Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

BuyDomains was served with a third UDRP in a week, according to Mike Berkens at TheDomains.

I’m not in the least surprised and I’ll explain why.

It’s a game of numbers. It’s pure statistics at work: the more domains one owns – assuming that they are spread naturally and are not intentional, blatant trademark violations – the chances of being served with a UDRP are higher.

With four million domains in its portfolio, BuyDomains is definitely a large player in the market. During the past few years, BuyDomains liquidated several thousand domains and released a few more. But the bulk of its portfolio has been held for years.

Sometimes, trademark holders or those who believe they have a case don’t wait any longer. Corporate lawyers change and younger, more aggressive legal teams take over the game of intimidation.

On top of that, BuyDomains monetizes its domains in a manner that gives plenty of fodder to those companies that witness their products, brands or those of competitors appear as ads on the web sites.

So it’s not really a surprise that those recent cases saw the light of domaining day. Domain investment carries its risk and BuyDomains has recorded plenty of success to prove that such investment is worth it.

I use LinkedIn – the network of professionals – to keep in touch with people I worked with in the past, present and those that I would like to work with in the future.

I also use it for a different purpose altogether: to gauge or ‘validate’ domain registrations.

Often, I peruse domain lists of available domains; some of which I generate from old corporate data. There are hundreds, if not thousands of corporations that ended their lifecycle; the domains often expire and drop.

That’s where LinkedIn comes to play. A lot of those corporate entities are still semi-active, at former employee level. They often form communities, sometimes they reminisce about ‘the good old days’ and thus provide me with valuable information prior to committing my selections of domains to register.

So next time you come across an available domain, or when you ponder about how much to spend on one that’s on sale, try a search on LinkedIn first.

Domain investor, Abdu Tarabichi, made an interesting post at his blog, regarding bidders that inflate prices at domain auctions.

According to information relayed to Abdu, certain participants of those auctions engage in the ‘noble sport’ of bidding up auctions they cannot otherwise afford, just to spite those that can.

In my opinion, this argument does not hold much water, and I will explain why.

First of all, a responsible bidder – that is, one that intends to pay for the domain – risks their money: if they bid higher than the top bidder, they would have to come up with the cash.

At NameJet, where identities are easily disclosed by following several auctions and a few days later seeing who owns the domain, competition is tough.

Just yesterday, I lost a virtual ‘boxing match’ with some of the ‘usual suspects’ – catchname, domainbank, homer, and others. I bid as high as my budget allowed, occupying the top spot of these auctions temporarily. These folks eventually exchanged punches among themselves, as there can only be one winner.

The notion that someone plays a game of cat and mouse with the other auction participants in order to cost them more money, is absurd; despite the bidding patterns of some domain investors, there is no warranty that a particular bidder will enter a high reserve, for example. Every bid placed comes with the obligation to pay for the domain should it be won, or risk being banned.

Bidding at auctions means just that: it’s a live competition about who will get the domain at a price they can afford. So far, I have not witnessed any complaints from those that consistently win domains at auctions such as NameJet.

An old friend turned 30 years old today, and while he has no home anymore, he carries within some of my early computing memories.

The Sinclair ZX Spectrum, with its 48 kb RAM, 16 colors, 256 x 192 pixel display and monophonic sound, was officially launched on April 23, 1982.

A couple of friends bought one during that time, and mine was acquired on Christmas eve of 1985. The 8-bit ZX Spectrum sported a “chicklet” keyboard and an expansion port. One had to connect it to a television as a display, and software loaded from audio tape; a tape recorder was not included.

And yet, somehow, through that early introduction to BASIC – the primary programming language of the ZX Spectrum – a generation of youth around the world, experienced their first steps on an affordable computer.

It wasn’t all about programming and education; computer games were the driving force and soon enough, software houses in the UK, Europe and in the Americas churned out software coded in Zilog Z80 “machine code“. The Zilog CPU was clocked at 3.5 Mhz, a tiny nano-midget compared to today’s Intel monster CPU clocks of 1,000 times more.

“Uncle” Clive Sinclair, the progressive British entrepreneur behind Sinclair Research, was knighted eventually by Queen Elizabeth of England. His contribution to spreading affordable computing to thousands turned him into a legend; thousands of kids, teenagers and adults alike aspired to become programmers and entrepreneurs.

Having produced a published series of software games and applications in the late 80′s and very early 90′s, I’m grateful that ZX Spectrum ever existed, as it carved a path for me, my career and that of thousands of others – back in the day that the Internet was pure science fiction.

Happy 30th birthday, Speccy!

Frank Schilling‘s active involvement in the domain aftermarket auctions has been covered many times by DomainGang.

Fun and games aside, many domainers are curious about how the Canadian late-comer managed to build a successful empire, first registering and then acquiring thousands of top quality domain names; finally building a domain sales platform for himself and for others.

Frank’s active bidding on NameJet is not a secret, and I’ve followed his bids closely at times – outbidding him once for a dictionary .net. I’m not sure if this is a feat to be proud of, but I respect Frank’s involvement in quality domain auctions, as a participant or as an observer.

Today I had a strange thought: Should I be concerned if Frank Schilling isn’t bidding on two auctions I follow as a NameJet bidder? Is that an indication that the domains aren’t really of great potential?

After having a second cup of coffee, I decided that it’s simply a matter of being selective; unlike stamps or sports cards, with domains you can’t have them all. One needs to pick and choose, regardless of how nice a domain might seem to be.

Still, it’d be great to bid against Frank once again, knowing that he’s a sensible bidder and not someone who places crazy amounts of money on the auction table.

After all, gambling is best suited for the Las Vegas casinos.