The auDA Domain Names Policy Panel discussion paper and survey has been released and I encourage all domain name owners in Australia to take part and ensure you become part of the .au domain space policy-setting process.

You are asked your opinion on issues that concern you, such as the push by some (including myself) to have the 2-year minimum/maximum domain registration period extended to allow 1 year to 5 year registrations of .com.au domain names, like other countries allow.

Please click here and complete the survey BEFORE 21 January.

Groupon is one of the most profitable and definitely one of the fastest-growing internet businesses. But it is not operational in Australia under its globally recognisable brand because of a dispute.

groupon.com is a website where you visit, enter your locality, and receive an 'offer of the day'. This deal can also be emailed to you.

Providers of the deals range from corner stores to major retail and service chains. They know that Groupon has massive reach, therefore they offer a significant discount, expecting large 'group buying' to ensue. And it often does.

Groupon accept a share of all sales, and have pocketed a reported US$800million over the last year. The company also reportedly rejected a US$6billion offer from Google.

A representative recently revealed in a Groupon blog that the reason they are not operational in Australia, in their most typical form, is because of 'domain squatters' owning the domain name groupon.com.au. Moreover, the same individuals have a Groupon 'clone' website (scoopon.com.au) and have registered the Groupon Trademark in Australia days before the real Groupon people acted to do the same.

Groupon, in all their wisdom, offered US$286,000 to Messrs Gabby and Hezi Leibovitch (the brothers who own Scoopon, Groupon.com.au and the Groupon Trademark in Australia). In exchange, Groupon wanted the domain name and the Trademark. The Leibovitches agreed. Now they have changed their minds and apparently want to sell Scoopon as part of the deal.

Groupon have now started trading in Australia under another name and website: stardeals.com.au. They have also begun legal action against the Scoopon people.

Despite this, they say that the US$286,000 offer is still on the table.

I feel for Groupon.

Domain Squatters and people who deliberately go out of their way to ride on the back of growing enterprises like Groupon for a quick buck should not be condoned. It is not best practice, yet it is very prominent in the web industry.

I also criticise Groupon for offering this duo money in the first place.

If the Leibovitches broke the law, and Groupon want to criticise them for doing that, they cannot simultaneously offer them a reward for the alleged illegal act.

It is rewarding the perpetrator and it is sending mixed messages to potential supporters about what you really stand for.

Does Groupon stand for business legitimacy and doing no evil? Or does Groupon cave for the sake of a quicker resolution to a trademark dispute and .com.au domain name?

The fact that Groupon's representative stated that the US$286,000 is STILL on the table for the men they call 'domain squatters' is wrong.

Make a stand. Or don't. But don't do both!

In 2010, Twitter rose further up the prominence ladder due to the influence he micro-blogging social network began to have on public discourse in various countries.

• Hollywood Box Office successes (e.g. Inception, The Social Network) and failures (countless) were attributed to poor Twitter reviews;
• As were certain election results in Australia (Federal) and the United States (mid-terms);
• More celebrities (e.g. Steve Martin) and people of influence (Hugo Chavez, Bill Gates) joined Twitter;
• Television programs broadcast Twitter feeds (e.g. Q & A);
• And events (e.g. Chile Mine Disaster, Gulf Oil Spill, FIFA World Cup) were given true attention from citizen journalists around the world.

Click here to see the top 10 Fastest-rising Google searches 2010, Most popular Google searches 2010, Fastest-rising news stories 2010, Fastest-rising people 2010, Most popular celebrity weddings 2010 and much more, including a whole category dedicated to teenage pop star Justin Bieber.

'Facebook' was the most popular search on Google in 2010. I believe this shows that people still think Google IS the internet, and the Google search bar is used to navigate through the web instead of the URL bar on browsers.

Worryingly, 'google' was the third-most popular searched word on Google in Australia.

And it is very interesting to see that the top question people asked to Google in 2010 was "What is love?"

Might we Australians be preparing to soon take over Paris as the romantic capital of the world? Surely not!

Click here and enjoy the full list!

In researching for meetings, I have discussed increasing flexibility in .au domain name registration and renewal periods with friends in and out of the internet industry, and every single one states they would appreciate the flexibility of registering .au domain names longer term, and even shorter term.

Shorter term registrations - of 1 year instead of the currently-stipulated 2 years - is particularly relevant to domains registered for events and/or promotions, which only have a short-term lifespan.

Longer term registrations - of 3, 4, 5 and more years instead of 2 - will result in businesses small and large not worrying about renewing domain names so often. It will deliver these businesses, who invest heavily in their brand and identity, more security about their web presence.

The reasons the 2 year period has stood until today are few, with the most valid one being that when renewing every two years, domain owners tend to update their personal information.

While I am all for a fresher and more valid database, I do not believe this is reason enough for Australian (.au) domain name owners to be given inferior flexibility to domain owners in the .com and other domain spaces offered worldwide.

I'd be interested to read the thoughts of others...

All you need to do is click here and enter your business data to get started.

Watch the video below to see the full potential.

Now Yahoo! Search is apparently improved as per the video they released below.

Just like Bing was improved.

But the question remains... how many are ready to stop 'googling'?

 

See video below for more information, then read on:

Much of the commentary since the launch of this new service has centred on how it will affect online businesses and businesses that advertise online.

Very little coverage has focused on the end user experience, which is delightful based on the reasons stated above as well as the speediness of it. Any argument to the contrary would be flawed.

Regarding the business case, search engine optimisation (SEO) experts, like my team at KAYWEB, need to see what suggested searches are appearing courtesy of Google Instant, and optimise to those keywords.

In 6 test cases which I trialled for KAYWEB clients, the differences were minor, if any.

The bottom line; Google has improved search for end users with its launch of Google Instant.

Businesses, through SEO, are hardly affected.

A problem Twitter was encountering was that Twitter users were using Twitter.com as a secondary way to access Twitter, as other clients (such as Tweetdeck, Seesmic and even Facebook) gave users more variety, with a bit of Twitter on the side.

The new design will change all that, and make Twitter.com the home for any Twitter buff.

More on the New Twitter.com and a promo video can be found by clicking here.

Below are the 10 Tweets (read best from bottom to top) is how Evan Williams launched the new Twitter on Twitter.

Now... what about the debate and its future direction?

Mark Jones presented a very good edition of his The Scoop radio program on this very topic.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.