Tuesday, April 14, 2009

This domain name has already been used as an alias or domain

At least, that's what Google Apps says, so it must be true.

In my previous post I told about this domain that I lusted for, and bought, or thought I had. Now the waiting period is over, and it's indeed fully mine. Nice. So I can recommend GoDaddy auctions after all. In particular the close-out sales. However, when I activated the domain and started adding it as a domain alias to one of my existing Google Apps domains I found out that buying a used domain can have its downsides also.

The previous owner also thought that Google Apps was nice. And because Google Apps is free there's no trigger anywhere to delete a domain once the previous owner is no longer using it. (And no way to force ownership re-verification).

Luckily I use another free service that came to my rescue in this case: EditDNS.Net. I use it for some of my domains for its DNS hosting abilities, but it also has E-mail forwarding powers. Perfect. The interface for editing DNS records at GoDaddy is terrible anyway, so I wasn't sad to switch the domain to EditDNS. And I've suggested the ability to re-verify ownership to Google, so one of these days they may add it.

What if the previous owner had also liked EditDNS and registered his domain there? And had used a bunch of other useful free services? Then my domain would be less and less useful I suppose. Hopefully owners of free services will pick up on this and start adding ways to free abandoned domains!

Where's my domain?

I'm a domain buying novice. If you're a pro at buying domains it will probably have lost a bit of its excitement, but I'm still such a novice that every time I buy a domain I'm still happy like a kid unwrapping a Christmas present. Or Easter egg, to remain in season.

I have been eying up a domain at GoDaddy Auctions for a few days. It's nice, short, exactly what I needed, and it was for sale at a low price. So when I finally made up my mind and clicked 'Buy Now' (and went through the usual hassle of checking out the virtual cart, updating the credit card details in my Paypal account etc.) I was expecting to see that nice domain show up in my account, ready to be fiddled with. Not so.

So what does the 'Buy Now' option in GoDaddy domain auctions actually mean?

It's complicated. But if I understand correctly it means that the domain has entered its final 'locked' state before expiring, and will be yours in five to ten more days. In that time the only one who can take your shiny new toy away from you is the previous owner, who has at that point been neglecting to renew his registration for more than two months, so isn't very likely to intervene. And if he does you're supposed to get your money back from GoDaddy.

The best explanation I've found for the whole process is a blog post by Mike Davidson. Old, but as far as I can see still up to date.

Meanwhile I'm waiting, and waiting. I'm still learning that making Web 2.0 apps is all about now-now-now but also about having patience.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Privacy Policy for this Blog

If you require any more information or have any questions about this privacy policy, please feel free to contact me by email at info@reiz.nl.

At this blog, the privacy of visitors is of extreme importance to us. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information that are received and collected by this blog and how they are used.

Log Files
Like many other Web sites, this blog makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons
This blog does use cookies to store information about visitor preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user accesses or visits, customize Web page content based on visitor browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie
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  • Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on our site. Our advertising partners include Google Adsense.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to create the advertisements and links that appear on this blog and send them directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

This blog has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. This blog's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

(Please note that the creation of this policy was prompted by the new Google Adsense privacy policy at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100557. I used the handy tool at http://www.serprank.com/privacy-policy-generator/index.php to generate it, then fixed some grammatical errors by hand. Please feel free to copy this policy and adapt it on your own site).