freetranslation.cm a parked page???

[cjbay]

I was trying to go to freetranslation.com and accidently typed freetranslation.cm and arrived at a parked page. How exactly did somebody park with that kind of address?

 

[netmeg]

They took out the .cm extension - Not sure what country that is - I think maybe Cameroon? I read an article once that said that they had a whole booming industry in that country, selling off domain names for typos, because of the .cm extension. Sorta like .tv.

 

[NameDriver]

Yeah, the mysterious agoga struck a deal to wildcard the DNS so any .com typo goes to their parking page. They seem to have blocked the biggest TMs, such as Sony and Google, but the Cameroon government must be making a killing with this. I've heard it's notoriously difficult to register a .cm name as well

Ed

 

[dherwan]

Yes, every typos .com become .cm will go to Kevin Ham websites (Agoga)

Last time I read this http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/06/01/100050989/index.htm

hmm, just wondering how to buy .cm ?

 

[Steven]

I think I read somewhere that Kevin Ham made a deal with Cameroon to make .cm sites land on parked pages.

 

[cjbay]

Just found the article you are talking about (and also found many blog comments from people that state that you have to own a business or entity in cameroon):

"It's an odd scene to picture: a domainer's reps in a sit-down with Ephraim Inoni, the prime minister of Cameroon, to discuss the power of type-in typo traffic and pay-per-click ads. And yet, as with most of the angles Ham has played, the Cameroon scheme is ingeniously straightforward.

Ham's people installed a line of software, called a "wildcard," that reroutes traffic addressed to any .cm domain name that isn't registered. In the case of Cameroon, a country of 18 million with just 167,000 computers connected to the Internet, that means hundreds of millions of names. Type in "paper.cm" and servers owned by Camtel, the state-owned company that runs Cameroon's domain registry, redirect the query to Ham's Agoga.com servers in Vancouver.

The servers fill the page with ads for paper and office-supply merchants. (Officials at Yahoo confirm that the company serves ads for Ham's .cm play.) It all happens in a flash, and since Ham doesn't own or register the names, he's not technically typo-squatting, according to several lawyers who handle Internet issues."

Note: Google.cm brings you to Netflix

 

[Fka200]

Note: Google.cm brings you to Netflix

Looks like an affiliate Netflix page.

 

[cjbay]

very observant. i didnt even know they had an affiliate program. looks like a pretty good program too. thanks

 

[jeffoverman]

Kevin ham and gov is making us all look bad and bad for the domain business.

I surly lost respect for him.

Frank number is number one in my eyes.

Yahoo was the only one that grabbed yahoo.cm. Google, expedia and etc they all did not.

Just my thoughts folks. How many people has Kevin ham pissed off besides corporations and domainers. Oh well, life goes on

 

[zero_haze_au]

Yahoo was the only one that grabbed yahoo.cm. Google, expedia and etc they all did not.

Yahoo (Overture) is the company that serves the ads for agoga.com

You cant blame Kevin Ham, IMO he simply saw an avenue for further revenue and took advantage. IMHO it's the company who serves the ads that should take the responsibility for loss of revenue to companies loosing out on typos.

Yahoo, Kevin Ham and the Cameroon Gov't, are the only ones who profit from this.

Agoga.coms revenue is estimated at $70Million USD Annually EBITDA.

Imagine the percentage of this which is coming from typos on trademarks

 

[Avensen]

Yahoo, Kevin Ham and the Cameroon Gov't, are the only ones who profit from this.

Don't forget about Yahoo L)

 

[domainpark]

Looks like an affiliate Netflix page.

I get passion.com with google.cm

And a affilaite program at that INTERESTING

http://passion.com/go/g845329

Hey if Kevim Ham had the knowledge, know how and the contacts to get a deal like he has , CONGRATS to him. If its all legal etc. Wish I had those kinda "contacts"

 

[RickM]

With google.cm I get a google adsense search box

With microsoft.cm I get Obama's site!

Wierd