SEO Discussion Blog

Is Your Domain Name Property or just a Service?

This has been a debate on the General Assembly Mailing List of which I’m a member for years. It has been asked in the courts for a number of years as well. Is a domain name real property or is it just a service provided by registries through registrars?

Courts have gone both ways on the subject, sometimes finding that it is real property in some cases and in others finding that it isn’t.

I’ve been a member of the General Assembly, the former DNSO mailing lists, the TLDa (TLD owners) and other groups for some time. We have for the most part always accepted that domain names are real property.

This was posted on CircleID.com

Creditor Can Execute Against Domain Name Where Registry is Located: Office Depot v. Zuccarini

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling in Office Depot v. Zuccarini [Scribd link], agreeing that a creditor may levy against a domain name in the jurisdiction where the domain name registry is located. The decision is significant for two reasons. First, it affirms (or reaffirms) that domain names are property subject to the claims of creditors. Second, it allows creditors to proceed against domain names where the registry is located, thus allowing creditors to proceed against domain names in one proceeding and more importantly levy against domain names located abroad (where the registry is located in the United States). Overall, this makes getting at a domain name much easier for creditors.

Here is more about court cases involving whether a domain name is property or not from DomainNews.com

I was up late last night cruising through the 44 page docket from the case involving the 141 gambling domain names seized by the state of Kentucky.  This is a landmark case in my opinion and I wanted to read some of the fine print.  It’s pretty clear that this case will be setting some major precedent regarding jurisdiction and domain name use, but there was something else that caught my eye in the document. The groups involved in the case made several points in their efforts to have the case dismissed, but a discussion on domain names being considered property is the one that made me look twice.

The court discusses the issue of domains as property on about page 12 of the docket.

“The Opposing Groups and Lawyers . . . collectively assert that domain names are akin to a telephone number or a business or residential address only; that domain names are but a combination of letters and numbers, which serves as a mnemonic aid, nothing more. They argue that domains are not property, but are rights in a service contract.”

The docket continues for 3 pages discussing this argument and the court reaches the final conclusion

“the Defendants 141 Domain Names are property, and therefore subject to this Court’s in rem jurisdiction or to possible civil forfeiture”

t’s no surprise that the court ruled that domains are property.  What is surprising is who was among this “Opposing Groups and Lawyers”.  According to page 4 of the docket Network Solutions (NSI) and the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) were lumped in to this group.   The ICA, a group consisting of mostly domainers and domain companies, and NSI, a domain name registrar have joined with other gambling industry groups such as PPA, IGC, and IMEGA to present arguments in this case.  Recognizing these entities are not actuallyplaintiffs defendants, the court grouped them all together and classified them as “Opposing Groups and Lawyers” and did provide for their views to be considered. These views are expressed in this case as “domains are not property”.

What do you think? Are domain names actual property or just a service provided to you just like your phone service or services by utility companies?

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• Court Says Domain Name Is Located Where Its Registrar Is Located (domainmacher.com)

Link Building Rap Video

A lot of people promote link building and Internet marketing is all about getting attention and standing out from the crowd. This guy does that pretty well.

Why I Don’t Buy FaceBook Ads

I’ve read a lot about advertising on FaceBook recently. I haven’t been a big fan of FaceBook as a serious business social media tool. I like to call it MyFace. However, you can’t ignore the fact that they are #2 in Alexa and growing daily.

Maybe it just goes to the fact I don’t like crowds either. Either way, I’ve only recently decided to create a FaceBook Profile. I also decided to take a good look at their PPC ads.

I do like the demographic choices it gives you, but it’s missing one of the biggest features I like about Google Adwords. I can tell Google the hours and days I want to run my ad. I don’t get to do that at FaceBook.

At FaceBook, you can choose the start day and hour of your PPC campaign and the end date and hour. But it will run 24 hours per day by default from the start to the finish.

Then FaceBook suggests to pay by impression. So I have to pay for the impressions I don’t want? That makes no sense to me. If I don’t think my audience is online at 3am, why would I want to be paying for impressions then?

My clients are webmasters, SEO companies, corporate marketing executives, business owners, etc. so I also don’t think my ads running 24/7 are going to reach my audience all that well.

I do well with Google Adwords and until convinced otherwise, I’ll stick with that. However, I do have clients who might benefit from FaceBook Advertising. Their target audience is much more general.

So I will recommend it to some clients, but not all and I won’t be using it for my business.

What has your response been with FaceBook Ads and for what target audience?

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Logitech Lighted Keyboard Review – Hint: It’s Garbage

We all love gadgets. We like some gadgets that we don’t even need. But when we buy a gadget that also has a useful purpose, we really feel blessed by technology.

At Christmas, I bought myself an $80 Logitech Lighted Keyboard. The letters of the keyboard were lit up. I actually like being able to work with the lights out sometime or play computer games without lights. So it seemed worth the $80 I spent on the Logitech Lighted Keyboard.

So I felt blessed by technology . . . until now. After just a little more than two months, no more lighted keys on my Logitech Lighted Keyboard. There is no way to replace those little lights and I’ve never kept a warranty on a keyboard, so I’m pretty much just feeling cheated by the Logitech Lighted Keyboard now.

I do thank Logitech for one thing. They have taught me never to spend a large sum of money for a keyboard again. I will go back to buying $10 keyboards that I can throw away just because they are dirty.

Thanks Logitech. Thank you for teaching me not to buy from you and to avoid catchy gadgets that are as cheaply made as the Logitech Lighted Keyboard..

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Can Google Handle Google DNS?

From Google;

Why does DNS matter?

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web’s infrastructure, serving as the Internet’s phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.

Google Public DNS is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider.

Why should you try Google Public DNS?

By using Google Public DNS you can:

• Speed up your browsing experience.
• Improve your security.
• Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.

My issue is this. I’ve been testing Google Chrome as my browser. After long use during the day, it freezes. The software isn’t really totally frozen. I can still type a web address in the address bar. It just won’t take me there when I hit enter.

If I close Google Chrome and wait a few minutes, then restart it, it works fine. That tells me there is a caching issue after using it for a long time. It could also be a server issue as if I’ve used the alloted cache for the day or something.

If Google can’t keep Google Chrome running, then how can it keep serving DNS for thousands or potentially hundreds of thousands of people.

You may say one has nothing to do with the other and you may be technically correct. I’m not sure. But given the enormity of running DNS services for that many people and Google’s inability to make Google Chrome work properly, it seems to me that they are not ready to run DNS.

DNS is complicated and resource intensive. I’d like to hear comments from anyone who has used Google DNS to see what their experience has been.

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Can Introverts Interact On Social Networks?

Social networking is getting bigger all the time. Facebook is now the second most visited website on the Internet, right behind Google. Not too long ago Yahoo! was the most visited site on the Internet. Google passed them in 2008.

It’s amazing that another social network, YouTube, is also in the top 5. And if you were to look at the top 100 most visited sites online, a good number of them are social networks. My guess is that a lot of those social network users are introverts and it wouldn’t surprise me to find more introverts on the social networks than extroverts.

I say this because extroverts get their energy from interacting with others whilst introverts get their energy from activities and pursuits done alone. While it may seem that social networking is “interacting” with others and, therefore, a source of energy for extroverts, that really is not the case. What you are interacting with when you engage on a social network is a digital replication of an individual and not the individual him or herself.

Social networks allow people to engage with others through a veil. That is not something that a true extrovert would gain energy from. On the other hand, an introvert can be completely alone and interacting on a social network for an extended period of time. The extrovert is likely to disengage and go out for a cup of coffee just to make eye contact with someone.

I believe both extroverts and introverts can gain from interacting with others on social networks. For me, a bit of both an extrovert and introvert (though leaning toward introversion), I cannot sit for too long staring at a collection of avatars. But I could sit all day and do research for content that I am writing.

Social networking has become a big part of doing business online. That’s both a good thing and a nuisance. It is what it is.

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YouTube Errors Caused by Chinese Hackers?

Today, I was trying to visit YouTube.com and specific videos there. I got an error message Http/1.1 Service Unavailable.

I looked it up to see what that was. One website told me it was spyware and told me to look at my HOSTS file. I did. Nothing in it was malicious code. So that solution wasn’t the answer.

Then I found this at News-About_Knowledge.com

http/1.1 service unavailable” is the error which has been experienced by millions of “you tube” users.

It has been speculated that these are the Chinese hackers who spread this error on the internet. It was reported that Google has announced battle against the government of China. Millions of you tube users have seen a fault in the service followed by a statement http/1.1 service unavailable.

It has been confirmed that the service of you tube remained down for more than 20 minutes. However, Google has not made any announcement regarding this latest error which halted the service of you tube. We have been observing numerous cyber attacks on different web sites. We also reported a cyber attack on Twitter which was made by Iranian cyber army.

Ok, I found this a little far-fetched, but not out of the realm of possibility. Whether this is true or not right now, cyber-warfare is coming.

Do you think Chinese Hackers are the cause of this error message?

Do you think Google would “battle” Chinese Hackers?

Do you think cyber-warfare is here and now or far off in the future?

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Why Don’t I Get Good Response From Twitter?

I see a lot of marketers posting on their blog about how they get a poor response from Twitter. John Reese sent out an email about how Twitter is a waste of his time and how the responses to his tweets are declining.

Why is their response from Twitter declining? ME ME ME, that’s why. When is the last time you retweeted other people’s tweets? How often do you do it?

When is the last time you went to your follower’s blogs and made comments? How often do you show interest in what your followers and those that follow you are doing?

There are thousands of marketers on Twitter that simply post dozens or even hundreds of times per day to tell everyone about what they are doing, what they are interested in and why everyone should be following them and taking their advice.

If you are that selfish and self-important then none of the social networks are for you. If you do not have the time to show interest in others, they willnot take the time to show interest in you.

For some, Twitter is all about gaining as many followers as possible through automated means, then blasting your message to them over and over again. These people even think that makes them social networking gurus.

They aren’t. The real genius of social networking makes real friends and networks with others. That means showing an interest in others.

If your response from Twitter is declining, then it’s you and not Twitter that is at fault.

Blog Buzzer Review

I like simple tools. So many people write software, scripts, programs and applications and try to make them do too much. Give me a simple tool that does one thing and I’m a happy camper. Try to be all things to all people and your stuff will likely have ongoing problems to resolve.

Blog Buzzer is a simple tool. You simply go to BlogBuzzer.com and enter the name of your blog and the URL of the blog post you want to create a buzz about. Then hit submit and Blog Buzzer does the rest.

It pings Blog Catalog which is one of my favorites. It pings Blog Hub, Blog Intro, Blog Pulse, Blog Rolling, Blogbuzzmachine, BlogFlux, Blogion, Bloglines (another favorite of mine), Blogrolling, Blogsearch Argentina, Blogsearch Australia, Blogsearch Canada, Blurtit, Google Blogsearch (everyone’s favorite), Moreover, (an excellent buzz creator), Newgator, Pubsub 2, Syndic8, Twingly, Urlfan, (a good source of traffic), Wasa Live and Weblogs, (great site), in just a few seconds.

How Blog Buzzer works…

BlogBuzzer helps bloggers automatically submit their blogs to the top blog search sites and blog directories.

Once you enter your URL and title of your blog, it is pinged and picked up by the appropriate blog directories or search sites and gets indexed.

Bloggers can ping up to 5 blog post URLs per day or can purchase the Premium membership that allows unlimited pinging and submissions to search engines.

It will also ping in 5 different languages. They are still developing the website and updating pages, but the pinging system is already working. I recommend trying it out. A few more links will never hurt you.

Are the Google Search Results you see the real results?

Vanity searches, we all do them. We want to see how we rank for our name, our business name and how we rank for the keywords and phrases we target. But are you looking at the real results?

Have you ever told someone you ranked on the front page of Google for your keyword and have them tell you they don’t see the same thing? I’m not talking about results coming from different servers. That’s a whole other story.

I’m talking about how web history affects what you see. If you go to Google and search for something, look up in the right top corner to see if you are signed in. If you aren’t sign in.

Then, still in the top right corner, go to web history. In the sidebar on the left, choose pause web history.

Now you will see the real results when you search. If web history is enabled, Google gives you results with more priority placed on sites you have visited. So it may look like you have a number one Google listing when you really don’t.