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News

Salesforce to launch yet to be revealed Do.com, get things done with anyone

Do.com by Salesforce

Salesforce.com has been announcing a number of new products recently, but one product that it hasn’t publicly announced as of yet, is a productivity app called “do” which can be found on the website Do.com.

The slogan on the homepage reads: “The app to get things done with anyone”

The Coming Soon page went live today. 

I discovered the site earlier this evening, after noticing that the domain name transferred from the marksmen.com server to its current server awsdns-52.com on August 26, but for the past several days no website was online.

In July I stumbled upon socl.com a secret Microsoft project while monitoring Marksmen’s name servers.  Marksmen brokered the sale of socl.com and also co-brokered the sale of social.com for $2.6 million to a mystery client. 

The mystery buyer behind social.com has yet to be revealed, but you can officially add Salesforce.com to the bunch.  Social.com is the largest publicly reported domain sale so far in 2011.

Dreamforce, the cloud computing conference held by Salesforce.com is currently being held in San Francisco until September 2.

Categories
News

Is Dropbox integrating with Google Docs? DropboxDocs.com registered

Dropbox

It looks like Dropbox the file hosting service that has been valued by some at $5 billion may finally be officially integrating with Google Docs.

The company went on a domain buying spree this week, purchasing the domain names DropboxDocs.com, DropboxDocs.net, and DropboxDocs.org through the registrar MarkMonitor.

There are services that help you sync your files between Google Docs and Dropbox like Cloudhq, but easily creating and collaborating on Google Docs from within Dropbox is missing.

It’s been rumored that Dropbox is raising additional capital, which may be used to launch a marketing campaign in addition to new features as it competes with companies like Box.net, who joined forces with Google Docs back in June.

While the “DropboxDocs” domains clearly show Dropbox Inc. as the owner, additional domain names hinting at an online marketing campaign were also registered at the same time using MarkMonitor’s privacy service DNStination.  As a result, the owner behind the domains is unknown, but considering the timing, there’s a good chance they too belong to Dropbox.  The names centered around the phrase “Files are Dead”, which followed recent articles in the news suggesting the Dropbox use case may not survive the cloud

The names included:

http://whois.domaintools.com/arefilesdead.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/arefilesdead.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/filesaredead.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/filesaredead.net

Here’s a look at the Whois record for Dropboxdocs.com, which was registered on August 29.

Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        Dropbox, Inc.
        760 Market St Suite #1150
         San Francisco CA 94102
        US

    Domain Name: dropboxdocs.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http:// www. markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-29.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-08-29.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-30.

At the time of this story, neither dropboxdocs.com nor filesaredead.com resolve to a web page.

Discussion: Techie Buzz

Categories
News Video Games

Activision registers CallofDuty.com in simplified Chinese, China version closer

Call of Duty Blackops

Earlier in the year Activision announced it would be launching a new online Call of Duty game as a free-to-play game in China.

This week Activision registered CallofDuty.com and CallofDuty.net using simplified Chinese characters — 使命召唤.com and 使命召唤.net.

While nothing concrete has been announced by the company and very little information has been given out, the registrations could be signs of a possible launch in the near future.

Here are the punycode versions of the domain registrations (使命召唤.com) and (使命召唤.net).

Registrant:
        Mary Tuck
        Activision Publishing, Inc
        3100 Ocean Park Blvd.
         Santa Monica CA 90405
        US

    Domain Name: xn--2rqt1iomsv.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http://www. markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-25.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-08-25.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-26.

Registrant:
        Mary Tuck
        Activision Publishing, Inc
        3100 Ocean Park Blvd.
         Santa Monica CA 90405
        US

    Domain Name: xn--2rqt1iomsv.net

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http:// www. markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-25.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-08-25.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-26.

Discussion: IDN Forums

Categories
News Video Games

ModernWarfare4.com domain no longer hostage to ZiiP community [Updated]

Modern Warfare 4

The domain name ModernWarfare4.com which grabbed headlines in 2009 seems to have a new home. 

The story of ModernWarfare4.com started years ago with a threat to hurt a clown if the game development studio behind Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, didn’t play ball with the ransom demands of the owner of ModernWarfare4.com — a domain name owned by James Galland (aka Jester) of the ZiiP gaming community. 

It ended, with the website (pictured here) featuring the clown and a poll on what to do with the domain finally being taken down earlier this month.

As of August 6, 2011, the web address ModernWarfare4.com is no longer registered to James Galland, and now is hidden behind Whois Privacy Protection Services at ENOM. 

Here’s a look at the Whois record:

Domain name: modernwarfare4.com

Registrant Contact:
   Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
   Whois Agent ()
  
   Fax:
   PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St – F1
   C/O modernwarfare4.com
   Bellevue, WA 98007
   US

Administrative Contact:
   Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
   Whois Agent ()
   PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St – F1
   C/O modernwarfare4.com
   Bellevue, WA 98007
   US

Just because the registrant information changed, doesn’t mean the owner changed since the domain is behind Whois privacy.

However, it’s entirely possible that James Galland got spooked by the saga of ModernWarfare3.com.  Activision has a dispute filed with the National Arbitration Forum seeking ownership of the domain ModernWarfare3.com.

It’s also possible Activision acquired the domain by offering money.

I’ve reached out to James to learn more, and will update the story if I hear back.

Updated August 27, 2011:  I received a response from James who still owns the domain name.  The website has been updated since this story was published.  James wrote:

Hi there JB.

Oh my god.. shhh… don’t tell anyone. I went to feed the clown the other night – and I might (I stress might) have left the door unlocked. I came back in the morning and he had gone. All that was left was a note saying “Screw you guys, I’ve had it being a clown – I’ve gone to re-train as a plumber”. I guess the promotion prospects of being a tortured-clown prisoner aren’t enough for some people. Sheesh. His name was Mario though.. go figure.

On a slightly more serious note…

I can happily report that we still own the domain. We have no real interest in profiting from it – was all the clown’s idea.  We’re not freaked out at all by the MW3 site saga as there are worst things happening in the world. Actually: Thanks for highlighting the site being down.. I was playing around with my webserver and must have hit the “turn off joke sites” button by accident.

As for the WHOIS thingy changing, that was ment to be done when I purchased the domain – but someone forgot to turn it on. Not really fussed, but I don’t like paying for something and then not getting it : )

Happy Days,

James

**

Categories
News Trademarks

Google files ‘Spot’ trademark, registers domains for programming [UPDATED]

Google

Updated November 30, 2011 at 5:39am EST:  Google has now apparently acquired the domain name GoogleSpot.com through MarkMonitor.  According to WHOIS records, the name switched hands on November 28.  While MarkMonitor is listed as the registrant, Google regularly uses the brand protection service to secure domains.

**

Looks like Google may have some sort of plan for its own programming language called ‘Spot’.

The search engine giant has filed a trademark application for ‘Spot’ according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

The filing (Serial Number: 85403946) took place on August 22, 2011 and covers computer programs and downloadable computer programs that implement an object-oriented computer programming language.

At the same time Google was filing the trademark, it registered several domain names.

The registrations include domains such as spotlang.com, spotlanguage.net, spot-lang.com, and spot-lang.net.

Registrant:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US

         Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
        Registrar Homepage: http://www. markmonitor.com

    Created on…………..: 2011-08-22.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-08-22.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-08-23.

Discussion: Engadget, Y Combinator, 9to5Google and Meneame