Here are the top 10 stories on Domain Name Wire for the year ranked by number of views.
1. Standard Tactics, LLC: How GoDaddy Profits from Expired Domains - This expose on Go Daddy resulted in a phone conversation with the company’s CEO…and the closure of a questionable subsidiary.
2. Seinfeld Isn’t Laughing about JerrySeinfeld.com - Not a huge story to domainers, but apparently entertainment buffs got a big kick out of it over at Fark.
3. Expired Domain Services Let Employees Bid Against Customers - Another story that got results. Go Daddy instituted a new rule forbidding employees from bidding on its expired domain auctions. Most other company’s have strict rules against this.
4. Network Solutions Faces PR Nightmare Over Domain FrontRunning - Go Daddy wasn’t the only registrar to face controversy this year. Network Solutions’ ill advised “customer protection measure” didn’t sit well with the internet community.
5. Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, Others - A number of people quit their jobs after they discovered domain parking arbitrage. Yahoo sent them back to work in February.
6. Dell: “We’re F’d” - Computer maker Dell registered some unsavory names this year. Call it brand protection.
7. Google Lets Advertisers Opt Out of Domain Parking Sites - After lots of pressure, Google began letting advertisers opt-out of having their ads show up on parked pages. A lot of advertisers report that such ads don’t work well for them; I’ve found the opposite to be true.
8. Domain Scam: US Copyright Registry - another scam targeting domain name owners.
9. Editorial: Where Network Solutions Went Wrong - my commentary on Network Solutions’ “customer service protection measure”.
10. Google Offers Domain Parking Direct to Publishers - just this month Google turned the domain industry on its head by offering domain parking services directly to Google Adsense clients.
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It may appear that NameMedia’s decision last week to to drop its planned initial public offering is just a temporary setback. Aside from the costs of filing its S-1 to go public, going on the investor roadshow, and obliging quite period regulations, did it really cost the company anything? The answer is yes. And it’s not the time, money, or decreased morale that hurts the most. It’s the disclosure.
Domain Name Wire » News » The Perils of Trying to Go Public - The Domain Industry’s News Source
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Schilling’s Name Administration tests new parking templates.Mike Cohen of WannaDevelop.com has made some interesting observations about Frank Schilling’s parked domains. It seems that Schilling is testing some new designs.
Domain Name Wire » News » Frank Schilling Tests New Domain Parking Templates - The Domain Industry’s News Source
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The Internet’s been around in some form for decades. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s, though, that the Web as we know it started coming together — and those precious dot-com domains started getting snatched up.
As we finish out the tech-centric year of 2008, we thought we’d take a look back at the Internet’s oldest commercial Web sites — the ones registered back when chatting about “the Net” was as socially acceptable as wearing Jedi garb into a crowded nightclub. So grab your light sabers, dear friends — we’re boarding the Millennium Falcon and heading back to a virtual galaxy far, far away.
The Internet’s 100 oldest dot-com domains - Network World
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One of the oldest and best acronyms in computing is GIGO—”garbage in, garbage out”—and it sums up a truth about the world of automated number crunching that is often forgotten by both programmers and end users. The GIGO principle means that no matter how detailed and accurate your computational model is, the results are always dependent on the quality of your input. A well-crafted model that is supplied with a credible, realistic set of inputs can greatly improve the quality of your forecasting and decision-making. But when you start feeding that same model biased data and outright lies, the results can be catastrophic. Just ask Wall Street.
Axioms, downturns, and a global (computer?) crash
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Ron Jackson writes …
The U.S. Government has joined the chorus saying “Not so fast!” to ICANN’s plan to start rolling out an unlimited number of new global domain extensions next year. In a report just released this afternoon, Reuters reporter Kim Dixon said the U.S. Department of Commerce, the branch that oversees ICANN, sent a letter to the domain name system’s oversight body yesterday (Dec. 18) stating “It is unclear that the threshold question of whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs has been adequately addressed.”
Commerce went on to say that ICANN needs to prove it can handle a potentially huge influx of applications and how it will police issues related to intellectual property rights. The government agency also said that any introduction of new names must not jeopardize the stability and structure of the domain name system. You can read the full text of the DOC letter here.
Domain Name Journal - The Lowdown from DNJournal.com
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Natalie Weinstein writes …
It will surprise no one that Google accounts for a lion’s share of the ad server market. However, it may come as a shock that Microsoft holds only the equivalent of a lion’s paw.
Attributor, a content-tracking company, analyzed ad server calls across 75 million domains in October. According to the data Attributor released this week, Google–through DoubleClick and AdSense–accounts for 56.5 percent market share.
Google dominates ad server market, study shows | Digital Media - CNET News
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AdLINK Group, parent organization of Sedo, recently released its quarterly financial report (pdf). Despite a weak environment for domain parking revenue, the company seems to be holding its own in the current downturn.
Sales for the first nine months of 2008 are down 5.4% compared to the same period last year, with sales of EUR 42.4M. However, when you factor in adverse exchange rate conditions, the company grew revenue 6.25%.
Domain Name Wire » News » Sedo Domain Sales Booming as Parking Flounders - The Domain Industry’s News Source
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