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Domain purchases show Myspace could be working on something called Spotly

spotly

Myspace is up to something.

The social networking site, which is owned by Specific Media and Justin Timberlake, quietly bought up domains with spotly in the name.

Up until recently, the domains spotly.net, spotly.org and spotly.us were registered to MarkMonitor’s privacy service DNStination, Inc.

Now the privacy has been removed, and Peter Wang the Senior Director of Production Operations at MySpace, is listed as the owner of each of the domains, which were first registered in the fall of 2010.

It’s possible at one time, there was a plan for the names.  Or perhaps, Myspace has abandoned its plans for Spotly following the sale of the company in 2011. 

But what’s interesting, is that it appears the names came up for renewal in October 2011, and all were renewed for three more years until 2014.

As of today, Myspace doesn’t appear to own spotly.com.  It’s currently up for sale on the domain marketplace Sedo for nearly $5,000.  Spot.ly, which was created in 2009, is owned by a resident of Santa Monica, California, according to WHOIS records.

Spotly.com was an active site in 2011 that provided an app which let users create a digital message in a bottle.  The site, which is now defunct, described the product as, “Head to where a message has been left, open Spotly and you’ll be able to open the message in a bottle. Discover the world around you by finding messages with songs, videos and more.”

Myspace is going through a re-design that even has Justin Timberlake involved, so anything is possible. 

As of today though, the company has made no announcement regarding Spotly.

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Disputes National Arbitration Forum News

Myspace Radio? Social networking service Myspace wants the domain

Justin Timberlake

It looks like the next chapter of Myspace, which is owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake, could be more of a focus on social radio, as competitors like Facebook do the same.  In September, Myxer Social Radio integrated with Facebook.  The service allows friends to listen to the same music in real time. 

It’s been a couple of years since Myspace has filed a complaint over a domain name – but it looks like the company’s legal team is dusting off their ‘domain dispute’ skills. 

This week, the social networking service filed a complaint (Case Number 1414953) over the domain Myspaceradio.com with the National Arbitration Forum.

Myspace has an excellent track record of winning domain disputes and the company should have no problem winning ownership of the domain from its current owner, who apparently tried to sell the domain on Flippa, a marketplace for buying and selling domains and websites.

While Myspace could have big plans for ‘Myspace Radio’, it’s also possible the complaint is nothing more than a defensive move as part of the company’s intellectual property strategy.

[Update 2 on December 21, 2011:  The domain name myspaceradio.com has been ordered transferred to MySpace.  The decision was published online today.]

[Update 1 on December 19, 2011:  It’s official.  MySpace has announced details of its MySpace Radio service.  The domain name still doesn’t belong to MySpace, as a decision hasn’t been handed down by the National Arbitration Forum as of yet.]

(Photo of Justin Timberlake arriving at the 2007 Golden Globes via flickr)