AllenHsieh.com

http://www.bytelevel.com/map/ccTLD.html

I wanna get this poster!!!

Not only is Network Solutions charging too much for a domain name, but they are also abusing a “grace period” policy with domain registration to engage in this tricky practice…

When I first read about it on TechCrunch, I had never encounter the problem myself. Then it happened to someone I know. The other night, just to verify the issue again, I tried checking the availability of hanweiglobal.com first on their site and then on another. It happened to me again!!! See the following pictures that I captured right away…

Don’t ever pay more to register a domain with Network Solutions! And don’t even bother going to their site to check a domain’s availability. There are many other options anyway!!!

(It seems they do this with domains that contain certain words. For example, “global” seems to be their “list” and I’ve seen this happens to other domains that include the word, “global,” in them!)

It’s been a week since Microsoft offer $45 billion USD to buy Yahoo. They said in the news that Yahoo’s board of directors already met to discuss their options, though no words yet as to what they plan to do.

If the decision was mine and mine alone to make, I’d say losing Yahoo to Microsoft is a definite no. Staying independent is what I’d pursue above all (even after Steve Ballmer has already said that the Yahoo brand will live on…) Many people are saying that outsourcing search advertising to Google is cutting off a long term growth opportunity and that is equally bad. But I don’t really think so. First of all, I never see Yahoo as the same kind of company as Google is anyway. Google is first and foremost a search engine. It’s also quickly becoming a web application service provider. Yahoo on the other hand has always been a portal and a web destination, providing news, sports, finance and content in other areas. We’re talking about a search engine vs. online media company. It’s always been apple and orange!

If not for that Yahoo is a public company and public companies are always under ridiculously heavy pressure to find growth every year, I’d say Yahoo is just fine as it is. They never really needed to compete with Google head-to-head to begin with. Yahoo can generate a lot of revenue from online advertising with its huge user base and pageviews. I never get the notion that you’d have to be in search to grab the online advertising market. That Google needed to buy up DoubleClicks and that Yahoo is already good at display advertising say enough to me on this topic.

But anyway, Yahoo is already a public copmany and needs to make sure its share price doesn’t continue falling. And since they are a public company, rejecting both Microsoft’s offer (with a high premium) and Google’s partnership idea (with a high immediate pay-out) is not an option, either. Some morons will for sure sue the board of directors for failing their duty to maximize shareholder value. (Whatever…)

Which brings me back to the options they are facing right now. I’d take Google’s money and hand over search. That’d give Yahoo the chance to focus on what they do well and buy time to bounce back. It shouldn’t stop there of course. If they did partner up with Google, they’d have to find a new direction for its long term growth strategy. But I think they’d be just fine…

It’s funny that I’m rooting for a Yahoo-Google partnership and not a Yahoo-Microsoft merger. I’m rather anti-Google these days… (This is not to say I necessary like Microsoft though.) But of course, my sentiments don’t have any bearing on what I actually use. Here’s a list of web applications/services and who I use:

E-mail: Google (Gmail)
IM: Microsoft (Windows Live Messenger)
BSP: Microsoft (Windows Live Space) and my own
Search: Google
Web Startup Page: Yahoo (My Yahoo!)
SNS: Facebook

Everyone is talking about the proposed deal right now… You can find a lot of articles and blog entries dissecting what would happen if the deal goes through, or why Yahoo should or shouldn’t accept the offer. Well… on a lighter note in all this, I have one question… If the combined company is to have a new name, should it be…

Microhoo or Yasoft???

For those of you who don’t know what Demo is, it’s a show where selected technology start-ups have a chance to give a demonstration or a pitch of their new product to an audience of peers, potential investors and potential buyers. Selected participants are usually US-based companies. This year 3 Taiwanese companies were selected to present — Atlaspost.com, Citiport and Santrum Networks, who presented BloCafe. Atlaspost.com even won the People’s Choice Award in the this year’s show. What an awesome achievement! To have a change to present in an occassion like this and be recognized. Congratulations! Boy, I’m jealous… =P Wish someday I could present at Demo. But of course as a start-up, going to Demo doesn’t mean success. Proving the business model as having a viable future is the real objective. Good luck to all Web2.0 entrepreneurs everywhere!

I don’t look at Google’s share price often even though it’s listed on my MyYahoo page. That’s why I needed to read this article on nytimes.com to find out that Google’s share price has topped the $700 mark. I think that’s just crazy. I mean I’d love to see Google doing well and leading the way for other Internet companies. However, if you consider that Google, as the article pointed out, is now the fifth largest company in the US in terms of market capitalization, then you have to kinda wonder if things are the way they should be. It is now worth more than many many other companies that have a lot more in both revenue and profit. And worth more than many companies that employ more people as well… I don’t know. Something is not quite right about this. I still think the New Economy companies like Google, Facebook and others should be judged on the same standards as the rest of the industries. Share prices and market capitalizations should NOT shoot through the roof if the revenue and profits can’t really measure up. I think it’s that simple but I guess many people don’t feel that way.

The $700+ per share price makes the IPO price of $168 (I think… I don’t remember the exact number) seem small. I wish I had bought some Google shares early on…