EVE Gamers Raise $45K Online for Japan

The EVE online space science fiction gamers have something to be proud of, moving almost $45,000 to the Red Cross effort in Japan. The donation was executed via a digital fund drive that raised enough virtual funds that its operators were able to convert “pilot licenses” in the game (PLEX) to real funds. This shows the power of gaming and the spirit of the online gaming community. Domainers should take note of the strong community within a single online role play game and consider this when shaping a gaming domain site launch effort.

Verisign Tag Cloud Tool

Ever rush to the domain search screen at your favorite registrar only to wonder just how many of your fellow domainers are jumping on the same keyword bandwagon? Verisign is helping domainers think out of the type in domain name search box and drop list.  This is also a valuable reminder of key word and tags to be used as density and subject reference for SEO and content building brainstorming. The domain tag cloud is in beta, but one look instantly tells the story. Not only can portfolio domainers see what names are trending for auction consideration and flipping purposes, but they can see what niches might be walking out of the everyday into the special. Common keywords, like “gold” or “shop” or “play” can mix with whatever the day’s mix in blogs, news, search engine trending and type in domain searches yields. A very visual, instant thinking cap with big eyeball appeal. Bravo, Verisign.

 

Mild Form of Pontiac Fever at -Fest

Speculations about the flu strain visited upon hapless visitors to last week’s February 1-3rd Domainfest are becoming clearer. Los Angeles County Health Department actions to survey the participants were the topic of an article in the New York Times, which angled on the Playboy Mansion as a source for the illness. Pontiac fever is an unofficial diagnosis. High profile domain  industry blogs have chronicled the strange illness  outbreak from initial recovery stages. International Domainfest guests carried the symptoms home abroad as well.

Many domainers suspect the illness was actually a bacterial infection, although the manner it is discussed uses the term  “flu”. The Playboy mansion has a lagoon, fog mist and the type of warm air conditioning said to allow such bacteria to flourish. There is no detail if the assault allegedly taking place on the bus home from the Playboy Mansion had anything to do with the outbreak. So far the Los Angeles Times has been mum on the topic. Antibiotics are urged as the supposed 5 day burnout of this illness requires prescription aid.

The Times sketches the illness as Pontiac fever, (or walking pneumonia), a milder form of Legionelleosis, named for the original Legionnaires Disease. Sources say as many as 93 participants fell ill, some requiring antibiotics and suffering more harsh symptoms than others. (Vulnerability to any strain of flu or virus can be affected by fatigue, body chemistry, and length of exposure to infection source). The Los Angeles Center for Disease control is involved in a survey both for issues of environmental health and traveller health.

DomainSponsor, a unit of Oversee, has been active in collaborating with agencies to get proper data regarding attendees where it needs to be and released a statement Friday urging domainers to cooperate with the CDC.

“DomainSponsor, the organizer of the DOMAINfest Global conference, and its parent company, Oversee.net, have been made aware that several people in attendance at DOMAINfest and various evening events during the week became ill during the conference or after it concluded.

There has been significant speculation about this situation, but as of now, not many actual facts are known.  Only medical authorities are qualified to identify this illness and investigate its ultimate source, so toward the improvement and protection of everyone’s health, it’s important not to speculate or make unfounded assumptions.  Of course, should you have a concern about your health, please seek the advice of a doctor.

The health and safety of DOMAINfest attendees is our first priority, and thankfully, most attendees and staff did not become ill, and those that did appear now to be feeling better.  Even so, in order to accurately identify the health concern and prevent its further possible communication, we have consulted with Los Angeles County health authorities and at their request have provided them a comprehensive list of places we know gatherings were held (either organized by DOMAINfest or by others) during each day and night.  We also have notified our vendors and service providers of the situation, and have encouraged them to cooperate with authorities and take any steps they believe necessary.

Medical authorities have further requested, and Oversee has provided, a list of all attendees and their e-mail addresses.  You may already have received a link to a survey asking for more information.  It is important that ALL attendees complete the survey, whether you were ill or not.  This will help authorities narrow down the range of possible causes and sources.  Only health authorities will have access to this data—neither Oversee nor any other party will be able to see it, so please do your part to help.

Oversee will continue to work with health authorities, though at this stage, work is best left in their hands.  If there’s more we’re in a position to share about the situation, we will do so.

DOMAINfest was a great event—our best ever with more than 700 attendees—and it’s regrettable that this has cast a shadow over an otherwise good week.  We’re very encouraged that most everyone is in improving health (including those on our staff), and look forward to seeing many of you in Barcelona in June.”

Egyptian Domains

The recent political upheaval in Egypt points the way to purchase of Egyptian domain names for development. The liberation of Egypt’s Internet from government control means greater freedom for end users online. The available domain vendors for .eg, Sedo, 1and1.com, and others can answer queries and simplify acquisition of domain names with the Egyptian ccTLD. Research into Egyptian lore and myths could be helpful.  Domain sales prediction: Look for top sales this year for .eg names.

Domainfest Outbreak Follow Up

After a week rife with speculation as to the cause of the Domainfest event after flu epidemic, sources agree that Oversee released a statement indicating email communications from medical authorities would be forthcoming to Domainfest attendees. The Santa Monica event was a success, perhaps too much so, as many participating domainers complained into the weekend and afterward of a super “flu” like bug that hit many hard. Speculation of walking pneumonia was mentioned by bloggers, and this sort of incident should be aggressively anticipated and prevented if at all possible.

According to Oversee,Los Angeles County health authorities will investigate activities and symptoms from Domainfest participant to narrow down a possible cause of gestation. The email survey is in everyone’s best interest to complete. Who got sick, when, and which events they went to is an important criteria in finding out more about this illness. In future this kind of problem can be avoided if the issue causing it can be identified and addressed for other events at this locale or for these individuals.

Go Granny Girl Revealed

In the freshest Network Solutions ad, ever, Cloris Leachman in leather jacket does a parody of the Betty White approach to crabby spokesmodeldom. Domain names, web hosting, whatever. Chloris says in the Youtube that any businessman will tell you it’s all about the ta-tas, baby”. The decidedly satiric spot shows Leachman making Godaddy mockery.The Super Bowl wants $3 million for a thirty second spot. “They ought to have flames shooting out of their ass for that money”. Leachman asks the question we all want to know, “Would you rather have  a stuffed shirt helping you with your website, or a smokin’ hot babe?”. This ad cuts through the hype (and spending) Godaddy chief Bob Parsons has made his personal branding flavor. A follow up touts Network Solution as the original registrar and web site source. Now if only Parson’s camp had the brains to hire Betty White as the new Go-Daddy girl, this would be one for the books.

Google Cracks Down on Stolen Content

Tired of seeing scraped sited do better in the SERPs than your home grown content farm? Google announced this week the maturity of new algorithmic analysis of sites to provide search clients with site sources and results closer to the source of such content. Industry uproar over Xrumer, scrapebox, and other scraping tools has pre-empted this change. Web spam is a sore point to many webmasters who write or source their own original content, only to see it scraped to all points of the compass, largely without credit or permission.

The content farming done by many unscrupulous (black hat) webmasters channels stolen content to keyword rich portals, betting that the Google algorithm will pick up on their site first. No More! Administrators of websites with coded or script dynamic content fulfilled by other sources should evaluate any change in the SERPS for their web site and make changes accordingly. By submitting to Google (and other web directories directly) confusion about source origins can disappear.

Women Com in GE/ NBC Legal Dispute

Sometimes big dollar domain sales go wrong. Witness the legal issues between NBC Universal, the seller of both Women.com and Women.net from NBC and iVillage to Ben Padnos. The ex parte motions read like civil matters gone amok, except that a huge amount of clicks are at stake. Benjamin Padnos of Done Ventures bought the names on Sedo. This happened May 24th of 2010.

But minus amenable settlement of the deal he had tried filing a restraining order on NBC Universal, to cease them from using the names online. NBC, one of the biggest names and companies in entertainment with an ambitious online campaign for programming and marketing, evidently wants to keep them. How did things go so wrong? NBC claims Jeff Zucker countermanded the sale after Sedo informed the principal contacts at NBC the names were sold.

With control of the actual name(s) staying with NBC, every day that goes by is a win for the Peacock, and a loss for the Sedo buyer. Question: Are sellers and Jeff Zucker not bound by Sedo Terms of Service? The poor domain buyer thought he could actually fork over a million bucks and actually get two domain names. Per the filed legal text, NBC currently points the names to iVillage for traffic.

This legal hootenanny comes after receipt of an email every domainer dreams of getting:  ”Alan and Ben, Congratulations!  The offer for Women.com has been accepted!” Sedo’s reply email indicates that NBC/GE would be creating a Bill of Sale for the $ 1 million sale.  ” The legal case will determine much for the future pathway of online legal binding sales.Furthermore, do GE/NBC stockholders know they just lost a cool million?

Female audiences for online female products and women’s sites for everything from makeup to venture capital funding is a titanic market. Hence GE and NBC Universal’s interest in keeping the name. Parent company GE is based in New York, although key NBC Universal offices are in Burbank and Los Angeles, California. Domainers should bookmark their legal case watching to make sure their next big dream bid goes through.

Google Shakes Up Management

Any book written since 2005 on VC startups or funded dot com ventures or even enterprise angel funded corporations with bricks and mortar realities behind a new Internet presence has a different story today.The next page has been turned for Google (Earth), with a juggle king, veteran Page again newly crowned at the top of the biggest new media empire since, well , Microsoft, Ebay or Apple. Sergey Brin will turn to other projects.

Larry Page, coming back from semiretirement at thirty seven, will take up the reins as Google Czar at the company he helped found in 2000. Just as Google and many other flexible flyers in the new Internet race a decade ago flashed ahead of the huge titan companies still trying to grasp what the Web could mean, it now will muster new (old) leadership when products are most at stake. Google’s online apps, email and evolving omnimedia in Internet life needs a courageous hand at the tiller.

As Silicon Valley has ebbed and flowed in the last decade and then gone back out with the tide, dynamics like those posed with respect to FaceBook in the Social Network and other dotcom stories have never touched the giant that is Google. Ebay, IBM, Microsoft, Apple Computers, Yahoo, and other online behemoths have settled into their respective territories. Google is generally regarded as valuable rather than on the cutting edge among anaysts.

But this was the year FaceBook roared, in 2010 and probably louder in 2011 as well. Google, whose footprint currently is stamped in SEO, Android and online apps, will cement a possible social networking presence online soon. They’ll have to, with so many age rank and indexing players getting into the game (Yahoo, Bing). And if Google sees which way the wind is blowing, it might want to get into the domain business. Before Facebook does.

Video VOIP Giant Skype Slow to Saturate Mobile

Online telephony and telecommute market has been saturated with Skype calls and the Skype brand has been firmly established in public and business solutions minds for Internet long distance teleconferencing and personal (and video) calls. But market watchers are seeing that technology range of Skype does not extend to mobile, in an era when mobile devices such as smartphones, Androids, ITouch, and Iphones fills every pocket. Furthermore, the newest burst of portable computing and Internet access technology, tablets, need Skype support as well.
Skype video calling, however, has been lacking for the mobile video call market. Demand for wrist level video telephone calls is growing, especially when the top candybar phones claim to deliver almost everything but the cure for cancer. Front facers, the mobile phone camera hosted telephony, functions on branded phones assorted by their manufactures. Tango, Qik, FaceTime, each phone has house brand gadgetware apps that mimic Skype.  One type of call is phone hosted, the other a sort of server based group telephony governed by offsite resources.
Performance is choppy. The reliability many callers demand lapses and performance takes users back to the long distance static response of yesteryear. Coordination of Skype calls and integration of Skype type services does not play wel with other mobile calls operating in sync with the telephony call. Certainly the cellphone devices of today were not meant to host multiply programmed incoming and active calls on one candybar or touchscreen cellphone, already loaded for bear with touch-tap- and plug-and-play Chiclet factors.
But Skype manages the functionality of voice over internet and video over internet calls. They just may not have the device saturation they need. the considerable subscriber base Skype enjors has to employ a device for communication, either for group computer-governed or personal single cellphone calls. Specialization of Skype video to video cellphone and network governed “calls” varies by device and cellphone programming software platform. Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G harnesses disunified Windows Skye and for Mac Video VOIP users too.
So why doesn’t Skype market their own Skypeware gadget that serves a universal user base?

Next Page »