i@m.fm

Check out my other blog!

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 03:25:34 -0400

Please also take a look at my blog about and for the Domain-Industry:
http://DomainEditorial.com/

Trying to obtain an insurance quote, online (or: How companies do not get the Internet, part 3857)

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Sun, 28 May 2006 08:02:31 -0400

Our car insurance is up for renewal next month, so I figured it's time to get some quotes to compare. TD already gave me a quote (over the phone), which was far more expensive than our current insurance from Aviva Traders. Let's see what the other players in this market can offer me.

If I ran a newspaper, it's website would be a blog

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 10:40:23 -0500

If I had a newspaper, my website would be a blog. And since some people still like to get the printed word, my printed paper would be generated from the blog at a certain time and then go to the presses. If I had a magazine, it would be the same - just that it gets printed once a month.

I would probably have more content, and more interaction with my readers. This would mean a shift in the way the authors work, but it would also enrich my publication and probably make it more objective.

My publication would attract more readers from all over the world, and different types of advertisers. There would be advertising on the site, related to the articles it surrounds where possible. My advertisers could better track the results of their advertising, and since the ads are better target, they would achieve better results.

If I had a certain size of online readership, I could even consider charging for subscriptions to some of the sections of the site.

But then again, if I was a publisher of a newspaper or a magazine I would probably not be able to relate to any of this. I might be out of business before putting any of this into action, but in any case it will take me years to realize that I should focus on the online presence of my paper.

If I ran a radio station, my website would have a blog. I would offer PodCasts of my shows. I would offer songs for download against a small fee.

If I ran a TV station, my website would have a blog. Where legally possible I would offer VideoCasts of my shows. Where possible I would charge a small fee for those downloads.

(This is something I have thought about before, but this specific post was inspired by Bucko. Thanks!)

Google launches search history

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 16:14:32 -0400

Google launches "My Search History" today, at tool that tracks all your searches. While some people cite privacy concerns, there could be advantages other than displaying customized advertising:

While you can also maintain a local history of searches, the centralized version gives the search the possibility to customize the results according to your anticipated needs.

Let's take an example - let's say a search for "xxx'". Joe searches for this term, and so does Martin, but both of them actually have different goals. Joe is really looking for information on porn, while Martin is interested in XXX, the movie (ed. I know this isn't that great of an example, I will update once I come up with a better one).

So if the search engine actually knows that Joe is searching for porn a lot, while Martin is very interested in movies, the search engine also knows how to customize the results. And yes, it also knows how to best customize the advertising ;-)

So as you see this would probably work the best for people who do more generic searches. And I would imagine that a lot of people use those; however I am not sure that those people would be aware of this new feature.

While I normally trim down my search results by making them more specific, I think that a lot of users rely on relatively generic terms and then actually don't mind browsing through a couple of pages in order to find the desired result. I would actually like some statistics on this, anyone?

Don't get me wrong, I do share the privacy concerns and what actually is done with the data, but I doubt that better matching of ads is the sole motivation here.

[via Google Blog, Spreeblick & Wired]

Industry Data Demonstrates Strong Growth in Secondary Web Domain Sales in 2004; Volume Increased Nearly 300 Percent from 2003

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 20:24:59 -0500

"According to data from three leading independent companies tracking the domain name marketplace, DNJournal, Domain-Spiegel.de and Sedo.com, the secondary domain marketplace--the marketplace where already registered domain names are bought and sold -- experienced strong gains both in terms of the volume of sales and the overall sale prices for domains compared to the previous years. According to Domain-Spiegel.de, a German publication that closely tracks the sale of domain names, the domain name marketplace experienced explosive growth with more than 1,400 transactions reported -- compared to only 500 domain transactions reported in 2003 and with just 400 domains sales reported in 2002. In addition, the average sale price of a .com domain increased more than $1,400 from 2003 to 2004, with the average domain selling for more than $9,700."

Full Press Release

When looking at the data one should keep in mind that Sedo and "domain-spiegel.de" originally were very much focused on the German marked. While this has changed over the years, the increasing popularity in .INFO names could be related to this fact. However adaption of the new gTLDs (info/biz) has certainly improved.

Since the part of the secondary market covered in the press release mostly is limited to the public auction markets, it would be very interesting to also see numbers from the drop-name catchers such as pool.com.

Ten things to do before you start taking your business to the web

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:12:53 -0500

Wait till I come! � Ten things to do before you start taking your business to the web

Great list - I can't even think of anything right now that he missed :)

Voip numbers in other area codes not permissible in Germany

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 16:12:53 -0400

The Germany Regulation Authority for Telephony has just decided that VoIP numbers need to be assigned within area codes directly related to the address of the business/person that is using them. They also want to introduce a new area code (032) for VoIP numbers.

Another eBay scam

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Sat, 18 Oct 2003 23:24:58 -0400

Another eBay scam fishes for bank details - News & Technology - CNETAsia - I just got one of those ...

Are script-kiddies bored?

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Fri, 29 Aug 2003 12:39:37 -0400

Netcraft: Hosting Companies under Attack?

Open Text to buy Gauss

i@m.fm (Frank Michlick) — Thu, 28 Aug 2003 16:52:00 -0400

So another across the ocean venture and integration to come...

InfoWorld TechWatch: Open Text buys Gauss

From what I know ...