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Facebook acquires the domain name Instachecker dot-com

instachecker

According to WHOIS records, Facebook is now the owner of the domain Instachecker.com.

Facebook acquired the name through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.

Considering the word “insta” in the domain, instachecker likely has something to do with Instagram, the online photo-sharing company that Facebook bought in 2012.  For now, it’s just speculation, as Instachecker may be nothing more than a defensive registration to protect its Instagram service.

Instachecker.com was first registered in late May 2012.  The previous owner used a WHOIS privacy service, so the price paid for the domain will likely never be known.

The social networking company doesn’t seem all that interested in “Instachecker” if you look purely at domain registrations, having only acquired the dot-com.  The dot-net, dot-org, and other top-level domain names are still available.

At the time of this story, instachecker.com does not resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: All Facebook

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News Technology

Facebook to launch Publishing Garage to help brands create better connections

Facebook

Facebook Publishing Garage

It may not be official just yet, but all signs point to Facebook launching Facebook Publishing Garage, “a program geared at building world-class social publishing systems that enable brands to create the most meaningful connections with their connections and their friends through News Feed stories.”

Not only did Facebook register several domain names yesterday related to “Publishing Garage”, like PublishingGarage.com (WHOIS) and FacebookPublishingGarage.com (WHOIS), but a quick internet search for “Facebook Publishing Garage” brings up the website of Addie Marino, a Creative Strategist at Facebook in New York City, whose logo design work includes this new program.

One of Marino’s pages showcases the logo design work and provides more information about the program:

Facebook Publishing Garage.
Logo Design Exploration. 2012.

Challenge. Design an identity for the newly launched Facebook Publishing Garage — a program geared at building world-class social publishing systems that enable brands to create the most meaningful connections with their connections and their friends through News Feed stories.

Solution. Products are built in factories, warehouses, and garages across the world. This logo embodies the roll-up-your-sleeves kind of work that is “built” and “shipped” during the intensive three-day publishing workshop. The graph nodes and hexagon and pay homage to existing elements used throughout Facebook’s visual system. The result, is a play on familiar tools — a wrench and socket — used to build.

Results. More stories shared.

Here’s a screen shot of the web page:

Addie Marino

In addition to PublishingGarage.com and FacebookPublishingGarage.com on December 19, 2012, the social networking company also registered the following names:

http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookpublishinggarage.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookpublishinggarage.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookpublishinggarage.co.uk
http://whois.domaintools.com/publishinggarage.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/publishinggarage.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/publishinggarage.co.uku

No trademark application has popped up on the United States Patent and Trademark Office just yet, and none of the domain names currently resolve to a web site.

As of the time of this writing, Facebook has not officially announced the program, but considering all the internet hints, it looks like the news will be coming very soon.

Talking about this story: The Next Web, TechCrunch, InsideFacebook and AllFacebook

(Image of Facebook Publishing Garage logo via Addie Marino)

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News Technology

Facebook registers ‘Facebook Live Staging’ .com, .net, and .org domains

Facebook Live Staging

In late November, Facebook revised its long-standing terms with Zynga, and in doing so, it opened up more opportunities for game developers.

Only a day after Zynga filed a document with the SEC outlining new terms in its agreement, Facebook registered a handful of domains around the term “Live Staging” like FacebookLiveStaging.com, hinting that some more things could be coming to its platform for developers.

Through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, Facebook registered the domain names FacebookLiveStaging.com (WHOIS), FacebookLiveStaging.net (WHOIS) and FacebookLiveStaging.org (WHOIS).

All three registrations took place on November 30, 2012.

At the time of this writing, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: AllFacebook

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News Technology

What’s Facebook got planned? Company registers Facebook Supplier domains

Facebook logo

Domain name registrations made this week suggest that social networking site Facebook might be planning something new.  The company registered a handful of “Facebook Supplier” domain names like FacebookSuppliers.com and FacebookSuppliers.org, hinting at a new service or product.

While Facebook has not officially announced any plans, the new service or product most likely has nothing to do with providing Facebook “Likes” to fan pages and could be a platform for Facebook developers or possibly even a B2B portal.

Right now, it’s just speculation.  It’s also possible the social networking giant decided to register the names to protect its IP.

Below is a list of the names registered by Facebook through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor.  One name is noticeably missing from the list:  FacebookSupplier.com.  The domain was first registered in 2011, not by Facebook according to Whois, and currently resolves to a parked page.

http://whois.domaintools.com/facebooksuppliers.com
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebooksuppliers.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebooksuppliers.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebooksupplier.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebooksupplier.org

At the time of this story going online, none of the domains resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: AllFacebook

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Facebook Inc. gets control of the massive typo domain name wwwFacebook.com

Facebook logo

wwwFacebook

A common typo of a web address, often happens when a person leaves out the period “.” after the “www” when typing the domain into a browser.  In fact, hundreds of disputes have been filed over these types of domains over the years, with nearly every case decided in favor of the complainant.  Now, Facebook appears to be the latest top site to get control of its www typo address.  Earlier this month, the Whois record for wwwFacebook.com changed to Facebook Inc.

Given that Facebook.com is one of the top sites on the web, you can imagine what kind of traffic the typo received.  A rough estimate (screenshot below) by Compete, puts the number of unique visitors at over 250,000 just in the month of April.

WwwFacebook estimated traffic

While many companies have been forced to file complaints to secure rights to their “WWW” typo domains, it appears Facebook acquired the domain name through the brand protection company MarkMonitor.

The domain name had once sold for over $15,000 according to DNJournal, but it’s unknown whether Facebook paid anything to the previous owner.

In 2000, Google won ownership of wwwGoogle.com and also prevailed in a dispute over wwwYouTube.com in 2007.  In 2009, TechCrunch wrote about wwwTwitter.com after the owner had re-directed the domain to TechCrunch.com for a short period of time.

According to Whois history, wwwFacebook.com had expired in late May of this year and was listed on the SnapNames marketplace.  The previous owner used Whois privacy to keep their identity a secret.

At the time of this story, wwwFacebook.com does not resolve to a web page.

Talking about this story: AllFacebook,WebProNews and Domain Name News