African Perspective on .CM

http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=1060

Thanks for the link Dan..

This story gives an African perspective on the Cameroonian .CM wildcard deal which appears to be down now.

If taking this traffic is legally permittable, then the Cameroonians should reactivate the wildcard immediately to recover that traffic from the browsers, Microsoft and Google. Like the .cm (com) misspelling or not, Cameroon has a namespace.. the browsers do not.

Removing a domain name does not remove the traffic..  it just changes the plumbing. Right now that plumbing leads to Bill Gate's wallet.  In my browser anyway.

Comments

[Jeff]

Seems that cameroon is only getting 3 million of the deal. The small percentage should have been Ham's. What did Ham do other than the "wildcard"? How hard can that be? Wow, they should have hired me.

[Jonathan]

Frank, I've got a domain name I'm looking to sell. I've owned it for nearly ten years, it's a 7 letter dictionary term. The .net version comes with it. Drop me a line if you're curious.

[Isabel Wang]

Frank,

You seem to feel that Kevin Ham is more entitled to profit from .cm typo traffic than Bill Gates. There are two reasons why I would argue otherwise:

1. Microsoft invested significant resources on developing IE7, which you use for many, many purposes other than landing on .cm pages. Kevin invested far less on developing his wild card redirect, which doesn't benefit you at all; its only purpose is to generate PPC revenue from your typos.

2. Microsoft doesn't force you to use IE7. If you don't want Bill Gates to profit from your typos, you can install Firefox or Safari. In contrast, with Kevin's .cm redirect, you don't get to choose.

BTW, let's say Cameroon reactivates the redirect, and I type "conceptualist.cm" on my way to Sahar's blog. I would land on Agoga.com, see the search box at the bottom of the page, and attempt to look up my original destination. Whereas Microsoft and Google have the courtesy at least of providing actual search on their typo landing pages, Kevin doesn't. My search for "conceptualist.com" just bounces me back to Agoga.com again. How does such a scenario benefit either the domain owner or the visitor?

***FS*** Glad you asked this question Isabel.. leaving it active is important for two reasons. Firstly, the Cameroonians actually 'have' a name-space that they're entitled to.. it is their Country.. This is no different than the fortunate citizens of Panama or Egypt who financially capitalize on their respective shipping waterways. The second more important reason is it allows people like me to illustrate the unabashed stealing of traffic intended for you and I in every single other misspelling of extensions to the right of the dot, which do not exist. Microsoft has aggresively forced their browser on millions through their operating system [defacto] monopoly.. I really see it as a form of unfair competition. You see, Microsoft and Google don't "own" the extensions .xom, cpm, .con and others.. They know full-well people who type those variants are looking for ".com" .. They are pawning off traffic intended for you and I while at the same time litigating against cybersquatters of 'their' brand to the left of the dot. It's the height of hipocracy. I don't like the .cm play more, I see Kevin as a monetization conduit who was smart enough to make the deal and get a patent on the process. Again, the traffic is owned by the government of Cameroon and they're legitimately entitled to it because they 'have' a namespace. The point that Microsoft have invested significant resources is sort of moot. That should not give them carte-blanche to run roughshod over third party trademarks or user browsing intent. Navigation is not Search. Firfox does the exact same thing by the way and they monetize through Google. I would not come down on GOOG or MSFT so hard if they would simply correct patently obvious TLD extension errors for the benefit of the name-holder .. With that inequitable 'taking' remedied, we could use the benchmark of "doing the right thing" to cajole governments like Cameroon to fix inequities in their backyard.

Thanks for your comment!

[Isabel Wang]

Frank,

I don't see Kevin as just a conduit. I really don't feel like he is "doing the right thing" by domain owners. If I type in "conceptualist.cm", shouldn't he recognize my intent and offer me a way back to Sahar's blog instead of trapping me on Agoga.com?

***FS*** Sahar is free to register his name.. the wildcard is just that.. it only applies to unregistered names.. Would I like Kevin to give me all my traffic? yes.. but it's not up to him.. It's up to the owner of the wildcard, which is the Government of Cameroon. I have no insight into the mechanics of this deal but based on the story it looks lke a sub-syndication revenue sharing arrangement. So Kev wouldn't have the luxury of pointing the names as he pleases.. the Cameroonian govt is doing it for the money. No money, no traffic.

>>In addition, as the blog post you linked to pointed out, doesn't the wildcard redirect represent unfair competition against Camaroonian domainers who'd like to own a .cm? Since individual .cm domain ownership reduces typo redirect inventory, CAMTEL has no incentive to create a local domains market by reconsidering its $400-$800/year pricing.

***FS*** Not at all.. again, you are coinfusing a 'name' with a wildcard.. these names are unregistered and my be taken as actual registrations through CAMTEL by any ready, willing and able regstrant, at any time. They are not somehow held back for Kevin Ham. It is the Cameroonian's right as a sovereign nation to handle their iso country code in the manner they see fit. But that said.. i do not like it.

>>If I were a Camaroonian entrepreneur, I'd be very upset that the government would rather hand over the entire namespace to Kevin than encourage individual citizens to buy/sell, develop/speculate on high value .cm domains. Doesn't it bother you that the opportunities we take for granted with .com is not available to would-be domainers elsewhere in the world?

***FS*** I agree with this last part.. There is a culture of corruption that besieges impoverished nations and I would rather see this name space thrive.. but meddling in their space could be inferred as an act of war. You can't just steam-roll a country's sovereign rights. I don't like it.. I'd encourage them to change it at every turn.. They should offer to refresh each .cm to the actual .com registrant for a $6 a year and would likely make more money. I'd buy hundreds of thousands of refreshes to my names.