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Did Microsoft Just Buy Vericen.com, a Typo Domain of Verizon?

Bill Hartzer

Did Microsoft just register a domain name that is a typo (a typo domain) of Verizon? I know this might be a stretch, but I am really curious about one of the domain names that was just registered, and was set up on Microsoft’s name servers: vericen.com. Registry Domain ID: 1853664725_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN.

Microsoft 106
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Microsoft Buys Domains with Hyphens, Skips Domains without Hyphens

Bill Hartzer

If you don’t, then you may want to read my post about a test that was done regarding domain names with hyphens. That certainly opened up my eyes, and now I prefer domains without hyphens in them. Just recently, Microsoft registered these two domain names. Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited.

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Facebook Acquired Messenger.com

Bill Hartzer

It appears that Facebook has recently acquired the Messenger.com domain name. Checking the name servers and the whois data for Messenger.com, there was a recent change to the name servers: from lovellsnames.org to facebook.com, and the registrant is now Facebook. Domain Names' Gandy Blvd., Gandy Blvd.,

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Domain SEO Service Registration Corp. Domain Registration Scam

Bill Hartzer

It’s a shame that these scams exist after all these years, as they have morphed from a search engine submission to even a domain name registration scam. This important notification notifies you about the expiration notice of your domain registration for XXXXXXX.com search engine submission. Registrar URL:[link].

SEO 157
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Merry Christmas! A Final 2014 Weekly Update from Bill Hartzer

Bill Hartzer

Google’s CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA won’t stop spam bots, Best Buy Oops, ICANN hacked, Freebase is shutting down, and Apple’s mysterious domain names. Best Buy Mistakenly Exposes Their Exclusive Blogger List. Best Buy also send those bloggers certain products to test and review. ICANN Hacked.

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Apple Owns Mystery Domains, Hosted on Amazon Cloud Server

Bill Hartzer

owns a bunch of nonsensical domain names that use Apple’s own DNS, but are hosted on Amazon’s cloud server. These domains continue to be registered on a regular basis, some as late as last week. And they’ve been buying these nonsensical domain names and setting up web hosting for at least 6 months now.

Apple 122
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Google Shutting Down Open ID 2.0, Migrating to Google+ Sign-In

Bill Hartzer

Here is the schedule for the migration to Google Plus Sign-In: January 12, 2015: Auto-approval is progressivly disabled for more and more users, these users will be forced to re-consent. February 23, 2015: Auto-approval is turned off, users must consent on each request. April 20, 2015: OpenID is shut down. Google Buys Illegal +.com

Google 60