Google Loses Domain Arbitration To Canadian Start-Up

Announced today, the National Arbitration Forum has dismissed Google’s complaint that it was entitled to the domain name, Groovle.com.

Young Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, launched the web site in 2007, to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page.

Jacob Fuller stated “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google.”

Google Gets Googblog.com Back From Indian

Another day, another WIPO (World Intellectual Property Org) case. Google vs Harit Shah for the domain name googblog.com. For some strange, unforseen, unknown reason, it was apparently too close to the Google trademark. Who would have thought?

Shah said, “I was in a bad faith that I can legally keep the domain googblog.com. I really did very unfair to Google. I sincerely apologize to Google for infringement by misusing their intellectual property.”

Via: SiliconIndia and TMC.

Why You Should NOT Get Into Bed With Google …. Yet

With the news that Adsense for Domains is now available to all publishers, it may be tempting to think “Screw my parking company – I’m leaving and going direct”.

Before temptation takes over and you jump into bed with Google, think about what you are doing:

Weakening An Industry – Ending Collective Bargaining

Parking companies negotiate rates with Google. Think of it as collective bargaining in the context of a union. What Google has essentially done, is to commence a breakup of an industry, which in the long run will weaken it. If you look at past behavior, I’d suggest they will:

• Establish their own rules
• Decrease payouts over time once they get a handle on where the traffic is

Landing Pages Not Optimized

• The Google landing pages are not going to convert very well (see the image below). I’d assume they will update them over time but right now you might be better off financially, by not moving.
• Parking companies spend $$$$ on optimising landing pages, getting the right graphics, colours etc.. so the page can convert. Its in the parking companies interest for your portfolio to work. If they make $$, you make $$$.

Customer Support

• If something goes wrong, or if I have a question, I know I can call my Account Manager and get a response within 24 hours. Good luck in getting this from Google.

Long Term Strategy and Intent

So how does Google monopolise Internet traffic increase profits? Google analytics knows about your traffic flows. Adsense and Adwords tracks advertising and what you click on. Google search knows what you search on, GMail knows the contents of your emails. All this information is stored and used by Google. The big unknown for Google is obviously anything outside its network. In this case its direct navigation (type it in traffic).

What happens long term when Google knows where your traffic is coming from and decides to alter search results, payouts and change traffic flows? If your domains depend on links from other sites, why wouldn’t Google cut YOU out, because you are the middleman!

Domains You Can’t Park With Google

In case you didn’t know, Google has restrictions on the keywords found in a domain. “Terms in the URL may not contain or be related to any of the following:

• Pornography, adult, or mature terms. This includes, but is not limited to, any terms that refer to or suggest nudity, partial nudity, sexual imagery/acts, lewd/graphic or profane language.
• Violent or racially intolerant language or any other form of hate speech directed against an individual, group, or organization
• Excessive profanity
• Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
• Gambling or casino-related content
• Weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles
• Beer or hard alcohol
• Tobacco or tobacco-related products
• Prescription drugs
• Promotion of an illegal activity or an activity that infringes on the legal rights of others.
• References to tragedies or other sensitive current events
• Any other terms that are illegal, promote illegal activity, or infringe on the legal rights of others.

Summary

I believe that competition is good. Some of the greedy parking companies will probably reduce their % as people will start to compare going direct with Google vs the parking company. That’s good for the industry.

Right now I wouldn’t do anything. It’s a “wait and see” approach for me. The big question is will Yahoo and MSN follow?

Microsoft Cries – Google & Yahoo Get 90% Of Net Ads

Microsoft senior VP-general counsel Brad Smith told the US Senate and House judiciary committees:

“Never before in the history of advertising has one company been in a position to control prices on up to 90% of advertising in a single medium.  Not in television, not in radio, not in publishing. It should not happen on the Internet.”

Of course Microsoft is spewing that they “missed the Internet” back in the 90’s, failed to grab any substantial advertising market share during the dot com boom and then failed again in 2008 with the Yahoo deal.

So if the US government say no to Google, then why wouldn’t it be anticompetitive for Microsoft to own Yahoo? What’s this mean for domainers? Two players owning the entire advertising market! Can you say collusion kids? Ok – it means lower payout rates and a HUGE barrier to entry for a 3rd force.

What Does Google Benchmarking Mean For Domainers?

That depends on what Google does with the data. Think about this scenario:

“Bob” is a GMail user and uses the Google search engine. Google knows:

1. What Bob is searching on via a cookie on his computer. (if he types a url that doesn’t exist into the Google toolbar, that URL gets sent to Google).
2. What domain names he visits (Search + Analytics).
3. Who owns those domains (Google is an ICANN-accredited registrar).
4. What pages he clicks on (Analytics) .
5. What ads he clicks on (Adsense).
6. The content of emails he receives (unlimited data retention from Gmail).
7. Who is sending Bob emails (via “content extraction”).

Of course, in the recent email from Google describing benchmarking, Google said they want to provide “you with transparency, control, and new services”.  I think this was a typo made by Google, they should replace the word “you” with the word “Google”.