Hard Times? Einstein's Watch Sells for $596,000

Antiquorum auctioned off Albert Einstein's 1930 Longines wristwatch yesterday. The house estimated the watch would fetch up to $35,000. They got $520,000. (With fees, the total came to $596,000.) That's over 2000% higher than the estimated price, and a record for any Longines at auction.

The watch is inscribed to "Prof. Albert Einstein," and is also marked with the date on which it was presented to him, February 16, 1931.

[Thanks, Ben!]

Hard Times? Einstein's Watch Sells for $596,000

Laid Off By Lehman: One Broker's Story

Laid Off By Lehman: One Broker's Story

US Gas Dollars at Work: $4.5 Billion Terminal 3 Opens at Dubai International

Luxist reported earlier on the intended decadence of Dubai's new airport. Now its Terminal 3 has had its official unveiling -- and its $4.5 billion pricetag is apparent in the project's vast scale (the parking lot alone is the equivalent of 33 football fields). Check out the gallery for a sneak peek -- including some terrific amenities.

US Gas Dollars at Work: $4.5 Billion Terminal 3 Opens at Dubai International

36D-23-36 (.com): To Spite Free Plastic Surgery and Viagra, Playboy Gets Dumped

Blonde and blonder … Karissa, left, and Kristina Shannon, Hef's new girlfriends.


Photo: Getty Image

Girl trouble, money trouble. This is not supposed to be the Playboy lifestyle. Times are hard for Hugh Hefner. The pouting face of Hefner's current troubles is Holly Madison, a former glamour model who is 28 years old, boasts measurements of 36D-23-36 (with the help of extensive surgery), and has for the past seven years lived at the Playboy Mansion as one of his official girlfriends. Madison is one-third of a pneumatic trio of blondes who star in The Girls Next Door, a TV documentary about daily life chez Hefner. Her status, in the show and in real life, is "No 1" girlfriend, meaning that she shares his bedroom, while the other live-in love interests, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, occupy smaller billets down the hall.

Last week, this cosy domestic arrangement fell apart. After weeks of frenzied speculation, on Monday Madison confirmed rumours that she had left Hefner for a younger and wealthier model, the celebrity magician Criss Angel.

The revelation left Hefner deeply upset. It also represented a severe setback for his long-cultivated public image of master swordsman, on which Playboy relies. But worse news was soon to follow. The following night, Wilkinson also confirmed she had ditched Hefner, telling the chat show host Chelsea Lately that she was in love with a Philadelphia Eagles gridiron player called Hank Baskett and had been indulging in "cybersex" sessions via Skype, from her room at the mansion.

For any man in the public eye, this would represent a bad week. For Hefner, always a creature of habit, it has made for a bewildering upheaval in the domestic set-up he has enjoyed since separating from Kimberley Conrad, his second wife and mother of two of his four children, in 1999. At this point, a brief history lesson: from the moment he bought the mansion in 1971, excluding the decade of his marriage to Conrad, Hefner has filled it with a rotating cast of girlfriends, who get a weekly allowance in cash (roughly $US1000 [$1500] at present) together with being fed, watered, and provided with health insurance, a car and free plastic surgery.

Despite rumours to the contrary, he enjoys energetic sexual relationships with them all (thanks, in recent years at least, to Viagra), and lives out the hypocritical male fantasy of a storybook sheik, expecting girlfriends to remain monogamous despite his own promiscuity. The harem has a 9pm curfew, except on two nights a week when Hefner takes them out, to a restaurant on one night, a nightclub the next. MORE

36D-23-36 (.com): To Spite Free Plastic Surgery and Viagra, Playboy Gets Dumped

Dress That Man (.com)

Another example of a profitable business built on a domain most domainers would deem worthless. In this case PayPal Shops sends millions of visitors there each day (which is how I discovered them). If you have a PayPal account, now you recall getting this exit page every time you log out. But most people logging out are not domainers- they are retail sales clerks that are savvy shoppers themselves.

Dress That Man (.com)

A Word on Worthless Domains

Like me, everyone thinks their names are gold and looks at most other names as shit. I don't know what names are worth, I only know that the names I buy are based on insight to a particular market, prospect or problem that only I would be aware of, so that I don't expect the domain community to understand them. If they did, I'd never be able to afford to buy the assets I need to succeed. Kind of like all those who admire Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham, but because of Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham can never compete for the same product.

So what's a domain worth and what's a worthless domain?

And what appeals to end users that makes a domain's appraisal criteria in 2008/09 different then the domain game as we've known it?

The perfect example would be Microsoft. I've blogged alot lately (and for over a year privately) about Microsoft's push into domains. It's something I have tremendous inside insight into from my day job working for their largest partner and having named one of their top producing revenue products.

Right now Microsoft is in heavy domain buying mode- they've waited years for this depressed market to swoop down and buy on the cheap-- they've made about 30K acquisitions in recent months and are using some as landing pages for their own "house" version of live ppc as their monetization for tokyo.org demonstrates.

Others they are leasing to small businesses as landing pages for live search campaigns (all bundled) or to small businesses as a "free domain" with website software and development as a monthly service

So I wonder how domainers would value these recent acquisitions by Microsoft or whether the would even consider Microsoft as a prospect?

PLAZA.COM
ULTIMATECOMEDY.COM
COMFYCAKES.COM
CHEESEGALAXY.COm
MOMLIVE.NET
TV.NET
TUBEMD.COM
OATMAIL.COM
DIAGRAM.INFO
WELLAROUNDTHEWORLD.COM
PCCHIEF.COM
PLEASETALKTOTHEHAND.NET
LOOKUPANDSMILE.COM
WEWANTTHEBEST.NET
LATEBREAKINGSTORY.COM
ILOVEMYWEBSITECHALLENGE.NET
NOTJUSTLIBERALNEWS.NET
NOTJUSTCONSERVATIVENEWS.ORG
MOTOCROSSMADNESS.COM
MONSTERTRUCKMADNESS.BIZ
MONEYINSIGHT.COM
NO-LATE-NIGHTS.COM
USERGROUPS.COM
RETAILNUMBERSTHATMATTER.NET
QUERYSANTA.ORG
PROTECTCLIMATE.COM
TRADEMARKCHAMPIONS.COM
TOTALFIND.COM
TOKYO.ORG
THEULTIMATESTEAL.NET
THEUNSEEN.NET
THERIGHTADVISER.COM
THEFULLERSPECTRUMOFNEWS.COM
SUCCESSFISH.COM
SUBJECTPOWER.COM
STARTWATCHING.COM
STARTSOMETHING.US
SEIZEOURFUTURE.COM
ROBOPHARM.COM
RETHINKYELLOW.COM

A Word on Worthless Domains

Husband hacked wife to death with meat cleaver after she changed Facebook status to single

Facebook fans?

Husband hacked wife to death with meat cleaver after she changed Facebook status to single

Different Joe the Plumber's Web Site Flooded With Traffic

While Elliot's Blog and the Sydney Herald report six-figure offers for the suddenly famous JoeThePlumber.com (which is NOT owned by the guy who is the subject of the attention), Dallas Morning News Reports via Terrence:

"Those who watched this week's presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain may have noticed the heavy-handed introduction of yet another "Joe" to the national conversation. Joe Wurzelbacher (AKA: Joe the Plumber) was mentioned so many times during the first few minutes of Wednesday's debate we thought our TiVo was skipping like a scratched record.

While McCain may have been trying to score political points by discussing Joe the Plumber, he was inadvertently making a completely different Joe the Plumber's life a living hell. Joe Francis, of Amarillo, Texas (Wurzelbacher is from Holland, Ohio); is also Joe the Plumber, and owns JoeThePlumber.com. According to the Dallas Morning News, Francis's Web site and office have been inundated with e-mail, phone calls, and traffic from curious surfers.

Mr. Francis (who, by the way, is not to be confused with this Joe Francis) is on vacation, so his office manager Ronnie Bishop has fielded most of the 1,000 calls and 100,000 e-mails that flooded the office before noon on the day following the debate (including over 300 requests for T-shirts).

Despite the initial annoyance Joe Francis is set to reap many of the benefits of the Joe the Plumber exchange. He has obliged requests for T-shirts, selling a Joe the President garment, and has entertained several offers to purchase the JoeThePlumber.com domain, including one offer for $800,000.

On the downside we're sure to see plenty of ironic Joe the Plumber costumes this Halloween."

Also, at the time of writing, "Joe the plumber" was listed as the second most searched-for term on Yahoo Buzz. Variations of the phrase also appeared in numerous spots on Google's Hot Trends section, including several in the top 20.

Different Joe the Plumber's Web Site Flooded With Traffic

Grand Names: Let Your Online Dreams Take Flight

Grand Names makes it official public debut early next week leveraging Gold-Standard PR Newswire Association LLC providing electronic distribution, targeting, measurement and broadcast services to get the word out to millions of print and online publications and hundreds of millions of subscribers around the world.

We will also be introducing a special selection of domain names and services never revealed before in the BETA previews.

Using PR Newswire, Grand Names reach a variety of critical end-user audiences including the news media, the investment
community, government decision-makers, and the general public with their up-to-the-minute, full- text news developments.

Established in 1954, PR Newswire has offices in 13 countries and routinely sends its customers' news to outlets in 135 countries and in more than 40 languages. Utilizing the latest in communications technology, PR Newswire content is considered a mainstay among news reporters, investors and individuals who seek breaking news from the source.

If you are a seller of domains and missed the charter enrollment drive, there is still time to get your names included in the public launch. Our Fall 08 Grand Names VIP membership offer includes:

==>$50-off Grand Names Premium Marketing Services

==>30-minute one-on-one domain strategy and appraisal brainstorm with Owen via phone

==>50% discount on listing domain names for sale

==>Commission earnings on product and service referrals in our Affiliate Program

==>One year FREE membership in the "Domain Success" VIP Boardroom including Free Admission to all guest speakers and special presentations

==>Networking and contacts through Frager Factor VIP, inspirational e-blasts and the exclusive private club network they connect you to.

NOW just $49.95 a year
Sign up today.

MORE:
Guys like Rick Schwartz with domains like Property and Widgets.com are born with a selling proposition built in.

But everyone else who needs a little more help making their domains compelling and marketable to end users, think of our premium marketing campaigns as insurance for the rest of us who can't just sit around waiting for somebody to scoop up your portfolio for a billion.

Over 17 of our members have seen the value of their assets increase by ganing a crisp and unqiue selling proposition expressed in keywords that are designed to take your message to the most likely buyers online. This copy, penned by Madison Avenue's top, award-winning direct response copy mavericks, can be cut and pasted into a variety of proactive marketing strategies so that your name no longer sits passively on a list hoping in this economy of little of hope, that your "dream" buyer will just walk through the door and fall in love with your name.

Here's What Grand Names Members Say About the Premium Marketing Service
"The marketing copy you've written for the various domains helps bring their possibilities to the forefront. I have no doubt they will sell when more potential buyers know of their availability."

"For the first time in 14 months, I feel like I have some HOPE. My domain now has the potential to carry the vision I saw in it, forward. It is astonishing to see your domain 'graduate' to the big time!"

"What I really like about your writer's ad copy for my domain is the value of being able to use it in my own blog, in my ad on eBay, and at every opportunity I get to tell someone what my domain is all about."

"I realize now I was losing opportunities by not turning up in Google searches for my domain's keywords. Even worse: searches for my domain by name led to domain forum appraisals saying it was worthless!"

Join NOW as a VIP member and get 50% off on all Premium Marketing Services.

Grand Names: Let Your Online Dreams Take Flight

John McCain on Letterman October 16, 2008

John McCain on Letterman October 16, 2008

New Life For Bucko (.mobi)

Future planes, cars may be made of `buckypaper' And what would one call such a car? Bucko.MOBI (of course).

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.

That idea—that there is great future promise for buckypaper and other derivatives of the ultra-tiny cylinders known as carbon nanotubes—has been floated for years now. However, researchers at Florida State University say they have made important progress that may soon turn hype into reality.

Buckypaper is made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Due to its unique properties, it is envisioned as a wondrous new material for light, energy-efficient aircraft and automobiles, more powerful computers, improved TV screens and many other products.

So far, buckypaper can be made at only a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities and at a high price. The Florida State researchers are developing manufacturing techniques that soon may make it competitive with the best composite materials now available.

New Life For Bucko (.mobi)

Exclusive Shopping Websites Catching On

Marketers See Lucrative Niche in Membership Concept

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Those elusive, engaged consumers -- those who are actually still spending -- are a marketer's dream. So where are they hiding? Well, a slew of new members-only websites that clear excess designer merchandise at steep discounts contend they can be found there.

Sites like Gilt.com that require members to be invited or sign up to view sales events are drawing substantial traffic.

Sites like Gilt.com, Ideeli.com, HauteLook.com and RueLaLa.com that require members to be invited or sign up to view sales events are drawing substantial traffic. The sites have grown steadily since launching last year, said Matt Pace, director-retail and consumer products at Compete.com. Since January, the number of unique visitors has skyrocketed from less than 20,000 to roughly 160,000 per month at both Gilt and Ideeli. MORE

Note: We broke the story of this concept months ago right HERE

Exclusive Shopping Websites Catching On

Drive For 99 (.com)

Drive for $99 is a limited event brought to you by Focus Inc and partners. I saw the call-to-action domain on a late-night TV ad. According to their site:

"We work with hundreds of auto dealers and lenders across the country that specialize in customers with less-than-perfect credit.

The average dealer is forced to turn down 90% of all customers that walk in their door. This makes the customer feel that their credit is worse than it actually is, when in fact, they simply went to the wrong dealer.

At Focus Inc, we empower you so that dealers and lenders are actually competing for your business the same way they compete for the business of a good-credit customer. Focus Inc gives you the power of choice."

Moreover the example brings up the untapped potential in NNN domains as price points with high call-to-action ad value. I remember blogging here after seeing a flood of retail commercials on TV in Vegas last spring which included $49.95 breast enhancement ads. I commented on how much more effective the ad would be if the call-to-action was 4995.com. Same here if the call-to-action was 99.com.

Same concept as the dollar store.,

Drive For 99 (.com)

Moniker's Neighbor: Tragedy at The Booby Trap (.com)

Can't make this stuff up: A performer's shoe flew off during a pole dance, shattering the mirrored ceiling and causing glass, as well as the shoe, to turn into a missile and injure a patron.

The only problem with the man's lawsuit being publicized on TV was the story catching his wife's attention and her wondering what he was doing at the Booby Trap to begin with?

"A quote from the paramedics was, 'I can't believe you even called us for this,'" Booby Trap general manager George Gettinger alleged.

Booby Trap is located in Pompano Beach Florida within steps of popular domain registrar and auctioner Moniker.

Moniker's Neighbor: Tragedy at The Booby Trap (.com)

Corn.....

And other INCREDIBLE photos of the country in autumn:

Corn.....

Attack of the Giant Widgets (.com)

CNET: iGoogle attacked by giant widgets









Google's personalized home page, iGoogle, is getting an update Thursday. Widgets on the page can support a new "canvas view," which expands the widget to the full iGoogle window.

The 16 new or updated widgets that Google is currently promoting support this feature. There are more than 40,000 iGoogle widgets available, iGoogle group product manager Jessica Ewing told me.

Google will not restrict monetization schemes from running in canvas view. Developers can put whatever they want in the pages. In the smaller "home view," Google does not allow advertising or other direct revenue-generating content.

The new iGoogle also moves user navigation from tabs at the top of the page to a bar down the left side. This enables more pages and elements in the navigation, and I found that it made navigating iGoogle faster, since it provided a de facto table of contents for each page.

iGoogle widgets are written in the Open Social platform, so apps created for social networks should run on the new portal page, and vice versa.

Like many of Google's services, iGoogle is platform-aware. On a mobile phone, like on an iPhone or Android phone, when you log in to iGoogle, you'll get a view of your page suited to the constraints of the device. Ewing wouldn't talk about any plans to create a more capable or fluid application specific to mobile platforms.

Attack of the Giant Widgets (.com)

HealthCare.com Acquires BrokersWeb.com, the Leading Health Insurance Pay-Per-Click Marketing Platform

Acquisition of leading health insurance website and leading health insurance pay-per-click advertising network anchors HealthCare.com’s health insurance marketing strategy

Miami, FL – October 16, 2008 – HealthCare.com, Inc. today announced the acquisition of BrokersWeb, a leading provider of targeted, performance-based online advertising to health insurance brokers and lead aggregators. In addition to operating the BrokersWeb health insurance pay-per-click (PPC) platform, BrokersWeb also owns and operates HealthInsuranceFinders.com, a leading consumer health insurance website and search engine for health insurance quotes.

Headquartered in Redlands, CA, BrokersWeb provides its more than 250 advertisers the most-targeted source of PPC advertising generated from consumer health insurance queries. BrokersWeb’s proprietary technology allows its advertisers to bid for placement to their paid listings and pay on a per-click basis. In addition, BrokersWeb provides advertisers with additional online conversion tools such as a ROI analytics, bid transparency and branded lead generation micro-sites.

The main distribution outlet for BrokersWeb’s sponsored search results is its consumer portal HealthInsuranceFinders.com, a leading health insurance information resource and quote search engine. Launched in 2001, HealthInsuranceFinders.com provides consumers with information about purchasing and understanding the complexities of health insurance, along with a search tool to find health insurance quotes from multiple brokers and agents.

Todd Faucher, founder and President of BrokersWeb will continue to lead the business on a day-to-day basis. The addition of BrokersWeb extends the growth of HealthCare.com, a leader in health care provider information, into the health insurance area. BrokersWeb will become an operating division of HealthCare.com, and will anchor HealthCare.com’s Health Insurance Search business.

“The acquisition of BrokersWeb strengthens our presence and fits within HealthCare.com’s mission to help consumers make better health care decisions,” said Matias de Tezanos, founder and CEO of HealthCare.com. “From a business standpoint, the acquisition brings together a leading media property and a proprietary monetization platform that HealthCare.com will be able to expand. We are excited to welcome the BrokersWeb team.”

“Our combination with HealthCare.com brings substantial momentum and the right resources to grow our business,” said Todd Faucher, President of BrokersWeb. “Our client base will benefit from HealthCare.com’s reach and financial strength, and we look forward to becoming part of the HealthCare.com team.”

About HealthCare.com, Inc.
HealthCare.com, with its flagship web property at http://www.healthcare.com , features Care Provider Search™, the web’s leading healthcare provider directory connecting health consumers with health care professionals and health care-related businesses. In addition to operating a leading online health website, HealthCare.com has syndicated Care Provider Search™ to leading newspaper websites, local media and health portals, allowing its partners’ audiences to engage with local health providers. Syndication partners include The McClatchy Company (Miami Herald and The Olympian), MedHelp, AOL Health, Everyday Health, dLife, drugstore.com. In addition, HealthCare.com offers health content and information through a health portal, health content search, medication search, and health insurance search. For additional information, please visit

HealthCare.com Acquires BrokersWeb.com, the Leading Health Insurance Pay-Per-Click Marketing Platform

5 Top Google Searches on Wednesday Night—Will Congressman Lewis or Joe the Plumber Repudiate Bob Schieffer?

-Congressman Lewis
-Repudiate
-Joe the Plumber
-Repudiated
-Bob Schieffer

(amazing politicians use big words no one understands- everyone ought to read Ogilvy on Advertising)

Others (did you know it was boss' day?):
1. halloween candy coupon
2. highland capital
3. boss s day 2008
4. marcus nonius macrinus
5. mydebates.org
6. free ecards
7. joe the plumber ohio
8. litmus test
9. troy byer
10. boss s day e cards

Source: Google Trends

5 Top Google Searches on Wednesday Night—Will Congressman Lewis or Joe the Plumber Repudiate Bob Schieffer?

How Powerful is Your Domain Name?

Insight into the elements that make your domain more than just a name.
by Wendy Kennedy- Register.com

Summary: Your domain name or website address is the core of your online brand but did you know it could also be a driver of traffic to your site and a factor in the SEO ranking your site achieves through the search engines. In choosing your domain name, there are several 'strategies' to consider. Here are some examples of how big companies have made their domain more powerful.

When most small business owners register their first domain, they consider finding something that is catchy, something easy to remember and something that related to the topic they intend to devote their site to...but at this point in the process, many don't consider the power that the domain name could have on the traffic their site generates.

A domain name is so much more than the address for your website - it has the ability to greatly influence the amount of traffic that comes to your site. This happens both through direct type-ins and natural search (i.e. searches from engines like Google or Yahoo!).

Larger organizations take advantage of website forwarding (a service that allows you to forward any domain that you have registered to any of your other domains). By doing this, they have made their domain name more powerful, and they have ensured that potential customers who intended to arrive at their website - actually get there. This 'strategy' is so easy to implement, that a business of any size can benefit from it. Here are some examples of ways that large companies have increased the power (and reach) of their domain names:

* Register additional TLD's (extensions) of your existing domain name such as .net, .biz, .org. Try typing in www.microsoft.net and you'll find it goes directly to www.microsoft.com (their primary site).
* Register common misspellings or typing mistakes that potential visitors could make when typing your domain name into their web browser. If you type www.amazn.com guess where it goes - directly to www.amazon.com, of course.
* Register names that sound similar or look similar to yours. For example, if you type www.9west.com into your browser, you'll be taken to www.ninewest.com (the correct way to spell the company's name). Some other examples are www.del.com and www.homedepo.com which take visitors to www.dell.com and www.homedepot.com respectively.
* This one is particularly good if you do business in other languages - register your name in another language. The most common example of this one is www.zapatos.com which will take visitors to the www.shoes.com website.
* Register names that describe your business or your products. Here's a great example - try typing www.books.com. You'll notice the site is the exact replica of that found at Barnes and Noble's site (which is www.barnesandnoble.com)

One closing thought - the search engines also give extra points for the additional domains that point to the same site. So, by employing this simple strategy, you may just get the extra benefit of increased search engine rankings too.

How Powerful is Your Domain Name?

Google and Yahoo: A Tale of Two Online Ad Markets

By Miguel Helft
Published: October 15, 2008 (NY Times)
Google and Yahoo play in different advertising markets, making a big impact on their financial health.

In other news: Google, Yahoo Try to Cut a Deal With DOJ to Avoid Antitrust Suit

Google and Yahoo: A Tale of Two Online Ad Markets

WIRED: Google Profits From Typo Squatting

Google is profiting from millions of typo-squatting websites that earn advertising from Google's Adsense advertising program, Harvard University professor Ben Edelman says.

In a report published Monday, Edelman says Google profits from typo-squatting websites that run ads using Google's Adsense -- which, ironically, are often bought by the owners of the legitimate sites web surfers were trying to visit.

"This is one of the unsavory ways we all end up paying Google," Edelman says in an interview. "Users don't have to write Google a check to receive Google's services. But, one way or another, Google manages to get users' money."

Edelman, an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School and an advisor to McAfee, says there are as many as 80,000 domains "typo-squatting" on the United States' top 2,000 websites alone, including MySpace, FaceBook and Craigslist.

Edelman's report, published in the McAfee Security Journal (.pdf), shows that there are as many as 251 typo-squatted domains associated with Bank of America alone, and there are as many as 327 typo-squatted domains feeding off the cartoonnetwork.com site.

Edelman and other lawyers have filed a class action lawsuit representing domain owners who claim the Google Adsense for Domains (AFD) program is assisting in violating trademarks. A hearing is scheduled for as early as next month in which Edelman will ask an Illinois federal judge to allow the case against Google to proceed.
MORE

WIRED: Google Profits From Typo Squatting

Domain Fight (..net)

Domain Fight™ is the internet's first UDRP Search Engine for both NAF & WIPO UDRP Decisions.

Perhaps you, as I, have always been frustrated with the fact that I have to switch back and forth between the NAF and WIPO search tools in order to see what UDRP decisions are out there.

Domain Fight™ was launched by USpeakWeType Technologies, LLC to solve a fundamental problem faced by both Complainant and Respondents involved in domain name and cybersquatting disputes under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).

Up till now, There is no way to search both WIPO and NAF panel decisions from a single search tool. Domain Fight™ solves this problem and is the only tool on the internet which searches both the WIPO and NAF domain dispute databases.

It is so much easier to see have one search tools to see if a domain or trademark has been the subject of a prior UDRP, or a person has been named as a Respondent in other panel decisions.

Domain Fight (..net)

Dark Times for Web ads: Yahoo and Google Deep Dive

Via CNET: Analysts cut forecasts

Given the day-to-day changes in the world's economic fortunes, it's surprising that analysts are willing to make any forecasts at all, but among those who do, the news isn't sunny.

In the Internet sector, nobody is backing away from predictions that online sales and advertising will fare relatively well. But larger economic factors are inescapable, according to some new reports.

"We are lowering our estimates on Google, Yahoo, Amazon, VistaPrint, eHealth, Blue Nile, and Gmarket to reflect: (1) a weaker macro outlook exacerbated by the bank crisis; (2) the rapid rise in the dollar over the past two months; and (3) the impact of the (0.5 percent) rate cut on interest income," said Cowen analysts Jim Friedland and Kevin Kopelman.

Specifically, the analysts said, search-advertising spending will likely be flat, and the graphical "display" ads that advertisers often use to tout their brand names might shrink. MORE

Dark Times for Web ads: Yahoo and Google Deep Dive

Coors: dotMOBI Dispute

Coors Sued for $12.5 Million Over iPhone App
Developer Claims Brewer and Agency Infringed on Its iBeer Feature

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Cannes Silver Lion-winning iPint application for beer brand Carling is the target of a $12.5 million lawsuit suit against parent Molson Coors Brewing Co. by Hottrix, the developer of the iBeer application. London agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay created iPint.

Wired's Gadget Lab blog broke the story, and included a PDF of the lawsuit, filed Friday afternoon in Los Angeles County

Coors: dotMOBI Dispute

Show Your Breasts At The Office (.com) & Rethink Breast Cancer (.com)

"Bring Breast Awareness Back to The Workplace"

Via Osocio:
I’m sorry for the headline but I think I have your attention now.

Creating awareness at the workplace about testicular cancer, would that a good idea? Of course not, that is ridiculous. And about breast cancer?

Rethink Breast Cancer from Canada is promoting it’s Fashion Targets Breast Cancer T-Shirt campaign every year with a campaign. This year with these two ridiculous video’s.

Fundfraising at the workplace is a good idea but these two video’s don’t go any further then sexualizing women at the office.

Advertiser:
Rethink Breast Cancer
Agency:
John St, Toronto
Source:
The Inspiration Room Daily

Show Your Breasts At The Office (.com) & Rethink Breast Cancer (.com)

Blog Action Day 08: We Don’t Need Coins, We Need Change

Via Osocio:
Today is Blog Action Day 2008, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. This year it is all about poverty.

Regular Osocio visitors know we blog often about poverty. No new campaigns in this post but links to the best posts in our poverty campaign archive.

The visual above is from a few years ago and for me is says it all. Helping the poor with food, money and housing is extremely important, but change is even more important.

The campaign was made for Columbus Coalition for the Homeless (USA). Their mission is to work toward ending homelessness by educating the Central Ohio Community about homeless issues and advocating in a unified voice for social and economic justice for all people, especially those who are most vulnerable.

The campaign is made by Little Jacket Visual Communication.

My favourites from the Osocio poverty campaign archive (Click subjects for the complete campaign):

Blog Action Day 08: We Don’t Need Coins, We Need Change

Thrill The World Austin (.com)

Via Church of the Customer:
To support Austin's participation in Thrill the World, an attempt to break the world record for the largest synchronized “Thriller” dance on earth, Austin Mayor Will Wynn showed off his moves. Not bad for a tie-wearing politician.

Being in charge sometimes means doing weird things to build enthusiasm for a program or rallying the troops. Mayor Wynn isn't afraid to venture out toward the weird to generate some word of mouth. It is Austin, after all. The weirder the better.

In his two terms, he has also:

Strutted down the runway in a revealing outfit to support a local clothing designer
Jumped off of a city bridge to help promote a local independent film
Dressed up like a zombie to support yet another local independent film

(Thrill the World Austin is one of the many things you can watch or participate in during SWOMfest's Word of Mouth Weekend.)

Thrill The World Austin (.com)

Chief Mobile Marketer (.com)

“That’s the beauty of mobile. It extends the reach of every channel it works with. It gives legs to television. It gives legs to print. It gives legs to retail. And it gives legs to the Internet."

Mickey Alam Khan, Editor in Chief, Mobile Marketer discusses New Ways to Market in an Increasingly Mobile World:
The mobile device is a unique platform, but it should not stand alone in campaigns, Khan says. It works much better as an integrated tool, working in concert with print ads, display ads, television commercials, and direct mail.

“That’s the beauty of mobile. It extends the reach of every channel it works with. It gives legs to television. It gives legs to print. It gives legs to retail. And it gives legs to the Internet,” Khan says.

Call the experts
Although Short Message Service (SMS) campaigns are similar to email campaigns, and mobile display ads are similar to online display ads, mobile marketing is unique. There are companies that specialize in designing mobile ads. Khan suggests using an agency to help design your campaigns. You wouldn’t design a billboard without the help of a professional, either, would you?


> The Mobile Marketing Environment
Mobile marketing is more complicated than posting online display ads. There are many different filters and gateways that marketers must navigate to get their messages to consumers. Here are the main obstacles:

Carriers rule the space
Consumers need a mobile phone and an Internet service provider to receive your messages. The top five wireless carriers in the U.S. are AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Alltel. Smaller providers often rent bandwidth from these five and self-brand their service.

Similarly, if consumers want to access the Internet, they need a computer and an ISP. However, there are many times more ISPs than wireless carriers. The wireless companies have tremendous power in their market, Khan says.

“Anything you want to do in mobile has to go through these guys...Tomorrow, if AT&T and Verizon decide, hey, we don’t want any ads on sites that users access on mobile devices through our connection, you’ve had it.”

Devices are disparate
There are thousands of wireless devices and many operate on different platforms that use different ways to render mobile ads. While most phones will accept text messages in the standard SMS format, rendering mobile ads can be a different story.

The biggest smart phone platforms are BlackBerry, iPhone and Nokia, Khan says. “If you have these three platforms covered you have a pretty good reach.”

> Texting Environment
The most common types of outbound mobile marketing campaigns in the U.S. are SMS- based, Khan says. Marketers build databases of wireless phone numbers and periodically send text-based promotions or updates. All text messages have to go through the five main carriers.

Opt-ins required
Just like in email marketing, you cannot send unsolicited SMS messages to consumers. It is illegal and you will be penalized, Khan says. The current best practice is a double opt-in method:

Consumers submit their mobile number to a company

The company sends a message requesting an SMS confirmation from the consumer

The consumer replies with a certain keyword and is double-opted in

This gives companies a clear record to prove the consumer requested further messages.

Chief Mobile Marketer (.com)

Traffic Down Under: A Special Conference, a Single Opportunity

TRAFFIC Down Under | November 18 - 20, 2008 | Gold Coast, Australia

TRAFFIC Down Under (Australia) is unique. The presentations are individual, professional, well prepared, and highly structured - from experts that are putting their reputations on the line for excellence. The keynote speakers are pertinent to the industry and relevant to our time. The entertainment is extreme and far beyond anything that has ever been offered or will probably ever be repeated for domain conferences. This is the one and only time a conference of this type will ever exist. A conference solely dedicated to excellence and the domain community that asked for it.

It is time to commit! This Australian conference is only about a month away. Plane tickets, visas, hotel bookings, and other travel arrangements take time.

We have previously told you about the hardcore business aspects of the conference. Now it is the time to tell you about the fun!

CONFERENCE ENTERTAINMENT PLAN
The TRAFFIC Down Under conference is a sure way to shake the winter blues that are fast approaching. In addition to a hardcore agenda of individual presentations, keynote speakers, and highly vetted auctions - playing hard adds the right balance.

Monday offers three pre-conference activities. Paintball starts the day as you battle brawn and wits to conquer your domain competitors/counter-parts. Zorbing offers the joy of pushing your friends down huge hills in a rubber ball! Or try your luck and see if you have what it takes to be the champion of the course for go-kart racing.

Tuesday night you can shoot down some cold beers and put a shrimp on the barbie during the beach barbecue. While you have a "feed" you can be entertained by fire twirling dancers and live animals - koalas, snakes and a wombat.

Wednesday night the festivities continue with a Gala Dinner featuring an open bar, a five star menu, web development stories, charity auction, and the highly regarded magician comedian Matt Hollywood! Prepare to be amazed by the wit, charm and magic of Australia's greatest illusionist.

Thursday, after a hard day of domain trading and premier auctions, throw on your board shorts and bikinis. Climb on board the fast catamaran and transfer to a private island on the Gold Coast Broadwater. The Fabulous.com Beach Party offers parasailing, helicopter joy flights, jet boat thrill rides, beach volleyball, swimming, Aboriginal dancers, a musical trio, cocktail bar, gourmet steaks & seafood, and ending with a fireworks display.

Friday wraps up the events with a morning start of surfing lessons taught by champion instructor Cheyne Horan, and an animal sanctuary in the afternoon showcasing most every form of Australian wildlife.

Book early for the pre and post activities as space is limited. Each activity has a nominal booking fee to ensure your attendance as the conference sponsors pay the majority of the costs and transportation. We apologize in advance as bookings after the 10th of November cannot be accepted.

TRAFFIC Down Under | November 18 - 20, 2008 | Gold Coast, Australia

Traffic Down Under: A Special Conference, a Single Opportunity

$300 Off Today at Grand Names

Buy any HOUSE** name for $700 or more and receive a $300 credit for premium marketing services on your own domains.






Here’s What Grand Names Members Say About the Premium Marketing Service

“The marketing copy you've written for the various domains helps bring their possibilities to the forefront. I have no doubt they will sell when more potential buyers know of their availability.”

“For the first time in 14 months, I feel like I have some HOPE. My domain now has the potential to carry the vision I saw in it, forward. It is astonishing to see your domain ‘graduate’ to the big time!”

"What I really like about your writer's ad copy for my domain is the value of being able to use it in my own blog, in my ad on eBay, and at every opportunity I get to tell someone what my domain is all about."

"I realize now I was losing opportunities by not turning up in Google searches for my domain’s keywords. Even worse: searches for my domain by name led to domain forum appraisals saying it was worthless!"

Why do you need premium marketing services?

Please bear in mind that despite everything that makes Grand Names a better way to sell and buy domains, listing with us is still a passive approach to selling. In the current economy and domain market, a name that is merely listed here, at Afternic or on your own site — or just parked—will sit at any price. You can't simply wait for people to visit the domain market sites to review the lists to see what's for sale. Depending on what you've been doing with your domain, even Google searches for it by name may even do more harm than good.

Here's what I'm talking about. If someone were to Google your domain today what would they find? For one of our members, Google searches up until a week or so ago would have led to online discussions denigrating the quality and value of their names! For another member's name, the search results list its prior expiration, surround it with profanity, or lead to totally unrelated sites. That's no way to sell.

You need to engage in proactive marketing — what I call "prospecting in reverse" — to get your domain "discovered" outside of the domain listing sites, which quite honestly some of your best prospects have never even heard of. More importantly: you want to be sure that if someone Googles your domain name, the top results they find were put there by you to cast your name in the best light and make it clear why someone would want to buy it.

The key to that is seo. The idea is not only to generate traffic from searches for your domain's keywords but to use the right words to win the top attention-getting listing. It may take a while, but that's the best and most likely intersection of you and your buyer.

For those of you not certain you can do it for yourself, this is exactly the service we're offering with the Grand Names Premium Marketing program. You can read more about it here. But in brief, you get a carefully crafted, keyword-rich ad for your name, banner ad rotation on the Grand Names site, exposure on the Frager Factor blog, and distribution in RSS feeds and Google alerts that reach other blogs in the domain space and end-users who are actively searching for the words related to your domain. As I say in the news release we're about to issue, we're applying the lessons we've learned in amassing over 10,000 page-one, top-four, Google results that have led 90% of our traffic to bypass our home page and instead go directly to specific ads and articles. We can do it for you.

This is marketing assistance you can't find anywhere else. Because of the current economy and our desire to provide as much help as possible, as economically as we can afford, we're offering this service for a limited time for just $99. If you're interested, simply Contact me by email and I'll send you our domain questionnaire to complete and get your ad going.


**Make sure on the view and order name page you sort "owner" on the "house" field as this offer applies to HOUSE names ONLY

$300 Off Today at Grand Names

The House That Domains Built

The House That Domains Built

Google: Android Skepticism, Plunging Stock

Via SeekingAlpha:

In a part of the world where everyone is either praising or fearing every move of Eric Schmidt and the Monster of Mountain View, Merc columnist Chris O’Brien this morning had a very skeptical column about Google’s new cellphone operating system, entitled “Why we'll all soon forget about Google's Android.”

Citing a Chinese VC’s indifference to the T-Mobile G1 announcement, O’Brien concludes:

[His] response provides a little perspective on the immense hype Android has generated in Silicon Valley. Around the globe, Android is barely a blip on the radar. And that's unlikely to change.

Instead, expect Android to remain the latest in a long list of Google curiosities introduced amid great fanfare, only to quietly fade into the background. MORE

Google: Android Skepticism, Plunging Stock

Google Gets Serious About Click-Fraud

Click Forensics click-fraud reports gain Google agreement
Via MacWorld

In a development that would have seemed impossible two years ago, Google is cooperating publicly with Click Forensics, a click-fraud detection company with which it has had a rocky relationship.

Click Forensics said Thursday that Google has agreed to accept the electronically generated click-quality reports generated by the Click Forensics FACTr service. That means the process of documenting click-fraud instances and submitting reports to Google will be significantly automated and simplified for advertisers that use the FACTr service. MORE

Google Gets Serious About Click-Fraud

YouTube Will Begin Playing Full Episodes Of Archived CBS Shows

BY REUTERS
Posted 10/10/2008
NEW YORK — YouTube, the largest video-sharing Web site, has started to run full-length TV shows from CBS' (CBS) archive, in its latest step to boost advertising revenue by adding professional programing.

The site, owned by Google, (GOOG) said on Friday it was talking to other TV networks to sign similar deals to CBS. Many TV networks already run short clips on YouTube, which also offers millions of home videos uploaded by users.

A mix of archive CBS shows, including "Star Trek," "Young and the Restless" and "Beverly Hills 90210," will be available in full-length episodes of 20 minutes to 48 minutes.

Until now, YouTube videos were predominantly short clips of 10 minutes or less. The company has been experimenting with full-length shows for some months with Time Warner's (TWX) HBO and CBS' Showtime cable networks.

The new partnership will put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp. (NWS) and General Electric's (GE) NBC Universal.

YouTube executives said CBS would sell the ads around the shows. Both companies will share ad revenue, but financial terms of the relationship were not disclosed.

"It's all about advertisers maximizing their reach and using the most effective ad format for where the user might be situated," Shiva Rajaraman, a senior product manager for YouTube, said in an interview.

YouTube Will Begin Playing Full Episodes Of Archived CBS Shows

COO: Fifth-Largest Facebook Social Group Is Facebook Protesters

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said she was sure users would get used to the Facebook changes.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In her appearance at the American Magazine Conference last week, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said it was "good" that so many consumers are using the Facebook product to protest the Facebook product. Her remarks came as 2.7 million Facebook users were being urged to boycott the social site next weekend. The Facebook-protest community to which they belong has now become the social site's fifth most popular group.

Watch Video: 3 Minute Ad Age, Oct. 13, 2008

COO: Fifth-Largest Facebook Social Group Is Facebook Protesters