Chatroulette is about to become a household name among lawyers as well.

Despite the efforts of 17 year old Russian programmer slash entrepreneur Andrey Ternovskiy it seems that the Chatroulette project isn’t taking off any time soon.

After allegedly turning down $1,000,000 from a Russian investor, Andrey took his video chat project to Silicon Valley, where he met with several investors seeking funds.

The problem seems to be the amount of exhibitionism on the Chatroulette servers, an out of control phenomenon. Never before in the history of the Internet was so much public nudity concentrated on a single web site, as on Chatroulette.com

As soon as traffic started to rise, several clones turned up, attempting to capitalize on the Chatroulette infamy. The technology used by Chatroulette.com was soon matched and surpassed, as several commercial pieces of software can be bought off the Internet to replicate the functionality of Chatroulette.

One such web site is ChatHopper.com which is promoting itself as “Anonymous Speed Chatting”. It’s interesting to note this name because there are a couple of pending trademark applications at the USPTO – including one for “Chatroulette” itself!

Both the Chathopper trademark application and the Chatroulette trademark application are applied for by the same entity – Swiss corporation Tick&Talk AG based in Zurich. Both marks allege use of the respective words in the following classes:

IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Business management, business management consultancy, organisational project management in the field of electronic data processing; professional business consultancy for franchise concepts; merchandising, namely sales promotion for others, cross promotion for others; development of sales and promotional incentive schemes for marketing purposes; arranging of trading and economical contacts, also over the Internet; arranging of contracts, for others, for the buying and selling of goods and/or for the use of services; organization and operating of promotions events; sponsoring in the form of advertising; presentation of companies on the Internet and other media; compilation and systemisation of data of all kinds into computer databases; auctioneering, including on the Internet; advertising agency services; public relations; collating information of all kinds in computer databases; compilation and systemisation of information into computer databases; maintenance of data in computer databases; commercial management of the licensing of goods and services, for othersIC 038. US

100 101 104. G & S: Broadcasting of television programmes; Radio broadcasting; cable television broadcasting services; radio broadcasting; broadcasting of teleshopping programmes; providing access to a global computer network; providing access to computer programs on data networks; providing access to information on the Internet; providing access to computer programs on data networks; providing chatrooms on the Internet; providing portals on the Internet; providing telecommunications channels for teleshopping services; operating chat rooms, chatlines and forums; teletext services; electronic mail; computer-aided transmission of messages and images; collection and delivery of messages; news agencies;terrestrial, cable or satellite broadcasting of teletext; Wireless or cable network broadcasting of radio and television broadcasts/programmes;transmission of film, television, radio, teletext and videotext programmes or broadcasts, including video-on-demand and within the world wide web; on-line services and transmissions, namely transfer of information and messages including E-mail; transmission of computer programs, gadgets, widgets, plug-ins, applets, ring tone, voice, music, MP3, graphics and video image files and of information and messages by means of wireless uploading and downloading via global computer networks on computer and on wireless communications devices, including mobile phones

IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Computer programming; design and development of computer hardware and software; computer programming, namely updating, design and rental of computer software; design, design consultancy, and design of homepages and Internet pages; development of computer programs for incorporating into a graphics user interface or webpage (gadgets, widgets, plug-ins, applets); rental and maintenance of memory space for website applications, for others (webhosting); providing of electronic memory space (webspace) on the Internet; providing access to computer programs on data networks; provision of search engines for the Internet; rental of storage space on the Internet; rental of webservers; rental of computer software; digital data processing, namely electronic data storage

Essentially, both applications are attempting to make use of the Chatroulette service and functionality and add the Chathopper brand as a protected mark. It is evident that the marks are applied for by an entity unrelated to the Russian programmer and apparently related to the Chathopper.com web site and service.

We’ll have to wait and see how this application is treated and whether the marks will receive trademark protection status.

Mike Mann is now the absolute oilman in the .CO oilfields and his straw is longer than yours!

Mike Mann has a plan: to take over the world, one dot co at a time.

His recent sale of Flying.co was admittedly a raindrop in an ocean of sales.

What matters, is that Mike Mann has a certain taste for top-tier domain keywords, and this time around with the launch of .CO exactly 10 days ago, he went all Pikachu about it:

Gotta catch them all!

Mike Mann’s very own Oil.co and Gas.co make him the absolute oilman of the domain industry. Simply WOW - these are two uber-domains beyond any earthly classification.

At a time when BP and its environmental clusterphuck ruined the lives of animals and people alike, Mike Mann’s virtual oil wells are pumping the black gold non-stop.

Did we say “gold“? But of course, Mike Mann also owns Gold.co

That’s right – GOLD.co – you can now faint, if you must.

Rick Schwartz playfully registered PigeonShit.co and RicksBlog.co – we are not too sure about what else he has acquired but we’re looking into it. Rick is known for not playing second fiddle to anyone, including his own shadow.

The Chef is getting ready to sail!

YouTube announced that they are increasing the length of all uploaded videos by 50% – from the old 10 minutes to a whopping new 15 minutes of fame!

We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video. Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We’ve heard you, and today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased the upload limit to 15 minutes.

This 50% increase in video length ensures that more silly, useless, boring and potentially reputation-damaging videos will be now be uploaded to YouTube, along with longer copyright violations.

Meanwhile, Chef Patrick will be shooting a lot of fresh video during his DNCruise that takes off from Miami, Florida on October 11. The cruise is popular with many domainer celebrities and there is limited accommodation – that’s why you need to order and secure your cabin by August 8th.

Prices go up after that so give Patrick a buzz now.

Many times, things go wrong at domain conferences; people get overly excited and misbehave, or argue over the quality of their domains – some way too passionately.

Then of course there is lots of alcohol being served – TRAFFIC is particularly generous, with the ample serving of beer, martinis, vodka, gin, even absinthe if you ask for it nicely. So a few domainers get visibly out of control and become violent, thus ending in the county jail.

Help Ron Jackson identify these fine domainers below who had one bottle too many!

The Pirate Bay now hosts your Facebook information!

In case you haven’t heard the news, 100 million Facebook accounts have been swiped and all their information has been published in one gigantic torrent, at the popular torrent web site, The Pirate Bay.

The BBC reports that a computer expert by the name of Ron Bowles created a crawler that went through all Facebook accounts looking for profile information which users had not manually opted to hide in their profile settings.

Supposedly, he did not collect or at least, did not include phone numbers, street addresses or emails.

So what’s on that 2.78 Gb torrent then?

We’ll have to wait until the download finishes in about thirty minutes.

Chances are that since the data consist of 20% of Facebook’s 500,000,000 users we will find plenty of information on domainers as well

What a wonderful world this could be with several cities sponsoring TLDs?

Many domainers who invest in geoDomains are not aware of a brand new opportunity that will allow them to double their investment – provided of course that the usual celestial alignment takes place in the world’s major financial markets.

The new TLDGeos are not of the virtual world but rather, real cities, towns and even countries that provide sponsorship to specific TLDs.

This idea is the brainchild of Mauro Jiacomo Ragazzo, an entrepreneur from Florence, Italy.

“I had this idea, to unite, si, unite all the peoples of cities with one TLD. I want to bring Renaissance to domaining and combine virtual world with real world. What a wonderful world this could be, no?”

Ragazzo envisions a strategic implementation of alliances between TLDs and provinces around the world. The first two cities – Tel Aviv and Copenhagen -  were chosen for their obvious characteristics.

“So yes, Tel Aviv in Israel, will sponsor this neglected poor TLD, the dot .TEL. And Copenhagen in Denmark will be the European sponsor for the .CO Registry. Then we continue our journey to other venues!”

This brilliant system will generate many million euros in advertising revenue every year. Ragazzo is currently looking for sponsors to sponsor his sponsorship of the city-sponsors of TLDs.

Hopefully, it all makes sense.

TRAFFIC South Beach 2011 is almost here!

The big news of the day come from the Domain King, Rick Schwartz:

There will most likely be a non-sponsored event in 2011.

In other words, in that event Rick will welcome domainers only, all while the big corporations and domain-related companies will be shown the door at that particular event!

Now, isn’t that what Jason “DNPinmping” and Morgan Linton have been doing successfully for months with the Southern California Domainers conference?

Here’s the quote from Rick Schwartz’s email of today:

In 2011, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is strongly considering the possibility of having a “Non Sponsored” event. That means NO SPONSORS! Domainers only. The purpose is to keep the advertising and commercial part out and the ideas in.  It could be a very controversial event, but we are DETERMINED to put on a domainer only show in 2011, to discuss where we are, where we have been, where we are going and what is the best way of getting there. We will do that without Registrars, PPC companies, SEO “experts” or Developers, or any other company selling something to us.

The TRAFFIC South Beach conference price increases after July 31st, so this is your last chance to register at the low price of $1,295 per ticket – the price excludes visits to the infamous Miami strip clubs.

Overstock can now be found at O.co

If you have been following the .CO registration counter as we have, you’ve seen it roll past the 100k, 200k, 300k registrations.

Less than 10 days since the official rollout, the .CO marvel has surpassed that of many other TLDs from recent and not so recent past.

It’s very difficult nowadays to generate so much interest in a new TLD, unless the celestial alignment is just perfect.

In the case of .TEL, TelNIC attempted a launch with a sexy video – all while the world was duped into believing that .tel had the capabilities of a full-fledged TLD. That was not the case, unfortunately.

But on to Dot Co which, having passed .tel, is now with 350,000 domains on its way to surpass the very sympathetic ccTLD of Montenegro, .ME – which will always remind us of Bruce Marler and Missouri.me

Lori Anne Wardi, director of Marketing for the .CO Registry gave an extensive interview to the Webmasters Radio yesterday and she was prepared to address the Overstock deal.

Very few “doubting Thomases” are questioning the legitimacy of the O.co sale; however here’s the ultimate proof, as bestowed to us by Lorri Anne:

Overstock is a public company and the purchase figures will be reflected in their public filings – which is all public record for everyone to peruse.

The matter of the sale of O.co is thus closed for good and the Overstock press release about the acquisition of O.co definitely played a positive role in the record set by the newest TLD on the planet – dot CO.

But why would you go around social networks and especially domain blog aggregators displaying your less-appealing face to the world?

Here at DomainGang we have a solution for you: Avatar Improvement Services.

An average-looking domainer - Before & After

We take your ugly mugshot and turn it into a work of art, worthy of appearing over and over again next to every blog post that you make!

That’s right, from fugly to godly in just a few minutes, so that the world can enjoy the multiple posts you make all over Domaining.com !

“I had a big, hooky nose and DomainGang photoshopped it really well”, says M.T from Tampa, FL. “Now all of my readers aren’t shocked, instead of running away from my blog they flock to it. I’ve had so many domain sales recently it’s not even funny. Thanks, DomainGang!”

Prices start at $19.99 for a pixel adjustment to $1,999 if you really need a plastic surgery. Reap the benefits of being a better-looking domain blogger now!

Offers for domains often start with a melodic introduction but end up amounting to little more than a waste of time.

You’ve probably received these offers before; big, fat promises that begin with a coy inquiry about one of your most precious domain jewels.

As you type up that response email, you get excited over the potential of a sizable sale.

It all fits together, the offer comes from a non-generic email and the inquiry is even signed with a name and a location.

You Google that location and it turns out to be a coffee shop in North Dakota.

Bummer!

Here are some signs that would give you an early warning about whether an inquiry builds up to being legitimate or not, so that you don’t waste your time with some dufus who has no plans to buy your domain at the price you’re envisioning.

Email addresses with first name, a number and a free email like hotmail, yahoo or gmail are early warning signs of a timewaster with no money to offer. Serious buyers provide full names and a phone number.

Phone numbers in the Philippines, Nigeria or China. Even if you have Skype it could cost you to call out around the globe to confirm a business, let along converse with them.

Offers that use phrases such as “might be interested“, “probably could use“, “potentially wanting” or “could use this as a secondary domain” – these are all keywords that should make you delete the inquiry.

Emails from individuals that sign off with a female name but the email says “nyjets82″ or “jack7strap” or “wowwarrior4life”. Toss these as soon as they come in.

People that claim to run an evaluation business or want to have your domain evaluated prior to buying them. Money talks, bullshit walks. Have a certificate made once and send it to them. It says “Certified Scammer” on it.

Phonecalls made on behalf of “bosses”, “companies” or other important and formal-sounding individuals with untraceable phone numbers. They rely on impulsive communications and have one thing in mind: to get your domain as cheap as they can. Ask them to email you from the corporate site.

Brokers that claim to work for Sedo, Afternic, Buydomains and other entities – willing to take down your private information. DON’T fall for that scam, always call back the respective companies through their publicized phone numbers to initiate any such disclosure of information.

Messages at forums that claim they are “buddying up” with other investors to buy your domain. Chances are that you will be facing a shitstorm if something goes wrong during or after negotiations. If you’re dealing with a single point of purchase you are better off than dealing with a committee of corporate timewasters.

Offers that begin at $60 at Sedo are time-wasters 100% of the time. Click that cancel button. In your face, bitch, in your face!

Finally, if you are promised “future purchases” as long as you commit to a really low sale at the beginning, be prepared never to hear from the buyer again, once the first “kill” goes through. A fool and his money part very quickly, especially in domaining.

Some things are better left alone in Connecticut.

For years, the State of Connecticut has fought miserable battles against technology, with officials tweaking budgets and adjusting relationships with the federal government.

This constant feud at the Governor’s office has been taking a toll on the employees, who could not comment positively on their work environment.

“We’re just not a happy bunch, not with this decade long feud over the CT.gov initials and web site. We could not blog on it, we could not add our family pictures on it, none of that sort”, said Lindsay Summers, switchboard operator for the secretarial office. “So a few of us pooled their wages together and we bought the .com!”

Unthinkable as it may seem, the 28 employees contributed their savings and over time acquired the two-letter domain CT.com – a much better deal, according to them, than having to follow the Governor’s policies and guidelines regarding the usage of CT.gov

“I remember back in the day when Whitehouse.com was that big old porn site, we had some good chuckles with that”, said Frank Succhero, IT manager. “Of course I’m not trying to say that pornography is acceptable, far from that, just that we errr, had some fun with the .com versus the .gov, that’s all” - he adds with a smirk.

The acquisition of CT.com will give each employee of the local government more room to express their creativity and to pursue a hobby during idle times at work, especially since facebook, twitter and Myspace are all forbidden.

Domaining is like Poetry …in Motion!

Here at DomainGang we are blessed with all the jewels of god – whoever that supreme being might be.

Writing poems about one’s own profession and industry is a good indication of a healthy approach to it – or simply a sign of complete madness.

A poem about Domaining follows, to lighten up your day.

Feel free to suggest a title.

Oh, how many times you wasted
Your money in false religions
False promises from faraway ships

Fool’s gold arrived instead!
The PPC doubloons were fake
Oh, such an Epik failure to behold

Your true generics savor well
The long-tail double-worders
Unleash the minisites en masse

The winds of change blow again
.COrinthian stele, flowers bloom
Twilight of the domain gods arises.

This photo has nothing to do with the article - an example of a "goof-off".

It was a fight of David versus Goliath, an epic battle that has lasted more than 10 years.

Time and again, Rick Schwartz prevailed in court, thrashing his opponent – cleaning maker W.M. Barr & Co.

As Rick explained at his blog, the cleaning manufacturer attempted twice to wrestle the domain GoofOff.com from his hands – and twice they failed miserably.

Long linked to “wasting time” or “being silly“, the goofoff term appears to be as generic as “pigeon droppings” – but how could the brand of an effective cleaning agent be named after something “wasteful”?

We won’t question the branding geniuses behind the choice of a name for this product; however, it’s interesting to examine the fact that their product “Gooff Off” is #1 in Google results, using the dashed domain Goof-Off.com.

Futhermore, Rick’s domain name GoofOff.com is nowehere to be found, not on the first page, not on the second page of Google results. After looking through the third page we decided we had goofed off too much and gave up.

In other words, what is the actual use of the domain GoofOff.com if Rick is not using it to battle Goliath once again and beat him in his own game, with effective product placement? Instead, GoofOff.com is pointing to Rick’s explanatory post about his legal triumph.

Unfortunately, after all the battling the Goof-Off product is still number one.

After, I’m the guy who started it all with the infamous “DNJournal Closes Down – Ron Jackson retires a millionaire” article.

But I clicked regardless, because I like being entertained.

Entertainment comes from multiple sources; one cannot just rely on one and definitely not just their own. Alan’s point was quite serious, despite the oddball headline and the rewritten 255 characters of its RSS feed.

But I clicked, as I explained, and I read it.

Alan’s point was that domain blogs command 50% to 75% of their traffic from a single source, in this case Domaining.com

Because I am a man of numbers, I had to check my Google Analytics for this month and the numbers could not be any further from that.

DomainGang has multiple sources of traffic, less than 22% of which comes from Domaining.com. Surely, Domaining.com is the biggest domain blog aggregator but DomainGang is not just another domainer’s blog.

Furthermore, our stats show 32% organic Google traffic and 13% type-ins, apparently from people that don’t rely on any aggregator to check us out.

People come here because they like to read, seek different perspectives and occasionally, to comment with their opinion.

The same philosophy is reflected in the headlines, our multi-purpose content that appeals to both computer geeks, domainers and fans of recent events: we tie it all together, the DomainGang way.

Next time that you are looking to advertise on a blog that encompasses the domain industry in a savvy manner, look no further than DomainGang.com – our advertisers love us and the results we produce for them.