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If deal goes through, it would be good news for domainers.

The on-again, off-again relationship between Yahoo and Microsoft may be on again.

When news of a potential merger between the two companies first broke early last year, I wondered what it would mean for domainers. At the time I was conflicted. But then the potential Yahoo and Google hookup scared the crap out of me, which put things in perspective. I think it’s safe to say that a Yahoo-Microsoft hookup for online advertising will be good for domain owners.

The key reasons is that it would create a solid contender against Google for search advertising. I suspect Microsoft would invest heavily to get new advertisers, and potentially merge the existing ad networks. It may also snap up a couple existing search advertising companies to grow faster. If the Obama administration will look the other way, it might even try to subsidize advertisers to get them on the network.

Anything that puts heat on Google is good. It would be great if both Microsoft and Yahoo could compete against Google themselves, but it’s clear that isn’t going to happen.

From my previous conversations with Microsoft, I get the feeling they want to make a play in the domain space. That bodes well for domain parking.

This could just be a mental exercise in futility, as the whole Yahoo-Microsoft thing has been like the cute tease at a party. But unlike a Yahoo-Google deal, MSFT-YHOO is something I can get excited about.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. What Would Microsoft-Yahoo Mean for Domainers?
2. Microsoft Makes Offer for Yahoo!
3. Yahoo-Google Deal on Hold

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End of sales agreement could have broad implications for Australian domain company.

It’s been a rough year for Dark Blue Sea (ASX: DBS), parent company of Fabulous. Its profits are down by three quarters, it has cut half its staff, and one of its biggest shareholders is trying to oust its Chairman. But the news got worse yesterday, as reported by Domain Name News: GoDaddy terminated its sales agreement with the company.

This is a big deal. Dark Blue Sea was counting on GoDaddy to lift its aftermarket domain sales, primarily by selling to customers who were looking to register a domain name but found their ideal one was already registered. The company was also able to bulk list its domains — and customers in the Domain Distribution Network — on Go Daddy Auctions (formerly TDNAM). According to a source familiar with the matter, a significant number of domain names are sold through GoDaddy’s “premium domain” upsell during the registration process.

Dark Blue Sea views its own domain portfolio as a money maker, whereas domain parking and domain registration are low margin service businesses. In fact, it has held discussions with other domain companies about acquiring parts of its service business.

When asked for comment, Go Daddy VP Adam Dicker stated, “We have evaluated our premium domain channel and made a business decision to discontinue our use of the Domain Distribution Network.” (Domain Distribution Network is Dark Blue Sea’s domain sales system.)

That doesn’t say much, but I speculate the deal wasn’t going well for GoDaddy. GoDaddy signed a deal with BuyDomains to sell its domains alongside DBS’ domains. BuyDomains’ inventory sold better, so it gave those domains more exposure. Over time, it wasn’t worth listing DBS’ mostly hand registered domains at all.

Another big factor was the drop in Dark Blue Sea’s stock price. Dark Blue Sea gave millions of options to GoDaddy, exercisable at 65 cents. The thinly traded stock now trades for 15 cents.

What does this mean for Dark Blue Sea? The company released a statement that “the impact of this may have a material adverse affect on future revenue and profit.”

The company has fiercely loyal customers of its Fabulous domain registrar. This may present an opportunity for another registrar to make a value acquisition.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Dark Blue Sea Profit Down 80%
2. Dark Blue Sea: Domain Portfolio Worth $600 Million Retail
3. Moore Stepping Down as CEO of Dark Blue Sea

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UK registry operator sends demand letter, then files UDRP.

UK registry operator Nominet, which oversees the .uk country code, has filed for arbitration to get the domain name Nominet.name.

Nominet began communicating with the domain’s owner last year, and in April sent a demand letter requesting the domain be turned over. The demand letter can be viewed at NotNominet.name.

The owner was defiant, writing on his web site:

…This site and the domain name has NOTHING to do with the British domain name company called Nominet.

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…

So why is this British company hasslin’ me and my host?

Simple – because they can!

Hell, the dudes didn’t even offer to buy it off me, they just storm in with the jackboots and suits, it sure isn’t my fault that they were too dumb to register it for themselves, they had plenty opportunity to do, if it was gonna be this important to them. I registered it way after .name was introduced. I don’t have any intention of sellin it or using it for anything other than in connection with my family name and for email. Any web site is there because it’s there and it’s NOTHING to do with NOMINET IN THE UK, right ?

Nominet filed a case with National Arbitration Forum a few days ago to try to get the domain name through arbitration. Last year the company won the domain name Nominet.com through arbitration at World Intellectual Property Organization.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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3. Sedo Employee Running for Nominet Board

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DomainSponsor has announced that DOMAINFest Global, the largest event in the domain name industry, will be moving to the Fairmont Miramar Hotel, a stunning beach venue located in Santa Monica, California.

The event, which was previously held in Los Angeles and Hollywood, will take place from January 26-28, 2010.

Online registration will open on August 15 with the Early Bird special rate of $895 lasting through September 30. The registration will increase to $1,095 on October 1.

[via DomainFest.com]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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Registrar adds new “Express Buy” option that speeds up the domain registration process.

One of the complaints you hear over and over about GoDaddy are the pages and pages of cross-sells you encounter when trying to register a domain name. In fact, some people used the company’s mobile web site to register domain names because it had a shorter and easier process. In response, the company has added an option to its home page called “Express Buy”:

Express Buy does just what it says. I tested it this morning and found that registering a domain name was fast. After submitting your domain and and selecting an available result, you proceed directly to a confirmation page where you can enter a coupon code, select your payment method, and agree to the terms and conditions. Then you proceed to a final page where you enter your payment details and submit your order.

This is a welcome change for GoDaddy customers.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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3. GoDaddy throws hat into domain parking ring

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DOMAINfest moves to a new venue for 2010.

DOMAINfest Global, the largest domain name industry conference, is moving to the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California this January. Previous conferences were held in Hollywood, California.

The entire hotel has been reserved for guests of the show, which will take place January 26-28, 2010. Registration will open August 15 at a discounted rate of $895. Rates increase to $1,095 on October 1.

Last year more than 600 people attended the conference, including domainers, service providers, bankers, lawyers, and advertising professionals from 26 countries. The show included two major parties: a private party in a reserved section of Universal Studios and a charity event at the Playboy Mansion.

A preliminary agenda and keynote speaker will be announced soon, but conference organizers say “The 2010 conference will focus on the importance of domain names in online marketing, with additional focus on how to use domain names to get the most out of the pending economic recovery.”

DOMAINfest is organized by Oversee.net, parent company of DomainSponsor, Snapnames, and Moniker. Oversee is also considering an East coast conference later in 2010.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

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2. Frank Schilling to Hold Domainer Town Hall Meeting at DOMAINfest
3. DOMAINfest Speakers Announced

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Proving that they value users’ privacy not only from their web portal, Yahoo is extending its opt-out option for interest-based ads to the users of their mobile web services.   The ad-matching opt-out feature will run across Yahoo’s web services regardless of whether users have an iPhone, Blackberry or other devices.

Additionally, Yahoo is making its mobile privacy policy available from users devices through all of Yahoo’s mobile services.  Likewise, Yahoo also ensures that they secure permission from users before using their GPS or cell tower. And the opt-out feature is carried over from the web services to Yahoo’s mobile web services when users sign in to their account on their mobile devices.

The Yahoo Corporate blog says that this opt-out option should appear when you visit Yahoo’s mobile web portal.  Anybody seen this opt-out option? I don’t see it when I fire up Yahoo iPhone or when visiting Yahoo mobile via the Safari browser.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Yahoo! Gives Mobile Users Opt-Out Option to Interest-Based Ad

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It is not very often that Google introduces news features to its Google Reader service. This is despite the fact that Google Reader is perhaps among the widely used Google product. But that was before, as Google is putting more social networking/sharing feature to Google Reader.

So now, users can start finding people with public shares items and when they found an interesting Google Reader user who is generous enough to share their items. You can also subscribe to these shared items and it will appear on your Google Reader main page. To find people with public shared items, users can use Google Reader’s new people search feature or browse for users via their name., location or topic.

Aside from those features, Google Reader now allows sharing of public items to specific groups of people only. Users who maintain their Google profile can now add link from the Google Reader page to Google profile. After adding this link, users can start following other users publicly shared items. In addition, Google Reader now also allows rating of shared items.

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Google Reader is Evolving into a Twitter/Facebook Service

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Google has just rolled out its Search with My Location for iPhone running OS 3.0. What this nifty feature does is to allow iPhone users to search for specific location without having to key in the exact place where they are.  It recognizes the exact place where a user is, so much so that it gives specific names of restaurants, bars or other establishments when using generic search terms.

A good example given by the Official Google Mobile blog is when searching for “jazz clubs”. If an iPhone user has turned on this feature, Google mobile search will display jazz clubs in the area where the user is. So, if a user is in New York, searching for “jazz clubs” on Google mobile search will give a lists of jazz clubs in New York.

This feature is currently available only for U.K. and U.S. iPhone users. To turn this feature on, simply point your iPhone’s Safari browser to www.google.com and tap on the “My Location” link.  Tap on the “update” link to update the screen and your location will be displayed on the  homepage.

To protect privacy of users, Google promises not to use a user’s location in search. In addition, users can always opt-out of this feature by disabling it from the Preferences option below the Google mobile home page.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Google Introduces Search with My Location for the iPhone

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Google has just announced the availability of Google Voice mobile app specifically for Blackberry and Android devices. This new feature allows users to make calls and send SMS messages directly from their  mobile phones. Previously, this can be done by dialing the Google Voice number first.

The new mobile app integrates with the user’s phone contacts so users can make calls just like in an ordinary mobile phone transaction.

Other things that the mobile app can allows Blackberry and Android device users do include:

• Access your voicemail: read message transcripts, follow along with “karaoke-style” playback of messages, read SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number (even if your phone doesn’t receive SMS messages) and access your call history
• Place calls that display your Google Voice number from your address book, the app dialer (Blackberry) or the native dialer (Android)
• Send SMS messages that display your Google Voice number
• Place international calls at low rates

Google Voice can be accessed from any Android or Blackberry device or from its mobile web version at  www.google.com/voice.

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Google Voice Mobile App Goes to Blackberry and Android Devices

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