Groupon.com Says No To Google & Its $6 BILLION Dollars - I had a domainer write me today and tell me he couldn’t believe I had turned down $100,000 offer on a domain. Tonight theStreet.com and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that Groupon.com has said NO. No to Google No to $6 Billion dollars. Lets see. I think its sounds worse if I write it like this: Groupon says no to $6,000,000,000. Yup, I was right, it does sound worse. You guys do know that Groupon wasn’t even in existence 2 years ago right? If you want to read more you can do so here. Personally ... read more ...

Soon You Can Own a Piece Of Forex.com - Certainly one of the most valuable financial domains on the Internet is Forex.com and soon you can one a piece of it. The company, Gain Capital, which owns the  domain name Forex.com, will have its IPO on the stock exchange on the week of December 13th. The stock price range is expected to be from $13 to $15. At the $14 price per share,  the valuation for the company would be around $536 million. Of course the company owns more than just the domain name. Gain Capital Holdings,  which provides ... read more ...

The EU Opens Investigation Into Google’s Operations: “This Is A Game Changer” -

Via: thedomains.com

Google Launches Its Shopping Site: Boutiques.com - Google launced today a shopping site today called Boutiques.com which seems to be the first project from Google’s acquisition of Like.com Here is how Google describes the service on their blog: “The way we shop for fashion is different from how we buy cameras—especially online. With fashion, reviews and specs are less important; fashion shopping is about discovering something that fits your taste and feels right. The web works well for buying cameras and other hard goods but for soft goods, ... read more ...

Google Gets Patent On Instant Search - According to Fortune, the United States Patent Office awarded Google a Patent today for the technology behind Google Instant Search. The granting of the patent means that other search engines won’t be able to provide the exact same type of search functionality as Google without licensing the technology from Google. Fortune points out that the “the inclusion of  prior queries submitted by a community of users, and may take into account a user profile.” could certainly be applied to social search ... read more ...

Ask.com Gives Up On Search - Ask.com , announced on its blog Tuesday  that it is getting out of the search business. The company announced that it will be closing its offices in Edison, N.J. and Hangzhou, China eliminating about 1/3 of its work force. The company is switching gears and will focus on building out its online question-and-answer service and outsourcing all other search to “multiple third party structured and unstructured data feeds that, when integrated, can provide a web search experience on par with ... read more ...

Tucows Reports Earnings: Revenue Up 3.5%; Yummy Names Down - Tucows reported earnings for quarter ending September 30, 2010, after the market closed today. Net revenue for the third quarter of 2010 increased 3.5% to $21.2 million from $20.5 million for the third quarter of 2009. Net income for the third quarter of 2010 was $1.1 million, or $0.02 per share, compared with net income of $5.2 million, or $0.08 per share, for the third quarter of 2009. However “Net income for the third quarter of 2009 included the final payment related to the sale of ... read more ...

Google To Give EVERY Employee At Least a 10% Raise: Total Cost $1 Billion Dollars - As our PPC revenues continue to decline, today comes the news that Google is going to give everyone of their 23,000+ employees at least a 10% raise come January 1, 2011. According to the BusinessInsider.com, not only will every Google employee receive a raise but each will receive a Tax Free $1,000 end of year bonus. Tax free in that Google will pay the taxes that each employee would owe on the $1K bonus. According to the author of the story the legendary Henry Blodget: “Google will also give ... read more ...

Why Doesn’t The Market Like All The QuinStreet Domain (Site) Purchases? - Today’s news that Quinstreet has bought yet another category killer insurance domain, this time CarInsurance.com for $49.7 million. Within the last year Quinstreet has spent over $100 Million Dollars in insurance domains (sites), with this purchase added to the acquisition of Insurance.com and Insure.com. Yet despite having acquired the premiere Internet properties in the insurance space, Wall Street seems unimpressed. Quinstreet which went public at $15 a share in February of this year is  currently ... read more ...

VeriSign Profits Up 10%, Registrations Up 10%: 103.5 Million .Com/.Net domains - Verisign reported earnings after the market closed today. VeriSign, Inc. reported revenue of $173 million from continuing operations for the 3rd quarter of 2010, up 2% from the prior quarter and up 10% from the same quarter in 2009. VeriSign reported net income of $785 million or $4.48 per share for the 3rdquarter of 2010, reflecting a net gain of $737 million, net of tax of $244 million, on the sale of the Authentication Services business. This compared to net income attributable to VeriSign, Inc. ... read more ...

Yahoo Revenue Up 2%, Outlook Is down - After the stock market closed today, Yahoo reported its earnings for the quarter ended September 30, 2010. Revenue was $1,601 million for the third quarter of 2010, a 2% increase from the third quarter of 2009. Income from operations for the third quarter of 2010 was $189 million, an increase of 107%. Excluding restructuring charges of $17 million in the third quarter of 2009 and $6 million in the third quarter of 2010, income from operations increased 80% year ... read more ...

Google Has Blowout Quarter: Income Up 23%; Earnings Up 18%; Clicks Up 16% - After the stock market closed today Google reported that it profits for the 3rd Q 2010 blowing away the projections and causing the stock to rise almost 10% in after hours trading. Revenues jumped 23% to $7.3 billion, from $5.94 billion last year. Net income was up 18% to $2.2 billion Google said it earned $7.64 per share, while Analysts forecasted earnings of $6.69 per share. Net revenue, which excludes commissions paid to advertising partners, was $5.48 billion, up from $4.38 billion a year ago. Google ... read more ...

ComScore.com: Google Increases Its Market Share Of Search With Google Instant In September - comScore, Inc. released its monthly qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. Google had a 66.1% share all searches, an increase of 0.7% from August 2010. Yahoo finished second with a 16.7% search share down from 17.4% in August while bing.com held steady with 11.2% Ask.com and Aol.com accounted for the balance of search share. The September 2010 qSearch figures reflect the impact of Google Instant Search. From comScore’s blog: “”As a part of comScore commitment to accurately represent ... read more ...

Google Starts Its Own Shortener & Goes With A Hack: Goog.Gl - Google just launched it own Web shortener choosing a domain hack, Goo.gl. Goo.gl was originally a proprietary way for Google to abbreviate its Web addresses within services such as Google News or Google Maps. The new Goo.gl website will abbreviate your links and to share with others. However unlike Godaddy and Twitter which recently launched their shortners with a one letter .Co, Google decided to go with a Hack. Interesting. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...

Autos.com, Loan.com, Gardens.com, DoItYourself.com, Vasectomy.com Among 100+ Sites Sold For $640 Million - TechCrunch is reporting that Internet Brands is being sold for $640 Million dollars. Internet Brands is publicly traded and the price comes to $13.35 a share a premium of 46% off of Friday’s closing price. The company owns some great generic domains like those listed above but owns over plenty of domains which have “trademarked” terms in the domain, but they have all been built into sites. According to TechCrunch.com the sites generate 62 million visitors a month and made $4.6 Million in the ... read more ...

Wired.com Blasts Demand Media: Whats Hiding In Demand Media’s Finances? - A post by Wired.com, pretty much blasts Demand Media over their S-1 they filed to go public, and previous statements made by co-founder Richard Rosenblatt regarding the profitability of the company: “”Several commentators noted the absence of profits, (in the S-1) which sat oddly with co-founder Richard Rosenblatt’s public pronouncements over the years” “Rosenblatt has been describing Demand Media as profitable for a long time. The earliest reference I’ve come across dates back to ... read more ...

Google Launches Live Instant Real Time Search: Google Instant - Yesterday we told you Google might have a big announced today at its event, and now comes the official word that Google is rolling out an Instant live-updating search called Google Instant. The update already went into effect an hour before the announcement. When you do a search from Google’s home page the search box says: “Welcome to Google Instant,” “Feelings of weightlessness and euphoria are normal. Do not be alarmed.” From the Google Instant page: “”Google Instant is a new search ... read more ...

Will Google Make A Huge Announcement Tomorrow On Search? - Tomorrow on Wednesday September 8th, Google will be holding a by invitation only event they are calling; an inside look at the evolution of Google search. Some blogs and sites are claiming that BIG changes maybe announced at the event, even looking for a hint of what is to come on Google’s home page today, where a bunch of floating colorful dots whirl around the screen to for the word “Google”. While blogs like Fool.com are speculating that the event will announce a substantial change in how ... read more ...

MediaPost: Powered By Bing Hitting Yahoo Search Results As Soon As This Week - According to MediaPost, by as early as this week, Yahoo searchers will begin to see “Powered by Bing” at the bottom of results pages. “The organic search transition should take several weeks, estimates Betty Stooksberry, senior director of the search alliance at Yahoo.” “Yahoo also will begin testing with a small set of advertiser accounts moving in and serving up paid search ads through adCenter. ” Should be interesting to see how this shakes up the PPC market if any. Google+Michael ... read more ...

comScore: Yahoo Gains On Google In July - According to comScore, Yahoo picked up search share in July all at the expense of Google. While one month isn’t going to tell the story,  tts the 1st time I can remember Yahoo actually gaining a share of the market vs Google. According to the ranking service Yahoo gained .4% share in July while Google lost that exact percentage Here is the chart from comScore: comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report*July 2010 vs. June 2010 Total U.S. Jun-10 Jul-10 Point Change Google ... read more ...

QuinStreet Reports Earnings: Financial Vertical Up; Education Down - QuinStreet reported earnings after the market closed today and for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010, the Company reported total revenue of $88.5 million, an increase of 31% over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, the Company reported total revenue of $334.8 million, an increase of 29% over fiscal 2009. Revenue for the Financial Services client vertical was $38.7 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, an increase of 76% as compared to the same quarter ... read more ...