Is it wise to run a web service using a questionable country code domain?
I’ve warned about the dangers of country code top level domains. Rogers Cadenhead made some interesting observations about Bit.ly, a URL shortening service that just scored $2M in funding.
You see, .ly is the country code for Libya, which has a not-so-great history with the United States. He also points out some of the rules attached to country code domains. I’ve written before about .AE for United Arab Emirates that restricts uses within Muslim law. There’s no poker.ae, for example. The same thing goes for .ly. This presents a problem since the Bit.ly service let’s you forward to just about any web site with any topic. Technically the content isn’t hosted on a .ly domain, but the danger is there that Libya would lay the hammer on this.
No serious business should use a country code domain name other than a major, unrestricted domain without special content rules.
A look behind the scenes at the Domain Madness auction.
It’s Domain Madness time! Domain Consultant’s Domain Madness auction kicks off today at 2:15 CDT (12:15 PDT) with 48 domain names going under the hammer. To make things more interesting, someone will walk home with $1,000 for correctly picking the domain names that sell. Follow me on twitter @domainnamewire
Although most bidding action will come online, a number of domainers are gathering at the live auction at The Palms in Las Vegas. The event is being held in the Kingpin Suite, a massive pad on the 25th floor of The Palms’ Fantasy tower. Check out the video below:
Yes, that’s a two lane bowling alley, 8 flat panel displays, a projection display, pool table, and bar. The views aren’t bad, either.
The most expensive domain on the list is AutoFinder.com, an active lead generation web site for the car dealer industry. Other high profile domains include Baby.net, Speak.com, and Inventing.com.
Every once in a while you come across a classic example of abuse of UDRP domain name arbitration. That’s the case with a recent decision for Scalar.com.
The perpetrator was Scalar Decisions Inc, a fast growing technology company in Canada, represented by Peter M. Dillon of Siskinds LLP. The victim was Scalar Consulting Group.
-Scalar Consulting Group registers Scalar.com in 1996
-Scalar Decisions, Inc. is founded eight years later and uses the domain name Scalar.ca
-Scalar Decisions’ lawyer, who didn’t identify his client, contacted the victim and inquired about buying the domain Scalar.com. In a brief email exchange, the lawyer made an offer that the victim didn’t accept.
-The lawyer then filed a UDRP for Scalar.com, claiming the domain name was registered with the intent to sell and that it was only a parked page meant to capitalize on user confusion (the parked page was just a “coming soon” page from Network Solutions).
The good news is that Scalar Consulting Group prevailed. (It’s rather difficult to prove that a domain was registered in bad faith 8 years before the complainant was founded, unless you can prove the respondent has special powers to see into the future). But Scalar Consulting Group no doubt spent time and/or money defending itself in this frivolous case.
It’s fairly obvious what happened here. Scalar Decisions knew (thought) it had nothing to lose by rolling the dice with UDRP arbitration. You never know when an arbitration panel will wake up drunk and rule in your favor. It if lost, its only out a few thousand dollars.
You can’t blame the domain owner for entertaining an offer to buy the domain name. I know plenty of small business owners who would consider selling their business’ domain name for the right price. In fact, I helped a woman in Austin who was approached by a company about buying the domain she used for her public relations business. We sat down and figured out how much would make it worthwhile to go through the hassle, and she made a deal. But you never know when a lawyer will try to twist that around (unethically, I believe) and use it against you.
So Scalar Decisions moves on with no consequences. Except perhaps for a little public shaming.
I won’t have official numbers until tomorrow, but it looks like Sedo has had another great sales week. Sedo just tweeted that it sold Results.com for $500,000 and BabyShop.com for $85,000.
Results.com shows a business coaching company, but that web site has been on the site since December. Only the e-mail address for the domain has changed in whois, which indicates payment has been received but the domain hasn’t been fully transferred to the buyer. The email address is now that of Sedo, the DNS and ownership information hasn’t change.
I should get full results from Sedo tomorrow and will hopefully have time to write about them in Las Vegas. I’ll be live at Domain Madness‘ auction at The Palms tomorrow.
Two high profile domainers recently made the switch from PC to Mac. I’m not joining the club. My wife’s employer forces her to use a mac, and actually using one of these things shows you they aren’t perfect and not worth the fuss.
Before I get started with 5 reasons to not buy a Mac, here’s a little situational humor…
I was sitting with a group of entrepreneurs the other day. One said he was having problems with his laptop. A mac fan in the group said, “well, you could just get a Mac”. To which another person in the group said, “yes, or I suppose you could just get a typewriter”.
So here goes….
1. Macs aren’t bullet proof. Everyone complains about Windows. To be sure, Vista is not Microsoft’s finest product ever. But Macs aren’t perfect either. When my wife got her Macbook a year ago the keyboard would randomly freeze up. It turns out the operating system was shipped with an error and she had to download a patch. Oh, and most Macbooks are completely software based, so you can’t do things like eject a DVD or change the volume without doing it through the software.
2. Where’s the right click button? Yes, I know you can adjust the system to work with a right click. But that defeats the simplicity. Software applications use the right click button for a reason.
3. Compatibility. So you want to use that special software program on your Mac? Good luck. Even Google releases PC versions first, then Mac. Now wait…what’s that? I hear a fanboy saying “well I can just install Windows on my Mac”. Again, that defeats the purpose. How many Mac buyers know how to do that? And those pricey cords you need to buy to attach your Macbook to a monitor? There’s a reason people hate proprietary products like that. (By the way, never buy memory at an Apple Store. They’ll charge you 4 times what comparable memory costs).
4. Apple Store employees. They look smart with their long hair and geeky t-shirts. But I think half of them have never used an Apple product in their life before working there. They sell you the wrong cord or give you the wrong answer. It got three different answers asking three different Apple store employees if my Firewire car iPod adapter would work with the latest iPods. (Correct answer: it won’t, Apple changed the charging to USB a while ago and now you have to buy an adapter).
5. Money. Call it the Mac tax. Pay 35% more for comparable equipment, not to mention more for compatible software and accessories (see #3). That’s the subject of a new Windows advertising campaign:
But in a nod to the Apple fan boys out there, here’s one of the funniest Onion News videos I’ve seen in a long time.
