Google, others sued over parked domain ads
Google is among a host of web firms facing a lawsuit from companies complaining about programmes that place online ads on unused, parked domain names.
Vulcan Golf filed the complaint in Illinois arguing the practice, by which individuals register attractive domain names but place only ads on them, is a "shocking and egregious, intentional, bad faith scheme to generate revenue and profit from illegal and deceptive actions".
International domains on ICANN agenda
Overseas businesses may soon be able to register domain names with foreign characters.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is meeting in Puerto Rico this week to discuss allowing characters with accents or in entirely different scripts to be added to the internet system.
Business.com could sell again for new record
Domain name Business.com could sell for between $300m and $400m this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The name went for a then record $7.5m when it was bought by two entrepreneurs at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999.
Google on duplicate content
The issue of duplicate content is a thorny one that can affect sites' search rankings, and one that has even caught Google out in the past.
So it's good that the search giant's Adam Lasnik has written a post that throws some light on how it deals with the problem.
Job search is latest .mobi launch
Recruitment agency PFJ has launched a version of its job search platform for mobile phone devices.
The new website is available on the .mobi top-level domain at pfjjobs.mobi and allows handheld users to interrogate the company's database of vacancies.
Keyword Creativity: An online opportunity for ad agencies?
In 2002, AT&T made a major mistake. As part of the launch of its mobile initiative m-life, the company purchased television advertising during the Super Bowl coverage. Nothing wrong with that – along with the Oscars, it attracts one of the biggest audiences in American television and is seen as a creative showcase for the best in American advertising.
But what AT&T missed was how its advertising affected later search behaviour.
German keeps Euro Gmails close to his chest
A German businessman who owns the 'G-mail' trademark so desired by Google says he would refuse to sell the name, even for millions of dollars.
Hamburg-based Daniel Giersch registered the name for his postal service in 2000 and launched an e-mail adjunct in 2003, before Google launched its web-based mail client a year later.
Microsoft clamps down on UK cybersquatters
Microsoft has performed a clean-up of dodgy domains in the UK, taking action against several companies it says have earned illegal PPC revenues by registering URLs with misspelled variations of its brands.
Tokelau is web's riskiest destination
A group of tiny islands in the South Pacific is the most dangerous place on the web, according to security firm McAfee.
An interactive map produced by the company shows Tokelau’s .tk domain has the highest proportion of nuisance sites that are tracked by its SiteAdvisor security software.
Google adds Docs & Spreadsheets to Apps package
Google has added Google Docs & Spreadsheets to its Google Apps On Your Domain offering, in another sign of the search giant's slow, mythological creep toward a Web 2.0-style Office rival.
Google Apps allows site administrators to issue users with white-label installations of Google's Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Start Page and Page Creator services, with apps accessible from the owners' domain name rather than on google.com.
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
