The domain name TextAlerts.com was on sale at BuyDomains.com just a week ago with a buy it now price of $250.

There were no takers.

Instead the domain name which was owned by Domainbox Limited of the UK, when it was listed at Afternic.com/BuyDomains.com,  expired, dropped and went into a SnapNames.com auction where it sold on Friday for $3,505!!!

In the drop auction there were 63 people who back ordered the domain, including myself and  there were 4 bidders willing to pay $1,000 or more for the domain and three willing to pay over $2,500

Here is a screenshot of the BuyDomains.com listing, guess it goes to show sometimes there are better buys at the Aftermarket houses then in the drop channel.

Sedo.com Great Domain Auction for May ends this Thursday at Noon EST.

As of time of publication, over 70 domain names in the auction have bids led by 345.com with a high bid of $25,000 (that is owned by the same company that publishes TheDomains)

mph.com is the domain with the second highest bid at $24,999.

Telephones.com is sitting at just $99 a long way from its reserve price but is a great domain.

In all there are 6 LLL.com domain names, a two letter .tv and .nl domain and a really good .co.uk domain, dog.co.uk

Here are all the domain names with bids on them:

On Friday Matt Cutts announced that Google would soon be imposing a change in the search algorithm that would limit the number of search results coming from one domain.

The news was broke by SearchEngineLand.com, which said it will make it less “likely to see results from the same domain name, if you already have been shown that domain name in previous results three or four times before”.

“Matt explained that once you’ve seen a cluster of about four results from a specific domain name, the subsequent pages are going to be less likely to show you results from that domain name”.

:The history for domain clustering within Google is as follows:

• There was no restrictions in the number of results per domain name. This turned out to be a bad thing, as Matt explained.
• Google added “host clustering,” that prevented more than two results per domain name to be shown in the search results. Webmasters got around this by placing content on subdomains.
• Google expanded the clustering to show a max of 3 or 4 results per domain, instead.
• Google then changed this to show more diversity on the first page of results but show less diversity on the secondary pages. So you’d likely not see more than two results from the same domain name on the first page, but you can see several results from the same domain on secondary pages.
• Launching soon is a change to this to show less from the same domain, even on subsequent pages, after you’ve already seen about four results from the same domain for that query.”

It appears this is VERY bad news for those trying to sell or those who have bought subdomains.

Chicago.com has been very active and successful in the sale of subdomains, CentralNic has sold a ton of third level domains and more domain owners like Criminallaw.com have hopped on the subdomain sale train.

The sale of  subdomains are going to compete with the sale of New gTLD’s domains.

Google applied for over 100 new gTLD domain names.

I’m not saying the two are related but then again Google just increased the search value of new gTLD’s and devalued subdomains.

The domain name ReggieBush.com dropped today and was picked up by NameJet.com where it currently at auction.

The domain name had 61 backorders placed on it, and as usual in the cases where famous entertainer or athletes domains drop, we do not report on it until the backorder time closes.

The domain name was the official site of Reggie Bush according to Screenshots.com as recently as 2010.

If you don’t know who Reggie Bush is he is a former Heisman Trophy winner, who later voluntarily forfeited his Heisman Trophy due to sanctions placed on his college USC by the NCAA,  won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints, then played for the Miami Dolphins and now is a member of the Detroit Lions.

The domain name was owned by 691 enterprises, llc. C/O The Agency Sports Management and the administrative contact was Reggie Bush but the email address went to theagencymgmt.com.

Either Reggie ended his relationship with the agency or someone screwed up.

In any event this is another domain in a long line of entertainer/sports figures who have lost their domain for their official site and you can read some other famous people who have lost their domain name here and here and here.

Its also a good lesson for anyone famous or not to hold their domain name in their own name and keep correct and current whois contact info on the domain record.

Of course any buyer needs to be very careful of what they do with the domain name after they acquire it and its always subject to a UDRP claim by Mr. Bush if he wakes up to find his domain gone.

According to Techcrunch,  Zynga who recently launched runningwithfriends.com, and also owns and operates Words With Friends®, Chess With Friends®, Scramble With Friends®, Hanging With Friends™, Matching With Friends™, Gems With Friends™ and Games With Friends®, told the dating website CupidWithFriends that they need to change the site’s name, because it allegedly infringes on Zynga’s trademarks.

CupidwithFriends.com gave the C & D letter from Zynga to TechCrunch who published it as we have below

Zynga is demanding that CupidWithFriends change its name by May 24.

The operator of CupidwithFriends.com say that have  “no plans to change the name of the product,”

As the TechCrunch article points out another company owns and operates what has become a popular App Bang with Friends.

I guess “with Friends” has become Zynga’s new ‘Ville” and like Facebook which has filed suits against sites using the word “face” or Book”, Zynga is positioned to become the next TM bully.

Here’s the full letter to CupidWithFriends:

Dear Sir or Madam:

We serve as intellectual property counsel to Zynga Inc. (“Zynga”). Among other things, Zynga publishes and owns intellectual property rights in the ‘WITH FRIENDS™ family of social games, which includes Words With Friends®, Chess With Friends®, Scramble With Friends®, Hanging With Friends™, Matching With Friends™, Gems With Friends™ and Games With Friends®, as well as other ‘WITH FRIENDS games in various stages of development (collectively the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks). Each of Zynga’s games using the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks is published and played by millions of users on various social networking portals, including Facebook, Android and iPhone.

Zynga has consistently used and promoted the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks together as a family and, as a result of Zynga’s extensive marketing efforts and commercial success, the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks is strongly identified by consumers with Zynga’s reputation for quality.

It has come to our attention that CupidWithFriends has developed and launched an application called “Cupid With Friends”. CupidWithFriends’ use of the name “Cupid With Friends” for an online application is confusingly similar to the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks owned by Zynga, and users are likely to believe, erroneously, that CupidWithFriends’ application is published, sponsored, endorsed by or associated with Zynga. CupidWithFriends’ use of “Cupid With Friends” also dilutes the distinctiveness of Zynga’s famous ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks.

Zynga has invested substantial time and resources in developing and promoting the ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks, and it vigorously protects its rights in its marks, both collectively and individually. Zynga hereby demands that CupidWithFriends immediately cease use of the name “Cupid With Friends” in connection with its online application, and refrain from further exploitation of the goodwill that Zynga has developed in its ‘WITH FRIENDS Family of Trademarks.

We anticipate that you will accede to this demand, and ask that CupidWithFriends confirm by Friday, May 24, 2013 that it has ceased use of the name “Cupid With Friends” in connection with its online application. Nothing contained in this letter constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies, or defenses of Zynga, all of which are expressly reserved.
Very truly yours,
/s/

Dennis L. Wilson