I had been watching and waiting to attempt to snipe a domain name that is very relevant to Microblogging and Social Networking.

The name I was after was SocialFeeds.com.

For the past several days, the name had been sitting at $40.00 on TDNAM for almost the entire 10 days. At the time there were 8 bids.

With 2 minutes and 13 seconds remaining I entered my bid. I was on top of the world at 45 bucks for all of perhaps 10 seconds. In the blink of an eye the bid was $165.00. I was still on top but every time I refreshed the page the bids just kept esculating.

Before long, it was over $400.

I had been waiting on a very important phone call – one that would require my full attention – and of course it came during all these bumps.

Do you know how difficult it is to monitor and bid on an auction as it is closing while trying to juggle a phone in one ear and on one shoulder so you can free up both hands? Of course you do. You’ve done the same thing.

The tone of the phone call was serious and I soon found that it indeed require my full intention. A friend, former co-worker, former employer (all the same person) was excited about his eldest son being picked up by a major radio station as a sponsor for boarding (snowboarding and skateboarding). The CEO of the netwoek wanted to meet and discuss promotional material. It was serious enough to turn my attention away and serious in a good way for him and his 17 year old kid who is just an outstanding youngster.

Being kind of in tune with sites and internet stuff, dad (my buddy) was bouncing off the wall with a million and one questions regarding uploading videos, making a website for his son, the domain name game and so on. They wanted me to come with them and sit in on the contract and signing and talk to their people.

Alas, the bidding continued with out me and closed exactly at $500.00. Needless to say, that could be a steal as social networking, social media, and microblogging are all going mainstream, including my journey into this.

There were a total of 8 bidders including me and perhaps somewhere between 30-40 bids entered.

Social networking, in particular Twitter, seem to be coming into its own.

I am a total novice to it but learning as I go along.

It is fascinating and a tremendous marketing tool. Like all tools, your need to learn how to hold it, inspect it, and read the manual before using.

The manual? There are plenty of tips and tipsters out there and books. I have bought a couple, read a couple of sites, and the whole time I was reading I just could not wait to dive in.

Obviously, I am not alone.

DNhopper.com

DNhop’s very own sales site.

CarbonFootstep.com

NCstate.mobi

TravelReporter.com currently $505 with 35 bids.

TDNAM, 7 days 9 hours remain

A while back there was mention of Google not pushing Firefox like it used to.

This may be why.

Duck Duck Go Toolbar 1.1.4

Categories

Blocks 42 Million useless Web sites (with nothing but ads) and lets you more easily use our search engine (duckduckgo.com), which omits blocked domains from search results. If you’re like most people, you’ve been to many of these useless Web sites from either other search engines or by slightly mistyping Web addresses, e.g. yotube.com, facebok.com, turbotx.com, twitterr.com, etc. Fight typosquatting!

Updated March 2, 2009

Is this popular? Well, there has been over 1,500 downloads just in a couple of days.

The add-on appears to block typo sites.

Not one to jump to conclusions, but when reading the long explaination, I came across this statement -

We partnered with the Parked Domains Project to develop this toolbar, which is a project that identifies parked/spam domains. These blocked domains have also been removed from our search results. For the full list of sites blocked, check out their Web site at http://www.ivegotafang.com/

According to IveGotAFang website:

A parked domain is an Internet site without anything real behind it. Often parked domains are just generic Web sites that just have advertisements on them, e.g. arthritis-expert.com

Domainers are a finicky bunch. Secretive, sly, shrewd, and some brazen.

Are all the good names gone? No, of course not. Many are dropping, trading, or simply have not been regged yet when it comes to emerging markets, trends, or technology.

It is not easy balancing all my interests and perhaps you are in the same situation. I am into medicine, domains, arts, certain collectibles, tech industry, wireless industry, and so on. Perhaps, like me, you spend a considerable amount of time on the computer.

So just how do I keep organized and abreast of new developments and news to those areas you are interested in?

You may used a desktop client to help you maintain some sense of normalcy to what can be described as a very un-normal lifestyle or pursuit.

I use one by Google.

Sorry to say I do not remember the name of it but is pretty much is a knock off of NetVibes.

It is customizable and pretty easy to use. Presently I have it broken down to four main parts:

• Home - International, national, local news. Basically a plethora of news outlets I like and pretty much trust on down to local TV and newspaper. For me, it is back to reality when I land on this page and take in what is going on around the world and on the local scene. Not much good to report but at least am informed.
• Tech News – I am far from a techhead but I love gadgets and keeping up with things. Wired.com is one of my favorites. I was subscribing to this in magazine format back when a subscription was free. I looked at the pictures. No, honestly! I was still into the arts and advertising and was more interested in new artforms and renderings than I was in the techy stuff. Man, had I known 15 years ago what I know now you can bet I would have read and absorbed every printed word.
• Domain News – There are perhaps a dozen feeds on this page. To be honest, there are very few blogs I read on regular basis. If what I say happens to sound similar to what someone else is saying then it is not because I am copying them. It is simply information overlap. Perhaps two or more people were struck by the same news source and now have posted commentary.
• Health News – Something I recently added thanks to some members following me or I them as a result of being on Twitter, with a different account of course. This is a combination of News, Technology, Emerging markets, Mobile, Wireless, World Events and so on. Amazing what one segment of society can reveal about society as a whole.

Perusing these daily, usually several times a day, not only keeps me rooted to my seat but also does provide a vehicle for research and even domaining. Domaining has now become a prevelant way of life for me and now plays an important role in my life, just as art, dogs, music, and family do.

It is essentially another way of collecting and turned me into a virtual world pack-rat.

It is really hard to not collect domains.

So, what do you have on your desktop?

What desktop client to you prefer?

What or who do you follow (if ye dare to tell)?

PublicHealthLaw.info

$1,893.00 with 2 days remaining on TDNAM.

For what it is worth, TDNAM has had some strong sales in the .info. The most memorable was SiliconValley.info $2,9o5. I was actually surprised it did not go higher.

Is .info making a resurgence or bid to be accepted by its higher priced brethren?

Time will tell.

But time has been going against it as .info has had its chance to be mainstream. Frankly, I like .info and think it is very relevant for its intended usage – information.

As mentioned, it has had its time and if .info ever wants to be viewed as a serious commodity then .info had better speed things up.

If the proposal to release new TLD’s happens, not only will many of those TLD’s fall into obscurity but it may drag some gTLD’s down with the chaos and confusion from having theoritically hundreds more TLD’s.

RussianKGB.com

UQY.com on TDnam Expiring auctions.

Currently $2,126 with nearly 9 days remaining