I had the weirdest dream last night.. weird for several reasons. Firstly, I don't usually dream about the domain business (that I can remember) and they certainly don't wake me from my sleep at 4AM.
In this dream I was in New York, during some kind of conference and was meeting with Rupert Murdoch about a strategic merger.. A faceless female assistant or key staff-member (who is a mutual acquaintance in said dream) had arranged to bring Rupert by my hotel suite as he made his way to some other meeting. In the office of the suite we talked about the domain name business, how domain name traffic powers part of Google, Yahoo and drives a significant portion of generic-intenet Internet traffic.. Rupe tried to get his head around the concept that many of the companies he had bought and invested in had domain name underpinnings. He was quite clever, savvy and aware of things in my dream.
As much as I wanted to take this meeting to talk shop with today's William Randolph Hearst, Rupert had somehow heard of me (and the domain industry) and he wanted to take the meeting as well! It wasn't a love-fest meeting though. Rupert was the classic 2002 era skeptic.. He wanted to talk about charts and projections through 2012. He seemed hurried, synopsizing the domain industry's highlights and playing devils advocate, talking about fragmented interests and the difficulty of uniting a scatter-shot domain audience around a cohesive core or brand. It didn't seem like I was going to sell Mr. Murdoch on the benefits of merging a large domain network with his media content core.
I had several browser windows open during our discussion and suddenly, as we were in the wrap-up phase of our conversation (Rupert had his coat over his arm and umbrella in hand) it occurred to me to resize two of the open browser windows on my laptop...
What would happen if every time somebody typed one of our potent domain names they received a single split-screen of targeted paid search advertising, married to a relevant Newscorp media content page? Type a cooking name and get a relevant food story from today's Newscorp newspaper... Type Sportscores.com and get ads coupled with the sports section of Foxnews.. Type PersonalLoans.com and get a split-screen with related content from the WSJ.. Rupert's eye's lit up. I explained how a mash-up of my traffic with his rotating content could turn the 30 million unique visitors we get each month into 60 or 100 million as people came back for more. Then we could ramp up our own Domain Sponsor style third-party syndication business to augment our own proprietary traffic with other domainer's traffic; making Newscorp websites the most visited on the Internet in about 6 months.
Rupert started talking about creating his own ad marketplace and the mechanics of our proposed merger when it suddenly occurred to me that I had already signed a deal to be sold to a less strategic company for hundreds of millions of dollars less than Rupert was offering.. Then I woke up... That's what you call a 'high-class nightmare' folks :)
I jotted down a few notes so I could remember to blog about it then went back to another dream about the playboy mansion.
It was the implementation in the Murdoch dream that still resonated the morning after. The content exists today.. the domain name networks exist today.. They are an invisible traffic source, generating hundreds of millions of unique visits a month globally. How could Newscorp or another media content house elevate it's Internet presence and exert control over Google by injecting itself as a domain name network owner/sub-syndicator and marrying content to each and every page load?
Lawrence Ng should have a 'frank' conversation with Rupert's people :)
Stay away from the dark side, Luke. It'll all end in tears.
Posted by: Drewbert | July 21, 2007 at 11:15 AM
your not dreaming. somebody is gonna do exactly what you said. who ever owns the most unique family of web properties will be a major if not dominate player in space.
They all must be strategic, vertical, keyphrase, top level, location based market.
my 1200+ portfolio will be virtually impossible to compete with and i did not dream that. any challengers? alli alli income free! time to sit at the table gentlemen, mashup the lots and declare a winner of "King of Location." (owner of the net)The MVP of Domaining. I will ask the question again: Who has the greatest domain portfolio ever created? the most valuable vertical land in cyberblah?
MonsterLocator.com....Its Alive!
Posted by: steven c. emery | July 21, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Imagine how much money Wikipedia would make if they did this...of course, they lack the vision...
Looking forward to seeing your keynote next month.
Posted by: Todd Mintz | July 21, 2007 at 12:10 PM
WoW! I've seen the light for portfolios. Thanks for dreaming out loud.
Posted by: Geoffgo | July 21, 2007 at 12:36 PM
Gotta play the skeptic here.
1. SportsScores.com does nothing for their primary brand. Ie it would be ince, but the core point is - how does it help the primary FOX Sports brand?
2. They strengthen their competition this way. If people expect sports scores at sportsscores.com, they will extend this behaviour to other domains. Domains they may not own.
Again - I've been advocating the mashup of such content for a long time (especially in the self-interest of local) - I just don't think someone with such damn strong brands would be interested in diluting it this way.
***FS*** I think you were right to think along this line Ahmed.. Better to sidle up to the disruptive technology and utilize to your advantage than to turn your back on it based on principle (brand issues).
Posted by: AhmedF | July 21, 2007 at 12:57 PM
Frank....I hope you haven't given up on an long-term *independent* existence for keyword domains.
The direct consumer connection that keyword domains possess is far too valuable to be relegated to the annals of a media corporation's asset list.
The real value multiplier is independence from influence....
everyone wants what they can't have :)
***FS*** Good point sir... it was just a dream.. "do do do do do do do do " *twilight zone music*
Posted by: Faisal Premji | July 21, 2007 at 01:38 PM
Frank....maybe you need a "Rumcake" before bed-e-bye, and good thing we travel certain dreams alone...and not all of them with our spouse !!
And...in the states we have "tri-fold" billboards. Soon some of the " DOMAINITES " will probably team up and upon type in of:
BEVERAGECUP.com see a split tri-fold or quad-screen of
RUMCAKES.com....SPORTSCORES.com and
HEALTHSTATISTIC.com all on 1 type in.
Works for CBS outdoors?
Or revolving pages of 3 or 4 domains....with 1 type-in...
Hmmmmmm..........................................
( PS - What a gorgeous day in Michigan !! )
***FS*** Beautiful!.. Enjoy sir. Big concepts
Posted by: Ed - Michigan | July 21, 2007 at 02:02 PM
""how could Newscorp or another media content house elevate it's Internet presence and exert control over Google by injecting itself as a domain name network owner/sub-syndicator and marrying content to each and every page load?""
Now, this is what I am kinda talking about...
Except,
By moving 'control' from Google to Newscorp and a few other media conglomerates...
We (domain address asset holders) are still not taking ALL the power for ourselves...this scenario, just lets other third party(s)' take control of a major part of the Internet other than Google.
Granted...
We (domain address asset holders) would surly make a lot of money...but still we would only be getting a very small fraction of the 'total' value our assets and we would be giving up "permeate" control of the Internet to these companies....
Why is this worse than what Google controls?
Because Googles control is not and has not and will not be permanent...
Why?, because they do not own or control 99% of the domains in this world.
If Newscorp and a few other media conglomerates buy up billions and billions of dollars of all the best domains in the world....their control over the Internet WILL be permanent.
I do not like being 'subservient' to Google...now we would all have to bow down 3-4 top media companies in addition to Google?
No thanks!
The Internet is like the universe...Vast
In our universe...the most valuable commodity is 'air'...for us on planet earth anyway.
In OUR vast Internet universe...the most valuable commodity is 'domain address assets'...for us on planet earth anyway
You would not want 3-5 media companies and Google...controlling all the 'air' in our world?
Why do we think its a good idea that the same companies control the 'air' of the Internet? For a little money?
In reality...'Domain address asset holders' have all the control of the 'air' that allows the vast Internet to breath. We have unwittingly in the past 10 years given that control to the major SE's.
I say all of us not be so anxious to give these 3-5 huge media conglomerates and a few other huge company's like MS for example..."permanent" control of the Internet...
Not yet anyway...not at least until a group of us band together and take back "rightful" control of the Internet for ourselves.
Whats going to happen in the next 50 years or so? Who do we want controlling our 'air' on the Internet?
I only know one think for sure...This control is now and has always been in OUR hands...we just have to exercise this control.
Al gore want s to save planet earth...fine...I want a group of us to save 'planet Internet" from the control of just a few.
A little 'idealistic'...maybe.
I am just saying...the 'active' domain asset industry is only really about 7 years old...lets NOT throw the "baby out with the bath water"
Just some more 'food for thought'
Frank...I hope this post gives you sweet dreams tonight and not 'nightmares"...LOL
Peace,
Dan
Posted by: IPTV | July 21, 2007 at 02:51 PM
"it suddenly occurred to me that I had already signed a deal to be sold to a less strategic company for hundreds of millions of dollars less than Rupert was offering.."
Congrats! :-)
***FS*** Again.. just a dream.. "do do do do do do do do" *twilight zone*
Posted by: Elliot Silver | July 21, 2007 at 03:34 PM