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.

Would it be appropriate for experienced domainers to criticize heavily?

I have reguarly read the blogs and posts from experienced domainers and I find them quite insightful. But some experienced domainers criticize domain newbies heavily and I found it a bit strange. In every field, there are newbies and we couldn’t expect them to know all the things in a very short period of time. I am a medical professional and I got medical students and junior doctors all the time under myself. I couldn’t expect them to know all the things and it takes a few years to learn skills to be more and more competent. We have to guide them in a supportive manner and it would be unfair to criticize our junior colleagues for not having confidence to handle difficult cases.

I really think this also applies to domaining. I believe I have read that even Frank Schilling registered very crappy domains during his initial few years. In our medical field, there is established textbooks, medical schools, training institutes etc… and it takes usually 7 years to finish medical training and another 7 to 10 years to  become a consultant. In domaining world, many experienced domainers usually keep their ways of success to themselves and it makes more difficult for domain newbies to learn from their mistakes and so on. But over the years, if any newbie is persistant enough to pursue his or her interest, the skills & knowledge would improve over time assuming that there isn’t anything wrong with the newbie mentally.

If we were to start back from 1995 or so …..

There was an interesting debate that some domainers would not be able to choose good domain names if we go back to 1995 or so. Some say they would not choose good domain names regardless of where or when they start domaining. I would disagree with that. Why? I believe more than 95% of domainers nowadays know Dating.com is better than Muchdating.com or BetterDating.com. They would know NewYork.com is better than LivetodayinNewYork.com. They would have registered Hotels.com over whatisaHotel.com. In 1995 or so, you could register premium one word .com domains and if domainers were to start back from 1995, I have no doubt that they would choose best domains (one word premium ones) unless they are drunkards or insane people. Many domainers nowaday have to register crappy names because all the “premium” domains have been registered since and many of them would not have enough funds to spend five or six figures on a domain name. But they still know Dating.com is much better than Whatdoesdatingmean.com.

But I agree that if there are 2 or 3 word combination, some domainers might not be able to choose which ones are good or bad regardless of where or when they have started domaining. But one word premiums are a different story. It is my opinion, of course.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a domain expert. I am still a domain newbie.

Some people might think that I started this website because I thought I am a domain expert. No where near that. I am still a domain newbie and as a part-time domainer (full time as a doctor) and I know domaining is too much to learn. When I started domaining in around 2007, I registered about 100 domains as bad as theGoodFriday.co.uk which I thought would be worth x,xxx range or so. I was so wrong. I dropped over 95% of those domains.

Apart from a few xx,xxx range domain sales, there is nothing much going on with my domaining. I am more towards acquiring domains rather than focussing on selling domains. I started this domain news website to share some domain latest news on domain sales, auctions etc…

I am still a domain newbie and I recently acquired the following domains. 

FootballScore.com,

WhatisMyCreditScore.com

MyPokerTour.com ,

OurCasinos.com,

HospitalDoctor.com,

PuzzleNetwork.com,

Jigsaws.net,

Fridge.net,

FirstBlackjack.com,

Weirdly.com,

ProjectManagementCourses.com

SofaSite.com

LostTheories.com

CornerSuite.com

PropertyMaintenance.net

WeirdHolidays.com

BestBuyPhones.com

CaseFan.com

RecoveryVehicle.com

past few days or so. I would welcome any comments on my domain acquisition. (if comment is not working, you could always contact me via email : admin (at) deliciousnames.com .

Below is the Valuate.com valuation which is very rough. (but still quite smart for an automatic appraisal tool) e.g. MyPokerTour.com for $50 is a bit too low, I think.

Domain	Appraisal	Freq.	Searches	Comp.	CPC
fridge.net	$47,000	23,900,000	448,960	high	$1.53
footballscore.com	$17,000	255,000	18,500	high	$2.04
projectmanagementcourses.com	$17,000	74,800	14,762	high	$7.6
casefan.com	$8,300	579,000	5,500	high	$0.78
hospitaldoctor.com	$2,600	426,000	487	medium	$0.86
whatismycreditscore.com	$2,100	302,000	3,625	high	$16.4
weirdholidays.com	$2,000	95,700	5,500	low	$1.01
recoveryvehicle.com	$1,600	136,000	175	high	$3.62
propertymaintenance.net	$1,300	1,900,000	18,500	high	$2
bestbuyphones.com	$1,200	29,500	3,000	medium	$2.07
jigsaws.net	$1,000	326,000	3,596	high	$1.35
losttheories.com	$850	111,000	33,875	low	$0.47
cornersuite.com	$650	218,000	44	low	$2.95
sofasite.com	$510	20,000	0	low	$0.05
weirdly.com	$380	1,110,000	600	medium	$0.05
ourcasinos.com	$290	28,300	0	low	$0.05
puzzlenetwork.com	$290	9,140	27	low	$0.05
firstblackjack.com	$250	29,500	0	low	$0.05
mypokertour.com	$40	1,910,000	0	low	$0.05

End user market is amazing. I would not buy this domain for reg fee.

End user domain marketplace is amazing and domainers got quite decent deals by selling their domains directly to end users.

Recentlty TravelCube.biz was sold for over $2,000 (exactly at 1,500 Euros). I would not buy the domain at reg fees personally and even if someone gives it to me for free, I would not accept it considering the work involved to transfer, renew and maintain the domain etc…

It is at the same time encouraging to the domainers who have put effort and time in the domaining and the only thing is to find the right end user for the particular domain at the right time.

All minisites are not alike

All minisites are not alike. So sayeth some industry watchers cynically assessing the market adaptibility to the minsite trend. Steve Higashi, of Toronto, Canada, (promoter for www.ShoppingCartForum.com), clucked over the tendency of many domainers and domain webmasters to accept ‘cookie cutter” quality minisites.

“Our services provide custom design attributes that separates our website product from the template driven minisite item on sight.” Higashi is betting on forum driven attraction to the checkout engine portal and putting his faith in word of mouth and interested site programmers checking back, rather than stray type-in traffic and casual browsing.