Bifty.com

Apple’s internet real estate just got a little bigger recently after winning 16 domains in two UDRP’s. You can check out the first and second filing here in which Daniel Bijan failed to respond.

The findings indicate:

Respondent registered the <macbookpro.com> domain name on January 10, 2006, the <macbookpro.net> domain name on April 3, 2007, the <macbookpro.org> domain name on March 29, 2007, the <macbookpro.biz> domain name on March 28, 2007, the <macfriend.com> domain name on November 2, 2005, the <blueipod.com> domain name on November 26, 2007, the <redipods.com> domain name on January 27, 2008, the <ipodaccessories.info> domain name on January 24, 2009, the <ipodsbaratos.com> domain name on July 5, 2006, <ipodkits.com> on April 24, 2008, the <iphonecheap.com> domain name  on May 23, 2006, and the <iphonetoys.com> domain name on March 21, 2008.  Respondent’s disputed domain names resolve to websites displaying third-party links to websites offering computer, computer accessories, and music devices in competition with Complainant.

Respondent, Daniel Bijan, registered the <macbookpro.us>, <macbook.us>, and <macbooks.us> domain names on March 29, 2007, and registered the <macpro.us> domain name on March 31, 2007.  The disputed domain names resolve to a website that contains links to third-party websites, some of which offer technology products and services in competition with Complainant’s products and services.

I believe this is the general term for “Amateur purchased the domains and let them remain parked displaying GoDaddy (the register in this incident) parked pages to similar items.” If, and this is a very strong if, you wanted to purchase a domain name that was a trademarked name – you would want to immediately un-park them and open up some time of “official review” page. I will not get into the technicalities of what you can and can not legally do, but leaving the domains on the default registrars parked pages will surly cost you the domains down the road (you might also want to respond to any complaints).

Etang.com sold on NameJet.com for a whopping $35,603 after the 129 bidders were done competing for the domain name.

Doing a quick Google search we can find out it means “little lake” (roughly) which is similar to pond in english. Taking it a step further with our handy Google Keyword Tool you can see the Global Monthly Search Volume is 246,000.

Would you spend 35k on the domain pond.com?

I know I wouldn’t waste my money on Etang.com unless I had some serious development plans.

Let’s see what comes out of this purchase.

Domain registrar Network Solutions and the domain organization ICANN are being sued over the “front running” practices that was publicized by the domaining world earlier in the year.

- Read about the front running practices here.

Front running is also known as domain tasting. This is the practice of securing a domain for approximately 5 days, analyzing the traffic of the domain, and then releasing it back into the public without paying a registration fee. Made possible by an ICANN policy that was supposed to be used for domains that are misspelled or when a credit card doesn’t fully process the payment (among some other reasons).

Chris McElroy has brought the class-action lawsuit after Network Solutions had turned it’s domain search feature into the ultimate domain tasting machine. Using its status as one of the largest, and oldest, registrar on the market it was capturing every query made on it’s system.

Thus effectively forcing the user to register the domain at the NetSol astronomical prices. Of course you could wait for the domain to be released in 5 days but lots of people started to monitor the registered/dropped lists from NetSol (someone wanted the domains right?).

So how much is Network Solutions facing in damages? We have yet to see any definitive numbers but the Kabateck, Brown, and Kellner LLP firm is on the case and they are known for getting some big payouts from companies like Google and Microsoft.

I have a feeling that this lawsuit will be successful at two things:

1. Costing NetSol some big dollars which would force a drop in registration prices to increase revenue.
2. ICANN is going to loose and decide that domain tasting should come to an immediate stop. Continuing the 5 day grace period will only keep a target on their back and their pocketbooks potentially open.

You could be an ant farmer in Indonesia who knows nothing about computers but has somehow managed to get a domain name, some hosting, and a hack design program. After the dust clears the man will then ask the ultimate question:

“Why isn’t my website listed in Google?”

The answer to this question is straight forward (kind of not really) and I will quote from the Google Webmaster tools site for specific information. The Google Webmaster section can be found at http://google.com/support/webmasters/

You need a website.
Google is in the business of organizing relevant information and delivering relevant results to the people making the searches.  Forwarding a domain name to a network marketing, candle/travel business, anything else that is scam will not be indexed.

Once you build an actual website you have to make sure to include a few key components.

• Title – If you don’t have a proper title that references the keyword you want to be relevant in  – well how would you expect Google to list you? Would a book publisher release a book without a title?
  
• Text – Make sure you have relevant text (information) that is in regards to the keywords you are targeting. Google can’t read your big ugly images, annoying flash, random iFrames, etc. For added benefit you can make sure the text is actually unique and uhh…. relevant.
  
• Links – You can’t expect the Googlebot to find all your pages if you make it difficult to jump from one page to another from within your own site. Make it easy for your surfers, make it easy for Google, and you will be rewarded.
  

Google specifically says this: “Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page. In addition, we process information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes. Googlebot can process many, but not all, content types. For example, we cannot process the content of some rich media files or dynamic pages.”

Did you call Google and invite them to play?
Submit your domain name to Google so they know your website is up and ready to play the search engine game. You can do this at the following address: http://www.google.com/addurl/.

Become relevant enough to crawl?
You can provide a website with a title, great coding, and even some original text but Google might still not locate your site. The only way to ensure your listing is to make sure other peers, relevant peers (people already in Google), link to your website.

Ready for the quick fix?

• Create a website (if it is not already made)
• Give it some titles
• Submit to Google
• Have friends and other sites in your keyword range link to your site

Now your listed in Google!