Famonimous

I've googled the word and received zero search results. Google asked me: did I mean "anonymous"? Nope, I meant the brand spanking new coinage that conflates famous and anonymous - perfectly suited to all those well-known but pseudonymous bloggers out there.

You read it here first, folks: famonimous.

UK Companies not buying .eu domain

British businesses are lagging behind the Germans in the rush for the new .eu European domain. In the first 50 days since the registration period officially opened on 7 December 2005, the European domain name registry has received a total of 166,232 applications of which 52,636 originated in Germany. British businesses are lagging behind the Germans, Dutch and French having submitted just 15,819 applications.

Battle lines have been drawn for disputes over thousands of online trademarks. Of the 166,232 .eu applications, 121,985 were unique requests. The remaining 44,247 are potential domain name disputes where two or more parties have claimed they have a prior right or trademark to use that domain. NetNames, the UK's leading domain name specialist was one of the first accredited registrars for .eu, and is urging British businesses not to lose out to competitors and cybersquatters across Europe.

'The disputes have the potential to be very costly for the companies involved,' says Jonathan Robinson, business development director, NetNames. 'Many companies across Europe could have equal claim to a specific domain name but it's a case of first come, first served. Failure to get in before anyone else could result in a costly retrieval process.'

Registration for the .eu domain name is currently only open to trademark and prior rights holders in the European Union. Applicants are required to submit documentary evidence of their right to the domain within 40 days of an application being made.

NetNames manages the domain name portfolios for over 30 per cent of the FTSE 100 companies and is an accredited registrar for the new .eu European domain name. The new .eu European domain name costs £35 per annum.

European .eu top ten:

Germany 34.7%2.
The Netherlands 15.6%3.
France 13.4%4.
United Kingdom 10.4%5.
Italy 5.7%6.
Belgium 5.6%7.
Sweden 4.4%8.
Spain 3.9%9.
Austria 3.2%10.
Switzerland 3.2%

Ten Signs of a Cheap Blog | Performancing.com

Ten Signs of a Cheap Blog | Performancing.com: "I was thinking about blog design as i trawled around with nothing much todo late last night, and thought i'd try to make two lists. This one, what makes a blog look cheap, and what makes a blog look professional - negative one first eh? Here's what for me, makes a blog look cheap and nasty..."

IMRG launches home delivery trust scheme

James Roper, chief executive of IMRG, the e-retail industry body responsible for the IDIS (Internet Delivery Is Safe) scheme, said: "The delivery experience is key to the success of online shopping, and the fact that UK consumers are spending more than £2 billion per month on the internet shows that most people are generally satisfied with the service. However, some internet retailers' services are now far better than others." More.

Case study on how to test website design

"Have you ever been stuck in a debate with your Web design team?

Some people think you should boost image sizes -- put huge hero shot graphics on home and product pages. Others buck for text- heavy pages the search engines will like. And still others want to push your special offer harder to improve conversions.

Great eretail design is a balancing act. Here's a Case Study about one online retailer who conducted multivariate tests this fall to find the best answers." More.

For Sony, a pain in the image

"Still, the debacle is likely to add to pressure on Sony to become more responsive to customers, says Stahlman. 'I suspect that the end result of this will be: This rootkit event will accelerate internal company changes,' says Stahlman. In September, Sony announced it will implement major cost reductions, dispose of non-core assets, and try to modernize its corporate culture.

Indeed, the boycott is bringing into focus the various gripes consumers have voiced about Sony for years -- over a range of issues, from the quality of the company's electronics to poor customer service to its insistence on using proprietary technology. Although the company will be more open with its upcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console, the old wounds might take longer to heal now that the rootkit issue has spawned the Boycott Sony movement.

And Sony's reputation might have been tarnished. 'We're living in a world where corporate reputations are ever more delicate,' says Nick Shore, CEO of New York-based branding consultancy The Way Group, whose clients have included tech giants Motorola (MOT) and Intel (INTC). 'The public, in a post-Enron era, is more cynical and critical. It's possible that little things can trigger firestorms.'" More.

Bands, audience connect via text messaging

"Kevin Wall, CEO of Network Live and executive producer of the Live 8 concerts, says interactive text-messaging will soon become as commonplace at concerts as T-shirt sales.

'The location-based SMS business is at a primitive stage, but will be incorporated into shows in a lot of different ways,' Wall says. 'Two years from now, it'll just be a standard thing to do.'" More.

How newspapers can survive the internet

"Instead of treating their Web sites like unwelcome stepchildren, newspapers should turn them into their primary method of news delivery -- and teach their reporters, editors, and ad sales people how to work effectively with this new -- to them -- medium." More.

Is Craigslist killing off newspaper classifieds?

In the beginning, Craigslist was a casual e-mail sent to friends. Could it end by turning newspaper classifieds to ashes? More.

Blogging with a wooden tongue

"The result of officialdom's embrace of the blog format is that the wooden tongue has reached blogging. You can spot a wooden-tongue blog by the following telltale signs:
* The content claims to be written by someone powerful who's obviously too busy to write a blog. It reads like it's been phoned in. Who's really writing this, you wonder, the secretary? Are there ghostbloggers now as well as ghostwriters?" More.

'Beta' becomes a long-term label

For Some Technology Companies, 'Beta' Becomes a Long-Term Label: "Betas also have become a marketing device in a fiercely competitive industry, allowing software and Internet firms to release new products or services sooner and cultivate early buzz. Betas, which once had been quietly distributed, are trumpeted in press releases and at news conferences.

'I deplore it as a consumer; I admire it as a marketing professional,' said Peter Sealey, a marketing professor at the University of California at Berkeley and former chief marketing officer at Coca-Cola Co. 'I can't come up with anything else in the entire marketing world where marketers knowingly introduce a flawed or inadequate product [and] it helps grow your user base.'" More.

Note: It's also another sign of the "casual" culture so prevalent in the 21st century. We're into transparency, works in progress, warts and all, reality TV, unvarnished image, etc. Well, we're into all that in theory. In reality it's not quite so: we still expect our "beta versions" to be nicely packaged and to work straight out of the box, as it were.