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Top 10 Stories of 2011: #5 Salesforce revealed as $2.6MM social.com buyer

Marc Benioff

The biggest domain sale of 2011, with a price tag of $2.6 million, was social.com. 

The domain sold in June and was co-brokered by Marksmen’s Cyntia King and Moniker.com’s John Mauriello.

As to who purchased the domain name remained a mystery, that is until I broke the story that the buyer was none other than Salesforce.com, the enterprise software company that has paid millions of dollars for domains such as database.com and data.com.

Number five in the Top 10 stories of 2011 here on Fusible, with nearly two hundred tweets, was revealing Salesforce.com as the buyer of social.com in September.  

The story also exposed a flaw within Network Solutions’ password retrieval system, which has yet to be fixed.

Though some doubted whether Salesforce.com was the buyer after my story ran, Marc Benioff confirmed publicly at Salesforce.com’s Cloudforce New York in late November that he did buy social.com, saying “We don’t have a product for it yet – it’s just a placeholder.”

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Disputes News WIPO

eCommerce giant markafoni first company to file .XXX domain dispute

markafoni

The Turkish private shopping club markafoni has become the first company to file a .XXX domain dispute with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain markafoni.xxx.  According to WIPO, the case commenced on December 29.

WIPO Case Number (D2011-2298) was filed by VIPINDIRIM, the company behind markafoni, which was featured last July in TechCrunch, after the company was valued around $200 million following 70 percent of its shares being acquired by Naspers.

According to WHOIS records, the domain <markafoni.xxx> was registered on December 6, by Yasin Kaplan who resides in Istanbul.

December 6 marked the first day of general availability of .XXX domains.  

Per the ICM Registry, “General Availability is when members of the adult Sponsored Community get regular, resolving names on a first come, first served basis. Non-members of the adult Sponsored Community can also get “Non-Resolving” names.”

Although the ICM Registry has gone to unprecedented lengths to put an end to cybersquatting by suspending abusive registrations such as BusinessWeek.xxx, there will be other names that fall into a gray area that will get sorted out at arbitration.

As of today, only one other .XXX domain case has been filed under the UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) — Case number 1421851 commenced on December 30, with the National Arbitration Forum over the domain name heb.xxx.

Discussion: NamePros

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News

Top 10 Stories of 2011: #6 Speculating on the next Kindle to be released by Amazon

Kindle

When Amazon began slashing prices on its refurbished Kindle 3 models, tech sites began speculating that Amazon would release a new Kindle.  That’s when I started paying more attention to Kindle related domain names, as I quickly found out readers eat this type of news up.

My first big story days after speculation started in August, was Amazon acquiring KindleAir.com via MarkMonitor after the domain name had expired.  Engadget, PC Magazine and other tech sites ran with the story as well.

But it wasn’t this story that made the Top 10 in 2011…

The number six story in the Top 10 Stories of 2011 here on Fusible was predicting that Amazon’s next Kindle would be named after one of the elements.  And my prediction was right, as Amazon finally settled on the element of fire with its Kindle Fire. 

Unlike other stories, this one took a little more sleuthing.

As I wrote back then, KindleAir.com was the first hint, but I discovered that Amazon had also secretly acquired the domain names KindleEarth.com KindleWater.com on July 6, 2011.  Both were registered at Go Daddy and hidden behind its privacy service Domains by Proxy, but it was simple to reveal Amazon as the owner by using Go Daddy’s public Account Retrieval System, which in June finally addressed other privacy issues with the tool.

While I had correctly guessed the next Kindle would be named after an element, I hadn’t included “Fire” in the list.  Though I considered including it, Amazon hadn’t owned Kindle Fire just yet. 

Many of my top stories over the past six months dealt with what Amazon’s next Kindle might be, but most never panned out.   Names like the Kindle Ice and the Kindle Scribe, which even caught the attention of Time and other publications, have yet to materialize.   

Other stories that grabbed attention included Amazon possibly spinning off its Kindle line into a separate company called Seesaw (which went on to get a Techmeme headline) and even Amazon’s massive buying spree of 500 Kindle and Silk related domains, which hinted that a 3G Kindle Fire would be launched. 

(Image of Kindle Fire and Kindle DX Graphite via Amazon.com)

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News

Top 10 Stories of 2011: #7 How to get a Twitter username that is already taken

Twitter

More people have been warming to Twitter over the past year, but when they go to sign up for an account, they often find the Twitter username they want (much like a domain name) is already taken. 

The number seven story in this year’s Top 10 is How to get a Twitter username, that’s already taken, a story I wrote in June after successfully obtaining @Fusible, a username that was registered by someone else, but never used. 

Many Twitter stories published here have garnered plenty of attention by sites like TechCrunch, such as Twitter winning a dispute for the typo Twiter.com (missing a ‘t’) and Twitter going after Twittter.com (extra ‘t’). 

But the story of how to get a Twitter username to this day still attracts readers, even months after being written.   

Just a couple weeks ago, Jon Mitchell a writer for the popular tech news site ReadWriteWeb, published an article using the steps detailed in my post, and he was able to get the Twitter handle he wanted.  “Thanks to J.B. at Fusible for showing me how this works. I can’t believe it, but it really does!”, wrote Jon.

It’s not a silver bullet, but submitting an Impersonation Claim with Twitter, gives you a much better chance of getting a response, than simply opening a Help ticket with the microblogging site.

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News

Google apparently registers Googan domains, slang for lowlife webmaster

Googleplex

If you’re not familiar with the term Googan, according to Urban Dictionary, “Googan” can be used to describe a lowlife webmaster who “posts ads and web pages typically with no meaningful content, no regard for adwords copywriting, or consideration for other people, especially those who click on promising-looking links.”

Now it appears Google has plans to market Googan “the lowlife webmaster” in the very near future, according to several new domain registrations that include names like Googan.net (WHOIS), BewareofGoogan.com, DonthireGoogan.com, and GooganInterviews.com.

All of the Googan names were privately registered through MarkMonitor, a company Google uses to help manage its domain portfolio. 

As is the case with domains privately registered using DNStination Inc, MarkMonitor’s privacy service, it’s safe to say the company behind the names is Google, since MarkMonitor is in the business of internet brand protection for over half the Fortune 100 companies.

Google registered the Googan names, as well as others, on December 29.

None of the domains resolve to a web site at the time of this story going online, and Google has offered no details on Googan as of yet.  But if I had to guess, I’d say Googan will be used in an online marketing campaign, similar to the company’s use of the domain EmailIntervention.com. 

Here’s a look at all the domains apparently registered by Google on December 29.  Also in the list are lighting domains like Googlightingstranger.com, which may have something to do with its Android-controlled light bulb, that goes on sale in early 2012.

bewareofgoogan.com
bewareofgoogan.net
donthiregoogan.com
donthiregoogan.net
gapsingoogle.com
gapsingoogle.net
glightingstranger.com
glightingstranger.net
googan.net
googanapperson.com
googanapperson.net
googanapprehension.com
googanapprehension.net
googaninterviews.com
googaninterviews.net
googanlighting.com
googanlighting.net
googlelighting.net
googlightingstranger.com
googlightingstranger.net
thegooganinterviews.com
thegooganinterviews.net
whatsinitforgoogle.com
whatsinitforgoogle.net

Discussion: Marketing Land

(Image of Googleplex welcoming sign via Ardo191)