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Top 10 Stories of 2011: #1 New Microsoft social networking service discovered

Tulalip on Socl.com

The absolute biggest story of 2011 here on Fusible was the discovery of Microsoft’s new social network, which is now officially called So.cl (pronounced “social”).

The article racked up some nice social media statistics for a smaller tech news blog: over 600 tweets, nearly 500 Facebook Likes, and over 60 Inshares.  Most importantly, it became a Techmeme headline and landed Fusible.com for a short time in the Techmeme Top 50. 

A flood of news stories hit the net within hours of my discovery and Fusible had a mention in nearly every major technology news publication ranging from TechCrunch to Mashable and PC Magazine to MSNBC.  

When I first came across the site on the web address socl.com, I was doing some domain sales research for a story on social.com, which ended up being number five in the Top 10 stories of 2011 after I revealed that Salesforce.com was the buyer of the highest publicly reported sale of a domain for the year at $2.6 million. 

I was immediately struck by the landing page, because Microsoft had not officially announced any plans to launch a new social network, yet here was a site going by the name Tulalip that was owned by Microsoft.  I took a screenshot (as shown in the picture above), and it was lucky I did. Shortly after my story went viral, Microsoft took the site down and posted a message stating, “Thanks for stopping by.  Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web. We didn’t mean to, honest.”

In November, The Verge got an exclusive first look at the service, which was only available to a very limited audience. 

In December, I made Techmeme’s headlines once again, after I discovered you could try to access the private beta of the service, by visiting the domain hack so.cl, which Microsoft now uses as the official name.  

It was quite a year for Fusible.

In terms of traffic to the site, there was over 350,000 visits and over half a million page views.

–Web statistics provided by Google Analytics Dashboard Report (.PDF)

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News

Instead of filing a legal dispute, Tumblr buys the domain name tumblr.org

Tumblr.org

Not all domain name registrations that infringe on a popular trademark end in legal dispute…some end in a pay day for the owner.  

That’s what happened with the domain name tumblr.org this week.

On December 14, tumblr.org switched owners from Kevin Marsh of Ohio to the tenth largest social network in the world: Tumblr.

What’s interesting about tumblr.org, is that it hosted Marsh’s Tumblr blog – Willcodeforfoo (screenshot).

I reached out to Marsh by email for some information on the exchange and to see if Tumblr had sent a cease-and-desist letter.  I was surprised to learn, that not only was Tumblr not looking to pick a legal fight, but that “They [Tumblr Inc] were really great throughout the process”, according to Marsh.

Due to a non disclosure agreement, Marsh wasn’t able to share many details about the transaction.

What he did tell me about the price tag, was that the sale amount ended in a “0”.

While most professional domainers would never recommend registering a domain that infringes on a trademark, sometimes offering cash for a domain can be quicker and cheaper for big companies trying to obtain that domain. 

For the record, Tumblr Inc. does own the trademark on ‘Tumblr’. 

The company, which has only submitted one trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to date, filed the application (Serial Number: 77601575) back in 2008, a year after the company was founded.

Tumblr.com was first registered in June 2006 by the company’s founder David Karp.  Tumblr.org was registered a month later in July by Marsh, according to WHOIS history records furnished by DomainTools.

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News

Microsoft using So.cl domain hack for private beta of its new social network

socl

If you have been hoping to catch a glimpse of Microsoft’s new social network, called Socl, you won’t have any luck with the web address socl.com.  The service, which is in private beta, is currently only available to a very limited audience.  

The domain socl.com, which I first discovered back in July was being used by Microsoft for its secret social network, hasn’t resolved to a web site since November, when The Verge published its online exclusive of the service.  

While you won’t see anything yet at socl.com, if you want to try your luck at trying to access the private beta, you can visit the domain hack so.cl.  

Microsoft has taken the Chile country code domain <.cl> to make an already short web address <socl.com>, into an even shorter address <so.cl>. 

It’s possible the address will be used by Microsoft as a URL shortener for its new social service, or perhaps, a shortcut for people who find socl.com, one too many keystrokes.

I discovered the domain hack by chance. 

I had been receiving mysterious web traffic from cancun.cloudapp.net days before The Verge story went online.  Over the last few weeks, the login page offered no clues, that is, until today, when I checked the URL it redirected me to http://so.cl/privatebeta (screen shot).

Surprisingly, Microsoft has owned the domain hack so.cl since 2009, according to WHOIS records.  It has owned socl.com since July 2011.

With the new redirect, it appears Microsoft may be closer to making Socl available to a wider audience.

Discussion:  Techmeme, SlashGear, Marketing Land, brandchannel.com, Bitelia and Microsoft News

(Image of Microsoft’s Socl courtesy of The Verge)

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News Trademarks

AOL to launch NVIBE social network? Domain acquired, trademarks filed

AOL

It looks like AOL Inc. plans to launch a new social networking site called NVIBE, more than a year after selling Bebo, a social networking site it had acquired for $850 million in 2008.

On September 9, 2011, AOL became the owner of the domain name nvibe.com.  On the very same day, the company filed five different trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office covering a range of goods and services including online local and community social networking services.

So far, AOL has made no announcement, and no other technology or news site has mentioned NVIBE, but by the looks of things, NVIBE.com is slated for some type of local social network.

Here’s a quick look at the five trademark applications, filed last week with the USPTO.

Serial Number: 85419192
Online social networking services; online local and community social networking services

Serial Number: 85419185
Providing a website that enables users to connect with people in a particular neighborhood or city; Providing user-defined content and content of others selected and customized based on the known or estimated geographical location of users

Serial Number: 85419176
Providing neighborhood and community information in the fields of education, entertainment, local events and activities, current events, shopping, arts, culture, and sports; Providing information about community and neighborhood livability

Serial Number: 85419162
Providing geographic information, destination information, interactive maps, and driving directions via computer and communications networks; Providing information, news, and commentary in the field of travel via computer and communications networks

Serial Number: 85419151
Providing information and news in the field of local business

At the time of this story, nvibe.com does not resolve to a web site.  Here’s the current Whois record for nvibe.com.

Discussion: ReadWriteWebTechmeme, Business Insider, Webrazzi, San Francisco ChronicleFinancial News Network Online, @mathewi, The Motley Fool, BusinessWeek and Denver Post  

Updated September 15, 2011 5:24am:. I discovered AOL also owns neighborhoodvibe.com and registered five trademarks for “Neighborhood Vibe” in August 2011, similar to the NVIBE trademarks; serial numbers 85391630, 85391628, 85391626, 85391625 and 85391623.

Neighborhood Vibe by AOL