Month: April 2011

Categories
News

Google to offer free WiFi everywhere? WaziWiFi.com registered [UPDATED]

Google WiFi hotspots

I’ve been wrong before about the reasons behind domain name registrations by large corporations, as seen with my story on Amazon Android Tablets published over a week ago.  Yet, that story still got press coverage from CNNMoney, The Next Web, and Business Insider, despite my initial thoughts on the domain registrations being wrong.

Here’s another rumor for you that’s just in. 

Google is planning to offer “free” WiFi Hot Spots everywhere.  Or at least the company is planning to expand beyond Mountain View, California, where it currently offers coverage.  The Mountain View WiFi network started being offered in 2006.

Earlier this week, Google registered the domain name, waziwifi.com (Whois Record). 

While the term “wazi” isn’t something you’ll find in the English dictionary, in Swahili “wazi” means “open”. 

News of Google’s Ultra high-speed broadband in Kansas City, Kansas, was announced late last month on the Offiicial Google Blog, but according to Google’s FAQ page for its Google Fiber for Communities, as far as a wireless component being offered, Google had to say this: “Our focus is on developing a fiber-to-the-home network and we have no plans to include a wireless component at this stage. In general, we think wireless and wireline services are complementary, because wireless networks offer a nice degree of flexibility, while wireline networks can currently reach greater speeds.”

Will ultra high-speed WiFi hot spots hosted by Google be making there way across the United States?  Who knows, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the registrant record. 

Registrant:
        DNS Admin
        Google Inc.
        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
         Mountain View CA 94043
        US
         +1.6502530000 Fax: +1.6502530001

    Domain Name: waziwifi.com

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

Created on…………..: 2011-04-06.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-04-05.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-04-06.

[Updated on August 30, 2011:.Google launches Wi-Fi in Nairobi.]

Categories
News

Twitter’s t.co domain licensed under the .CO Founders program, officially granted to Twitter (early)

Twitter link service t.co

Last June, Twitter joined the .CO Founders Program with the single letter domain t.co, and the popular microblogging website  used t.co over the past year as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity.   

This week, Twitter was officially granted the domain name t.co from the .CO registry (according to Whois records), in what appears to be an early move by the .CO registry permitting Twitter to register the domain name with their own registrar.

According to the original fine print of the .CO Founders Program, each domain licensed would be granted to the applicant after the applicant met all terms and conditions of the agreement after a minimum of 2 years (or sometimes longer for domains considered “Super Premium” by .CO Internet).  However, in the case of t.co, Twitter has been granted the name much sooner.

You better believe Twitter got a bargain.

Companies like Overstock.com opted to purchase .CO domains.  Overstock paid $350,000 for the single letter domain, o.co.

Other companies like GoDaddy, which was licensed x.co under the .CO Founders program have not been granted the domain as of yet.

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Toys “R” Us, which acquired the internet domain Toys.com in 2009, files dispute for nearly two dozen domain names

Geoffrey the Giraffe

Geoffrey, LLC, the company that owns and operates Toys”R”Us has filed a domain dispute over nearly two dozen domain names with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization. 

The disputed domains, which use the “R” Us mark at the end of the web address, cover a wide variety of products and services ranging from insurance, to attorneys, even to tattoos.  

Geoffrey LLC has won disputes in the past over domain names that clearly involved cybersquatting.  Names such as: wwwtoysrus.com, wwwtoyrus.com, babyrus.com, and babysrus.com.  However, the company hasn’t been so lucky when the domain names being disputed, weren’t outright abusive registrations. 

In 2006, the company lost a dispute at WIPO over pensareus.com and pensrus.com, after the panel found that the dispute was more appropriate for the courts rather than UDRP, which it stated is intended for the narrow class of cases involving cybersquatters.

The domain names named in the latest dispute include:

bestcreditcardsrus.info
carinsurancequoterus.info
cheaptermlifeinsuranceratesrus.info
childrensbedroomfurniturerus.com
dentalinsuranceplansrus.com
desklampsrus.com
digitalproductsrus.com
edmontonlawyerrus.info
floridainjurylawyerrus.info
freeonlinegamesrus.com
healthinsurancerus.info
homebusinessopportunityrus.com
injuryattorneyrus.info
insurancerus.info
makingmoneyonlinerus.com
personalinjurylawyersrus.com
stringtrimmersrus.com
tattoosrus.info
therusgroup.com
watchbandsrus.com
wholelifeinsurancerus.info

Toys “R” Us and domain names

Toys “R” Us made internet headlines when it purchased the domain name toys.com for $5.1 Million at auction in 2009, beating out National A-1 in a competitive auction that went back and forth for hours, according to TechCrunch.

The purchase of toys.com, secured the domain name a spot in the top 10 domain sales of all time according to Domaining.com, which keeps track of the Top 500 sales in history.

Today, toys.com is a separate website from the Toys “R” Us site and is used to post a wide range of unadvertised and exclusive deals, not found anywhere on the Toys “R” Us network of internet properties.

According to news sources, Toys “R” Us is planning to go public sometime later this year.

Categories
News Trademarks Video Games

Zynga files for trademark on Farmville English Countryside: Guess who owns the domain? … and it’s not Zynga

Farmville English Countryside

Last month, I wrote about how Zynga filed for the European trademark on the word “ville”, which sparked a series of news stories and blog posts over the controversial nature of the application by the gaming company.  Writers from around the web ranging from CNET to Business Insider weighed in on the topic.

Well, now Zynga has filed another trademark this week over its latest launch: English Countryside, an expansion to one of its top games, Farmville.

farmville english countryside trademark application

What about the domain names?

While it looks as if someone is cybersquatting on the URL farmvilleenglishcountryside.com (registered in late February according to Whois), the generic (and non-controversial) version of the name, englishcountryside.com, also isn’t owned by Zynga.  It’s owned by none other than Mike Berkens, the Editor of the blog The Domains who happens to own some of the top generic domains in the world.

Over the last year, Zynga has acquired a number of domain names on the aftermarket prior to launching its properties publicly, like Cityville.com for $38,225 and Rewardville.com for $4,500.  But in the case of “English Countryside”, a term that refers to the hundreds of cottages and rolling hills around England, looks like Zygna opted to stick with Farmville.com — a name it acquired from another famous domain investor: Frank Schilling of domainnamesales.com.

Categories
News

Reinvent launching new social media venture: Beat.com – the pulse of the world

Beat.com

Reinvent may be shutting down operations of its group buying website GoodNews.com as reported by Domain Name News, but that hasn’t slowed Reinvent’s entrepreneurial bug.

The company founded in 2000 by Dr. Kevin Ham is launching a new online social venture called Beat on the dot com domain: Beat.com. 

The concept is simple: Publish your thoughts on a topic like Lady Gaga or Religion.  Or see what other people think.

Reinvent appears to have soft-launched the site last week.

You can find Beat on Twitter and Facebook.