Tag: Facebook domains

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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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News Technology

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

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News

Facebook registers Studio Edge domains on the same day of Camera App launch

Facebook Studio Edge

Facebook Studio Edge

Facebook just introduced Camera, a new mobile app that makes using Facebook photos faster and easier.  And on the very same day of the announcement, it appears Facebook privately registered Facebook Studio Edge domain names like FacebookStudioEdge.com.

On May 24, 2012, the dotcom, dotnet and dotorg versions of the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, of which Facebook is a client.

http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookstudioedge.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookstudioedge.net
http://whois.domaintools.com/facebookstudioedge.com

The owner is hidden behind MarkMonitor’s privacy service DNStination, so there is a slight chance Facebook isn’t behind the names.  But considering MarkMonitor’s trackrecord with Facebook, it is unlikely anyone else.

At the time of this story’s posting, none of the domains resolve to a web page and Facebook has made no official announcement about Facebook Studio Edge.

Last year, Facebook launched a stand-alone website called Facebook Studio (facebook-studio.com), a platform aimed at agencies, PR firms and media strategy companies.

Update:  Robin Wauters has done a little digging and discovered Facebook Studio Edge is nothing more a than day long course in best-practice marketing on Facebook.

Talking about this story: The Next Web, Marketing Land and All Facebook

(Image of camera app via fb.com)

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News

Facebook takes control of FaceSounds dot-com, dot-info domain names

facesounds.com whois

Facebook Inc. has taken control of FaceSounds.com, which at one time offered a free search toolbar add-on to users wanting to change their Facebook chat sounds. 

A quick search on the internet turned up many unhappy users who said FaceSounds spammed their friends.

Previously owned by a resident of Tel Aviv, the Whois information for FaceSounds.com and FaceSounds.info was updated this week and now reflects Facebook, Inc. as the owner of both domains.

It’s unknown how Facebook went about acquiring the names or whether the company has any plans, but at the time of this story, neither domain resolves to a web page. 

My guess is that this is nothing more than Facebook protecting its IP rights.

Discussion: AllFacebook

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News

Facebook registers ‘newsroom’ domains, is a social news website on the way?

Facebook Newsroom Whois

Facebook Newsroom Whois

Facebook has had a busy week with domain names.

On January 18, the company registered a slew of domains with “FB Origin” in the name.  It followed up those purchases with “timeline movie maker” domains. 

Facebook hasn’t officially been confirmed as the buyer of the timeline domains since the registrant is hidden behind Whois privacy, but the names were registered through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor and the web addresses re-direct users to the Facebook Timeline page.

Now the social networking giant has bought up “Facebook Newsroom” names like facebook-newsroom.com.

Altogether, the company registered three domains: facebook-newsroom.com (Whois), facebook-newsroom.net (Whois), and facebook-newsroom.org (Whois).

It’s unknown what Facebook will do with its latest domains, but if it has anything to do with the word newsroom, maybe the plan is to launch a social news website where users submit content, similar to Reddit.

In case you’re wondering, facebooknewsroom.com (missing the hyphen) was registered by a resident of Kansas in 2011.

[Update 1 on January 23, 2012 at 3:53pm EST:  Turns out these domain registrations aren’t all that exciting.  I just received an e-mail from The OutCast Agency (one of Facebook’s PR teams) who say, “The domains you reference are part of an upgrade to Facebook’s press room, not part of a new product.”] 

Discussion: Mediagazer, Fast Company, Journalism.org, 10,000 Words, All Facebook, NBC Bay Area, Marketing Land, Index, @ckanal, Simply Zesty, mediabistro.com, @PRNewswire, @cschweitz, brandchannel.com, and The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum