According to AdvertisingAge.com,  Yahoo is on the verge of a deal that would make Microsoft’s Bing.com, its search provider.

Yes according to the story, Yahoo would send its traffic to Bing.com and the story goes on to say the deal is likely to be announced this week.

However,  unlike the reports of last week, the deal is to be based on just a revenue share, not on an upfront or guaranteed payment.

Last week the talk was Yahoo’s was going to get an upfront payment in the of hundreds of millions of dollars.

If this story is true it would mean Microsoft would walk into a deal with no money and increase its search share to almost 30%.

For Yahoo the report say its would be allowed to sell search ads on Bing.com, as well as its own site, giving it more search inventory to sell and making it a bigger player in the search sales front.

The other big benefit to Yahoo would be the millions it would save by not having to maintain its own search infrastructure.

In its most recent earnings report, Yahoo revenues were down but profits were up, based on it’s cost cutting measures previously announced

What this type of deal means to domainers or those monetizing domain names with Yahoo, is at this point unclear, but we will seek out all opinions on this issue of the deal goes down as Ad Age describes.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized, Web Hosting

Yesterday in a post I thought we have some fun and see if you would buy or sell these domains at the following prices:

Videospark.com    $8,500

Wet.net                   $6,500

55R.com                 $6,000

LejourPlus.com    $3,000

Monroe.net            $3,000

The results that while some of you would have bought buy wet.net and a few others voted for Monroe.net, the rest would sell all the domain.

All  these domains are currently at auction at Godaddy.com with time to go:

So the good news is, if you voted that you would buy one or more of the domains,  you still can.

Here is the link to each auction:

Videospark.com $8,500

Wet.net $6,500

55R.com $6,000

LejourPlus.com $3,000

Monroe.net $3,000

Yes for the record I would pass on buying any of these domains.

wet.net is the best, but at over $6K is getting up there.  The rest either don’t make sense and/or are priced well out of any reasonable price.

IMHO, people who continuous buy these kind of domains, at these prices, are the domainers that are going to get themselves into financial problems.

Thanks to those who played along (except for Sahar would said he wouldn’t come out and play, love you anyway).

For everyone,  here are a couple of what I consider good buys,  also on auction at Godaddy.com (current high bid reflected)

pathology.org $704

Mundo.org $315 (Mundo = “world” in spanish & Mundo.com was recently at auction, in the six figures.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized, Web Hosting

According to a new report by JP Morgan’s Imran KhanWhile,  entitled “Nothing But Net”, online ad spending is projected to continue to grow.

However the report warns that the contraction of the general economy will put even greater downward pressure on the price of both online display and search advertising.

“Although the economic news cycle is largely negative, we believe the longer-term secular trends that are driving the growth of online activity remain quite positive, and we expect these trends to help Internet companies continue growing even as overall economic activity remains sluggish,” Khan wrote in the 2009 edition of his annual .

He cited the expansion of broadband penetration as an important catalyst for more robust “commercial Internet activity,” and said that would continue to accelerate consumer usage and adoption of the medium in ways that would impact other industries and aspects of the economy, especially the retail industry, which increased broadband usage would correlate to increased ecommerce growth and a corresponding decline in “brick-and-mortar” retail businesses.

Khan predicted that the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 would prove to be the toughest financial quarters for the online industry, and that the Internet economy would begin to rebound in the second half of 2009.

The economic pressures, he predicted, would also drive a greater share of online advertising investments toward “performance-based” advertising models and away from traditional “CPM-based” models, and that in turn would contribute to the downward pressure on online CPMs during 2009.

“We now think 2009 will be a weak year for graphical advertising publishers, as we expect the graphical ad sector to under perform, performance based advertising in a down economy,”

Khan predicted the display ad marketplace would grow about 6% in the U.S., and about 6.7% worldwide in 2009.

While online search ad spending is projected to expand at roughly twice that rate, Khan predicted that general economics would also contribute to lower keyword prices and less revenue per search query for the major search engines in 2009.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

Today The Public Interest Registry (”PIR”), the company which runs the .Org registry, announced a Domain “Anti-Abuse Policy”, effective 5 February 2009.

In announcing this policy PIR is taking a strong stand against what is defines as Domain Abuse and it gives itself the right to cancel,  any .org, domain registration which is considered to be abusive.

From the announcement:

“”””Abusive use(s) of .ORG domain names should not be tolerated. The nature of such abuses creates security and stability issues for the registry, registrars and registrants, as well as for users of the Internet in general.

The PIR defines abusive use of a domain as the wrong or excessive use of power, position or ability, and includes, without limitation, the following:

· Illegal or fraudulent actions;

· Spam: The use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages. The term applies to e-mail spam and similar abuses such as instant messaging spam, mobile messaging spam, and the spamming of Web sites and Internet forums. An example, for purposes of illustration, would be the use of email in denial-of-service attacks;

· Phishing: The use of counterfeit Web pages that are designed to trick recipients into divulging sensitive data such as usernames, passwords, or financial data;

· Pharming: The redirecting of unknowing users to fraudulent sites or services, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning;

· Willful distribution of malware: The dissemination of software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent.
Examples include, without limitation, computer viruses, worms, keyloggers, and trojan horses;

· Fast flux hosting: Use of fast-flux techniques to disguise the location of Web sites or other Internet services, or to avoid detection and mitigation efforts, or to host illegal activities. Fast-flux techniques use DNS to frequently change the location on the Internet to which the domain name of an Internet host or name server resolves. Fast flux hosting may be used only with prior permission of PIR;

· Botnet command and control: Services run on a domain name that are used to control a collection of compromised computers or “zombies,” or to direct denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks);

· Distribution of child pornography; and

· Illegal Access to Other Computers or Networks: Illegally accessing computers, accounts, or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual’s system (often known as “hacking”). Also, any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (e.g., port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity).

PIR reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status, that it deems necessary, in its discretion; (1) to protect the integrity and stability of the registry; (2) to comply with any applicable laws, government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement, or any dispute resolution process; (3) to avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of PIR, as well as its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, and employees; (4) per the terms of the registration agreement or (5) to correct mistakes made by PIR or any Registrar in connection with a domain name registration.

PIR also reserves the right to place upon registry lock, hold or similar status a domain name during resolution of a dispute.”””

Let’s Hope this policy curbs abuses but that the registry does not cancel any “innocent” domains.  It always worries us, at least a little, when someone sets themselves up to be the complainant, judge and jury.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

According to Reuters, China has launched a crackdown on websites, with officials accusing search engines including Baidu and Google of spreading pornography and vulgarity, saying repeat violators and those that had a “malign influence” might be exposed, punished or shut down.

China’s Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies announced the campaign at a meeting on Monday, state television reported, showing officials hauling digital equipment away from one unidentified office.

The meeting “decided to launch a nationwide campaign to clean up a vulgar current on the Internet and named and exposed a large number of violating public morality and harming the physical and mental health of youth and young people,” the report said.

The 19 Internet operators and websites named at the meeting had failed to swiftly purge “vulgar” content and ignored warnings from censors, the television report said.

“If they (users) find content that is contrary to Chinese law, they can report it to Google. And if we find it’s truly illegal, we’ll deal with it according to the law,” said Cui.

“Some websites have exploited loopholes in laws and regulations,” said Cai Mingzhao, a deputy chief of the State Council Information Office.

“They have used all kinds of ways to distribute content that is low-class, crude and even vulgar, gravely damaging mores on the Internet.”

Cai told officials to “fully grasp the gravity and threat of the vulgar current infesting the Internet” and said law-breakers faced “stern punishment”.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

Nielson Research released its November search share ratings by provider today.

The research shows that Google Year to Year growth was almost 22% while Yahoo search was down 1.5% and Microsoft Search was down almost 17%, here are the full results

Provider                 Searches (000)    YOY Growth    Share of Searches
                         --------------- --------------  -----------------
All Search                     8,075,564            9.6%             100.0%
Google Search                  5,177,158           21.7%              64.1%
Yahoo! Search                  1,299,306           -1.4%              16.1%
MSN/Windows Live Search          733,460          -16.7%               9.1%
AOL Search                       344,465            3.6%               4.3%
Ask.com Search                   184,059           -6.0%               2.3%
My Web Search                     71,113          -18.3%               0.9%
Comcast Search                    40,645            3.5%               0.5%
AT&T Worldnet Search              25,351          -13.3%               0.3%
NexTag Search                     22,308          -19.5%               0.3%
Dogpile.com Search                17,121           -6.5%               0.2%

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

Amsterdam 5th January 2009 – The .CO.NL Grandfather
period that opened on Tuesday November 18th 2008 was received with
great enthusiasm, and the Operator wishes to remind holders of a .nl domain
that applications for the corresponding .CO.NL name can still be made for nine
days.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

While you were trying to get over your hangover on New Years Day, the domain iMode.com sold for $17,001.

iMode.com was on our first list of top Snapnames domains.

In a couple of other notable sales:

Slade.com sold today at Snapnames.com for $6,258

Over at Namejet.com solarguide.com sold today for $3,200.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

Off the topics of domains, but a thought I wrtie about a trend I’m seeing around the US, which may effect everyone of you in the NEAR future, is paying to use previously free interstate highways.

In Miami a month ago, the state took the two left lanes of I-95 and blocked them off, restricting their use to those having a “Sun Pass”, an electronic toll collector which was used for previously to pay the tolls on toll roads without using cash.

This left 3 lanes for use for free on the busy federal interstate road.

The toll road runs for about 7 miles from downtown Miami, through Miami, a highly congested area.

The toll varies between $.25 and $6.25, depending on the time of day and how bad traffic is.

So if your riding out at 1am you will pay $.25 to drive in the 2 left lanes.  If you in the mist of rush hour, in bumper to bumper traffic, your going to pay anywhere from $2.65-$6.25 for the privilege of not waiting in traffic.

In taking the two left lanes for the pay as you go Sun Pass, it reduced the free lanes down to three, making the free lanes even more congested, making the pay to drive option even more desirable.

A state run, self fulfilling prophecy.

Find a high traffic area, make it worse and charge people more to avoid the traffic.

Nice.

In removing the 2 revious free lanes, the government took away the HOV lanes which was automatically opened to all vehicles carrying 2 or more persons, Hybrid cars, and some other approved vehicles. (some of these can still ride in the paying lanes for free, but you must apply, and be pre approved)

My first thought was how is this legal.

I mean federal highways, interstates, were build with tax money and previously always free, as opposed to a toll road or a bridge built with the issuance of government bonds which are to be paid back from the tolls from users.  Makes me wish I had my own “Boston Legal” type law firm at my disposal to fight all these issues that appear to violate the law. (although in the last episode of the series, the mythical law firm went broke, so maybe that’s not  such a good idea)

If you think this is a one trick pony issue, restricted to Miami, think again.

As tax revenues decline all over the country as sales tax collections are down because people are spending less, property taxes are down as real estate loses value and developers put on the brakes, expect government to become more creative to try to get into your pocket.

Doing a little research I see plans are now underway all over the country to take former HOV lanes and convert them into pay as you go roadways, including Atlanta, Denver, Pennsylvania, and Texas, just to name a few.

To go even further, in Oregon they have been testing a system to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, by installing GPS monitoring devices in vehicles.  Though the GPS devices did not track the cars’ locations in specific detail, it did track when a driver had left certain zones, and kept track of the time the driving was done, so a premium could be charged for rush-hour mileage.

The federal government is also looking into going to a mileage tax, rather than a gasoline tax, as drivers use more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.

Governors in Idaho and Rhode Island have considered systems that would require drivers to report their mileage when they register vehicles.

In North Carolina last month, a panel suggested charging motorists a quarter-cent for every mile as a substitute for the gas tax.

James Whitty, the Oregon Department of Transportation employee in charge of the state’s effort, said he’s also heard talk of mileage tax proposals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and Minnesota.

“There is kind of a coalition that’s naturally forming around this,” he said.

So as we follow what the government tells us, which is to conserve gas, buy more fuel efficient vehicles, the same government is already planning a way to dig deeper into your pocket to compensate them for your increased efficiency.

Doesn’t quite seem “American” does it?

Yes folks another piece of that America Dream is dying, or at least getting more expensive.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized

Net Applications released updated global browser market share numbers today, indicating that Internet Explorer is losing users at an accelerated pace. The browser’s share dropped from 69.77% in November to 68.15% in December.

Firefox gained more than half a point and ended up at 21.34%, Safari approaches the next big hurdle with 7.93% and Chrome came in at 1.04%, the first time Google was able to cross the 1% mark. Opera remained stable 0.71%.

Over the past 12 months, IE gave up 7.9 points of market share, while Firefox gained 4.5 points and Safari nearly 2.4 points.

Certainly the emergency fixes for security breaches is not making IE any more appealing to users.

I have used Firefox for a couple of years now and especially like the Sync capability that allows you to move your bookmarks and passwords between computers or as a backup in case your computer crashes as mine has on several occasions.

Posted under Domain Parking, Domain Registrars, Domain Sales, Domain Services, Uncategorized