Archive for the 'Internet' Category

Facebook Usernames, or Vanity URLs

Published June 13, 2009 in Domain Names and Internet. 3 Comments

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FacebookToday, I successfully applied for my so-called Facebook username, which is actually a vanity URL. The new URL of my Facebook profile is Facebook.com/DominikMueller.

I think it’s been a great idea of Facebook to introduce these usernames, because the actual profile URLs are very long, cryptic and impossible to type in. Other social networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter have been using vanity URLs for a long time.

According to Facebook, you can choose a username on a first-come, first serve basis. You can apply for your personal username on Facebook.com/Username. If I’m not mistaken, it’s also possible to secure generic keywords instead of a username or your real name. For example, it should be possible to apply for terms such as Facebook.com/DomainSeller, …/TravelAgent, …/Money and so on.

If you already have applied for a username, did you get your username of choice? And what is it?

Marchex Adhere adds premium websites to its advertising network

Published April 8, 2009 in Internet and Marketing. 0 Comments

Marchex, Inc.Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX), a leading local search and performance advertising company, today announced that it has added 16 premium local and vertical Web sites, including Internet.com (a division of WebMediaBrands), The Big Money, BondsOnline, and Incisive Media’s Law.com to Marchex Adhere™, its vertical performance advertising network.

“At Internet.com, we appeal to a blend of IT and business professionals looking for global news and analysis on products and services that impact their everyday lives. When they visit our Web site, we want to ensure we are delivering advertising that is highly relevant to their interests and needs,” said Gus Venditto, Senior VP and General Manager, WebMediaBrands. “Marchex Adhere delivers top quality industry-specific advertisers that are well matched to our content, allowing us to maximize our ad inventory and revenue.”

Marchex Adhere features more than 200 premium publisher Web sites and newsletters, including BusinessWeek, Kiplinger.com, and RealtyTrac, across numerous verticals, including business, finance, real estate, information technology, and human resources. Unlike traditional ad networks, Marchex Adhere gives publishers control over their own inventory and provides advertisers transparency on where their ads appear on the network.

“Publishers are increasingly looking for the most effective and efficient ways to maximize their yield, while advertisers want to place their ads where they are most relevant and generate the highest return-on-investment,” said Sloan Seymour, Senior Vice President, Marchex Adhere. “Marchex Adhere is helping both parties maximize their results, providing transparency and control along the way.”

“Marchex Adhere offers a breadth of premium Web sites, across a wide range of industries, giving us the ability to reach a highly qualified audience,” said Jeff Coveney, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Application Security. “Using several site- and category-specific campaigns, we were able to cost-effectively target those businesses that utilize our solutions, resulting in higher conversion rates and more qualified sales.”

(Press release via Marchex)

Microsoft to Merge Windows Live and Office Live

Published January 24, 2009 in Internet and Marketing. 1 Comment

http://www.pcworld.com/article/158254/microsoft_to_merge_windows_live_and_office_live.html

It’s been reported that Microsoft (MSFT) is going to rebrand both of its Windows Live and Office Live services under the name of Kumo. Apparently, “kumo” is Japanese for “cloud” or “sea spider”, inter alia. The company filed a trademark application for Kumo on December 04, 2008. It has also bought a couple of domains that will be pointing to the new site. First and foremost, they bought the four-letter domain Kumo.com, which was originally registered in 1996. Microsoft also bought and registered KumoSearch.com, KumoWiki.com, KumoPics.com, KumoGroups.com and KumoTravel.com.

Microsoft’s online software business has been struggling for a while and is facing increasing competition from Google’s line of online office software. The Windows Live and Office Live brand has never been a success, so rebranding may be a good decision, especially since MSFT is now going to merge most of its online services and its Live.com search engine under one name. However, whether Kumo is a good name remains to be seen. I’ve actually liked Live.com very much, and I still think it’s better than Kumo. Both are short names, but “live” is an actual word that I think has a lot of branding potential. I don’t think that completely moving away from that brand will do any good. Why does Microsoft not concentrate on merging its online products and keep the Live.com brand instead of dumping it for a typical Web 2.0 start-up name?

Anyway, there seems to be increasing demand for short four-letter brands, which will be music in the ears of the owners of four-letter domain names. Hulu, Wiki, Kumo, Fusu and others… Short seems to be good.

Ask.com Acquires Sendori

Published January 24, 2009 in Domain Names, Internet and Marketing. 0 Comments

Ask.com / IACThe DN Journal reports that the Ask.com division Ask Sponsored Listings, which is an IAC company, has acquired domain monetization company Sendori. Founded in August 2006, Sendori is a relatively new service acting as a middle-man between owners of premium type-in domains and advertisers looking to buy additional quality traffic to their websites.

Instead of monetizing the domain through a parking page and earning money per click, Sendori allows domain owners to directly sell their traffic to advertisers who will pay per visit. This has made Sendori’s advertising program an innovative approach to matching the needs of traffic buyers and those owning the traffic sources, the domain name owners.

SendoriDirect navigation traffic is high-quality traffic that converts well, so buying direct traffic is a good option for businesses to send thousands of additional clients to their online destinations every day. At the time of the acquisition, Sendori had 130,000 advertisers buying a total of 33 million page views per month. This massive amount of traffic surely is one of the reasons why Ask.com/IAC has been interested in the company. It’s also a good addition to Ask.com’s portfolio of online businesses. Today, every search and online marketing business needs a strong base of advertisers and traffic to be able to compete with Google to some extent instead of completely falling behind. Ask.com has shown deep knowledge of the value of generic domains in the past: Last year it bought the Lexico Publishing Group, owner of the Dictionary.com portfolio of domains and websites. Other domains part of that deal were Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.

The takeover of Sendori marks an important strategic move by Ask.com, which now has a lot more traffic to drive to its growing group of online advertisers. It is a small player compared to Google, therefore this was also a necessary acquisition.

Microsoft, get that Yahoo Search deal done, will ya?

Published January 12, 2009 in Internet and Marketing. 1 Comment

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c6338b00-dddb-11dd-87dc-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1

As reported by the Financial Times in the article linked above, Microsoft (MSFT) is again (or perhaps still) interested in Yahoo’s search business (YHOO). Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, told the FT that the software company was not going to fully take over Yahoo, but it was going to get a search deal done with the world’s number two search engine. Both companies are currently going through changes in their management teams: Yahoo is looking for a new CEO and Microsoft now has Qi Lu, Yahoo’s former search chief, leading its online division. That would make it a perfect time for the search deal, said Ballmer.

I don’t want to go into the details of the ongoing negotiations between MSFT and YHOO, where even Google (GOOG) has played a role for some time, but I can say that after more than one year I’m actually tired of hearing the many rumors about Microsoft and Yahoo. I’m sure Google has been laughing all the time while slowly but steadily growing its market share in the online search and advertising markets. That’s why I can only hardly understand why Microsoft and Yahoo haven’t been able to get into a partnership, yet. Both companies are not in a position to compete with Google as of today, so merging or at least working together in some way would be the right decision for both companies.

It would also be interesting to know what influence the back and forth has had on Yahoo’s brand. I guess Yahoo has suffered a severe image loss since saying no to Microsoft’s offer to acquire the company for close to $50 billion in 2008 (Yahoo’s market value has since dropped to $17 billion). Following that were disputes with Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang and more negative press.

But I think that Balmer may have talked to Yahoo already considering that he has made the above public statements in a newspaper. Otherwise, I guess, he would have remained silent for the time being. Who knows, maybe the Microsoft/Yahoo deal is just around the corner? (Or that’s just wishful thinking of mine.)

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