DropBox Archives – We're Fusible

Instead of buying up rivals, many startup companies these days like Twitter for example, simply wait until a third-party application becomes popular, then develop their own version.

Now this is just speculation here, but it appears based on a number of recent domain registrations by Dropbox such as Dbstatic.com, that the company may be planning to develop its own static website tool instead of buying up DropPages, a service that allows you to create static websites using your Dropbox account. DropPages was created as a side project by Dave McDermid, a developer who works for headscape as a .NET developer.

On September 21, 2011, Dropbox Inc. registered the following domain names: dbstatic.com, dbstatic.net, and dbstatic.org.

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

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

Domain Name: dbstatic.com

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

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

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

    Created on…………..: 2011-09-21.
    Expires on…………..: 2013-09-21.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-09-21.

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