Tag: MarkMonitor

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News Video Games

Nearly 15 years after first release, Blizzard has acquired StarCraft.com [UPDATED]

StarCraft

For years, the website StarCraft.com has flip-flopped between being home to a Starcraft Marine boat site and an online RV Buyer’s Guide.  It has never hosted information for Blizzard’s real-time strategy game StarCraft.

The official StarCraft website can be found on Blizzard.com, but that could be about to change.

According to Whois, the domain name StarCraft.com no longer belongs to its previous owners.  The name is now registered to DNStination, Inc., a privacy service of the global internet brand-protection company MarkMonitor, of which Blizzard Entertainment is a client.

Names like WarCraft.fr and Blizzard.fr are just two examples of many names owned by Blizzard Entertainment and registered through MarkMonitor.

At this point, it’s unknown if Blizzard paid money for the name or whether the company threatened legal action.  Given there is no record of a complaint being filed over StarCraft.com, Blizzard likely paid a pretty price for securing rights to the domain name.

For now, it’s only speculation that Blizzard acquired the name, but don’t be surprised to see the name being used by Blizzard very soon.

The sequel StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released in 2010.  An expansion pack StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is expected to be released in 2012, although no official date has been announced.

I’ve reached out to StarCraft.com’s previous owners via e-mail to inquire about the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

[UPDATE 2 June 27, 2012:. It’s official: Blizzard is the owner of StarCraft.com and StarCraft.net.  The Whois records here and here now show Blizzard Entertainment as the registrant.]

[UPDATE 1 June 25, 2012:. StarCraft.net was also acquired from the same owner, according to Whois.]

Talking about this story: VG247, Lazygamer, MeriStation and Videogamer.com

(Image of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty via Blizzard.com)

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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

Categories
News Technology Video Games

Microsoft registers “Xbox Smart Glass” domains amid E3 rumors [UPDATED]

Xbox Smart Glass

UPDATE 2: Microsoft has unveiled Xbox SmartGlass.  Engadget writes, “SmartGlass brings Airplay-style wireless technology to Xbox and Windows 8 by letting you send video from your tablet or phone to your TV.  It then turns that second screen into an information window giving you data of the content you’re watching.”

UPDATE 1:  Microsoft also registered microsoftsmartglass.at, microsoftsmartglass.ch, microsoftsmartglass.mx, microsoftsmartglass.in, microsoftsmartglass.pl, microsoftsmartglass.tw, smartglass.ch, smartglass.tw, xboxsmartglass.at, xboxsmartglass.in, xboxsmartglass.jp, xboxsmartglass.mx, xboxsmartglass.pl, and xboxsmartglass.tw.

ORIGINAL STORY: According to the Examiner in a story that appeared on Friday, June 1, Microsoft is rumored to be revealing its “Xbox Smart Glass” tablet at the E3 convention in Los Angeles this coming week.

With all the news swirling around the alleged “reveal”, Microsoft Corporation has registered a slew of domains with “Smart Glass” in the name like MicrosoftSmartGlass.com (Whois) and XboxSmartGlass.net (Whois).  The registrations took place on the same day as the big news began to spread, but not before a resident of China beat Microsoft to XboxSmartGlass.com (Whois).

Microsoft registered many more names through the brand protection company MarkMonitor. Here’s a sample of the domains:

microsoftsmartglass.net
microsoftsmartglass.biz
microsoftsmartglass.org
microsoftsmartglass.us
microsoftsmartglass.info
microsoftsmartglass.co
microsoftsmartglass.co.uk
microsoftsmartglass.tv
microsoftsmartglass.mobi
xboxsmartglass.net
xboxsmartglass.biz
xboxsmartglass.org
xboxsmartglass.us
xboxsmartglass.info
xboxsmartglass.co
xboxsmartglass.co.uk
xboxsmartglass.tv
xboxsmartglass.mobi

Currently, the domains redirect visitors to Bing.

Talking about this story: Engadget, PCWorld, Geeky Gadgets, redOrbit, The Verge, GeekWire, Electronista, Joystiq, Geekosystem and VentureBeat

(Image of Xbox Smart Glass via Examiner.com)

Categories
News Technology

Is Google going to introduce Google Plus Stories? Maybe, according to domains

Google Plus Stories

Last November, Twitter introduced Twitter Stories, which allows users to share how they used the social media platform in an interesting way.  Facebook launched its own Facebook Stories application back in 2010.  Now, Google has registered the domain GooglePlusStories.com, hinting that it may roll out its own user testimonial campaign to showcase how people are using its Google Plus social networking tool.

On May 24, 2012, Google Inc. registered the domain names gplusstories.com (Whois) and googleplusstories.com (Whois) through the online brand protection company MarkMonitor.

It’s unsure what exactly Google will publish on its own Stories site, should it launch one.

Twitter’s site highlights tweets which gained noticeable attention, like the story of one user who wrote a book, found an agent, got published and landed a movie deal using Twitter every step of the way.  Or how one user inadvertently live-tweeted the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound.

Whereas Facebook and Twitter users have been credited with helping to topple dictators, Google+ is still relatively new to the social arena.

Still, there have been notable stories.  In February, Agence France Presse reported hundreds of Chinese flooded President Obama’s Google+ page, apparently taking advantage of a glitch in China’s censorship system to post about human rights and green cards.

At the time of this posting, neither domain resolves to a web page and Google has made no official announcement regarding Google+ Stories.

Talking about this story: Marketing Land

Categories
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)