IQue - Our Twist on the Web

At a developer conference this week, Microsoft announced it would be releasing a cloud computing service alongside its forthcoming operating system, Windows 7. Cloud computing is a broad term that describes software and services made available on the Internet instead of on local computers and servers.

Examples of current cloud applications are the various Google Apps like Google Docs, where word processor and spreadsheet applications are not installed on a local computer, but rather exist as a service accessed online. One of the benefits of cloud applications is that, because they exist online as opposed to on a single computer or network, they can be accessed from any computer. Also, because the services exist across a number of servers, there is great reliability, as well as the capability to handle spikes in online traffic.

The Windows announcement is a clear response to companies like Google and Amazon.com, an early pioneer in commercial cloud services. While Microsoft certainly has the resources to commit data centers to these services, it remains to be seen how they will fare in this newest stage of computing.

I recently heard a story about a business owner that I thought was worth sharing.

One day this business owner realized that he was not receiving any emails. After a lot of digging to find out the problem he realized that he had let the registration expire on his domain (www.mydomain.com), which in turn disabled his email and website. He contacted the registrar of his domain who informed him that the domain had expired and that they had made numerous attempts via email to contact him to renew it. Turns out all those emails ended up in his junk email folder and were never opened. As a result, someone bought his domain out from under him and advised him that they would be happy to sell it back to him for $150,000!

These days, domain brokering is becoming becoming quite a business in itself. These individuals keep an eye out with domain registrars for expiring domains and snap them up for a nominal fee—sometimes as low as $10.00 a year. Then they turn around and try to sell them for an exorbitant amount of money that the average business owner cannot afford.

Don’t let this happen to you!

• Be aware of where and who is the registrar of your domain
• If possible host your domain with a company that will handle the renewals for you like Twistique!
• You can often set up an auto-renewal with registrars
• Mark the renewal date on your calendar. Set up a reminder for a month before
• Consider renewing your domain name for 3 years or more years at a time, so you don’t have to worry about it for while.

In our ever-changing economy everyone is trying to make money and keep their businesses competitive. Don’t let these domain brokers take advantage of you. Once you have an established business and domain, losing it can cause serious setbacks to your business. Your website goes down, no one can email you and all of your business collateral is no longer valid—a pretty expensive misstep.

If you are not already aware of who the registrar of your domain is, find out and keep track of it or ask Twistique how to find out this information. If you already have all of this information, consider yourself a step ahead of everyone else!

ICANN, the entity that oversees Internet domain names, has announced the approval of widely expanded top level domains. Top level domains (TLDs) are represented by the suffixes in a URL, such as the familiar .com, .net and .edu. But with this latest move, nearly any term could become a top level domain. Companies would be able to reserve an entire TLD the way they reserve a domain name. Apple, Inc., for example, could register .apple, .ipod or their current .mac brand. Corporations may seek to secure top level domains relevant to their industry, like MySpace buying .friend, or CNN acquiring .news. Expect a good fight over .mp3 and .video.

While ICANN has gradually increased the number of top level domains over the years – there are currently over 20, not including geography-specific TLDs – there have been criticisms over their effectiveness. Top level domains like .aero for the aviation industry and .coop for co-operatives and subsidiaries were considered too narrow in scope to be very purposeful. Other more generic TLDs like .info and .biz became stigmatized when spammers and other unsavory folks snatched them up by the hundreds upon their release for malicious purposes.

In part to prevent such a TLD “land grab”, the price to register a new TLD is set at $100,000. Additionally, ICANN will review complaints if someone feels their brand name has been inappropriately used (so don’t go registering .twistique, folks). But while the price point all but ensures only serious applicants, some wonder if it will change the Internet landscape much. Even now, most entities would prefer an awkward .com domain name to a descriptive .pro. (Yes, .pro is a real TLD. See my point?)

It is questionable if major companies would risk diminishing their well-recognized domain names in lieu of custom TLDs, but it is expected that many larger companies will scoop them up if only to preserve their brand names and trademarks. Keep on the lookout for www.weownyourworld.google.