Have you ever typed in a domain name, and when the name doesn’t resolve, you land on a landing page provided “courteously” by your ISP? In my case, Road Runner graciously provides a landing page with Sponsored Results and Web Results for the sites I type in that don’t resolve. If I click on a Sponsored Result, they (and Yahoo) get paid by the advertiser.
That said, if I accidentally type in MircosoftWidnows.com in my browser, Time Warner Cable, the parent company of Road Runner, would get paid if I click on the Sponsored advertisement that says “Low Prices on Microsoft Windows XP Save Now on All Windows XP Software. $1.99 Same Day Shipping, Buy Now. www.TigerDirect.com.”
Anyhow, I was looking at the error page today, and I saw a link for “Why Am I Here” referring to the landing page. When I clicked on that, I received this message:

“Why am I here?
You entered an unknown web address that was used to present site suggestions that you may find useful. Clicking any of these suggestions provides you with search results, which may include relevant sponsored links.
If this service is not right for you, please visit your Preferences page to opt out. At any point in time, you can opt back in to the service by visiting your Preferences page.
If you have other questions about this service, please visit our FAQ.
For further assistance, please go to http://help.rr.com. “

This service is definitely not right for me, and I opted out of it. Also, I found out they offer a Typo Correction Service.” According to the note on the Preference Page, “This preference allows you to opt in or out of the Typo Correction Service. This service will automatically fix many common typos in web addresses (for example: ww to www and .cmo to .com). If you enter a non-existent web address, and this service is able to typo-correct your domain to a valid web address, you will be taken there automatically.”
Thanks, but no thanks!

About a year ago, I bought a new limited edition Hermes tie to mark the opening of their Wall Street store. The tie has bulls on the wide section and bears on the thin section, and it is lime green. Tonight I was feeling under the weather and didn’t go out, so I spent some time on eBay.
To my surprise, I saw the exact tie that I purchased on sale for $1,900. I also saw another similar tie in red selling for $250 (with 13 hours remaining), and the seller mentioned that he’s seen this tie selling for over $1,000.
So my question is this, do I try to sell the tie or keep it? I don’t need the money right now, but I also don’t need a $1,000 tie 🙂

I really like Google for many reasons. Not only do they have some fantastic applications that I use on a regular basis, they also help people find my blog. There are many search phrases where I rank pretty high in Google, including “Elliot’s Blog” and I’d like to think most people who search for Elliot’s Blog are looking for me.
Today, I noticed a large spike in traffic from Google, with many people looking for search variations including “baby elliot’s blog,” “elliot on oprah,” “baby elliot’s journal,” and others that were similar. Curious, I went to find out what people wanted, since Google was clearly sending people to the wrong site. I found that people were looking for something featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show today, “99 Days with Eliot.”
I found the Baby Eliot “99 Balloons” video, so instead of sending people on a wild goose chase to find it on Google, I embedded it above. It’s a tearjerker and quite a story.
If you are interested in learning more about Trisomy 18, or if you’d like to make a donation to help with researching this disease, please visit the Trisomy 18 Foundation’s website.

One year ago today, I was working as a Direct Marketing Manager at AIG in the Domestic Brokerage Group, while managing my domain investment business in the evening. I had a great job where I learned quite a bit about direct marketing, but my heart wasn’t into what I was doing. I wanted to pursue my domain investment business full time, and I wasn’t my happy self.
A little over a month later, on October 17, 2007, I tendered my resignation. On that day in October, AIG stock closed at $65.80/share on the New York Stock Exchange – which was up from the $49/share range it had been a few months before, during the tumultous times when AIG was being investigated by New York AG Eliot Spitzer.   People believed that the company was strong and getting stronger. The investigation had made AIG more of a transparent company, which was good for everyone – so they thought and said.
Thankfully, I made what turned out to be a smart decision when I resigned. With the current fate of AIG still unknown (and some even suggesting they may face failure tomorrow), I am very thankful to have had the great opportunity to work for AIG for 2 and a half years, but I am even more thankful to have left.   I am still feeling the pain of the plummeting stock price as I hold some shares, but I am not worried about losing my job. I feel badly for my colleagues at AIG, some who spent tens of years at the company.
I think Americans and corporate America became greedy these last few years. With banks and financial instutions giving loans and credit lines to anyone with a pulse, many Americans took advantage of this and now can hardly afford the overpriced homes where they live.   “Bigger is better” is certainly the motto of many who bought the biggest homes and cars they couldn’t afford. “Real estate never loses value” is another mantra that people had in their heads when signing huge mortgage papers that ballooned in a couple years and required little money down.   Financial instutions aren’t being reimbursed for these ugly mortgages, loans and lines of credit, and they too are now suffering.
Even those smart enough to not mortgage themselves to the hilt or put themselves in debt are facing problems or will face problems. The Federal Reserve will probably deflate the value of the dollar by helping to bail these companies out, or the federal government will raise taxes, impacting those who are doing well financially because they were smart.
All in all, this is a pretty bad day for everyone, but I am just glad I made the decision I did almost a year ago.