Where Have we Beeen?
Published on the 20th of March, 2008
So close to a month has gone past since my last off topic entry at fowlerrd.com!
Why?
I have been busy working on two other projects, not an excuse I would like to give but I am sad to say that it is one I must pull out of the bag to be used. I have not lost hope in this project nor am I proud of the fact that it has so painlessly been pushed aside. But the truth is I have been negligent on a project that was just beginning to see some returns.. Oh well back to square one we go.
On the upshot at least now we are getting some decent search engine traffic. For the few entries we have made!
So now I have posted a lame ass, I am sorry, excuse. I guess I should be forced to make amends and get back in the habit of posting stuff up again!
The internets oldest domain name
Published on the 4th of February, 2008
Now imagine you were a computer geek transported back to 1985. There are no domains registered and you had the chance to register the first ever domain name. what would it be?
I StumbledUpon a list of the first 1 hundred domain names and I had to have a laugh, the first domain ever registered was not a 1 letter .com, not a 2 letter .com, not a 3 letter .com, not a 4,5,6,7 or 8 letter .com, it was a 9 letter word. Symbolics.com was the first ever domain. Now I have been using the internet for just under 15 years and only just found this out, so to me it is new and cool and one reason i like stumbleupon.
Interestingly it took 1 year for the first 10 domains to be registered, a year later another 50 had been registered and now 23 years latter we have pushed the limits to the point of driving anybody trying to find a new domain nuts!.
CSSElite.com - CSS Gallery with 2k monthly profit
Published on the 4th of February, 2008
workplacevisions.com - established workplace blog
Published on the 4th of February, 2008
Microhoo? - Microsoft Attempts to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 Billion
Published on the 3rd of February, 2008
If you have been living under a technological rock for the last day and a bit you might have missed the fact that Microsoft is attempting to buy-out yahoo for $44.6 Billion.
There are several hurdles that both parties must get over before this happens. Firstly Yahoo must agree to the deal, already there are rumours of a counter offer by News Corp as well as a rising price for Yahoo shares. Secondly the deal would have to be approved by both the US and EU antitrust regulators.
We are interested to see how this deal will not only unfold but also how Microsoft would handle owning two of the largest networks that have so heavily competed against each other for such a long period of time. When you think of it from a network point, it becomes greatly complicated, two instant messenger applications, two web based email applications, and two search engines essentially it would be two versions of Microsoft competing with each other to see which one survives.
Whilst many have labelled this buyout as a means to compete with Google we see it as more of ability for Microsoft to bolster its growing advertising portfolio, a direction that Google to has been heading in recent times.
One aspect of this buyout that is a little worrying for us is the track record Microsoft has of mishandling changes such as the Hotmail, MSN live move that all but folded and the fact that Microsoft has a continuing reliance on purchasing established properties instead of innovating, which as we are all aware is where Google’s strength is and the reason they have become the number one competitor in every niche they have set their target on.
If we had a job at MSN or Yahoo right about now we would probably be a little worried.
TechCrunch has a good round up of what should stay and what should go
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/02/microsoft-yahoo-what-will-stay-and-what-will-go/
What do you think of the Microsoft – Yahoo deal?
playing with the internet archive 2003 - 2008
Published on the 29th of January, 2008
Yesterday I was showing my partner a website that I had made several years ago using the web archive and that got me thinking. A lot has changed in the last few years, online, so I jumped over to alexa to see who the top 100 websites were in 2003 (English only) and decided to do a sort of where are they now.
Way back in 2003 the top 10 most trafficked websites according to alexa were
- Yahoo (1)
- MSN.com (5)
- Google (2)
- passport.net (210)
- EBay (21)
- Microsoft.com (15)
- Amazon.com (19)
- Go.com (47)
- Hotmail (5 - now under MSN)
- aol.com (46)
Now do you clearly remember 2003? that was the same year that Chicago won best Picture at the Oscars, Tampa Bay won the super bowl and beyonce went number 1 with Crazy In Love. It was "only 5 years ago".
News was the big issue in 2003, for a year we could hardly remember it was certainly where our attention was at. The major portals that were bringing in the traffic figures, MSN, Aol, Yahoo may still all be in the top 100, but even excite was still holding on to a top 50 position. And there were no less than 13 news/portals in the top 100
Search engines will always be popular, but back in 2003 there were about 20 search engines, including such fond memories as overture, AltaVista and Lycos in the top 100. In 2008 they have largely been obliterated by the dominance of Google, of the current top 100 websites there are no less than 16 entries for Google using regional domains. Only about 6 search engines (yahoo, msn, Google, AOL, DMOZ ect) remain in the top 100.
do you remember gator.com? Software that made end users life a little easier by auto filling web forms was the bain of webmasters as they replaced advertising and affiliate links on websites with their own. Fortunately for us, they died a rather necessary death back in 2006, The only memory of them you may have is the lost revenue they stole from your affiliate links. Oh yer, they did manage to pull in at #13 back in 2003, they now live inconspicuously at #548,917 now if you had invested heavily in that little company back then you would probably would not have been very happy!
2003 was towards the end of what once was web 1.0 companies spent millions acquiring and building but never managed to monetize there acquisitions because of the drop in ad sales at the dawn of the new millennium. They spent their money acquiring old technology that was past its used by date instead of looking at the future. As an example let’s take a quick look at Lycos
Lycos once had over 1.2% of all traffic according to alexa, that figure 5 years later is down to 0.08% keep in mind that back in 98-99 they acquired 2 of the most potential websites on the internet, angelfire and tripod both of which were competing in the free hosting domain, where users were actively building and maintain what essentially was the for-runner to blogging, the personal homepage. By 2001 blogging had started to awaken and go main stream Lycos had a captive market ready and waiting and never took the step needed that would have taken angelfire or tripod head to head with Google’s soon to be acquired blogger.com (2003).
now forget competing with Google in search, the personal homepage war has been going ever since geocities first started and I doubt there are many serious web developers in the 25-35yr age demographic that did not once start out in geocities, angelfire or tripod. Geocities woke up to the world of blogging in mid 2006, surprise surprise, look at the traffic growth at that point. Lycos woke up as well, but by the time that happened the horse had already bolted.
Why tell you about this now?
I have another article I am working on for those of you out there looking to buy an established website that might just turn you off that "bargain" you just found, you know that proxy site, facebook application or myspace site you are thinking of buying. stay tuned!
subaru-impreza.org - 6000+ Members 200000+ Posts
Published on the 26th of January, 2008
Hi, i am selling this website that i started as a hobby in 2004 (been online since). The site is a Subaru Impreza club that does generate income through forum membership and other methods. The site has had continued success but new projects have arisen and I cannot take this site further. Its now looking for new owners that can turn this site into something serious - take it too the next level. – There is stacks of potential!
URL: subaru-impreza.org Established: 7 Mar 2004 Uniques/Month: 15,000 Page views/month: 60,000 Monthly Revenue: Varies - Google, Forum Members, Business Adverts
creditservicer.com - Established Credit and Banking Website
Published on the 24th of January, 2008
I am selling an established consumer credit and banking site. It´s actually like a portal because it includes a blog and forum.The reason why I am selling is due to time-restraints with other matters such as school and projects. Also, I´d like to pay-off some debts I´ve accumulated over the years. This site has great potential and a strong foundation already. Maybe you can take it to the next level.
URL: creditservicer.com Established: 1 Apr 2005 Uniques/Month: 14,000 Page views/month: 35,000 Monthly Revenue: 1000 PageRank: 4
Have you sold a website? tell us about it,
Published on the 22nd of January, 2008
We are looking to do a few Interviews with people who have bought or sold a website in the past. If you are interested in participating then please contact us.The questions will be fairly easy and not to time consuming, we are also working on a reward for your participation.
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