I’m going off topic here, so bear with me.

Last year I bought a Sony Vaio SZ750N for about $2,000. The specs are awesome: 13″ screen, under 4 pounds, screen just a few millimeters thick, and integrated Sprint EVDO. It’s perfect for writing on the go and connecting to a fast wireless network.

Unfortunately the computer is a lemon. It has a few problems, but the main one is the touchpad. After a couple months of using the computer, the touchpad started to go in reverse. I’d move the cursor to the right and it would go left. I’d move it up and it would go down.

A lot of people have this problem, especially with the Sony Vaio SZ series. Check out the 248 comments about this problem over at CNET.

Early fixes people tried, including sending their laptops back to Sony and having them wiped clean, were only temporary fixes. (One poor guy sent his computer back three times, was without it for 10 days as they worked on it, and the computer still isn’t fixed!) Since no one could get it fixed, I settled on a low-tech fix: learning to use the touchpad backwards. Seriously, that was how desperate I became.

That worked for awhile, until I encountered other touchpad problems people wrote about on the CNET forum. Such as my cursor on the screen wigging out. It goes out of control for about 15 seconds, jumping all over the screen and opening and closing programs. Or it just freezes up and stops working all together. Sometimes the keyboard stops working, too.

It will be hard to bring you live coverage of DOMAINfest with this problem. Or I might be giving a presentation on my laptop and suddenly the controls will freeze up — ouch.

As it turns out, the problem is likely with the hardware. The way the Sony Vaio is engineered, the touchpad gets interference. If you use an external mouse it works fine. It can be fixed, if you are willing to pry apart your computer into many pieces and add insulating tape around your touchpad. I’m serious, click the link in the last sentence to see it.

Apparently Sony finally started to pay attention to this issue. A group called “Sony Listens” pays attention to forums and posted an e-mail address on the CNET forum — sonylistens@am.sony.com — for people to contact them. I e-mailed Sony Listens December 31 and haven’t heard back. Maybe they’re on vacation. But Hank, if you’re reading this, please get back to me soon at editor (at) domainnamewire.com. I’m heading out to L.A. in two weeks to cover a conference, and I won’t be pleased if I can’t use my $2,000 laptop.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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Expired domain catchers sift through reams of data to find the best expiring domains. Over the past couple months I’ve been test driving what may be the best data source for finding high quality expiring domains for the price: FreshDrop.

FreshDrop provides a searchable, easy-to-use interface for finding domains that meet your criteria. Looking for domains on TDNAM in Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Pinyin, Turkish, or Italian? Two clicks gets your there. Looking for four character domains or geo domains? Again, two clicks.

For each domain, FreshDrop gives a wealth of data. Among the more valuable data are Yahoo and DMOZ listings, Google search results, Google indexing, number of archive.org caches, and Alexa. It also shows the number of links from .edu and .gov domains, which are good for search engine indexing. (Note that this backlink data is the same data you pay $20-$40 for per domain at ShoeMoney Tools.) Another good feature: the number of domains in other extensions registered for the domain’s keyword.

Much of the data on FreshDrop is free. You can see most data for GoDaddy , Fabulous , Sedo auctions, and eBay domains for free. You can also see data on readily available domains for free. The same data is available with a $32.95 PRO subscription for Afternic , Pool, NameJet, and Snapnames . PRO subscriptions come with a free 10 day trial. Also, with a PRO subscription you get more data on domains including Google search estimates and ad click prices.

Regardless of your data source for expired domains, FreshDrop is worth a look.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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CheckFree is warning 5 million customers about its domain name mishap last month where its nameservers were changed to forward its web site.

All the perpetrators did was get a password to CheckFree’s account at Network Solutions, log in, and change the nameservers to point to another server.

This same thing could happen to other companies, and public company executives should be held liable by shareholders for not taking simple steps to prevent this. There are at least two easy solutions I’ve written about before: Fabulous’ Executive Lock and Moniker’s Portfolio MaxLock. Fabulous ’ service is free; Moniker ’s costs a couple hundred bucks per year. That’s a small price to pay to avoid notifying 5 million people that you screwed up.

Recent court decisions have found public company board members responsible for protecting their intellectual property. It would seem that protecting domain names — especially mission critical ones like CheckFree.com, Dell.com, Amazon.com, and ATT.com, would fall under that realm.

So here’s a wake up call to public company CEOs and CTOs: if your registrar won’t offer this added level of protection, it’s time to move your domain names.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has filed for a patent to allow users to enter either search terms and domain names into a search box (such as an address bar), and having the computer figure out if the search term was meant to be a specific domain name or web site.

Patent application 20090006389 was filed last year and just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this month. The abstract reads:

Methods and systems allow users to enter natural language terms that describe a particular web site into an address field of a browser instead of a formal URL. The terms are evaluated to determine whether they correspond, with a high likelihood, to a particular web site. If so, this web site may be immediately accessed. If not, a list of search results based on the terms may be displayed by the browser.

For example, if a user types “lands end” into a search box or the browser bar, the computer could decide that the user meant to visit landsend.com and send them directly there as opposed to delivering search results related to “lands end”.

This type of unified address bar/search box can be found in Google Chrome, the web browser the company launched last year. The patent filing is a continuation of earlier patents for “highlighted confident results” from searches.

It’s unclear if this technology has an impact on direct navigation. If users become used to typing search queries into the address bar, it could boost direct navigation. However, some web browsers append .com to terms typed into the address box. For example, typing baseball would bring you to baseball.com. With search functionality enabled the browser may instead offer search listings.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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Domain parking alternative WhyPark launched its enhanced platform today. Domain Name Wire previewed the new platform back in October.

After playing around with the system I must say I’m impressed. WhyPark 2.0 (as I’ll call it) is like an incubator for growing traffic and revenue for domain names. It’s ideal for domains that don’t get much type-in traffic and will only generate revenue through organic traffic.

Start with a domain, categorize it, then add a site description and keywords (WhyPark suggests keywords to you). In the example below, WhyPark had 165 articles for use on my domain:

You can choose to add custom articles as well using WhyPark’s custom content service ($19).

Next, you choose from dozens of layout options. You can fully customize layouts and get access to the HTML for fine-tuned editing. Then choose if you want to use WhyPark’s pay-per-click network or insert third party ads (e.g. Adsense). You can also add custom text links.

Now your site is live, and you have a number of editing options. You can add custom pages, change the order of pages, monitor user-generated comments across your network of sites, and choose promotion options. WhyPark has a menu of fee-based promotion tools such as article creation and submission to third party sites ($29), RSS feed syndication ($9), and directory submission ($19).

Overall I think the new system looks promising and is a huge advancement over WhyPark’s previous platform. I plan to play around with it over the next week to dive in to its functionality.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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Domain Name Wire has just opened the response period for its 4th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. The survey collects domain name industry feedback on the state of the industry, service providers including domain registrars and domain parking companies, and opinions on domain name issues.

This year’s survey includes new questions to address changes in the domain market, including a question about domain parking alternatives such as WhyPark and EvoLanding and ICANN’s new top level domain process. Some of the questions that were previously multiple choice are now free form text answers to elicit a greater diversity of responses.

Completing the survey takes about 5 minutes and is open to anyone involved in the domain name industry.

Take the survey now.

As an added incentive, Domain Name Wire will once again give prizes to random respondents.

Grand Prize (1): $100 credit to the domain registrar of your choice

First Prize (5): Copy of David Kesmodel’s “The Domain Game Book”. ($20 value. Non-U.S. residents will be given a gift certificate in lieu of the book due to shipping restrictions.)

This year’s survey will run for a short time only. All responses must be received by February 10 in order to be considered.

Complete the survey now.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

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About a month after launching its domain name marketplace, domain news aggregator Domaining.com has sold ItalianRestaurants.com for $17,000.

The site charges a listing fee and commission for all domain name sales, and the rates were recently reduced. Listing fees start at $5 for domains under $250 and go as high as $25 for domains priced over $2,500. This listing fee ensures sellers price domains appropriately. If a domain sells there is a 10% commission. Domains are priced at a “buy it now” price for the first two days they are on sale and then users can submit offers if the domain has not sold.

Although the structure of listings and who sees them has changed a couple times since the launch of the marketplace, domains are included in an e-mail blast sent to Domaining.com members. Premium members receive the email a day before regular members. The domains are also displayed on the right side of the domaining.com web site.

Examples of recent sales include:

ItalianRestaurants.com $17,000
SilverProduction.com $499
PhotoBloggers.com $975
PhotoDigest.com $350
StepWorkouts.com $250
StudentCarInsurance.com $4,850
LasVegasFever.com $299
Laby.com $2,000
Lefts.com $750
AmethystJewelry.com $1,700
ConsolidateCreditCard.com $1,200
InternetBullying.com $200
ClinicalTalk.com $250
18holes.com $5,000
HomesLoans.com $2,240

Domaining.com has struggled to find a business model that works, but the domain marketplace seems to be a step in the right direction.

© DomainNameWire.com 2008.

Review and rate domain name registrars at Registrar Judge.