Using a web service instead of managing your own domain name opens you to risk.

I just finished reading Adrian Short’s editorial about Facebook’s Open Graph and I think domainers will find it interesting.

It’s a long and well argued editorial and I certainly don’t want to try summarizing it. But from a domain name perspective, Short argues the difference between a domain name and social networks. When you host your content and business on a domain name you essentially own it. You can take it with you. It can traverse technologies.

When you own a domain you’re a first class citizen of the web. A householder and landowner. What you can do on your own website is only very broadly constrained by law and convention…

Not so with what you do on a social network or a web service:

If you use a paid-for web service at someone else’s domain you’re a tenant. A second class citizen. You don’t have much control. You’ll probably have to live with your landlord’s furniture and decoration and a restrictive set of rules. Your content will only exist at these URLs for as long as you keep paying the same people that monthly fee and for as long as your provider stays in business. Experience tells me that this isn’t very long. As a paying customer you’ll have a few rights under your contract, but they probably won’t amount to very much. When you leave you’ll probably be able to get your data back in a useful format, but when you put it back on the web somewhere else you’ll lose all your inbound links, search engine rankings and many of your visitors…

I don’t want to quote too much of the editorial, but I think you’ll agree with most of it.

I tend to agree with Short. Although I can think of circumstances where leaning on a social network instead of your own identity might be worth it. More on that later…

Parties to litigate over Acorn.tv ownership.

Earlier this month I wrote about a very poor UDRP decision for Acorn.tv. The registrant lost the case.

I later talked to the registrant and he informed me he was moving forward with a lawsuit against complainant Acorn Media Group. This would explain why Acorn Media Group is now suing to try to get the domain name since the UDRP transfer was halted.

Right off the bat there seems to be a major problem with Acorn Media Group’s lawsuit: it filed it in its home state of Maryland. When the company filed a UDRP it agreed to handle any disputes regarding the domain name in either the registrant’s location (New York) or the registrar’s (Seattle).

Intriguingly, I can’t find a single reference to the UDRP case in the lawsuit. Can you?

Make sure your system works so you don’t embarrass yourself.

If you’re going to use an automated or semi-automated system to reach out to potential buyers of your domain names, please make sure the system works. I’ve received several off base emails “I see you own this domain, would you be interested in also owning this (unrelated) domain?

This one today takes the cake:

Hello,

I would like to know if you are interested in purchasing the domain name famouscharities.com. Based on your contact information I see that you own domainnamewire.com, correct?

famouscharities.com can provide an SEO boost in this market, sending new leads and new traffic to your existing site. Redirecting an exact match keyword domain is more cost effective than paying for CPC advertising (advertisers are paying $1.89 per click for these exact keywords). This domain can help improve, secure, and protect your web branding identity while bringing in relevant keyword searches that you would not have received otherwise.

The price for this domain is just $500. I am reaching out to other related businesses in the next few days, and this domain will go to the first company who replies. Please reply if you are interested.

Thank you,
John

If this domain is not of interest, simply reply to this email with your industry category and keywords and I can respond with available domains.

A weekly round up of end user domain name purchases.

Here’s a look at domain names end users bought through Afternic last week.

Entrepreneur.com bought ClubEntrepreneur.com for $5,000 one week after picking up EntrepreneurAwards.com for $2,088.

KPMG Meijburg & Co bought TaxControl.com for $2,388.

You know how cute spellings of your name create confusion? It looks like Xpert Auto Repair Inc., which owns xpertauto.net, figured that out. It bought ExpertAuto.net for $1,088.

SonicShack.com, which sells personalized clothing and apparel, bought tshirtshack.com for $2,500.

You know how hyphens in domain name suck? Network marketing services company Owner of Soaring-Eagles.com covered its bases by purchasing soaringeagles.com for $2,000.

Big Apple Mobility, a seller of scooters and wheel chairs, bought MobilityMD.com for $1,500.

Perks.com, which already owns IncentivePrograms.com, bought PetFoods.com for $12,890.

Isaac Daniel Group, Inc., which owns a business related to sports, bought FirstClassAthletes.com for $2,995.

Online store software company BigCommerce bought BigCommerce.net for $1,288. It already owns BigCommerce.com

Junglesport Inc of Canada, which currently operates a web site at JungleSport.ca, bought JungleSports.com for $1,000.

Impact Group HR has shortened its URL from ImpactGroupHR.com to IGHR.com for $2,750.

IP protection and domain broker Marskmen bought AmericanFreedom.com for $1,288. The company is currently brokering American.com.

DomainTools, which bought ReverseDomain.com last week for $1,988, bought ReverseDomains.com for $2,000.

Clemson University bought ClemsonOnline.com for $2,250. It still doesn’t own Clemson.com.

Texas residential services company Brown Service Company upgraded from BrownService.net to BrownService.com for $1,500.

Company gets key domains but misses some others.

Amazon.com released a slew of new products today: a new basic Kindle, the Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G, Kindle Fire, and Amazon Silk.

The company is known for aggressively registering variations and typos of its brand names. Let’s see how they did for this product launch:

Kindle Fire – as I wrote about yesterday, Amazon bought this domain name. However, it appears someone else may have registered the typo wwwKindleFire.com.

Kindle Touch – Amazon registered KindleTouch.com through brand protection company Mark Monitor. KindleTouch3G.com was registered earlier this month by someone using a whois privacy service. My guess is it’s not Amazon since they would have picked it up through Mark Monitor.

Amazon Silk – Amazon has a new web browser but not the corresponding domain name AmazonSilk.com. It’s owned by a Brazilian company.

As of right now none of the domains here owned by Amazon are resolving.