Check out this great video by the guys at QuietLibrary.com. If you thought all the good names were taken, think again, …AND get your credit card ready!

Google is arguable the best search engine out there, and yet when using it we sometimes get poor quality search results and “made for adsense” sites. In fact, many of us in the domain and/or SEO industry are responsible for some of those sites. What is a “made for adsense” site? Well, they can be one page landers or they can be large, multi-page websites and they typically have 3 adsense ad areas per page. On the surface, they seem to contain relevant content, but when you actually read the text you discover that it is keyword rich and information poor. For example, here is an excerpt from a site that I would classify as “made for adsense”

Bacardi’s current headquarters and main production facility is situated most fittingly at an island in the Caribbean known as Puerto Rico. It is at the capital of this Caribbean paradise that one of Bacardi’s major facilities is situated.

What? Did it just take 38 words to say “Bacardi is located in Puerto Rico”

This is where the Digg voting method could help the search results. Google could display their search results along with a way to vote on the results. Useful sites get voted up, bad sites get voted down. This social search feature would not replace their algorithm, it would likely be one additional factor that they could use to improve the results or pagerank. They could also add digg style reviews or comments for each site.

Keep in mind that this is all simply speculation, but perhaps it is part of the motivation behind the rumored Google purchase of Digg. Obviously, any changes to the Google algorithm will have massive impact on domainers and site owners. If people are able to review site content, it could be bad news for meaningless “made for adsense” sites. On the other hand, it could be good news for people who develop sites with great and unique content. Content (ideally combined with a great domain name) is and always has been king, so those who develop quality sites with great content should have nothing to worry about.

The auction for Video.us ended at 12pm this afternoon, and this time it sold for $12,000. The name sold for $75,000 last year and then $18,500 earlier this year.

Check out Ron Jackson’s recent post on DNJournal.com for more information about the strange history of this domain name:

In the past 15 months, two previous owners lost big bucks after buying Video.us only to see the registry delete the domain for Nexus/WhoIs violations. Now we will see if the third time is the charm for this star-crossed domain. The story began in April 2007 when a European company bought the domain from its American owner for $75,000 (the highest reported price for a .us domain to date).

Read more…

Ok, so I think I found the worst company name ever combined with the worst choice for domain names ever. This one is so bad, it might even make Aaron from good URL bad URL cry. It is so bad that I had to stop and take a picture of it (check out the picture below). My wife and I were driving to a restaurant when I noticed a sign with a company name - ΤranD0tCom. I said “Hey, that’s a pretty good domain name, Τran.com.” My wife said, “Yeah, but why did they spell out the dot, instead of just using the symbol?”

I quickly pulled out my iPhone and entered “Τran.com” and sure enough, they do not own it. I said, “you don’t think…” and then entered “ΤranD0tCom.com” which not only worked, but made the story even better. ΤranD0tCom.com actually redirects to their company site at “www.TranD0tCom.info.” Yep, that’s right, their company website is officially ΤranD0tCom.info. I’m sure they are a great company, but I wonder how much time they waste just explaining their website address to people.

Can you imagine working for that company and talking to a customer on the phone.

Employee: Hello and thank you for calling TranD0tCom.
Customer: Hi, I visited Tran.com and I could not find out anything about your company.
Employee: What website did you visit?
Customer: Tran.com
Employee: Oh, our website is actually TranD0tCom.info.
Customer: Well, I just entered Tran.com.info and nothing happened.
Employee: Would you prefer to just send us an email?
Customer: Sure, what is your email addres?
Employee: Our email address is info@trand0tcom.info
Customer: Ok, got it. info@tran.com.info

Actually, I think that they probably had a few too many conversations like that because after reviewing their website, it appears that for email they are using tdcemail.com.

Bonus Picture: Employee of the month parking spot

Understandably, the employee in charge of domain name selection has never parked there.

Today’s UUOPD (Unusual Usage of Premium Domains) website is Mix.com. Mix is not just a three letter domain, it is also a word with several uses. Apparently though, the owner thinks the best use is to put a picture of a girl in a bunny suit with a couple of fire extinguishers, next to a picture of a daffy duck jack-in-the-box Christmas ornament. I am starting to think that in order to get these images, the owner just went to Google image search, clicked the “I’m feeling lucky” button, and then did not get lucky.

Moving on, we see a couple of links that say “What we do” and link to Barnes and Noble. The link shows results for a search on Barnes and Noble for the search term “Bill Youdleman.” According to whois, Bill is the owner of this site. According to the Barnes and Noble website, he is an engineer on these CDs, which I guess explains why he registered this domain name.

Seriously though, congrats to Bill for having the foresight to register such a great name seventeen years ago, in 1991.

23 years ago today, the domain name Think.com was registered. Some of you might think you registered your first name a long time ago, but think about this; Think.com probably preceded your first registration by a decade or more. Some of you might think you started registering domains too late, but think about this; 23 years from now, someone will be registering their first domain name.

In 1985, the year Think.com was registered:

• The Web browser had not yet been invented
• Windows 1.0 was released, and Microsoft was a privately held company
• Ronald Reagan was president of the United States
• Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet leader
• New Coke was released. Anyone remember that?
• Back to the Future was the top grossing film
• The Berlin Wall was still up

So, what were you thinking about in 1985?

Clear your calendars and get ready for the best (and perhaps only) domainer networking meetup in Atlanta this year. DomainerCon is three weeks from tomorrow and the registration deadline is quickly approaching. If you have not yet signed up, go to DomainerCon.com today and fill out the quick form to let us know you are coming. It is a free networking event, but we need to know how much space is needed. The main event is from 5-7 pm on Saturday, June 14, but feel free to stay as late as you want. Also, some people have expressed interest in getting together for breakfast the next day, so we may do that as well. If you know of anyone in the Atlanta area that has not yet signed up, help us spread the word by letting them know. We look forward to seeing you there.

The Microsoft-Yahoo merger is not working out, and the guys at Microsoft seem like they don’t really know what to do. This is not surprising though, as they have yet to put together a successful search engine strategy. Their MSN Search is now Microsoft Live Search, online at Live.com. I wonder why they picked “Live.com” as the name though. Sure it is a great domain, but wouldn’t it be better used as a video site or social network? The much more obvious name for a search engine is Search.com, and CNet owns it.

The CNet-CBS deal is not finalized, and if CNet receives a higher offer, they can take it. Instead of Microsoft paying users to use their sub-par search engine, why not use a few bucks from their cash reserves and buy CNet. It won’t necessarily fix their search problems, but it will give them a solid foundation for future online services such as:

Search.com - to compete with Google
Com.com - wildcard it to bring more visitors to search.com
MP3.com - to compete with Apple iTunes
Download.com - to promote their software
Downloads.com - also to promote their software
Computers.com - to promote Windows operating system
Help.com - for customer support
Chat.com - to promote Windows live messenger
TV.com - to help them get into the living room with interactive tv

No doubt they will miss this opportunity though. They started by underestimating the importance of the Internet, and they obviously underestimate the power of great generic domain names. Oh well, maybe one day they will realize what they missed and perhaps they can just buy CBS.

There has been some talk lately about the need to trim the portfolio, but few specifics about how to do that. Well, I would like to offer some specifics. Keep in mind that these are just some guidelines, and I do not suggest you listen to everything I say. I don’t even follow all of these suggestions all the time . Hopefully this list will help you with the decision process, but the bottom line is that there are no strict rules when deciding on what to keep and what to let go (or what to not register in the first place).

PPC Names: Parked names that make more than their renewal fees are generally worth keeping. Keep an eye on the renewal prices though, because they will likely increase by 7% a year for the foreseeable future.

Trademark and Trademark Typo names: These names are often more trouble than they are worth. Dump them now.

Non .com Names: Many people will tell you to primarily invest in .com names, but that does not help you if you already own non .com domains. If you own domain in an extension other than .com, check to see if the other extensions are also taken. The best names are generally registered in .com, .net, .org, .info, and even .biz. If you own the .biz and the .net is still available, consider dropping the name. If you own any extension and the .com is available, consider dropping the name.

Do you own all of the extensions? Some people like to own the series, or every extension of a domain name, including the .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz. .mobi, and the .us (or other country code). First, if you own all the extensions, chances are there is a reason they were all available. Second, sometimes it is better if you own the .com and other people own the other extensions. Sometimes they will develop a site and inadvertently increase your visitor count, and sometimes they will just want to buy your .com name. If your main business uses the .com name, then it is ok to register the other extensions to protect your name, but if you are simply registering all of the extensions because you think it will make your .com name more valuable, consider dropping the non .com versions.

Country code names: Keep the name if it is a strong keyword in the cctld of the country you live in. Avoid cctld names that try to brand themselves as something else. For example .Bz. .cc, .la, .im, .me names. A possible exception is .tv, but be sure to invest in a strong generic domain and watch out for high and potentially uncertain renewal fees.

Brandables: These names are called “brandables” because they are currently meaningless and must be heavily promoted or advertised by a company before they make sense. Why would a company pick the name you own instead of just making up another meaningless and available “brandable” name. Consider dropping all but a few of your favorites.

Does the name receive any visitors, or does the name have a heartbeat? According to Frank Schilling, these are “names which somebody will either type into their address bar because the string means something to them, or names which people look-up the whois record of, to see who owns it. Names which compel other human beings to take some form of action.” This is perhaps one of the most important concepts that you should apply to your entire portfolio.

One character makes a difference. Atlanta.com is extremely valuable, Atlanta7.com is not. Order makes a difference. PetFoodSupplies.com is in the correct order, SuppliesPetFood.com is not.

New domain extensions such as .mobi, .asia, etc.: While it is possible to profit from any extension, it is also important to note that the majority of investors in extensions such as these will be stuck with renewal fees for years before they will simply drop the name without an offer. There is very little or no traffic coming to these names, so you will either need to develop or sell to an end user before renewal fees eat away all of your profit.

Short domain “sellouts” like the “The official final countdown for L-LL and LL-L.” Most of these types of names appeal to newer domainers, and the potential for a good end user sale is very low. You will be lucky if you make your money back, and this will likely be a very expensive lesson for quite a few people. I am not talking about quality LLLL.coms or shorter names here, I am referring to names like N-N-N.com, L-L-L.net, NN-N.com, N-NN.com, LLLLL.net, etc in the current market.

Are there advertisers? If you go to Google and type in your domain name without the extension, are there advertisers for that term or terms? Ideally, you should see three advertisers at the top before the search results, and quite a few advertisers in the column on the right side of the page. If there are no advertisers, consider letting the name go.

There are many other factors to consider, and sometimes you have to just go with what you believe in, regardless of what anyone else tells you. So, what do you think, and what criteria do you use when deciding if you should register or renew a name?

Today’s UUOPD (Unusual Usage of Premium Domains) website is Five.com. Five.com unusual because when you visit the site, all you see is a black background and “five.com” in tiny white letters in the center of the screen. You can’t really go anywhere or do anything, but hey, at least you know where you are, right? What also makes this website unusual is that if you look at the source code of this extremely basic looking website you will see that it is slightly more complex than you think; it uses css for formating and statcounter to track visitor activity. What exactly was the owner thinking? Perhaps the conversation went something like this:

Five.com owner: Sweet, I just registered five.com.
Five.com owner’s friend: That is a great name, what are you going to do with it?
Five.com owner: I have big plans for this one. First, I am going to show off my awesome coding skills by using css to create a black background. White is lame, all the cool sites have black backgrounds these days.
Five.com owner’s friend: You rock, and black backgrounds rule. What are you going to do next?
Five.com owner: Well, obviously I am going to use some tiny text to spell out the website address, and center that on the screen. Then I will add statcounter code to see who is visiting.
Five.com owner’s friend: Yeah, that way you can see who is visiting and where they are going on your site. There are going to be other pages right?
Five.com owner: No way. I don’t want to confuse people with complex navigation and too many words. I am just going to keep it simple.

Click here for more UUOPD websites.