8 ms·

This blogger.com profile is squatting YC founder's names

64 points by friism 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
personalcompute 15y ago
Looks like blogger/google took it down.
- elbrodeur 15y ago
  Maybe he saw the thread? Domains are registered under a Chris Curran. Opportunists don't bother me, but this is pretty tacky.
  - Tsagadai 15y ago
    It's a pain to have a common name sometimes. It's worse when you share it with someone who uses such low tactics. There are thousands of Chris Currans.
- gorloth 15y ago
  Selling accounts like he was seems to be in violation of the blogger terms of use, relevant section: "7. No Resale of the Service. Unless expressly authorized in writing by Google, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes (a) any portion of the Service, (b) use of the Service, or (c) access to the Service." Although I didn't see any way to report the violation.
  - dedward 15y ago
    Was he reselling blogger accounts or just domains?
    - gorloth 15y ago
      Seems it was selling domains (that's what happens when skimming and not paying attention to URLs) but blogger was being used as a placeholder and directory type thing, so that probably falls into the category of "exploit for any commercial purposes"
vaksel 15y ago
squatting on YC companies seems to be popular. For example a few weeks ago airnb.com sold for 5 grand on GoDaddy.
- avree 15y ago
  I just realized—it's probably a great investment to buy common misspellings of your own company's name. They can bring more traffic to your site (and keep you from having to pay name sharks.) If your company decides they don't need them, you can probably flip them for a big profit.
  - benologist 15y ago
    Your company's got to be pretty huge before they're worth anything significant, at which point the cash isn't worth the hassle of having someone leeching from you.
  - mrjasonroy 15y ago
    Always a a great idea. I always try to if it's not too pricey.
  - asher 15y ago
    When launching Truemors, Guy Kawasaki registered 55 domains to "surround" truemors.com. This represented 9% of his total budget. (From Kawasaki's 2008 book Reality Check).
    - rowaway 15y ago
      was it worth it?
  - yardie 15y ago
    Probably not that great of an investment. If you can get it for cheap, why not. Most users I've encountered don't even use the domain name anymore. They "Google it" and click the link that Google brings up. If anything your probably better off buying adwords for your company.
  - 15y ago
pjy04 15y ago
who cares?
- bsergean 15y ago
  the poster ?
michaelpinto 15y ago
Every time I see Blogger.com I'm always shocked that the site still looks exactly like it did years ago -- it's had even has less TLC than Yahoo! has given Flickr. It really speaks volumes about a lack of focus at Google -- in the time Blogger has atrophied we've seen the likes of Movable Type, Wordpress and Tumblr arrive on the scene -- so that's at least three generations of blog that blogger.com is behind at current count. Honestly someone squatting on a blogger namespace seems almost as silly as setting up a myspace page at this point...
- timdorr 15y ago
  You imply Flickr's gotten no love from Yahoo!, but that's not true at all. Just last year they completely revemped one of the most important pages on their site: The photo page - http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/06/23/a-new-photo-experience-your-photos-happier/ http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/06/23/a-new-photo-experience-... And they've made lots of improvements all over the site over the years. Flickr is one of the remaining products at Yahoo! that's gotten any serious love lately.
  - mncaudill 15y ago
    Indeed. A lot of hard work went into the photo page redesign/rebuild. It's difficult majorly overhauling a site that serves so many different needs to so many different kinds of users.
    - petervandijck 15y ago
      Too bad for all that work, it just got worse. The photo view experience on Flickr is slower than any of its competitors. Slow slow sloooooow. Plus recently, some of my photos have started to break (as in broken images). It just feels like it's dead. Incremental improvements (that aren't always improvements) aren't what Flickr needs. They need some vision and balls.
      - mncaudill 15y ago
        Hi, sorry you've had some difficulties with the site. We've made performance a big focus on the photo page but there's other sections of the site we're still trying to make faster. Regarding the broken images, we should be all clear on that (we recently brought up a new image cluster), so if you're still seeing that, let me know. I'm caudill @ yahoo-inc.com.
sidwyn 15y ago
Here's the cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FFeY7yQFJBAJ:www.blogger.com/profile/08940238965281804762+http://www.blogger.com/profile/08940238965281804762&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg&source=www.google.com.sg http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FFeY7yQ...
jstreebin 15y ago
Anyone contacted him? I've always wondered what user names go for. Anyone thought of making an exchange for these? Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin URLs?
- troethom 15y ago
  I'm thinking about proposing to buy it for an amount covering his cost except a dollar. He will still lose money (which should serve as a valuable lesson), but not as much as if I never buy it - and I really don't need it anyway...
  - lachyg 15y ago
    Why would he accept?
    - troethom 15y ago
      What would you pick: lose a dollar or lose the cost of a domain? (the cost of a domain is still more than dollar)
      - gplaya2323 15y ago
        You're assuming he is going to lose the domain. Which is not a good assumption. It's name squatting, not company / brand squatting
      - MikeCapone 15y ago
        What if the satisfaction of not selling it to you is worth more than a dollar to him/her?
        jackmoore 15y ago
        Some cyber squatter has my fistnamelastname.com, and several thousand others (including celebs and typo-based domains). I contacted him about and he made it clear that he was looking for something in the 10k-250k range. I offered $500 and got no response. A non-commercial domain shouldn't command that kind of price, but the cost of sitting on it just isn't high enough to discourage squatters from doing it and waiting for the occasional big payout. Edit: the squatters name is David Webb in case anyone else has had to deal with him.
jasonkester 15y ago
Why would this be an issue? That is, why is this an issue that's any more important than that Chinese ISP that keeps sending you emails about the .cn version of your domain name? Having yourname.blogspot.com wasn't a priority yesterday, so why is it in any way bad news to find that it's not available today? There are a million places to register unique names for things. Some (like .com domains) have value, some (like Geocities profiles, square feet of peat at the Lagavulin distillery, and .blogspot.com subdomains) do not.
- saalweachter 15y ago
  That would be the other Islay single malt, Laphroaig.

64 points by friism 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

personalcompute 15y ago

Looks like blogger/google took it down.

elbrodeur 15y ago
Maybe he saw the thread? Domains are registered under a Chris Curran. Opportunists don't bother me, but this is pretty tacky.
- Tsagadai 15y ago
  It's a pain to have a common name sometimes. It's worse when you share it with someone who uses such low tactics. There are thousands of Chris Currans.
gorloth 15y ago
Selling accounts like he was seems to be in violation of the blogger terms of use, relevant section: "7. No Resale of the Service. Unless expressly authorized in writing by Google, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, trade, resell or exploit for any commercial purposes (a) any portion of the Service, (b) use of the Service, or (c) access to the Service." Although I didn't see any way to report the violation.
- dedward 15y ago
  Was he reselling blogger accounts or just domains?
  - gorloth 15y ago
    Seems it was selling domains (that's what happens when skimming and not paying attention to URLs) but blogger was being used as a placeholder and directory type thing, so that probably falls into the category of "exploit for any commercial purposes"

vaksel 15y ago

squatting on YC companies seems to be popular. For example a few weeks ago airnb.com sold for 5 grand on GoDaddy.

avree 15y ago
I just realized—it's probably a great investment to buy common misspellings of your own company's name. They can bring more traffic to your site (and keep you from having to pay name sharks.) If your company decides they don't need them, you can probably flip them for a big profit.
- benologist 15y ago
  Your company's got to be pretty huge before they're worth anything significant, at which point the cash isn't worth the hassle of having someone leeching from you.
- mrjasonroy 15y ago
  Always a a great idea. I always try to if it's not too pricey.
- asher 15y ago
  When launching Truemors, Guy Kawasaki registered 55 domains to "surround" truemors.com. This represented 9% of his total budget. (From Kawasaki's 2008 book Reality Check).
  - rowaway 15y ago
    was it worth it?
- yardie 15y ago
  Probably not that great of an investment. If you can get it for cheap, why not. Most users I've encountered don't even use the domain name anymore. They "Google it" and click the link that Google brings up. If anything your probably better off buying adwords for your company.
- 15y ago

pjy04 15y ago

who cares?

bsergean 15y ago
the poster ?

michaelpinto 15y ago

Every time I see Blogger.com I'm always shocked that the site still looks exactly like it did years ago -- it's had even has less TLC than Yahoo! has given Flickr. It really speaks volumes about a lack of focus at Google -- in the time Blogger has atrophied we've seen the likes of Movable Type, Wordpress and Tumblr arrive on the scene -- so that's at least three generations of blog that blogger.com is behind at current count. Honestly someone squatting on a blogger namespace seems almost as silly as setting up a myspace page at this point...

timdorr 15y ago
You imply Flickr's gotten no love from Yahoo!, but that's not true at all. Just last year they completely revemped one of the most important pages on their site: The photo page - http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/06/23/a-new-photo-experience-your-photos-happier/ http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/06/23/a-new-photo-experience-... And they've made lots of improvements all over the site over the years. Flickr is one of the remaining products at Yahoo! that's gotten any serious love lately.
- mncaudill 15y ago
  Indeed. A lot of hard work went into the photo page redesign/rebuild. It's difficult majorly overhauling a site that serves so many different needs to so many different kinds of users.
  - petervandijck 15y ago
    Too bad for all that work, it just got worse. The photo view experience on Flickr is slower than any of its competitors. Slow slow sloooooow. Plus recently, some of my photos have started to break (as in broken images). It just feels like it's dead. Incremental improvements (that aren't always improvements) aren't what Flickr needs. They need some vision and balls.
    - mncaudill 15y ago
      Hi, sorry you've had some difficulties with the site. We've made performance a big focus on the photo page but there's other sections of the site we're still trying to make faster. Regarding the broken images, we should be all clear on that (we recently brought up a new image cluster), so if you're still seeing that, let me know. I'm caudill @ yahoo-inc.com.

sidwyn 15y ago

Here's the cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FFeY7yQFJBAJ:www.blogger.com/profile/08940238965281804762+http://www.blogger.com/profile/08940238965281804762&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg&source=www.google.com.sg http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FFeY7yQ...

jstreebin 15y ago

Anyone contacted him? I've always wondered what user names go for. Anyone thought of making an exchange for these? Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin URLs?

troethom 15y ago
I'm thinking about proposing to buy it for an amount covering his cost except a dollar. He will still lose money (which should serve as a valuable lesson), but not as much as if I never buy it - and I really don't need it anyway...
- lachyg 15y ago
  Why would he accept?
  - troethom 15y ago
    What would you pick: lose a dollar or lose the cost of a domain? (the cost of a domain is still more than dollar)
    - gplaya2323 15y ago
      You're assuming he is going to lose the domain. Which is not a good assumption. It's name squatting, not company / brand squatting
    - MikeCapone 15y ago
      What if the satisfaction of not selling it to you is worth more than a dollar to him/her?
      - jackmoore 15y ago
        Some cyber squatter has my fistnamelastname.com, and several thousand others (including celebs and typo-based domains). I contacted him about and he made it clear that he was looking for something in the 10k-250k range. I offered $500 and got no response. A non-commercial domain shouldn't command that kind of price, but the cost of sitting on it just isn't high enough to discourage squatters from doing it and waiting for the occasional big payout. Edit: the squatters name is David Webb in case anyone else has had to deal with him.

jasonkester 15y ago

Why would this be an issue? That is, why is this an issue that's any more important than that Chinese ISP that keeps sending you emails about the .cn version of your domain name? Having yourname.blogspot.com wasn't a priority yesterday, so why is it in any way bad news to find that it's not available today? There are a million places to register unique names for things. Some (like .com domains) have value, some (like Geocities profiles, square feet of peat at the Lagavulin distillery, and .blogspot.com subdomains) do not.

saalweachter 15y ago
That would be the other Islay single malt, Laphroaig.