After discovering that a Wikipedia search of “Domaining” was being redirected to cybersquatting, I tried to overcome my initial anger and get constructive. I have uploaded a Domaining primer to the Wikipedia sandbox which appears to be a kind of holding area where Wikipedia admins review what has been submitted.

I am extremely incensed at the decision of a few to assume that all domain name investors are somehow guilty of cybersquatting. At this point, it’s about righting a terrible injustice. I have befriended domainers from all walks of life and from all around the world. Most of which have never registered a trademark infringing domain name.

As of yet, outcome undetermined. It’s about Wikipedia’s credibility as a true authoritative resource. And the jury is out right now.

Internet Domains domaining, wikipedia

I sense that we are on the verge of a surge forward. Lots of news is brewing and percolating. Some of it good, some bad. This week’s premium domains post will be a mixture of news and observations. To get started …

1. Wikipedia Fails Integrity Check – I have been a fan of Wikipedia, and have visited the site often for general info over the years. One will of course occasionally find misstatements of fact. I was extremely disappointed, and actually quite angry, to find that an admin there has taken it upon himself to redirect searches for ”Domaining” and “Domainers” to the ”Cybersquatting” page on the Wikipedia site.

Adding insult to injury, the admin resisted my request to stop this malicious, and obviously inaccurate, redirect. And he referred me to some convoluted process required for “overturning” their content decision. He alluded to some requirement that I provide reliable sources and verifiability checks before they would consider removing this moronic & offensive redirect. The conclusion is that personal bias and ego are in control at Wikipedia. A real step down in credibility for this once valuable resource.

Ironically, this admin is requiring standards (reliability, verifiability) that they themselves apparently did not use when deciding to misdefine all domaining and all domainers. I think of the many friends and associates I have in this industry who have worked so hard, invested so much, and produced so much good as legitimate business entrepreneurs … only to have some jerk at Wikipedia equate their collective effort with trademark infringers. What a shame. Please add your voice & comments at this link.

2. Dow Jones closes above 9100 – I surely do not want to overstate my case. We are seeing some stabilization occur even among a struggling economy. It is indeed a complex machine. Always poised to fly or crash on a moments notice. Since my last writing, we have had more good news of residential home sales setting short-term records as home buyers come back into the market. Some jobs are beginning to be added, depending on the geographical area, while other cities continue to see job losses.

The general sentiment is still “wait and see”. But, the Dow rising over 9000 suggests that investment capital is starting to be released, and business is warming up again with its sights set on opportunities ahead.

3. .BIZ Lives! – Still well in excess of 2 million registrations worldwide. I just passed by a work van in Greensboro, North Carolina and saw “HBTech.biz” on the side. Visited the website to find a company called Hoffman Building Technologies who design and install critical airflow systems. This is the base of the .biz web address -> real companies, real websites across America & other countries of the world.

4. WoodPellets.com sold for $115,000 – I did a mild double take at first. Seemed extraordinarily high … until I researched what wood pellets are. They are a burgeoning alternative fuel with dedicated products and a growing consumer base. I learn something new everyday. The sale was closed at Sedo.com, a nice online aftermarket site where I have bought and sold a number of domain properties over the years.

5. Criminalization of False Domain Name Registration – Private and shielded whois has been controversial for many years now. Who is that hiding behind anonymity? Personally, I can understand the need for privacy, and do not have a problem with private whois as long as the domain registrar is responsible for performing some type of whois accuracy check. That being said, I do not use private whois and provide full disclosure on all my domain registrations.

Internet Business Law Services recently posted an article on their site about proposed legislation (actually from 2004) which would make it a criminal offense to intentionally provide false or misleading whois information when registering an internet domain name. The writer was revisiting the need for full & accurate whois disclosure. This topic seems to have a continuing life since anonymity provides internet criminals with ongoing protection from prosecution. At this point, I wonder if full whois disclosure might be the best alternative.

Internet Domains

This is a unique company, website, and domain name selection. OCSC Sailing, based out of Berkeley, California, began in 1979 with the mission of teaching & promoting the love of sailing.

The company has a campus located right on the San Francisco Bay. The campus includes 3 docks with over 50 boats, a club room with stunning views, state-of-the-art classrooms, a pro shop, gear rental, and more.

OCSC Sailing’s info page lists 75 staff & instructors. There are a variety of programs available from basic sailing lessons to corporate team building excursions.

They were profiled in USA Today as one of ten amazing adventures for under $1000.  Two programs of instruction were mentioned in the article: a 5-day course, or one spanning two weekends. Each course provides 40 hours of sailing instruction sufficient to provide a “stepping stone for a lifetime of sailing exploits”.

The CorporateTeamBuilding.US segment focuses, naturally enough, on providing companies with “a robust set of teambuilding and consulting services that organizations use for many purposes”. Such as building comraderie, learning new skills, and achieving insights.

OCSC Sailing state on their site that sailing has many parallels to challenges in the business world. The activity produces improved communication, teamwork, on-the-spot problem solving, and solid leadership. Their team-building packages are offered through six different sailing events. Each event is expertly outlined on their site with varying price points depending on a company’s budget.

The domain name, CorporateTeamBuilding.US, seems like the ideal fit for promoting corporate team building services in a U.S. specific market. With the dotUS namespace becoming increasingly more popular, OCSC Sailing made an intelligent decision in acquiring “Corporate Team Building”. A whois search indicates the domain was originally registered in September 2002.

.US Domain Names, Internet Domains

Another article verifies that we are seeing a recovery in the real estate market. I wrote on July 10 that the Las Vegas residential real estate market set a record for the most home and condo sales ever successfully closed -> 4702 in June alone.

Associated Press Real Estate Writer, Alan Zibel, wrote yesterday that existing home sales in the United States rose for a third consecutive month in June. The National Association of Realtors confirmed that this 3 month consecutive rise in home sales is the first to occur in 5 years. Also noteworthy yesterday is the Dow Jones finally coming back over 9000 which it had not done since November 2008.

 The Alan Zibel article reports that out of 55 major metropolitan cities in America, 40 of those experienced the 3-month consecutive home sales increase. The median homes sales price also rose to $181,800 in June which was up from $174,700 in the previous month.

Valerie Huffman, a vice president for Weichert Realtors in Montgomery County Maryland, is quoted as saying …

We’re having multiple bids on anything that’s priced well.

She adds that homes sales there are up 42.5% from last year. For more on the existing homes sales improvement, go here.

Also see: Real Estate & Domain Names Recovering

As of this writing, Asian markets are closing today and the headline on the front page of Yahoo Finance reads “Asian markets rise on improved data, earnings”. The article states …

Asian stock markets climbed Friday as economic data and company earnings reinforced confidence that a recovery from the global recession is under way.

For more on this article, go here.

Internet Domains

The domain sales list at DNJournal confirms that the recent auction of Job.US was successfully closed. The winning bid was $35,532. It was sold via the Rick Latona auction in Amsterdam that was part of the greater TRAFFIC country code domain conference which occurred last month.

For the .US domain space, it continues to only get better. I am currently closing on the sale of HomeSecurity.US which is a very high quality domain for the United States home security market. Home security is a high-interest, high-dollar industry in America with regular ads in rotation for companies such as ADT, CPI Security, Alarm Force, and Brinks.  

In regard to Job.US, jobs are obviously a hot topic of conversation these days as many individuals look to reinvent their careers. Jobs have been a mainstay of classified advertising for many years. We have seen the rise of many top job placement and career sites most of which are still going strong, and remain in heated competition with each other for member and employer dollars.

Yahoo’s Hot Jobs, CareerBuilder, Monster, The Ladders, Dice, SnagaJob, Simply Hired, USAJobs.gov, and others post availabilities all throughout the day in every state and for nearly every profession. And often for countries around the world as well.

PremiumDomains.US, my official domain portfolio site, lists many jobs domains and covers the vast majority of major American cities in the .US, .biz, and .info domain addresses. Examples include NewYorkJobs.biz, ChicagoJobs.info, and CharlotteJobs.US.

More to report in the days ahead. Thanks for stopping by.

.US Domain Names

I bought this thing. And it’s awesome. Domainers are addicted to the internet anyway. The only thing left to develop is an internet microchip embedded in our brains. Or maybe an internet feed that displays on the inside of our eyeglasses.

The Palm Pre is basically a mini computer that is a cell phone, a camera/video capture device, the internet with full self-adjusting display, a television, an ipod-like mp3 player, and other stuff I haven’t had time to explore. As a domain investor & developer, having internet access is fundamental to most everything I do on a daily basis.

The Palm Pre is ideal for reading news & blogs, viewing pics & video, and spending limited amounts of time navigating websites. I say “limited” because the experience is a little confining when compared to using a large laptop or desktop monitor.

The Palm Pre utilizes a touchscreen in conjunction with a tiny keyboard. The keyboard works very well although it takes some getting used to due to the teeny tiny size of the keys. The touchscreen is incredibly responsive and intuitive. The primary feature is the ability to instantly expand or shrink what you are viewing by simply placing your thumb and index finger on the screen … and either spreading them apart or bringing them together. This causes the video display, like magic, to zoom in or out. A truly great feature -> very useful. And exactly the right tool for viewing large graphics-heavy websites on a small device.

There is a bookmarking system that provides a visual representation of your favorite websites. It’s quite satisfying to check your own sites on the Palm, and the device functions as a good confirmation tool when checking your website’s rendering and load times. Currently, my Palm Pre does not display certain scripts which simply show up as empty sections on the website page. Don’t know if this is a limitation of the Palm Pre browser, or perhaps a display option which simply needs tweaking. Sites typically load very quickly. The color and detail on this machine are really outstanding.

The phone sound quality is excellent. One negative however is the speaker phone, which is not very loud, and could be difficult to hear in a noisy environment. All in all, the Palm Pre is very well designed and excels in a number of areas, particularly internet display. The Palm is capable of having multiple windows open simultaneously … just like your PC or Mac. While I don’t have the specifications in front of me, I am certain the device contains a powerful processor and ample memory. Check it out.

Internet Domains

I have been researching websites while developing a pair of city web portals. The city web portal (or geodomain) is a special type of internet property that can take on a wide variety of flavors. The appeal of a city portal, in theory, is obvious. It has immediate relevance to the families, individuals, organizations, and businesses in and around a particular city/community.

A city is a strong identity that most everyone there shares, enjoys, and takes pride in. You find this with states. You find this with countries. We tend to take a special interest in the events and happenings around us, and the people who share our common space.

The portals that I tend to favor are typically built on a clear, quality domain name (for obvious reasons), contain varied content that is informative and which also has visual appeal, and which is laid out in a well-organized, logical manner. These three elements together form a sound foundation on which to build & brand a community web portal.

However, achieving the right balance between these three is not an easy task. Internet users are not the same, and they have diverse needs and preferences when it comes to what they want. So a developer must first figure out what their audience likes and finds useful. If this “key” can be properly identified, then success will follow.

Having a high quality domain name is the first step. A website can obviously become popular based on content alone, but a special synergy and desirable public imprint is created when the domain and content are working hand-in-hand. Add a carefully crafted site layout that is intuitive and easy to navigate, and the odds begin to work in your favor.

Based on my web portal design experience (which I would not yet describe as broad or deep), content is indeed one of the biggest challenges. Currently, there are many exciting content applications available to developers. But choosing the right content app and/or provider takes quite a bit of trial and error. You really have to survey the field.

I have learned from experience that it is much better to take one’s time and to not hurry a web design project. Rarely do developers make a series of perfect decisions. Typically, refinements and improvements will occur over a development timeline as better options begin to surface. A multi-faceted website may need to evolve gradually. Planned growth can involve complex decisions because changing or improving one part of a website may automatically affect other interconnected parts.

Lastly, don’t be overly married to a singular idea if a better one comes along. Stay open to change. Listen to constructive criticism, and evaluate its merits. I have often found that out of 20 suggestions, 18 may not be worthwhile. But the last two of those may be really important! Sometimes you have to wade through 18 dead ends to discover one or two brilliant paths.

Once you have the three elements: good domain, good content, good website design -> then comes another big challenge! Maximizing the monetization of the geodomain web portal. There are more key decisions to be made here with one of the most obvious ones being the sale of advertising. This is a hugely important area with tremendous upside potential. But it must be done properly, and preferably by sales staff who are excellent communicators and/or with relevant ad sales experience. This is a whole other topic for another day. To be continued …

.US Domain Names

Recently I wrote about signs of life in the residential real estate market. The Las Vegas Review Journal has published a supporting article on the local market finding its legs again.

The current trends are impressive. First, a record was set for June 2009 with the highest number of single family home, condo, and townhome sales in the Las Vegas area … ever! Exactly 4702 properties in June which exceeds the previous record of 4412 set in June 2004 (per the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors).

Single family home sales were up 70% from one year ago, June 2008. This is a clear indication of local real estate having bottomed, and buyers coming into the market eager to invest. David Brownell of Keller Williams Realty in Las Vegas said “Closings are up 82.5% from a year ago“.

There is no perfect correlation between the real estate market and the domain market, but there is a correlation between economic stability and investment capital flowing back into the economy again. If Las Vegas is any indication, investors are poised and ready. Great properties are rare finds, and every investor wants to put their money into something with excellent potential for returns -> real estate, stocks, domain names, etc.

These rare finds are typically identified by astute investors who scour the internet specifically looking for a gem. A parting example of this from the Las Vegas article describes a home that went up for sale and which had received 19 separate offers within a 24 hour period. What does this tell us? Answer: Investors are out in force … and ready to deal. Interesting times.

Internet Domains