Congratulations to Dr. Pete Meyers for relaunching his blog, debabblog as User Effect, at usereffect.com. Where his former blog talked about demystifying technology, woven throughout his posts was usability and the operability of software and Web sites. This change is a natural one, and along with it introduces a nice clean design and a cool logo to boot. He has also carried forward his archive of blog posts and all of his current and past writings are available for your review and pondering.

Technology • (1) Comments • Permalink

Wouldn’t it be nice to find out what people are saying about you right now? Or your business or competitors? Using Serph along with other services like Google Alerts can help you keep track of who is saying what and where.

I was recently clued into Serph by Justin at Menuism. You can create a free account to manage your searches, or simply enter a search query and see what is being mentioned about that search phrase on blogs and social bookmark sites. You can also get an RSS feed of that search phrase, and Serph will deliver any new entries to your feed reader as they are found.

Like any of these services, they won’t find everything about every phrase. If you are a new business or new to publishing online, you may not get results right away. As I have been publishing The Hot Iron and promoting Dunkirk Systems for a while, I get frequent hits of their mentions in blogs and on other Web sites.

This post alone should send me alerts, as well as to Justin.

Business • Technology • (1) Comments • Permalink

Tim Courtney has emailed me and invited myself and all of you to attend the very first Silicon Prairie Social, to be held on Thursday, September 20 at Mullen’s Bar and Grill in Lisle, IL. This is being billed as a suburban tech networking event, as Lisle is about 30 minutes west of Chicago. That is, 30 minutes without the occasional traffic tie-ups on the Chicagoland roads.

And to answer your next question, yes, there will be free drinks. They have an impressive list of sponsors on their Web site already. I am glad to hear about and share information on such events. At events in Chicago proper, many people come in from the ‘burbs to attend, and I hope some folks from the city venture west. You may want to head out earlier and do some shopping, as the tax is less outside of the city!

Business • Technology • (2) Comments • Permalink

The next likemind will be next Friday, August 17 in dozens of cities around the world. In Chicago, it will be back at Intelligentsia Coffee,, 53 E. Randolph, at the corner of Wabash.

What is likemind? I call it a gathering of creative-minded people, from various disciplines. For my friends and readers in Boston, they are looking for someone to organize it, which just means paying for coffee and getting reimbursed, and being somewhat awake at that hour.

Business • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

One of the biggest challenges with establishing an Internet presence isn’t technical - it is selecting a domain name or names. Many times people have an idea on a potential name only to find it is taken. Sure, many good names are taken, but there are plenty available, and this is where I have enjoyed working with clients to select a name. In many cases, we may select a “generic” domain name, one that is not a trademark but common words that describe their products or services. An example is childproofhome.com for my client Foresight Childproofing, Inc. which is also easier to spell and remember.

There is a large aftermarket for domain names – names that have already been registered by someone else and are for sale. Some people buy names as an investment, others have names they are no longer using. We’re not talking about trademarks of products or companies, but generic names or names of people. If such a domain name is desired by someone else, they may engage with the current owner and buy it, and the cost is usually larger than the “core” cost of registering a domain name, and some names go from the hundreds to tens of thousands.

Domain names are registered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Why does the Boston Globe own boston.com? Because they were the first to register it. Though the name pertains to the newspaper in the capital city of Massachusetts, there are other cities and towns named Boston and some people have Boston as a last name. And surely there are businesses that have Boston in their title. As the Globe got it first, it is theirs. Where others may wish to have it, this is how the system was established, and for lack of a different or better system, it works.

If someone buys a domain name that is a trademarked name or a name that someone else claims should be theirs, there is a legal process that is followed through ICANN, which is the international body that oversees many aspects of the Internet, including domain names. Many people and businesses have won claims to domain names from others. Singer Madonna got madonna.com through an appeal, however the Los Angeles Angels baseball team did not get angels.com – it was determined that its South Korean owner had proper claim to the name. There is currently a case between two people named Keith Urban, one is the country music singer and the other is not as famous, but owns keithurban.com.

So who should own a domain name? It is a question that is philosophical as much as it is legal. I am presenting this information as it is something being reported more in the mainstream press, with recent articles in USA Today and the Boston Globe. And there is a law recently passed that may have more impact if its deficiencies are not glossed over by the courts. More to come.

Domain Names • Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink