push the small guys aside and made it undisirable to even get up in the early morning and chase.  Chasing gave you an andrenaline rush like no other in the world, all from a computer in your home, in your underwear, with the opportunity to make alot of money with the right catch!

This is when domain empires were built unknowingly in the dark, secretive.  This is when lives where changed forever.  Now everything about the domain industry is available from many sources, in different formats, and different languages.  There is nothing secret anymore.  None of this existed between 1999-2003. 

What makes it so great is that even with so much information available on the industry, people are still becoming successful with domains with no end in sight. Usually, information gets published after all the big dawgs have made all the money in the industry.  I do not believe this will ever happen in the domain industry.  Your mind and commitment are your only limitations in this industry. 

The best part of this transition of the industry (The end of secrets), is the opportunity to actually meet, communicate, and interact with other professionals openly now.  It definitely makes for better conversation.  It is a true pleasure to meet and interact daily with you domainers, visitors and friends thru this blog.  Each of you continue to inspire and motivate me daily; and I thank you for it!  Change has been great!                    

(via iht.com) 

“The industry was very secretive for a long time,” said Frank Schilling, an industry pioneer who hit it big with bare-bones Web destinations like drugproblem.com and diamondweddingrings.com.

“When you make millions at home in your underwear, you are not telling a soul about it,” he said.

But like other veterans, Schilling does not appear to be completely enthused with the industry’s new direction. “These shows let everyone know how good it is and now the sniff is out,” he said. “The wildcatting days are over. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss them.”

As you may have already read, Google.com is finally taking action against domain kiting/tasting.  This is long overdue and Google’s enforcement will set new standards across other platforms and registrars.  ICANN can no longer evade/put off this issue as it has done so in the past.  New standards are going to evolve for registrars and many of the livelyhoods of those conducting this “black eye” industry practice will finally be put in place.  It will only be matter of time before the politicians interact and pass laws to enforce the internet because of the lack of enforcement by ICANN.

What registrars have failed to realize is that they have losts millions of dollars by allowing domain kiting to occur.  I would guess out of all the domain names registered during this 5 day grace period by “tasters”, that approximately 3-5% of them get registered.  So the other 95-97% of names registered are just being held hostage until the grace period expires.  During these 5 days in the real world, there are thousands of individuals looking to register a name they needed or wanted and found it taken already.  So they end up not registering a name at all, because all the possible discriptions of the business or idea have been registered already.  Most will never check back to see if the domain is available again.  Little do they know, there is a chance that the domain will be available again in just a few days.  To put it bluntly, many registrars do not have the consumers best interest in mind.   

How do you feel about Domain kiting/tasting and the lack of enforcement? 

You can read the full articles on this practice at the below links.
(via InfoWeek)   (via SPN)

Google’s Statement
“We have long discouraged domain kiting as a practice,” Google (NSDQ: GOOG) said in an e-mailed statement. “In order to more effectively deter it, we are launching a new domain kiting detection system. If we determine that a domain is being kited, we will not allow Google ads to appear on the site. We believe that this policy will have a positive impact for users and domain purchasers across the Web.”

As of Feb. 11, Google plans to begin blocking AdSense for Domains ads from appearing on kited domains. The company did not provide further details about how its kiting detection system will work.