Brands fail to bag Myspace domain extensions
Have you bothered to register a personalised URL for your company on Myspace? If not, you’re not on your own.
Major brands such as McDonalds, Cingular, Nike and Pepsi – as well as Myspace itself – appear to have been too slow after the site allowed users to create their own extensions to Myspace.com.
Beckham's US move sparks domain name frenzy
With the recent news that David Beckham is to head to the footballing backwater that is the US Major Soccer League, opportunists have been snapping up domain names related to the news.
According to domain name management firm NetNames, cyber-squatters started buying up every conceivable combination of the words 'Beckham' and 'Galaxy' as soon as the news broke. Within an hour, most variations were registered.
Is long-term domain registration a search ranking factor?
Webmaster World forums recently hosted a discussion on whether or not a site’s search engine ranking is affected by the length of time a domain name is registered for.
The theory is that registering a domain name for ten years indicates to Google that the domain’s owners’ have made a long term commitment and therefore the site is less likely to be spam.
Utube sues YouTube, seeking pay-out
An American tubes and pipes manufacturer whose website is registered at utube.com is suing YouTube after being deluged with traffic from millions of users mistakenly seeking the video sharing network.
Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corporation said the cost of hosting utube.com had skyrocketed in the last couple of months thanks to the word-of-mouth popularity of youtube.com.
Big brands fail in a world without www
I often browse the web by grabbing text and dragging it into my Google Toolbar, which will open a new search page. It will open up a website for me, in the event that I drag a domain name into the search window.
I don’t expect I’m alone in exhibiting this kind of search behaviour, but there is a problem. Many firms, including some big brands, do not cater for a www-less version of their domain name.
.eu watchdog probes more "abnormalities"
The .eu watchdog said it is investigating evidence of further breaches of its registration rules since the launch of the top level domain (TLD) in April.
After confiscating over 70,000 Cyprus-based domain names last month, EURid said it is "looking into" relatively high numbers of registrations in other European countries such as Malta and Luxembourg.
Ipwalk study shows more .eu domain irregularities
More evidence of irregularities in the registration of .eu domain names has been uncovered in a study by internet monitoring group Ipwalk.
The research, which comes after the suspension of over 70,000 names by the .eu watchdog, shows a "very high" number of registrations in certain countries with smaller populations and lower internet uptake.
.eu authority suspends 74,000 domain names
Over 70,000 .eu domain names have been suspended by the European domain name authority after the launch of legal action against a group of 400 registrars for "abusive behaviour".EURid said the move had been prompted by "abusive behaviour" by a syndicate of registrars who had stockpiled domain names with the obvious intent of selling them on - a practice known as 'warehousing'.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
