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Going to DomainFest

Elliot Silver
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I know, I know. You read on my blog that I was going skiing at Breckenridge in lieu of attending DomainFest.  Shortly after my article was posted, you may have read on Frager’s Factor that I wasn’t going to DomainFest, where I think the article seemed to imply it was because I had issues with Oversee.

Surprisingly (because I didn’t think anyone would actually believe what he wrote), a couple of people emailed me asking me if I had problems with Oversee. I don’t. In fact, most of my domain names are registered at Moniker and will continue to be registered there.

After speaking with a close friend and colleague, I’ve decided that I need to go to DomainFest. I’m going to fly cross country 4x in the next few weeks. If you’ll be at DomainFest, I will see you there.

Why I Believe Overstock Has “Become O.CO”

Elliot Silver
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115

In a pretty surprising  announcement today in a press release, Overstock.com Chairman and CEO  Patrick Byrne commented, “We have become O.CO.” Byrnes went on to say, “As a lifestyle destination, consumers can find absolutely anything on O.CO whether they are shopping for furniture, bedding, clothing, and jewelry, buying a car or home, and, soon, looking for their next vacation spot.”

It’s not often that a large retailer announces a re-branding effort like this, and it looks like the company may be ahead of the curve, as .CO will go more mainstream during the Super Bowl. The press release mixed Overstock.com and O.CO, and I think we will probably see a lot more O.CO and less Overstock.com in the near future, as using both would probably be harmful to the brand as that would be confusing.

In my opinion, Overstock has become much more than a company that sells overstocked items cheaply, as the brand name suggests. By transitioning to O.CO, the company that has done it’s best to become known as the big O, will now become the big O.

In a way, it’s similar to how Kentucky Fried Chicken moved towards the KFC branding when fried foods became a negative stigma in the US.

With the marketing efforts of the .CO Registry supporting companies like Overstock and Go Daddy, I think we are going to see more companies using .CO domain names in the next few years.

Monitor Website Downtime with Montastic

Elliot Silver
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9


Late last year, I had some issues with hosting performance, and my blog wasn’t always stable. If it was hit with excess traffic or if a plugin wasn’t working optimally, my blog went down for generally short periods of time.  The most frustrating thing about it was that it usually required a quick reset and it would go back to normal.

If I was out of the office or if it was in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t know that my blog was down until someone emailed me or until I returned and tried to log in to approve comments or write an article. I sought out a way to detect if my blog goes down, and I want to share that information with you, especially if you have mini sites that you don’t check regularly.

I use Montastic.com to monitor some of my websites, and it’s a great (free) tool. I signed up and gave them the domain names of a few important websites. When one of them goes down for some reason, I get an email alerting me to the outage. I then get a follow up when the site is functional again.

I never realized how frequently a couple of my sites went down, and after seeing this information, it got me to switch to a more flexible cloud server, where I’ve had much fewer problems.

Montastic also has upgraded plans that allow you to access other tools as well as have your website monitored more frequently. I think it’s a great tool to have monitoring your critical sites.

American Idol Premiers: Let the CyberSquatting Begin

Elliot Silver
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2011 American IdolSo American Idol had its 2011 premier tonight, and you know what that means… the unsavory practice of registering domain names related to AI contestants.

It seems that every year, as contestants perform in the preliminary rounds, some people speculate and purchase domain names of the contestants who have great (or horrible) performances. I am sure Go Daddy is buzzing right now with people trying to grab these names to strike cybersquatting gold.

Some of these domain names will  inevitably  end up on auction sites like Ebay, some may end up as fan sites, and most will drop, just as the competitors are culled during later rounds.

If you’ve purchased an American Idol contestant domain name, keep in mind that there aren’t a whole lot of things you can do with the domain name without infringing on the rights of the person whose name your domain name was named after. Face it, you registered it specifically to capitalize on that person’s image and reputation, and there is the potential for major legal damages in the Lanham Act.

Sure, you may be able to set up a fan site, but do you really want to go through the time and effort, when monetizing that could prove to be a legal challenge for you, especially if the contestant goes far and the Fox legal team comes after you?

PS: If you happen to be an American Idol contestant (or doing anything to become famous), you should obviously purchase your name in the .com if you can prior to your fame and notoriety.

Report Suspicious Go Daddy Phishing Emails

Elliot Silver
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9

GodaddyLike every other domain registrar, Go Daddy is required to send domain name owners an annual email for each domain registration per ICANN regulations. These emails ensure that the registrant’s Whois information is accurate. GoDaddy also sends customers emails for renewals and account updates.

Some nefarious individuals take advantage of this, and they spoof Go Daddy’s emails, in the hopes that a domain registrant will click one of the fraudulent links and type in their GoDaddy account and password, giving account access away to the thief. This is one way domain names are stolen from Go Daddy accounts and from other domain name registrars.

I’ve received phishing emails like this in the past, and I generally delete them without clicking on the link to avoid giving any information to these thieves and to avoid landing on a website laden with malware. Although hitting the delete button (and/or reporting the email as phishing with your email provider)  is probably the safest way to dispose of an email like this, recipients can do something that will be more helpful to GoDaddy and other customers.

If you receive what you suspect is a fraudulent email from Go Daddy, you should file an abuse report with the company. They will ask for a variety of information from the email you received. This will help the company track down the thieves and become aware of the attempt. This can also help Go Daddy get the website shut down to prevent others from falling prey to this scam.

Domain owners should know that this doesn’t only happen at Go Daddy, as other registrar accounts are also targets. If you receive a phishing or malware email that purports to be from GoDaddy, you should report it to the company.

Could Market Basket Come After Owner of MyDemoulas.com?

Elliot Silver
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13

Every so often, I check out my hometown newspaper, The Nashua Telegraph to see what’s happening in the area I grew up, and once in a while there’s an article of interest to me related to my business.

Yesterday, there was an article about the owner of a new website called MyDemoulas.com, which is an informational website about a fairly large New England Supermarket chain called Market Basket. The Market Basket chain was originally founded by the Demoulas brothers (ironically in Lowell, Massachusetts), and it was known as Demoulas Market Basket. I remember my family referring to it as both “Demoulas” and later, “Market Basket.”

Getting to the point, Market Basket does not have its own website.  To make up for this lack of a website, a local web developer named Michael Devaney created MyDemoulas.com, which has information about store locations and hours, circulars, special offers…etc. His site fills in for where Market Basket neglects their online audience, and the site is not associated with the chain.

The website clearly states that it’s “The only Market Basket website,” and it uses the Demoulas name in its domain name. In addition, the article mentions that Devaney is generating revenue from this website, and it also mentions that the company has not bought the website, despite “a number of inquiries” from Devaney.

There is no trademark for “Demoulas” in the USPTO, but I would imagine they could have some rights to it, especially when used in this way. In fact, I would bet they would be  vehemently  opposed to someone opening a supermarket in New England call Demoulas, since that name still means something to many (probably common law rights would be asserted if nothing else).

In my opinion, the owner is on shaky legal ground because he is profiting while using marks related to the Market Basket chain. I am not a lawyer, and it doesn’t seem like he has explicit permission to use the Demoulas domain name, especially in association with a Market Basket site.

It bothers me that an article like this was written.

For one thing, it encourages others to do similar things, although many might not have the technical skills to implement a website, so they could simply stop after buying a potentially infringing domain name. Secondly, it could put the guy in a bad spot, if Market Basket does build its own website and doesn’t want to be generous with this guy. They could possibly file a UDRP for the domain name or even a Lanham Act lawsuit.

I am all for entrepreneurs building businesses, but if you plan to use another company’s mark or brand, I believe you should get their permission first.

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