Cloud.us is no longer showing up in my watch list and appears to have been renewed so I'm going to guess that the owner was fishing for a market price or the "wolves" got to the owner to get 'em to renew
I noticed that cloud was missing from my watch list, too. Of course, maybe godaddy deleted it so their sale wouldn't be jeopardized as much by someone calling the domain's owner.
I had that happen to me with reo a few years back. And to think I was ready to pay 2 bills for it. Not anymore. I can't even sell my $20 ones that I have in the marketplace.
I ended up getting 4 domains from yesterdays frenzy. I lost out on the one I really wanted. Doggone thing crossed over into the $x,xxx range. It was $999 over my budget.
At least a few LLL ones went for $400+/-. I wonder why.
The .us domain TLD sounds like a good idea, but as long as google restrains them, they will continue to be trumped by the .com.
I'm surprised that some out of work firm hasn't tried to go after google and their deep pockets by arguing restraint of trade, or unfair business practice, or something along those lines. Maybe the feds should step in and argue that they are hurting U.S. exports.
I don't think that it is just that people prefer the .com anymore, but rather google is suppressing the .us the way the old Ma Bell telephone company once suppressed competition through its monopoly.