Oversee.net [ed. domainsponsor.com/revenue.net] has been recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal (LABJ) as one of the top three fastest growing Southern California companies, having experienced a phenomenal 640% growth rate through 2005. With a focus on direct navigation, lead generation and third party advertising solutions, its growth and expanding customer base have solidified its position as a leader in the Southern California business technology communities.

[Press Release]

After encountering some stolen domains, Andrew asks “Do we need title insurance for Domain Names?” A central database to report stolen domains does not appear to be a bad idea either, but title insurance does indeed sound like something that DomainTools.com could be offering in conjunction with some registrars etc. They would have to assign risk factors to the domain names according to owner, registrar and other whois changes.

[via ClickZ/DomainNameWire]

NameMedia (Buydomains/Yesdirect/ActiveAudience/Goldkey) has announced that they have purchased Afternic. While the Buydomains portfolio was already listed in the Afternic marketplace, this deal creates additional synergies for both parties. The domains listed on Afternic’s website can now also be included in the Buydomains listings – they can even share the sales force who can now act as brokers. Also, as Andrew from DomainNameWire points out, Afternic can now profit from the ActiveAudience domain monetization platform.

[Press Release]

Tom Hall breaks down type-in traffic into solicited and unsolicited. It reminded me of my article on different types of traffic, where I tried to address the different types of Direct Navigation Traffic by breaking it down into type-in traffic and typo traffic. I like the approach to take a look at how the user comes up with the domain in order to help categorization, but maybe in the end two types is not enough, since this would only address the initial visit. And then there’s of course the technical challenge of tracking this information, since it all almost looks the same in the logfiles.
Basically the breakdown OptimizedDomains is taking looks at the difference between a domain that represents a brand (i.e. myspace.com) and a descriptive domain that describes a service or product (i.e. shoes.com). If we look a bit closer, there are a couple of more details we could add:

• brand type-in traffic (solicited)
• generic type-in (unsolicited)
• return visit
• word of mouth (solicited)
• typo

In the comments Stephen Douglas points out that access via a bookmarks can often not be differentiated from type-in traffic, especially since there is no way to measure the difference. He also points out that we should consider re-branding the direct navigation term, since it leads to confusion with nautical navigation tools etc. Suggestions I’ve seen so far are: Direct Navigation, Type-In, Direct Search, Browser Searching and Name Direction. What do you think, is there a re-branding needed, and what is the best term?

I personally am not so fond of the term “Browser Searching” since it sounds to me like searching via a search engine would be included in it – after all you would be using a browser to access the search engine. I actually like “Direct Search”, which as far as I know was first used by NameMedia, even though it appears there might be some potential confusion as well, as a quick Google search reveales.

[via OptimizedDomains]

Development of domains is and will be a big topic in the future. How do the big portfolio holders approach this topic and are they able to address it on a larger scale, or do they develop names individually? Most of those companies now own their own content networks, and some of them have already integrated some of the content into their domain lander pages. I figured it’s about time for an overview of the companies and their development/content related holdings and partnerships:
Demand Media

• eHow / weHow
• InterMix
• HillClimb Media
• AnswerBag

NameMedia

• improve.com (formerly MoreFocus)

Marchex

• OpenList

iREIT

• Netster
• Associated Content (partnership)

This is probably not complete, since I did this from the top of my head. So let me know if I forget anyone. Please go ahead and comment or email me.

Only 16 months after News Corp. purchased Intermix (which includes MySpace) they are selling most non-MySpace properties to Demand Media, which is headed by former Intermix CEO Richard Rosenblatt.

“Our strategy is to build the next generation of new media companies. To do this requires a proprietary platform that fuels user-driven publishing, social networking and community development,” Rosenblatt, CEO, chairman and founder of Demand Media, told ClickZ.” The acquisition helps us to both build out our proprietary platform and add to our stable of media properties.”

The assets involved include more than 20 Web sites, including casual gaming site Grab.com, entertainment site FlowGo.com, and how-to site SoYouWanna.com; lead-gen network Focalex; and the remains of Intermix’s Social Labs subsidiary, not including MySpace.

[via ClickZ]

ICANN will meet on November 22nd 2006 to discuss the revised ORG/BIZ/INFO agreements, so if you would like to comment, you should submit your comments as quickly as possible. Despite previous objections, the minor revision did not remove the year over year price increases (10%) and other controversial items remain untouched as well.  I just do not understand how operating a registry would be getting more and more expensive over time, with the declining hardware and storage cost.

• ICANN “revised” ORG/INFO/BIZ agreements
  
• ICANN comments page (submit your comments to revised-biz-info-org-agreements@icann.org)
• Comments by Phil Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association
• Letter from Bob Martin of iREIT/Internet Commerce Association

ThougfulConsideration has a good introduction to Domain Investing – if you are new to this space, it seems to be like a good way to learn about it:

• Investing In Domains – One Noob’s Experience (Part 1)
• Investing In Domains – One Noob’s Experience (Part 2)

When you look at the domain examples in part one, be careful though. Anyone who registers names containing trademarks or similar to trademarks runs a risk of running into legal problems at one point or another.

[via ThoughtFulconsideration.com]

Since most of us know the free Overture Tool, which shows you how many queries have been processed within the Overture/Yahoo! network for a term in the previous month, most of us would also be frustrated with the constant timeouts of the tool in the past month or so. So DomainRookie (who’s far from a Rookie nowadays) is looking for alternatives.

So far the following tools have been listed:

• GlobalPromoter’s Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Google AdWords Tool
• Digital Point’s Free Keyword Suggestion Tool

Here’s what I can add to the list:

• Niche Bot Classic
• 7Search Keyword Suggestion Tool

[via DomainRookie, Geoff, Jennifer]

For those of you new to this business: Andrew over at Domain Name Wire has kicked off a new series on How to Sell your domains. The first part focuses on the lingo used on domain name sales websites and forums. Great start!