Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

While many environment-conscious domainers treat their use of electronic communication as a gift to the global salvation of trees, the truth might be a bit different.

Hundreds of thousands of trees are systematically cut up to create paper; some of which is used for glossy promotional material, books, newspapers, magazines, letters and most other types of printed material.

Going paperless for most bills means that we accept the electronic delivery of billing statements or financial statements from banks and other financial institutions in the form of email; a risky entrance into added phishing attempts that can cost millions of dollars to consumers.

The emissions and energy consumption by the continuous availability of thousands of computer servers clustered together act as a counter-argument by those that want to continue to receive their printed statements on paper.

The fact is, that most of today’s paper is recycled or partially recycled, which can help reduce the utilization of cut trees by as much as 80%. At the same time, reforestation of commercially exploited forests is something that occurs religiously in the industrial West, such as the US and Canada.

In other words: you might not quite be saving the environment as the banks and power companies want you to believe. You definitely save them money for not having to buy paper which they then have to print on and mail to you.

So next time you see that “green leaf” logo on your Bank’s web site asking you to go paperless, think: By cutting out a part of the economy that makes its living from the growing of trees and the processing of paper – not to mention, the poor old US Post Office – you’re removing a lot of jobs from this chain and your “contribution” might not necessarily be saving the environment at all.

The newly introduced Google Live Search has been met with both excitement and dismay by domainers. Questions about what would happen with lengthy domains of the “long tail” kind are still left to be answered.

In the preliminary stats that I have at my disposal from my own domain portfolio, I can say that I’m excited about Google’s new search interface.

I’ve witnessed a 150% to 250% increase in visits and revenue since the introduction of the tool, for my domains that are short, generic or two-word compounds. This is pretty much 90% of my domain portfolio and judging by the referrer data, I witness a hefty increase in the amount of traffic coming from Google.

This means one thing: people that search via Google using the Live Search feature, actually stop searching once the result they’re looking for pops up. This includes both “lazy searchers” that don’t want to type in the generic in the browser and searchers looking for organic results.

The average person that types in Google’s search bar can multitask, looking at the results while they are typing. For a generation of consumers that has lived their entire adult life using cellphones, SMS and text-capable phones, the new Google Live Search satisfies their hunger to view instant results.

So what about the so-called “long tail” domains?

While these rank well in Google as far as organic results are concerned, they don’t necessarily pop up when typing with the Google Live Search feature set to On. People that choose to ignore the feature, thus typing in the entire string of their search instead of selecting from the drop down menu, will probably still continue to opt for this type of search.

Meanwhile, expect a substantial revenue increase for: LLL .com domains, generics, short two-worders.

To claim the “developer” title in the domaining industry, one needs to be able to successfully perform a certain range of tasks.

A developer creates their own content, programs their relational database and codes scripts. A developer designs their own templates, layouts, web sites or modifies those made by others. A developer does not abuse their own title when asked “what do you do”.

In other words, a developer either holds a degree related to programming, systems analysis, web design, graphic design – or they are true experts in the above through lengthy hands-on experience. A developer is not someone using a CMS such as WordPress or that of a parking company’s domain manager.

Now, anyone can name a gathering of individuals whatever they want, particularly when there is an admission fee or further soft-selling of products or services.

Personally, I believe in calling things by their name: Epik’s current conference is not a gathering of developers.

It’s a gathering of domainers that use or want to use the Epik platform, no different than Parked or WhyPark having their own show for their own people. While it’s true that from any gathering of professionals many business to business connections arise, the Epik conference is all about current and potential users of the Epik CMS and business model.

Simple as that.

There are plenty of true developers’ conferences out there; as long as one is not a domainer who somehow wears the “developer” hat once in a blue moon.

I’ll leave you with Steve Ballmer’s monumental speech about software developers.

The speediest method to display a useful web site upon browsing, is the launch of a homepage every time your browser starts.

I’m a news junkie so my choice is usually CNN or MSNBC – other times I switch over to TechCrunch.

As a domainer though, there is one page that you need to bring up most often, particularly when you buy domains – or even when you sell.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office page at USPTO.gov

Very few domainers seem to query the USPTO database, prior to buying domains from various sources. While forums might offer a low acquisition cost that’d help minimize the potential risk, buying domains at “free for all” auction platforms such as NameJet might not be as forgiving.

It seems that dropping domains offer a variety of ways for bidders to become entrapped in the “heat of the moment” and bid increasingly higher amounts of money on domains that match – or are confusingly similar – to registered or pending trademarks.

Therefore, it is prudent to research these domains prior to bidding; all you have to do is hit “Home” on your web browser and spend a couple of minutes identifying any potential risks.