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Network Solutions Now in the Business of Domain Name Squatting?

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

A number of blogs in recent days have written up a rather disturbing practice implemented by Network Solutions, in which they apparently register domains that you search for (but don’t register) via their website. For instance, if I do a domain search for “ineedanewdomain.com” via the Network Solutions website, but decide not to register it at that time, I’ll no longer be able to purchase rights to that domain anywhere but Network Solutions. Any attempts to do so return a WHOIS search result listing “This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com” as the company name.

The practice is known as “front running”, scanning domain search records to find domains to purchase based on others having searched for them, and Network Solutions is claiming that what they’re doing is specifically designed to “protect customers from frontrunners.” By front running themselves. Of course, it makes perfect sense.

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Harry & David’s Holiday Inundation

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

Click Z’s Anna Maria Virzi highlights findings from a recent Email Experience Council report on holiday email marketing. Overall, retailers increased holiday emails by more than 45% in December, but the largest increase (among 109 retailers featured) was Harry & David, purveyors of fruits, gift baskets, and Moose Munch. Harry & David, which normally send out a marketing email to customers roughly once per week, increased that eightfold during the holidays, bombarding customers inboxes more than one per day in the run-up to Christmas.

We’ve been customers of Harry & David for years, as we’ve used them for sending gift baskets to many of our clients each December, and we certainly noticed the significant increase in emails this year, to the point that we began routing them straight to the junk mail folder. It’s a shame that they became such an aggravation for us, because their products are excellent and we’ve always enjoyed sharing their treats with clients and friends.

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Website Launch: Crossbeam Capital

Friday, January 11th, 2008

CrossbeamCapital.com

We’re proud to announce the launch of a new website for Crossbeam Capital, LLC, a Bethesda, MD-based real estate investment firm. We partnered with one of our regular collaborators, Crossbow Group, to design and code the site, which went live earlier today.

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Good Campaign Logo Design

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

Barack Obama's 2008 Campaign LogoSpeak Up has an excellent recent post discussing the logo for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and its exceptional expansion across various sub-brands and other implementations. As derivative as most major campaign logos often are, it’s refreshing to see such a contemporary and well thought-out approach to a candidate’s brand. Check out the piece here.

(via Coudal)

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Give a Laptop, Get a Laptop

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

The XO LaptopWe’re heading into the final days of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative allowing you to purchase one XO laptop to donate to a child in another country and one XO for your own personal use. The combo deal runs $399 and the retail value of the donated XO ($200) is tax deductible.

This offer was initially set to run only for a week last month, but due to overwhelming demand, has been held over through December 31st.

As if the chance to grab an XO for yourself isn’t enough of a hook, there are a number of additional offers added to sweeten the deal, including a complimentary one-year subscription to T-Mobile’s HotSpot wi-fi access, a $360 value.

For more info, go to www.laptop.org.

Filed Under » Etc., Tech | Comments (3)