According to a blog post on adgooroo.com, in the first four months of 2013.

“Paid search spend in the Travel category on U.S. AdWords is down in 2013.

At $238 million for the months of January through April, it’s actually down 19% from 2012’s $295 million during the same period, which was down 17% from 2011.

 

 
“Clearly, there’s a downward trend starting in 2011. And the trend holds throughout the summer months as well, with spend from May through August 2012 down 15% from the same period 2011. If the trend continues, then we estimate the spend this summer will total only $242 million, more than $100 million less than two years ago.”

 

“A more plausible explanation is that Google has been cannibalizing its advertisers’ clickthroughs and spend with their own travel marketing efforts. ”

“After all, the decline in PPC spend began in 2011, a year in which Google Flight Search and Google Hotel Finder launched (in September and August, respectively). ”

“It would not be a stretch to conclude that the presence of these new Google features in the first SERP results–the travel equivalent of their Product Listing Ads in that they display a provider AND a price–may be poaching large amounts of clickthrough traffic (and thus PPC spend) from the paid ads on the page”.

With the vast majority of travel bookings now taking place online, Travel is a highly competitive category for paid search. Based on PPC-generated impressions, the Top 10 paid search advertisers on U.S. AdWords in the Travel category in 2012 were:

 

1. kayak.com – 883 million impressions
2. priceline.com – 699 million impressions
3. orbitz.com – 670 million impressions
4. tripadvisor.com – 663 million impressions
5. cheapoair.com – 629 million impressions
6. expedia.com – 595 million impressions
7. booking.com – 538 million impressions
8. travelzoo.com – 469 million impressions
9. bookingbuddy.com – 353 million impressions
10. hotels.com – 349 million impressions

The following insights were derived from examining the Top 100 Most Clicked Keywords:

 

• The growing popularity of the keyword “vrbo” (vacation rental by owner), which rose to position 51 in 2013 from 78 in 2012, may indicate a new trend in consumer travel habits and a threat to the hotel business.
• Average clickthrough rate was 8.1%, with navigational terms posting much higher rates and generic terms yielding much lower clickthroughs (“flight” was lowest at 1.4%)
• Queries on “Airlines” yielded the most paid ads: 10.6 per SERP, while searches on “Greyhound” yielded less than 1, on average
• “Vacation packages” was the term with the most bidders, with 259 advertisers gaining first SERP impressions during the first quarter of the year. “Greyhound” had the fewest bidders (4).

 

a Total of 91 new gTLD applications passed ICANN Initial Evaluation (IE)  including 8 applications which were previously passed over.

This is the most new gTLD applications to pass IE in a single week and ICANN is now processing 100 new gTLD applications up from 50 per week as they promised would happen in June.

This weeks more interesting new gTLD applications passing IE include two killer Geo’s .NYC and .Berlin; .budapest, a pseudo Geo of .Kiwi;  Google’s application for .youtube, Microsoft’s applications for .Microsoft and .Hotmail; the Republican’s parties application for .GOP.

Some other .brand applications passed IE including .Neustar, .Monster, .Oldnavy; .Pioneer; .Genting (casino operators) .Lancia (Fiat); .Travelchannel; and Amazon’s application for .Kindle.

ICANN has now gone through all new gTLD applications with a prioritization of  500 or less, with 436 having a decision.

Here are the applications passing IE released by ICANN today:

 

139	FISHING	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
171	CASA	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
192	GOP	Republican State Leadership Committee, Inc.
262	LOVE	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
291	BOOK	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
331	KIWI	DOT KIWI LIMITED
335	LLC	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
370	ISELECT	iSelect Ltd
401	AUDIBLE	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
402	WEDDING	Wild Madison, LLC
403	CPA	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
404	EARTH	Interlink Co., Ltd.
405	DELIVERY	dot Delivery Limited
406	TICKETS	Accent Media Limited
408	MSD	MSD Registry Holdings, Inc.
409	NEUSTAR	NeuStar, Inc.
411	SKI	Wild Lake, LLC
412	LEASE	Victor Trail, LLC
413	SALON	Aesthetics Practitioners Advisory Network Pty Ltd
414	MONSTER	Monster, Inc.
415	IMMO	dotimmobilie GmbH
416	OLDNAVY	The Gap, Inc.
417	PIN	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
420	DESIGN	NU DOT CO LLC
422	PETS	John Island, LLC
423	BERLIN	dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG
424	ECO	Big Room Inc.
425	MOVISTAR	Telefónica S.A.
426	ROCHER	Ferrero Trading Lux S.A.
427	GRAPHICS	Over Madison, LLC
428	ART	.ART REGISTRY INC.
429	CAM	AC Webconnecting Holding B.V.
430	HEALTH	Afilias Limited
431	WIEN	punkt.wien GmbH
432	TECHNOLOGY	Auburn Falls
433	PIONEER	Pioneer Corporation
434	LANCIA	Fiat S.p.A. (“società per azioni”)
435	REVIEWS	Extra Cover, LLC
437	GRAINGER	Grainger Registry Services, LLC
438	NEWS	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
439	DEALS	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
440	MOV	Charleston Road Registry Inc.
441	SOLUTIONS	Silver Cover, LLC
442	GENTING	Resorts World Inc Pte. Ltd.
443	PIZZA	Asiamix Digital Limited
444	SMILE	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
446	HOTMAIL	Microsoft Corporation
447	PRAMERICA	Prudential Financial, Inc.
449	MEMORIAL	Dog Beach, LLC
450	MUSIC	DotMusic Inc.
451	ICBC	Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited
452	MEDIA	Grand Glen, LLC
453	LAW	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
454	TRAVELCHANNEL	Lifestyle Domain Holdings, Inc.
455	AKDN	Fondation Aga Khan (Aga Khan Foundation)
457	SPOT	Dotspot LLC
458	GAME	Beijing Gamease Age Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
459	WEDDING	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
460	LTD	NU DOT CO LLC
461	MERCK	Merck Registry Holdings, Inc.
462	LLC	NU DOT CO LLC
464	TICKETS	Atomic McCook, LLC
465	NYC	The City of New York
467	LAWYER	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
469	AWS	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
470	MRMUSCLE	Johnson Shareholdings, Inc.
471	POKER	Binky Mill, LLC
472	LTD	Afilias Limited
473	REALESTATE	New North, LLC
474	FUJIXEROX	Xerox DNHC LLC
475	MICROSOFT	Microsoft Corporation
477	REALTY	Dash Bloom, LLC
478	KIM	Afilias Limited
479	CHESAPEAKE	Afterdot LLC
480	GIFTS	Goose Sky, LLC
481	FLOWERS	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
484	CARAVAN	Caravan International, Inc.
486	MINI	Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft
487	BAND	Auburn Hollow, LLC
488	AUTOS	DERAutos, LLC
489	AFAMILYCOMPANY	Johnson Shareholdings, Inc.
492	REVIEW	Top Level Domain Holdings Limited
493	FASHION	Big Dynamite, LLC
494	SHOP	BEIJING JINGDONG 360 DU E-COMMERCE LTD
495	CITY	DotCity Inc.
496	GALLERY	Sugar House, LLC
497	TORAY	Toray Industries, Inc.
498	YOUTUBE	Charleston Road Registry Inc.
499	KINDLE	Amazon EU S.à r.l.
500	NOW	Starbucks (HK) Limited

According to Bloomberg.com, Google is facing a new Antitrust Probe Over Display Ads by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission

According to the story the FCC is looking into “into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition”

The story goes on to say that the investigation is in the preliminary stage and may not expand into a larger probe

“FTC investigators are examining whether Google is using its position in U.S. display ads — a $17.7 billion industry that includes the sale of banner ads on websites — to push companies to use more of its other services, a practice that can be illegal under antitrust laws, the people said. Google has been drawing regulatory scrutiny around the world as it bolsters its market share of digital advertising.”

The story goes on to say that  “Canada’s Competition Bureau is preparing to start a formal inquiry into Google’s search practices, the company disclosed last week and The European Union is investigating Google for the way it operates the search business.  Antitrust agencies in Argentina and South Korea are also scrutinizing the company.”

 

John Berryhill, Esq, PHD says that the UDRP panel in the Ron Paul Domain name case got its right.

The decision has garnered a lot of Strong opinions, but Mr. Berryhill who has won more reverse domain name hijacking cases representing domain holders says the panel got it right and says that the UDRP panel that awarded HillaryClinton.com to Hillary Clinton got it wrong:

In a comment left on a post on TheDomains.com to Mr.Berryhill says:

 

Hillary Clinton was only a wife of the politician…”

IMHO, that case was wrongly decided.   But you don’t correct for a wrong decision by continuing to make wrong decisions.

Mike, the difference between Brad Pitt and Ron Paul is that Brad Pitt is a subject of interest for purely commercial reasons.   Trademark law exists in tension with the First Amendment.  The First Amendment says, “say what you like”.  Trademark law says, “you can’t say certain things in the context of commercial speech.”

Given that the First Amendment’s core purpose is to allow, first and foremost, unfettered political speech, the tension comes to the fore in what are almost always “blended” political and commercial contexts.  Often, nothing falls clearly on one side or the other of a bright line somewhere.

A good case for exploring the topic involves former California Governor Schwarzenegger.  California, as may be expected, has a lot of protections around commercial rights of publicity.  But Mr. Schwarzenegger’s career had something of a dual character.  On the one hand, his rights in his name as a commercial brand were substantial.  On the other hand, as a political figure, he was fair game for commentary.

So, what happened is that someone was selling action figures showing Mr. Schwarzenegger as “The Governator”.   The court had a really tough time trying to sort out whether this activity was primarily a political comment playing off the duality of his reputation as a politician and actor, or primarily a commercial enterprise free-riding on the value of the Terminator franchise.  The case is a good read, though.

The UDRP is a bad fit for a lot of “right of publicity” claims in personal names as opposed to purely trademark claims.   Where the line is drawn depends, in a lot of cases, on the particular evidence and arguments in front of the panel.   One way to approach whether a name acts primarily as a “mark” is in the distinction between saying:

1.  “I saw a movie directed by Steven Spielberg.”

2.  “I saw a Steven Spielberg movie.”

In statement 1, “Steven Spielberg” is used as a proper noun – the name of the person who directed the movie.

In statement 2, “Steven Spielberg” is used as an adjective to define a “type” of movie as a “Steven Spielberg” brand movie.

So, as noted above, Ron Paul has written a number of books.   As the decision notes, the question is whether people buy those books as “Ron Paul books”, because “Ron Paul” indicates a certain type or quality of book, or whether they buy them because the books express the political views of Mr. Paul.

That’s a subtle, but important, distinction.   There are people who love “Stephen King novels”, for example, or “a movie based on a Stephen King novel” where, as above, “Stephen King” is known to represent a certain genre and quality of authorship, going well beyond the fact that it is his personal name.  One might even compare a book by someone else by saying, “It’s not as good as a Stephen King novel” or “It’s a lot like a Stephen King novel.”

It’s not a matter of simply saying, “oh they write books with their name on the cover, so it is a trademark for books”.   It’s a question of whether that name has gained secondary meaning as a mark.

That’s where the Hillary Clinton decision, in my opinion, went wrong, and this one got it right.  The UDRP decision explores the function of “Ron Paul” as a designator for books.   Does it say to a person buying books, “this is a type of book – a Ron Paul book” or does it say “this book expresses the views of Ron Paul.”  I don’t know what, specifically, was in front of the panelist, but that is the line of thought the panelist went through.

I know the resident “black helicopter” crew will never wrap their heads around the idea that there are people who try to make the best decisions they can on the papers in front of them, and are not constantly obsessing over a political agenda.  It helps to get out and enjoy some sunshine, go for a walk or a bike ride, call an old friend, do something fun, and otherwise enjoy one’s short time on earth once in a while, instead of being in a state of perpetual outrage in front of cable television and the internet.

.Co domain names are in the news again today as FastCompany.com, has just covered Quarterly.Co  which was founded by former GOOD editor Zach Frechette which already has over 8,000 Subscribers.

“The startup is a way for admirably cool people like Pharrell or Joshua Foer to share the things they love.” Says FastCompany.

The company already raised $1.25 million in investment from True Ventures and Collaborative fund.

Their CEO is Mitch Lowe a cofounder of Netflix and the former president of Redbox.

“Quarterly.co provides a tangible way for his readers to join his experiments in lifestyle design:

All the items are, on some level, about crafting a better life. Whether that’s improving physical performance, dramatically changing business or creativity, or creating adventures with the right tools. Most of the things I include are vetted from the happiest top performers I know and meet. Olympic athletes, check. Founders running startups worth $1 billion? Check. It’s like a physical diary of the coolest things I find in the world.”

 

Another up and coming business built on a .Co domain name.

Yesterday we chatted about H2.Co which was founded by the former co-founder of Linkedin.com.