ND Weekly #74
Hi everybody,
Obviously a big week in politics (were there some by-elections or something?) but the domain industry seems unaffected as yet, continuing its inevitable decline/inexorable growth, depending on who you believe. Google seems to be doing well though which I’m sure will please all of you - in other news, we have our own Roe v. Wade in the form of the Kentucky court ruling.
Other than that, not a huge amount of news, so Mr Blogs is off to make some himself. See you all at DomainFest!
Mr. B
ND Weekly #74
Google sales jump 18%
Internet advertising behemoth Google continued to show strong sales and profit against a thorny economic backdrop. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company reported an 18% jump in fourth-quarter revenue to $5.7 billion for the period ended Dec. 31. That’s up from $4.83 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, Google posted sales of $4.22 billion, better than the $4.12 billion in sales expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Google reported fourth-quarter net income of $382 million, down 68% from $1.2 billion a year ago. However, excluding certain charges, such as the cost of employee stock options, the company earned $5.10 a share, much better than consensus estimates of $4.95 per share.
“We had tight control over costs” in the quarter, said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt in a conference call with analysts.
More…
What Domainers Should (and Shouldn’t) Do Post Kentucky
Here are some things for domainers to consider now that the Kentucky case has been overturned.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals has overturned a trial court’s ruling that the state could seize domain names associated with online gambling. The Court of Appeals ruled that domain names weren’t “gambling devices”, which was part of the statute used to justify seizing the domains.
As Michael Berkens pointed out, this is a narrow victory. Electronic Frontier Foundation writes that the ruling suggests to the Kentucky legislature that it can change the definition of “gambling device”, but it still believes the case will be without merit because “In addition to this type of domain name seizure still raising serious First Amendment, due process, and other constitutional problems, Kentucky courts (as pointed out in our joint amicus brief) also lack the authority to directly order out-of-state registrars to turn over customer domain names.”
More…
Internet Commerce Association Executive Director Resigns
Michael Collins, Executive Director of the Internet Commerce Association has announced his resignation from his post with the organisation in an email to members of the ICA.
In his email to members, Collins wrote he is leaving the organisation to develop some of his own domain names, a brick and mortar to Internet transition for an auto accessory business.
The ICA is a non-profit trade organisation representing domain name investors and developers and the direct search industry. ICA is made up of responsible businesses and individuals who have joined together to improve public confidence in internet commerce.
The email sent by Collins reads…
More…
IAC’s Ask.com Acquires Domain Name Monetizer Sendori
Ask Sponsored Listings, a division of Ask.com(itself a subsidiary to IAC) has acquired Sendori, a startup that introduced interesting advertising exchange technology about two years ago that enabled advertisers to purchase direct navigation traffic generated by top tier domain names, bypassing PPC advertising providers like Google and Yahoo when it comes to monetizing parked domains.
Sendori developed the technology, dubbed PureLeads and patent-pending, to enable both search advertisers and domain owners to benefit from typed-in domain traffic based on the highest auction bids. With rates for PPC (Pay-per-click) dramatically dropping the past few months, Sendori was quickly becoming a nice alternative for domain name owners who traditionally looked no further than the usual suspects offering PPC advertising deals.
More…
IDN Fast Track Process Update
ICANN recently proposed (for public comment) a Draft Implementation Plan for the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) on a limited basis for ccTLDs. The Plan follows the recommendations of the ICANN’s policy making supporting organizations and advisory committees.
Since the recent closure of the first public comment period on the Draft Implementation Plan for the IDN ccTLD “Fast Track” Process, ICANN has been developing proposals for the next version of the draft Plan for community review and comment at the ICANN Mexico City Meeting (March 2009).
The public comment period opened on 23 October 2008, and was extended to January 7, 2009, to consider an updated version of the Draft Implementation Plan that was released on 26 November 2008, following the community collaborations during the ICANN meeting in Cairo, Egypt.
More…
Circuit City, Linens ‘n Things, and the Domain Name Industry
It’s capitalism at its best. Circuit City is being liquidated after failing to find a buyer. Linens ‘n Things is finishing up the liquidation process (I wonder when they’ll sell the LNT.com domain?).
And that’s how it’s supposed to be. Weak companies fail, strong ones thrive. Thank goodness the government didn’t step in to bailout Circuit City. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) offers a superior shopping experience. Even though it is facing hard times, it has knocked a competitor out and should reap the rewards. Will we see similar failures and consolidation in the domain industry this year? At last count there are about 20 well known domain parking companies…
More…
Microsoft announces job cuts
Ballmer announced the job losses after an early financial report revealed below-expectation profits - but stated that “thousands” of jobs would be created in their place.
The credit crunch continues to hit some big names in the technology sector, with Microsoft announcing a drop in earnings bad enough to prompt 5,000 job losses.
As reported by CNN Money yesterday, Microsoft announced its earnings report for its second financial quarter ahead of schedule – and the news wasn’t good. Earnings per share were down at 47 cents, compared to 50 cents last year – analysts were hoping for at least 49 cents even in the current financial climates.
More…
Internet into overdrive as millions express Obama hopes
The first US Internet president is an online sensation, triggering a tidal wave of Web traffic as he officially seized the nation’s reins.
Millions around the world commented, Twittered, posted and prayed as they watched Barack Obama’s inauguration live on the Internet, pinning their hopes on a new world order and era in American politics.
Akamai Technologies, which specializes in assuring that websites don’t crash under the weight of heavy online traffic, saw digital content streaming surge to record levels — more than two terabytes of data per second.
“Take a busy day for Akamai and double it, that is where you are,” said Akamai corporate communications director Jeff Young. “It was an immense online streaming day.”
More…
Windows virus infects 9m computers
The number of Windows computers infected with the new “downadup” worm – also known as “Conficker” and “Kido” – has exploded to almost 9 million worldwide, from roughly 2.4m last Thursday, according to the computer security company F-Secure.
The growth in the number of infected machines – which the company’s researchers called “just amazing” – makes it one of the worst malware outbreaks of the past five years. The principal targets are corporate Windows servers belonging to small businesses who have not installed security updates released by Microsoft last October. F-Secure estimates that a third of all potentially vulnerable systems have not had the update.
More…
Beware the “First Name” Domain Name Buyer
Michael over at Coin Network has received several domain inquiries lately with an interesting twist. The buyer says his or her first name is the domain name they want to buy. Here’s an example:
Hello,
My name is Latroy Beneters and Im interested in buying your domain www.latroy.com Are you are interested in selling it? If you are, do you have any idea how much you want for it? If you don’t, let me know and I will make you an offer instead and we can take it from there.
Many thanks for your time,
Latroy Beneters
Lest you think this may actually be a legitimate offer from a person named Latroy, Michael has received several similar e-mails. They all follow the same pattern, simply substituting a different name like this (my example; not one of Michael’s names)…
More…
Thanks to the following sources:
http://money.cnn.com
http://domainnamewire.com
http://www.techcrunch.com
http://domainnamewire.com
http://www.bit-tech.net
http://www.google.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://domainnamewire.com
http://www.domainpulse.com
http://icann.org/
