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The beginning? Google to kill apps in favor of mobile web

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Company is killing its Adsense iOS and Android apps.

Picture of iPhone screen with app icons with words "Who needs Apps?"

Is it really necessary to have dozens of apps on your phone when businesses can duplicate the experience through a mobile-friendly website?

Here’s one answer to the question that might be a sign of things to come: Google is getting rid of its Adsense iOS and Android apps in favor of a common mobile website interface.

The company says this will allow it to focus its resources on one common interface that supports all platforms rather than managing three separate interfaces.

A lot of apps are merely dressed-up versions of what you can find on the company’s website. Still, I find that apps can be helpful for sites and services you access frequently. It’s nice to be able to just press an icon and be logged in to the service you want with a simplified interface.

At the same time, it seems wasteful for companies to have to manage two apps (iOS and Android) on top of a website. New technologies make it possible to simplify this into one interface with similar functionality.

41,000 .UK domains registered in first week

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41,000 .uk domains registered during massive drop of second level domains.

Over 41,000 second level .uk domain names were registered last week, the first week they were available to people that didn’t have a matching third-level .uk domain.

Back in 2014, .UK namespace overseer Nominet started allowing people to register second level domains such as example.uk. Before that, they had to register third level domains such as example.co.uk.

For five years, owners of existing third level domains were grandfathered and could register the matching second level domain.

The grandfathering period has ended and the second level domains are now available for registration by anyone.

Nominet says Z.uk was the most contested domain released last week. 80 registrars tried to register it on Friday. (Registrar “Dmitry Morgan” snagged it. That’s not a public registrar.)

Other highly contest domains include law.uk, k.uk and wedding.uk.

Of the 1.8 million newly-released second level domains, 2.26% were registered in the first week. There are a total of 3.65 million second level .uk domains registered so far.

BrandBucket acquires competitor Brandroot

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Large brandable domain marketplace swallows another.

Picture of domains at BrandBucket

BrandBucket, which specializes in brandable domain names, has acquired competitor Brandroot.

Brandable domain marketplace BrandBucket has acquired competitor Brandroot, the company announced today. The acquisition was completed June 20 and the price was not disclosed.

Combined, the two companies have 70,000 domain names and 1,000 domain sellers. Brandroot is the smaller of the two with about 20,000 domain names.

The site uses logos to sell complete brands to startups and other businesses.

As of now, both sites are operating. I wouldn’t be surprised if BrandBucket pulls Brandroot’s inventory into its own site and sunsets Brandroot in the future.

The company said sellers should stay tuned for more announcements about the acquisition and integration plans.

C’mon domain marketplaces, let’s make search better

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Another good search tool is gone, and I hope the domain marketplaces fill the void.

Graphic with the words Domain Search above a search box

I’ve commented before about how it’s frustrating that domain marketplaces such as Sedo and Afternic have horrible search. They are leaving lots of money on the table by not making their entire inventory searchable by more metrics.

This weekend I went to DomainTools’ marketplace section. It used to have a nifty tool to search for domains in the aftermarket. It scored each domain, giving a relative quality marker to its sorting algorithm.

Alas, DomainTools shut down its marketplace tools earlier this year. A message on its website states “DomainTools has retired the Domain Marketplace functionality as we increase focus on our security mission.”

I really hope marketplaces will take notice and make it easier for investors to search through their inventory. Sedo took some baby steps with its expired domain inventory but it’s time to do more.

I think that marketplaces could have a significant impact on liquidity and sell-through rates by improving the search experience.

CentralNic raises €50 million in bond issue

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Company raises debt to pay for acquisition.

CentralNic logo

Domain name company CentralNic (AIM: CNIC) has successfully raised €50 in a bond issue. It will use some of the money to complete its acquisition of Melbourne IT’s reseller business called TPP Wholesale. It will also pay down existing debt.

The bonds will pay the three-month EURIBOR plus 7%. Interest rates are actually negative in parts of Europe right now, so the EURIBOR is negative, but the bonds put a 0% floor plus the 7%. In other words, CentralNic is paying 7% right now but this could go higher.

They will mature in July 2023.

CentralNic also said its first four months of 2019 have been strong and it believes its full year will be head of market consensus.