Categories
News

Development of Facebook’s political action committee website underway

FBPAC.org Facebook Political Action Committee

Late last month, I wrote about Facebook registering the domain names fbpac.org and fbpac.us and I was the first to speculate that the social networking giant was planning to form a political action committee.

It was a rumor that turned out to be true, as a spokesman for Facebook announced the company was starting its own political action committee called “FB PAC”.

Now this week, it appears as if development of the official FB PAC website is underway, after Facebook officially filed (Committee ID: C00502906) with the FEC on September 30. 

When you type FBPAC.org or FBPAC.us into your web browser, you are taken to a login page located at https://www.fbpac.org/pac/wp-login.php. 

Last week, neither address resolved to a web page. 

According to the 5-page FEC filing, the committee’s official domain will be: FBPAC.org.

It appears Facebook will be using WordPress as its publishing platform.

While there isn’t much to report or see at the site yet, it’s a sign that it’s being built.

Categories
News

New service for Amazon’s cloud about to be directly exposed: DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB

It looks like Amazon Web Services (AWS) will make available a feature called “DynamoDB”, a service that has already been powering parts of AWS for years, but has never been directly exposed.

While the company hasn’t made any official announcement, the company registered the domain names Amazondynamodb.com and AWSdynamodb.com on October 5, that hint the service will be offered as an AWS product.

It’s the same pattern that followed the registration of its ElastiCache domains, which I reported about on August 10.  Amazon’s CTO Werner Vogels introduced ElastiCache nearly two weeks later on August 22.

So, it’s probably safe to say, you’ll be seeing Amazon DynamoDB alongside Amazon SimpleDB on the AWS products and services page fairly soon.

The domains were both registered by Amazon’s legal department through MarkMonitor.

Here’s a look at the Whois record for AmazonDynamoDB.com.

Registrant:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US

    Domain Name: amazondynamodb.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com

    Administrative Contact:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US
        
    Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US

    Created on…………..: 2011-10-05.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-10-05.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-10-05.

What is Dynamo?

According to Werner Vogels on All Things Distributed back in 2007: “Dynamo is internal technology developed at Amazon to address the need for an incrementally scalable, highly-available key-value storage system.”

[Update 1 on January 18, 2012:  Amazon has launched DynamoDB.  As Barb Darrow writes for GigaOM, “Amazon Web Services is adding a home-grown NoSQL database to its ever-expanding roster of cloud computing offerings. DynamoDB is what Amazon CTO Werner Vogels called a “fully managed” NoSQL implementation the company built and tested over the years.”]

(Photo of opening slide from 2008 Keynote at MySQL Conference by Werner Vogels via All Things Distributed)

Categories
News

Amazon domain registrations hint at Kindle Fire 3G becoming reality

Kindle Fire 3g

When it comes to the Kindle Fire offering more than just Wi-Fi, it’s really not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

Last week, I wrote about Amazon registering over 500 Kindle Fire and Silk related domain names, including 3gKindleFire.com.

This week, Amazon’s legal department has registered another 3g domain name: AmazonKindleFire3g.com.

Here’s a look at the Whois record.

Registrant:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US

    Domain Name: amazonkindlefire3g.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com

    Administrative Contact:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US         

    Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
        Hostmaster, Amazon Legal Dept.
        Amazon Technologies, Inc.
        P.O. Box 8102
         Reno NV 89507
        US

    Created on…………..: 2011-10-04.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-10-04.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-10-04.

Amazon also registered Amazon-Sign.info.

Categories
News Video Games

It Girl, Top Girl: Crowdstar now working on another game called “Social Girl”

Social Girl by Crowdstar

Social game developer Crowdstar Inc. has been a busy little bee over at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Earlier this week, I reported Crowdstar quietly launched Zombie Universe for iOS in Canada and filed trademarks for “Wildlife Safari” and “Zombie Universe by Crowdstar Network”.

They have now filed a trademark for “Social Girl” (Serial No. 85434592) on September 28, 2011, which looks to be another game targeted to females.

Crowdstar has had a lot of success with its “Girl” games. It has already released two: It Girl and Top Girl. 

In late June, Top Girl passed 1 million downloads within 10 days of being launched.

The Social Girl filing covers the following goods and services:

“Downloadable computer game software for use on wireless devices and computers; computer-game software, video game software, and computer game application software; interactive-video-game programs; electronic game software and electronic game application software that may be accessed via the Internet, computers and wireless devices; computer software to enable uploading, posting, showing, displaying, tagging, blogging, sharing or otherwise providing electronic media or information regarding the fields of virtual communities, electronic gaming, entertainment and general interest via the Internet or other communications networks with third parties”

Categories
News Technology

Motorola continues buying up Motorola RAZR domains, amid Droid RAZR rumors

Motorola Droid Razr

Earlier this week I reported that Motorola had finally acquired the domain name MotorolaRAZR.com, seven years after the device’s launch.

Amid rumors that Motorola is planning to combine two of its most recognizable brands into a new device called the Droid RAZR, the company continues to buy up related domain names.

This week the company purchased Motorola RAZR domain names, such as razrmoto.com, through Corporation Service Company (a brand protection service).

Here’s a look at the registrations.

http://whois.domaintools.com/motorazr.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/motorolarazr.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razermoto.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razermotorola.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razormoto.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razrmoto.com 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razrmoto.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razrmotorola.net 
http://whois.domaintools.com/razrphone.net 

As I’ve mentioned in the past, although the registrant is CSC, Motorola uses the brand protection service to purchase domains for its released and as-yet-released devices like the Accusense, the Energia, and the Kore.

Discussion: GottaBeMobile, Droid Life, Android Community, Ubergizmo, Phandroid and TechCrunch