Pemaquid Communications

Reading through the tea leaves here is not that tough. Microsoft is offering a 60% premium over Yahoo’s recent stock price b/c it realizes that apps (email, spreadsheets, document-creation, etc.) is migrating from the desktop to a new home on the ‘Net.

Case in point: I work w/several young guns who:

• Use Google Talk for IM
• Use Google spreadsheets
• Use Gmail

They think “Why should I fork over my hard-earned moola for MS Office when I can get it online for free?”

Then there’s Google AdWords, Google Analytics; oh, and Google also has this really cool search engine thingy.

Google here, Google there, Google, Google everywhere…

It’s definitely a threat to Microsoft’s facetime w/computer users.

What does a combined Microshoo mean for business marketing online? Probably a new ad network, combined MSN-Yahoo! search engine. Something that looks a lot like… Google.

Stay tuned…

As if we needed more evidence that going anywhere near Network Solutions’ Web site is a very, very bad idea (notice I’m not linking you to them) , word is spreading across the ‘Net that NetSol is using a highly questionable tactic to try to boost its flagging sales of domain name registrations.

Here’s what happens: if you do a whois search for “anyolddomainname.com” on the NetSol site, if it’s available, within seconds the registrar will reserve the name itself, meaning that if you search for a name, then decide you want to buy it later on from another registrar offering a better price (which all of them do) you’re out of luck.

Registering a domain name through Network Solutions has never been a good deal. They charge $35/year. GoDaddy, the market leader, charges about $8/year. NetSol has always relied upon its name recognition to attract the uninitiated to its ridiculously expensive service.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re looking to find out if that cool domain name you just thought up is available for registration:

1. Friends DO NOT let friends use Network Solutions to register a domain name. NetSol costs 400% more than most other registrars, and they make it very difficult to transfer your name to another (i.e. cheaper) registrar at a later date.
2. DO use a a basic service like Whois.sc (Domain Tools)
3. Do not simply type the domain into your favorite browser to determine whether a name is available. A “Server not found” message simply tells you the domain hasn’t been set up to serve Web pages. It’s possible the name may be owned, but hasn’t been set up.
4. While no one has reported that other registrars, like GoDaddy or Register.com, have copied NetSol’s tactics, remember that there’s no guarantee they won’t in the future. I kinda doubt GoDaddy will resort to this, because they’ve got a good thing going with their name registration business. Register.com? It could happen.
5. If you were unlucky enough to search for a name on NetSol, only to have them reserve the name before you could buy it @ GoDaddy, take heart – Network Solutions isn’t actually buying the name, they are setting it aside for a 5-day grace period under a byzantine practice called domain tasting. Simply wait the five days, then surf on over to GoDaddy, or other reasonably priced registrars, and pick up the name after NetSol releases it. Problem is, you have to hope that no one else decides to buy it from NetSol in the meantime which, unfortunately, is possible.

What does the developer community think of NetSol’s latest breath taking display of customer care? You guessed it. People are using NetSol’s name registration system against them to make a statement. As of this writing, recently-searched domain names included www.networksolutionsislame.com. (And that’s one of the milder ones.)

Why don’t they simply lower their prices to be more competitive, you say? That is indeed a Great Mystery.

More information:

Network Solutions Stands by Name Policy

Domain Registrar Network Solutions Front Running On Whois Searches

Network Solutions Registers Evey Domain Name Checked

Network Solutions Responds to Front Running Accusations

Are you like me? Always late on the draw sending cards around the Holidays? We’re here to help.

Pemaquid has designed a Facebook app called Jenny’s Cards (you must have a Facebook profile to view). You can use it to send a little last minute Christmas cheer to all your friends (all of your friends are on Facebook, right?)

In addition to Holiday cards, you can send your Facebook pals Birthday cards, Thank Yous or just-plain-simple note cards. The card graphics are done by annie|catherine designer stationery, a Pemaquid Client whose site we redesigned earlier this year.

We rolled out this app after Thanksgiving for two reasons: to test how “infectious” this type of viral marketing can be, as well as to help a Client promote their products (there are links to the annie|catherine Web site in the app).

So far folks from Far East Asia to Down East Maine have used the app (Facebook has 50 Million + members worldwide) and annie|catherine is seeing traffic flow from the app to their site.

Done right, Facebook apps are an excellent way for businesses to extend their brand.

On the search engine marketing front, Google has announced the newest, fastest-growing search terms for 2007. So, up on the chart, with a bullet….

• iphone
• webkinz
• tmz
• transformers
• youtube
• club penguin
• myspace
• heroes
• facebook
• anna nicole smith

OK, class, what I’d really like to see is someone using all those new vocabulary words in a sentence.

Pemaquid’s adventures on Facebook are the subject of a story in today’s Portland Press Herald (Just my luck, I got a haircut the day after they took the photo, and no, you won’t see it here).

Thanks to my Facebook buddies Wendy Clark (Portland Diner logo) and Jennifer Ecker (Web design) for their help in creating Pemaquid’s Facebook apps. Thanks also to Facebook friend Justin Ellis (PPH reporter who wrote the story), who gave us a very “honorable mention”.

Our apps mentioned in the story:

• Portland Diner
• Lost on Liftoff

More are on the way. Stay tuned…

This just in from Techcrunch: MySpace is apparently saying “me too” to the Facebook Platform. According to Techcrunch, the MySpace Platform will launch in about a week’s time.


Since the Facebook Platform launched in May, more than 5,000 third party developers have created “Facebook Apps” that Facebook users can add to their profile (Pemaquid has built one called Portland Diner – a restaurant guide for southern Maine). Some apps have well north of a million installed users, and the implications for marketers (er, and other social netoworking sites) are obvious.

Google is also preparing to get in the game.

If your want to position your brand to a young, smart, tech-savvy crowd, figuring out these open platforms – the Next Big Thing – should be on your agenda. Pemaquid is the first developer in Maine to have created apps for these open platforms, so contact us if you’re looking to make them a part of your Web strategy.

The Portland Press Herald interviewed Pemaquid Communications’ Rob Landry (Principal) and Sarah Hines (Creative Services Coordinator) for an article in Monday’s news on social netoworking and related Web sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Pemaquid Communications is the only Maine Web developer to have created a Facebook app. Reader’s of this space know it’s called PortlandDiner.com.

There are a lot of sites out there that are “under construction”. It’s easy to find an entire site that’s under construction, like TaxpayerBillofRights.com, or maybe just a section or a page is in the works. I have a couple of thoughts on this.

First, in terms of usability, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to have a section of your site that’s under construction, especially if it’s in your site’s navigation.

People will click a link expecting to see “T-shirts”, “boats”, “free beer” or “hot sexy singles” – whatever. Instead they’ll see… nothing. You’ll leave people disappointed (especially those seeking the sexy singles). Not a good impression for your site.

It would be better in most cases to either leave out that page/section completely, until it’s ready, or at the very least, put more enticing information about the content that’s coming soon and, ideally, a date when the page will be ready for a return visit. Then at least you can encourage people to come back.

My second thought has to do with search engine optimization. If you are selling products online and have plans for line extension (you sell shirts and will expand to sell pants), you may want to have some sort of page that has some copy optimized for the new product line, to give the search engine spiders something to latch onto and bring the Googlers over to your site even before the line is out, in a form of advance online marketing.

Anything, though is better than “Under Construction”, which simply sends the message that your Web designer hasn’t built a page yet and there’s no telling when it might get done…

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