I won’t bore you folks with the details of my trip, but suffice it to say, I was glad to get away for the holiday sojourn and will probably spend more time traveling this year.. (business and pleasure).

New years bring new resolutions, new promises — cleaning out old cobwebs, retiring issues and ramping-up for a new cycle of work/changes. One of my resolutions this year is to slow down on the blogging.  Charity starts at home and I need to spend more of my non-working time with my wife, kids, family and those close friends and acquaintances in our family’s life..  I just can’t do that, run a domain media co and continue to scribe each day.  Since I began SevenMile.com, several others in the industry have joined the blogging ranks ..  many of those folks have done a terrific job creating news-sites and the existing journals and periodicals just get better and better.  There are even mash-ups now about domaining where we can get the most recent commentary and daily news across many blogs/journals/sites.

I plan to continue to write, albeit much less frequently with more personal, concentrated and in-depth thoughts relating to specific industry affecting issues. I look forward to several such posts over the course of the year..  but I will leave the daily color and roundups to those who do it so much better than I could.  It has been fun sharing (daily) and part of me will miss that but hopefuly my personal relationships and biz will thrive with the extra time in what is sure to be a challenging 2008.

Looking back on the predictions for 2007 made in late 2006,  many of those thoughts came true..  increased trouble for the most flagrant violators of IP rights, continued consolidation within the industry as the big get bigger, coupled with a spreading of the cottage industry footprint of work at home hopefuls with stars in their eyes; broadening our great industry’s base as it continues to mature.

If 2007 and my winter vacation of the year taught me anything, it’s how incredibly lucky we all are to participate in a space where anyone..  anyone can still “make it” if they have the gumption and desire to dig-in and better their life.  There are no defined paths in the domain industry.. and domain names continue to act as the nucleus of all Internet commerce. If nothing in business happens without ‘a sale’,  nothing on the Internet happens without ‘a domain name’..  and it’s still an adolescent industry with lots of room for those who want to make a great life for themselves. 

The game today is similar,  but just a little different.  I encourage you to stake your claim this year if you haven’t in earnest and continue to work hard for a few years..  If you adopt that glass half-full outlook and apply yourself,  I predict you too will be reciting the words of that Talking Heads song…  as you “wake up in a beautiful house”, “find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile”.. and you ask yourself .. How did I get here?

Have a great year folks…

List here:  http://logistiklabs.blogspot.com/2007/12/20-most-influential-people-in-domain.html

As a quick aside..  Josh Quittner recently wrote a hard hitting critique of the flimsy business model and dishonest culture at Facebook, only to be publicly dressed down by Time Inc.  I am continually struck that the tech-community acts like such a fawning sycophant as it relates to Facebook.  They treat this co. like the last girl at the bar on a Friday night.  We need more Josh Quittners to tell us to give our heads a shake and to take our collective tongues out of Facebook’s caboose long enough to see what it is we’re taking home…

 http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=8738

***FS*** Out-law.com means well but can’t see the forest for the trees here.  An IP “expert” proposes a “Domain police force” to tackle cybersquatting.  Yeah..  that will stop all that stolen traffic..  sure it will bub.  Most “traffic” that gets incorrectly plumbed or stolen on the internet, does so at the portals and error pages, not on domains..  You can police domains, making individual registrants the whipping boy, but that doesn’t stop traffic intended for your site from being stolen in the browser or on portal sites..  John MacKenzie:  try typing out-law.dom or .xom or .cpm in your browser and tell me what your eyeballs see.  Who created that page? Why didn’t the browser correct you and send you to ‘your’ site?  The total amount of traffic taken to the right of the dot, far and away eclipses all traffic taken by cybersquatters.

Google.cm 

Redirecting traffic to new social network perfspot.com ..  type the name www.google.cm get a page that reports “the offering you are looking for can not be found”  (or something to thst effect) .. then *poof* get flopped over to http://www.perfspot.com/join.asp?p=80247&t=CD579

The Power of One Good Name

Courtesy of Bryan:  http://www.pehub.com/wordpress/?p=1782 Mainly this part: “”First up is 1-800-Diapers, or www.diapers.com, a baby products ecommerce company that has raised $7 million in Series B funding, according to a regulatory filing.”"

WeldingRobots.com sells for $50,000.

Very tight focus on this baby.  I’m picturing those robotic welders in car assembly plants.  I would imagine they are quite expensive to buy or lease. http://insidedomaining.blogspot.com/2007/12/domain-name-weldingrobotscom-50000-sold.html

***FS***  Speciallized domains are often the most valuable for that reason

Domainers Magazine

…to offer access to online version of mag for free in Jan 2008. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/04/domainers-magazine-anniversary-gift/  the mag : http://DomainersMagazine.com/

***FS***  I think it’s only natural for a business publication about digital topics to be in digital form
Miriam Ellis writes that Homestead.com will not allow you to point your domain name that you purchased from them to a different hosting company.  She lists 12 tips for those planning to use a template-site-building company. Based on this archaic restriction, I would Never
register a domain name thru Homestead.com. http://www.searchengineguide.com/miriam-ellis/homesteadcom-your-domain-name-with-strin.php 

iPhone has .09 percent of Web usage.

Josh says: Not bad, considering that the iphone has only been around 6 months.  It beats usage stats of Windows CE, Danger’s Sidekick and the Symbian S60 smartphone. http://valleywag.com/tech/stats/iphone-has-009-percent-of-web-usage-++-yes-thats-a-lot-329413.php

***FS***  This is a huge! a fraction of a percentage may not blow your hair back but this is a new device! It’s gotten this quick share because iphone allows you to easily and intuitively navigate using a real browser, keyboard and .com domains.  Give it time..  this thing will grow like the ipod.

Rumour:  FTC will approve Google’s Doubleclick

acquisition: http://valleywag.com/tech/acquisitions/ftc-to-approve-google+doubleclick-merger-this-week-329393.php

***FS***  A monopoly is born

Rumour: Li Ka-shing Foundation buys Facebook stake.

Invests 60 mil based on 15 billion value.  Gets 0.4 percent share. http://www.news.com/Source-Li-Ka-shing-Foundation-buys-Facebook-stake/2100-1030_3-6221258.html?tag=nefd.top

***FS***  Good for Li ..  not so good for me..  I wouldn’t invest in this co.

Related from Javier:

“”A couple of weeks ago we were taking about Facebook, and how it may all cool down pretty soon. You may find interesting this detailed article (not mine) that exposes 15 reasons why Facebook is not worth 15 billion: http://mashable.com/2007/12/03/facebook-15-billion/ ”"