A Landing Page That Looks Like A Google Search Results Page: Asking For Trouble?

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Typing in some domains, I stumbled across a landing page, that looks like a Google search results page.

The parking company, is FirstLook.com, using a Yahoo feed.

Not only have I never seen this lander, but I’ve never heard of FirstLook.

According to its site, FirstLook.com:

“Is the industry pioneer in domain traffic optimization and monetization. Our long history in this space, spanning over 8 years, has allowed us to develop the most advanced optimization platform available today.”

So maybe its just me, but how can this company be a pioneer in domain traffic optimization and monetization and be unknown?

Moreover, FirstLook.com claims to have a “state of the art optimization platform”, which it call First Yield, which they describe as “the most sophisticated yield technology available in the marketplace today”

The Google like landing page is just,  one of many they have, (here is a standard lander) but it sure seems like they are asking for trouble.

Big Trouble.

On the other, the company claims to power Jackpot.com a great domain and the game site, Uproar.com

Has anyone out there heard of these guys, or better yet, tried them out and what are your thoughts on this type of landing page?

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  2. Johnny says

    So……who’s gonna’ try them out…..LOL?

    Check out their PimpMySpace.com ……that’s a horrible site they are pushing.

  4. Domainers says

    Here’s some interesting info to follow:

    FirstLook.com contact email is @navigationcatalyst.com

    On the bottom of Jackpot.com, there’s a link to PimpMySpace.com.

    PimpMySpace.com is registered to Navigation Catalyst Systems

    From this article in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Catalyst_Systems

    “In 2007, Navigation Catalyst Systems, along with its affiliate
    registrar Basic Fusion, was sued by Verizon for the registration and
    domain tasting of 1,392 domain names incorporating Verizon’s
    trademarks (Verizon California, Inc. v. Navigation Catalyst Systems,
    Inc., 2008 WL 2651163 (C.D. Cal. June 30, 2008).”

  5. MHB says

    UDRP

    Google can show harm if people think they are on a Google page.

    The parking company in my opinion is risking a lawsuit from Google.

  6. Eric says

    I would agree but I believe they would need to have something branded google for a UDRP to stick. Some CSS is not enough to scream UDRP

  9. Richard says

    If you look at the top right, the image resembles Picasa a Google product! The color scheme can’t really become a trademark issue I believe, but having an image that resembles Picasa can be a definite case! Since Google does not have the absolute right to the color scheme of the site, but they do have a right to the Picasa logo if they indeed have a trademark on it.

  11. D says

    Hm but it is just standard Google parking lander (formerly on url like apps5.oingo.com/…) i.e. Snapnames on their fresh catches use it too wwwwetter.com and lots of other larger domainers with own Google feed, this is pretty known design…

  12. Richard says

    It isn’t, you can clearly see if you hover the links that it says overture. As you previously stated in your article. As well as the fact that this does not actually look identical to a Adsense for Domain page. This is an Adsense for Domains page I quickly found from searching for one.. http://www.blogstarawards.com/

  14. Nidal Elkadri says

    http://www.OnlineFinancing.com was purchased during the Feb 20th 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Vegas by a company called Vendare Media / Netblue. (Vendare and Netblue merged and now are called Connexus and firstlook.com is bought by them too).

    OnlineFinaancing.com was the 82nd domain in the live domain auction and was sold to bidder paddle #462. The domain sold for a price tag of $17,500 USD. The sale was confirmed and reported on DnJournal.com on 5/6/08.

    OnlineFinancing.com sells on SnapNames.com for $5000

    What? This is getting interesting!!

    When ownership changed to Vendare Media / Netblue after payment from winning the domain at auction for $17.5K, the domains expire date was 5-10-2009. This date also stayed that way until the domain name expired on 5-10-2009.
    MediaWebPlus.com (Nidal & Nassib Elkadri) bought this domain name and we think it is a big hit and Vendare Media, firstlook.com are not able to manage their portfolio of domains even we are not able to contact them.

  15. FX says

    I too believe Richard is correct with his assessments. These layouts are not new either, they’ve been using same layouts or variations of them for the last few years.

    MHB, unless your intention was to get more info about these guys or give them some free publicity, this is not the kind of a post i would expect to see from you.

  16. Jay says

    What do I think of the page? I think it will work as generally the plain jane pages work the best and the reason google pages look that way as they have stated time and again that they don’t want to entertain/confuse the user with images just pass them off to the advertiser as quick as possible, at least they have an “inquire” link so you could actually sell a domain unlike google.

  18. jb says

    I’m surprised you never heard of them. Navigation catalyst ring a bell? These guys were probably the third biggest tasters after oversee and belgiumdomains through their basic fusion registrar. They probably own around 500k domains so you cannot realy dispute their pioneering status.

  20. Howard Neu says

    The real problem here is copyright infringement, not trademark infringement. By using the same look as GOOGLE, they are looking at a huge Federal law suit, not UDRP.

  21. MHB says

    Howard

    Besides the legal implications, don’t domainers and parking pages have a bad enough reputation without this kind of nonsense?

    This type of stuff ultimately hurts all of us

  24. MHB says

    Fx

    You can legally protect the look of a product. This is pretty common.

    Check out these recent issues:

    schools object and stop bud from issuing bar cans in school colors

    http://www.ktvb.com/news/special1/stories/ktvbn-aug2609-fan_cans_bsu.11c639da4.html

    Maker’s Mark suing over other liquor companies putting a red wax over their bottle caps: (saying that he resemblance is likely to cause confusion among consumers).

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSJ30TrDUE1VBXpQvATbHD1SOYVAD9ALC6LG0

  26. FX says

    just for the record i have nothing to do with Navigation Catalyst or google. Just asking tough questions to educate myself and readers here.

  27. MHB says

    FX

    No I don’t think so at all.

    Other than its a page that has search results they are not copies of each others look.

  28. D says

    “I would not ever do business with this company, that is, unless you want to lose a lot of money.”

    I did some biz with them and I made lot of money.

  29. nythemes says

    ya everyone knows that google,bing, yahoo pretty much look the same, and hundreds of other search engines

    in addition: has anyone used OpenDNS before? their page not found results also loook “confusingly similar” to google with the exception of the logo.

    Protecting the look and feel of a webpage is not only silly, petty, it’s laughable at best. You can protect the look of your page as easily as car manufacturer’s can protect the color and shapes of their cars, steering wheel, nuts and bolts, ….

    Hello?, live in the digital economy,where everything is a copy of a copy, remix of a remix, where SHARING is IN and PROTECTING is OUT, some folks still are stuck in the past and don’t “get it”. Take a look this very blog here “the domains” the design is the same as hundreds of other blogs out there, why don’t you bloggers start suing each other…?