Seven Mile

Which tld should bite the dust?

http://www.domainersgazette.com/the-dot-what-tld-deathmatch/ 

***FS*** Domainer’s Gazette runs a refreshing poll ..  Should serve as excellent guidance to newbies.

Parking Transparency 

Whizzbang sets out a roadmap for Standards and Transparency for parking companies.

***FS*** I think true transparency is a pipedream absent some kind of leverage on the upstreams.  Nothing begets nothing tho,  so kudos to MG for writing.http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/333/1/

Elliot Silver interviews Jeremy Padawer.

***FS*** Jeremy is a legacy domainer I remember Chernoff mentioning the guy in the “way early” days ..  today Padawer has a very full time job in the toy industry, and also is quite serious about domain names. He’s been investing in geo names over the last six months. memphis.org, scottsdale.org, rye.com, abilene.org, tempe.org, and others. Josh says: Jeremy is sometimes very funny and outrageous. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/03/5-with-jeremy-padawer/

Madison Avenue’s Fear Of Domain Names.

By Stephen Douglas. “The truth of it is that Madison Avenue doesn’t want domains to compete with their abilities as an ad agency and undercut their client’s ad budget. pure and simple.” http://www.successclick.com/madison-avenues-fear-of-domain-names_2007_12_02/

***FS***  I personally think it’s less fear and more ambivalence or lack of understanding..  Most individual names get very little upfront traffic.  We live in an immediate gratification society.. One name 100 visits a day, nothing to get excited about ..  One name plus 12 months building to 10,000 visits a day..  that’s exciting, but it’s also uncertain and far off. Hence,  nothing to get fired-up about on Madison Ave.

Why some early stage startups fail.

***FS***  Valuable lessons here .. Written by someone at UnionSquareVentures.com. Excerpt: “”So it’s pretty clear to me that most venture backed investments don’t fail because the business plan was flawed. In my experience at least 2/3 of all business plans we back are flawed. Most venture backed investments fail because the venture capital is used to scale the business before the correct business plan is discovered. That scale/burn rate becomes the cancer that kills the business…. Regardless of whether you have taken venture capital or not, capital efficiency and bootstrapping are critical values. You must keep your burn rate low until you can show without a shadow of a doubt that you have a business model that works, can be operated profitably and is ready to be scaled. Then and only then should you step on the gas.”" http://www.unionsquareventures.com/2007/11/why_early_stage.html 

.NL Dutch Sedo Auction results.

Prices in Euros:
veiling.nl   ? 46.000
gezondheidszorg.nl   ? 16.500
luik.be   ? 3.500
kerstdagen.nl ? 3.250
hotelgids.nl ? 2.250
(not sure what currency that symbol is.) http://www.domainnews.com/aftermarket/2007120100/sedo-dutch-domain-auction-first-results/

Typo patrol

Someone is doing some pretty comprehensive research in the typo realm. http://www.domaindetectives.net/

Geo Leverage

Stu Maloff uses Geo targetted domains to help build his basketball camp business.  e.g. NewYorkBasketball.com http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2007/dailyposts/12-01-07.htm 

Sport.biz goes for $14,000.

http://insidedomaining.blogspot.com/2007/12/sportbiz-trades-for-10000-euro.html  Josh says: In my opinion, the value of certain strong or very strong single keyword domain names in some of the less popular extensions will continue to rise in value in the long run. One of the obvious reasons is that these kinds of words in .com are simply entirely out of reach for the vast majority of domain investors and people planning to build websites. Some will say that one should go for a two word .com with Sport or Sports in it.  Makes sense.  Some will say that the one word major keyword in a less popular extension is more important to their branding approach.  Makes sense. Personally, i’m not a fan of the way .biz looks or the meaning it has.  Sports.biz would have been much stronger than Sport.biz.The new owner of this domain should also get SportBiz.com, if they haven’t already.

***FS***  I much prefer names like these..  sportsworld.com sportsweb.com ..  certain think names plus ‘world’, ‘web’, ‘net’, ‘biz’ have a generic value and resonance simply because they make sense as generics but have a brandable quality about them. Would rather own those as a .com than own a further afield ext.

Microsoft buys Webfives:

Excerpt: “”The move comes just days after Microsoft took part in a panel discussion on the types of companies it would look to acquire. Managing Director Mark Wolfram had indicated that the Entertainment and Devices area might be ripe for an acquisition.”" http://www.news.com/beyond-binary/8301-13860_3-9827802-56.html?tag=nefd.top

QR Codes. (Quick Response)

QR codes were originally developed by Tokyo-based Denso Wave Inc. and are common in Japan. When published in print form - on billboards, transit ads, vehicles or other media - consumers can then take pictures of the images and have them converted to links, phone numbers or other advertising messages. “The basic function is to eliminate typing and allow you to take a code off paper media and any media that’s printable and transfer it to an electronic form,” said Greg Hayden, chief technology officer for Toronto-based Luna, which is in talks with Canadian carriers - which it will not name - in hopes of making the technology available to Canadian businesses. http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/Departmental-and-End-User-Computing/de822e9f-d9c7-49d1-97d2-be7f4d946767.html If i understand this correctly, one could use a symbol or image for one’s domain name, and this could be converted into the actual URL, when a cell phone or PDA user takes a photo of it.  If true, some very interesting possibilities could transpire around this!  This is whatcha call a good idea.

Six Apart sells Live Journal to Sup, a Russian media company.

Be careful how you treat your content contributers. http://valleywag.com/tech/livejournal/six-apart-exiles-its-troublesome-child-to-russia-329031.php

WIPO coming to Canada?

*** From October 17, 2007
http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007113022/the-wipo-is-coming-to-canada/#more-1828
http://www.slyck.com/story1601_Canada_to_Strengthen_Intellectual_Property_Throne_Speech

***FS***  .ca registrants take warning.. WIPO proceedings in general favor the complainant. In no other business do you loose the rights to your property for running afoul of a civil reglation..  it’s par for the course in the domain biz…  for now. 

Sahar gets it on with cars.

http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/01/weekend-getway-with-south-florida-toys/

***FS***  Nice to see you enjoying life bro..  It’s short

Tia Gives Some Tips/Tools

http://www.tiawood.com/news/internet-news/free-411-and-other-handy-google-experiments-for-doma.html

***FS***  Some neat tools and assorted domaining good-stuff  ..  Thanks Tia!~