On Circle ID Frank Schilling of the registrar Domain Name Sales posts on the history of Domain Tasting/Testing.

Present day “Domain Tasting” has its roots in 2001 and 2002 when a small group of ambitious domain registrants persuaded two registrars [...] to allow them to register large blocks of domain names for the purpose of establishing which names garnered type-in traffic and then subsequently deleting those which didn’t. These registrants were motivated to locate generic, defensible domain names with resonance; names which were compelling and obvious that people would use to navigate the web and to then monetize the traffic those names generated through paid-search advertising. It is important to note that old traffic from a former web site (link popularity) or traffic from a company trademark is entirely different from organic type-in traffic which comes to “generic names” for the keyword weight or gravity of the name alone. Names such as spacepictures.com or pandabears.com contain generic intent type-in traffic which could be sold to the first generation paid-search monetization companies of the day [...].

[via Circle ID]

Marketing Pilgrim brings us some exclusive Google information, which confirms my theory that click fraud numbers are generally being misrepresented.

Based on a discussion with Google’s business product manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, “the click fraud rate - as discovered by most AdWords advertisers - is on average, less than 2% of all clicks through Google’s system“.

Google has a four-stage process in identifying and filtering what it calls “invalid clicks”. Google’s definition of invalid clicks includes non-fraudulent clicks (such as a visitor genuinely clicking an AdWords ad more than once) and “click fraud” (those clicks that are obviously not legitimate).

[...]

Google is able to filter out the majority of invalid clicks before reports a served to the advertiser.

[...]

Many advertisers – and click fraud detection companies – are looking at the wrong signals and often class valid clicks as fraudulent, or request refunds for clicks that Google had already discounted.

Read the full article for more details and re-produced diagrams.

[via Marketing Pilgrim]

As I had reported earlier, Dark Blue Sea (DBS) had asked for a trading hold on their stock on the Australian Stock Exchange. Apparently there is a takeover bid by Photon Group Limited at a price of 65 cents cash per share (more details in Annexure A of the bid). Photon Group Limited owns 19.8% of the Dark Blue Sea shares to date. The board of DBS recommends that the shareholders take no action at this point until the directors have had time to respond to the offer.

1. Appendix 3F - Final share buy back notice (07/12/2006)
2. Trading Halt (08/12/2006)
3. 65 cents per share takeover bid for DBS from PGA (11/12/2006)
4. Annexure A to Bid Announcement from PGA (11/12/2006)
5. Becoming a substantial holder from PGA (11/12/2006)
6. DBS: Attachment to Notice of initial substantial holder (11/12/2006)
7. Change in substantial holding (11/12/2006)
8. Response to take over offer by PGA (11/12/2006)

from the News.com.au coverage:

Photon last Friday spent $10.9 million to buy 16.83 million shares in DBS from majority shareholder and founder Dean Shannon, at 65c per share.

Photon announced yesterday it would extend that offer to buy the remaining 80.2 per cent of DBS, which specialises in search-engine marketing and web-domain name marketing and advertising.

[...]

Photon’s offer is conditional upon its acquiring at least 50.1 per cent of DBS, which reported revenue of $33.5 million in the year to June, up 50 per cent from $22.3 million in 2004-05. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were $4.4 million, up from $2.7 million, while net profit after tax was $2.9 million, up 62 per cent.

Dark Blue Sea is the parent company of registrar, PPC aggregator, marketplace and portfolio holder Fabulous.com.

From Sara, a Sedo Employee:

There was an electrical fire in our office building on Friday, December 8th, which was the result of a transformer blowing up in the basement. Because of this, the office was closed for the rest of the day on Friday, and was not open today. I have no updates as of when the building will be reopened, but as of now, Sedo employees will be working from home. Our database, as well as transfers, will not be affected. However, customer service emails will be delayed a couple of days.

I hope that everyone is OK. All the best!

[via DNForum]

Dark Blue Sea, the parent company of registrar, PPC aggregator, marketplace and portfolio holder Fabulous.com, has proposed a trading halt to the Australian stock exchange until December 12th, 2006, pending the release of an announcement by the company. In the past weeks the stock has been steadily rising. The company also just announced the conclusion of their share buyback program.

[via DNForum]

At the most recent ICANN meeting in Sao Paulo, the ICANN board unamiously approved the changed ORG/INFO/BIZ registry contracts with a 13 to 0 vote, once more ignoring the solicited comments of the community against the new agreements. So let’s get ready for unjustified price increases and differential pricing. Merry Christmas!

From ICANN:

The approval of the .BIZ/.INFO and .ORG registry agreements by the Board following a public comment and review period. The Board found that the proposed new agreements, which include a new restriction on the use of “traffic data” and the acceptance of 10 per cent caps on price increases by the registry operators, would be beneficial for ICANN and the Internet community.

Well, I am just glad that ICANN is so concerned about what would benefit the Internet community. Meanwhile, their meeting participation website focuses on really important topics, such as how many pairs of shoes the attendees have in their luggage.

The .TV and .CC registries (owned by Verisign) originally operated sites that sold domains directly to endusers under their own brands TV Corp and eNic. They are informing customers via email that Demand Media’s eNom will be managing their domain names.

Since ICANN plays a big role in determining our industry’s future, you might want to follow their meeting in Sao Paulo, which is starting today. This is the first time that ICANN offers remote participation, so visit the pilot here.

The DomainerDinner number three in Toronto will take place on Thursday, December 7th. Let me know if you would like to be part of it. Limited spaces available.