Journal Journal: Stupid Internet ideas and the people who finance them
IGetNet, founded just as RealNames collapsed, is in negotiations with Microsoft, which recently declined to renew its contract with RealNames, sending the company under. IGN would provide a similar address-bar-keyword "feature."
IGN's process is similar to what RealNames tried to market, except that IGN is peddling "natural language" keywords. For example, not only would "Tropicana Orange Juice" point to the Tropicana website, but "orange juice," if purchased by Tropicana, would as well. (They do, however, defer to trademark holders.) This automatic redirection is different from the search triggered in most browsers by such keywords right now.
The only information available at this time is from IGetNet itself, which has been trolling websites for phone numbers, then calling up businesses offering the keywords for a hefty price--a base of $1,000 for a pair of words or $5,000 for one word, with a license of one year--and retaining the privilege to change the price each year. After a representative contacted the company I work for, I e-mailed the firm and received a reply from Steve, a spokesperson who said that large corporations like Staples ("laser printers"), Hallmark ("gifts"), MasterCard ("credit") and others have already signed on. At their website, one can enter keywords to see the current owner, if there is one.
The first spokesperson who contacted my company, Dorit, claimed that while the keywords currently only work via a plugin, Microsoft will be incorporating the keyword "search" into the next version of Internet Explorer. Steve did not confirm, but said that IGN is "in discussions with three major hardware comapnys that Im sure you have heard of [sic]," indicating that future PCs would have the plugin pre-installed. No official word yet from Microsoft or any PC manufacturers.
IGN also plans a mass spam of 5 million Internet users a day when their product becomes available, according to an information sheet that was sent to me by spokesperson Steve. They also plan to use the increasingly common "error page" advertisements, whereby "customers who type in incorrect domain names are made aware of the download opportunity."
IGN's process is similar to what RealNames tried to market, except that IGN is peddling "natural language" keywords. For example, not only would "Tropicana Orange Juice" point to the Tropicana website, but "orange juice," if purchased by Tropicana, would as well. (They do, however, defer to trademark holders.) This automatic redirection is different from the search triggered in most browsers by such keywords right now.
The only information available at this time is from IGetNet itself, which has been trolling websites for phone numbers, then calling up businesses offering the keywords for a hefty price--a base of $1,000 for a pair of words or $5,000 for one word, with a license of one year--and retaining the privilege to change the price each year. After a representative contacted the company I work for, I e-mailed the firm and received a reply from Steve, a spokesperson who said that large corporations like Staples ("laser printers"), Hallmark ("gifts"), MasterCard ("credit") and others have already signed on. At their website, one can enter keywords to see the current owner, if there is one.
The first spokesperson who contacted my company, Dorit, claimed that while the keywords currently only work via a plugin, Microsoft will be incorporating the keyword "search" into the next version of Internet Explorer. Steve did not confirm, but said that IGN is "in discussions with three major hardware comapnys that Im sure you have heard of [sic]," indicating that future PCs would have the plugin pre-installed. No official word yet from Microsoft or any PC manufacturers.
IGN also plans a mass spam of 5 million Internet users a day when their product becomes available, according to an information sheet that was sent to me by spokesperson Steve. They also plan to use the increasingly common "error page" advertisements, whereby "customers who type in incorrect domain names are made aware of the download opportunity."
