While the change was announced at the Geo Domain Expo, Associated Cities has officially announced that it will now be known as Associated Geos. The change comes as the organization is now permitting state and country .com owners to become members.
From today’s release:

“The 2008 GeoDomain Expo served as the official launching pad of Associated Geos. Formerly known as Associated Cities, this industry-defining membership organization now welcomes the participation and imagination of GeoDomainers who own and operate developed state dot-coms and country dot-coms.
Five years after Associated Cities was drawn up on a cocktail napkin by GeoDomain pioneers Josh Metnick (Chicago.com) and Skip Hoagland (Atlanta.com and others), the membership-driven organization on July 11, 2008 announced its plans to welcome owners of state dot-coms and country dot-coms under the new banner of Associated Geos.
Those interested in joining the organization must own and operate a developed GeoDomain that represents a city, state or country (examples include LosAngeles.com, Chicago.com and Cuba.com respectively). The GeoDomain must also be a dot-com. Associated Geos currently represents more than 110 city dot-coms that attract more than 7 million monthly page views and 60 million monthly impressions. The expanded organization will welcome dot-coms from 50 states and 365 nations.”

Read the rest of the release on the Associated Cities website. I would also recommend that the organization do a redirect of AssociatedGeos.com to the Associated Cities website until they are ready to launch. Just a friendly suggestion 🙂

Richard Douglas of Secure Host has a great new blog appropriately named “Too Many Secrets” that domain investors and developers alike should read. For the past few months, Richard has been giving me great (unsolicited but much appreciated) advice regarding my development projects, and it has been really appreciated. For anyone that has developed websites, or if you are thinking about developing your websites, Richard’s Blog is one I recommend.
Hosting is often the last thing people think about when they are building a website, but it is a critical component to any successful website. There are different types of hosting plans, there are laws that could impact a business based on the location of a company’s servers, there are ways to enhance a website’s security…etc. There are many things that need to be considered that seasoned professionals may miss when launching a website. Richard is very familiar with all of this, and he is also familiar with the domain space. He has been offering me fantastic advice, and I think readers of my blog will benefit from reading Richard’s blog.
TooManySecrets.com is going to be a very popular blog, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Yesterday I created a contest based on the picture above, with the creator of the best caption receiving a $10 Starbucks gift card. Instead of selecting the winner on my own, I chose the top 5 for you guys to vote on today. Winner will be the caption with the most votes in the comment section. If I don’t blog next week, send out a search party (and start with Lonnie first).
Top 5 captions:
1) “Dell Laptop: $1800
Wifi Card: $149
Unlimited data plan: $49/month
Finding an outlet when your battery dies in the middle of an auction: Priceless”
2) “Can you paint a little faster? This laptop’s getting heavy.”
3) “Dear, I said leave the laptop at the hotel.”
“Look. This ride has an outlet. I can check my auction now.”
4) “Who says I have a problem–I can stop domaining anytime I want to!”
5) “There comes a time in every man’s life when he must stand up and tell his mother that he is an adult. This usually happens at around the age of 40 and in Lonnie’s case, by email.”

The person who comes up with the best caption for this photograph (as chosen by me) wins a $10 Starbucks gift card. For those who don’t know, this dedicated domainer is none other than Lonnie Borck, who was featured here a few months ago.

It’s been a while since the last post like this, but back by special request is another edition of Register Domains for Charity. Below are a few unregistered domain names I believe have good potential. Although I am not charging anything for researching these names, I am requesting that the person who registers each makes a donation to a non-profit organization.
ScrapMetalCenter.com
ScrapMetalCenters.com
ScrapMetalCollector.com
ScrapMetalCollectors.com
ConferenceCallingHosts.com
SterlingSilverBars.com
Fromager.org (cheese expert)
PrivateHelicopterFlight.com
PrivateHelicopterFlights.com
You don’t need to tell me how much was donated, but I would love to know which charity was helped, so please drop me a line after!
A few non-profits I recommend (with the link to make a donation):
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
ALS Association
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Susan G. Komen Foundation for the Cure for Breast Cancer
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Meir Panim
American Cancer Society
Turning Point (Domestic Violence Organization)
BC Children’s Hospital
Charities Previously Helped By Generous Readers of My Blog:
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Dana Farber Cancer Institute
ALS Association
American Cancer Society
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Just received an email from David Castello announcing that CCIN will be partnering with Rob Monster of Monster Venture Partners in the development of Traveler.com. Together, Monster and CCIN will develop Traveler.com into a global travel website.
Monster has recently signed on for joint development projects including HealthCare.com, WiFi.com, and Patents.com. CCIN are leaders in the Geodomain space, operating websites such as PalmSprings.com, LagunaBeach.com, Nashville.com, and many others. They also own non-geo names such as Whisky.com and Daycare.com.
For more information about this deal, check out DNJournal’s Lowdown.