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Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

techcrunch.com

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Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#41

Post by vlad »

dzohrob wrote: post #39
vlad wrote: post #35

First, Dropbox has not commented on why Dropbox.com redirects to them, nor about their lawsuit of the domain owner. Therefore, this is a horrible news article, with an assumption that Dropbox holds an new ownership stake in the domain. Second, it's actually quite possible Dropbox asked the .com holders to forward traffic to the real site in order for both parties to value the domain's contribution to downloads/upsale…

Evenflow owns dropbox.com now. Check http://whois.sc/dropbox.com .

Yes, looks like the .com turned off Whois privacy, and Dropbox does own it now (most Whois services still point to Domains by Proxy, including when I checked). But since Dropbox didn't have a comment for TechCrunch on why the domain pointed to the real site while it was still privacy-protected, the headline of the article didn't make sense.

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#42

Post by pbhjpbhj »

eli wrote: post #12
panic wrote: post #3

It's worth mentioning that the first hit for "dropbox.com" on Google is the actual site, "getdropbox.com". Many people navigate to a site by googling its URL then clicking the first link.

I doubt most people navigate that way. Sure, plenty of browsers will do a google search from the address bar but only if what you've typed doesn't resolve on its own.

If you thought it's easy to get to Google, think again. In our current round of usability research, only 76% of users who expressed a desire to run a Google search were successful. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designer-user-differences.html

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#43

Post by petercooper »

tdm911 wrote: post #30
eli wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt most people navigate that way. Sure, plenty of browsers will do a google search from the address bar but only if what you've typed doesn't resolve on its own.

I frequently see users type www.microsoft.com or similar into Google. I think people see Google as their address bar, as generally it's set as the home page. Asking a user what the address in the address box/bar is often ends with a blank expression on their face!

I've been using the Web for 14 years and I do it from time to time too! Once you're in the search box anyway, it's more hassle to correct yourself than just search for the domain you wanted :)

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#44

Post by dugmartin »

panic wrote: post #3

It's worth mentioning that the first hit for "dropbox.com" on Google is the actual site, "getdropbox.com". Many people navigate to a site by googling its URL then clicking the first link.

When I was at Britannica in the late 90s our #1 search term was "yahoo.com" and #2 was "sex".

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#45

Post by petercooper »

mattmaroon wrote: post #15

My offer to break that guy's knees from summer 2007 still stands.

You won't need to do that to screw up his life. The lawsuit is calling for $100k in damages minimum. If he's as poor as most of us here, that'll mess him up for a while.

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#47

Post by mattmaroon »

slig wrote: post #31
mattmaroon wrote: post #15

My offer to break that guy's knees from summer 2007 still stands.

Why so much rage? The original owner registered the domain first. note that I don't like squatters either, but who can tell that he wasn't legitimate when he registered it first?

It was a joke from our summer session. There was a lot of annoyance over the domain even then. I didn't expect many people to get it.

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#49

Post by dminor »

blasdel wrote: post #16
eli wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt most people navigate that way. Sure, plenty of browsers will do a google search from the address bar but only if what you've typed doesn't resolve on its own.

You'd be surprised how far normal users will go out of their way to avoid the address box, often using comically complex routines. Google is much more trustworthy than DNS -- it's essentially content-addressed.

Visits on our site over the last month were 14% direct, 5.7% searching for our name, according to GA.

If you are unsure of the domain name, Google is definitely the more trustworthy option.

Re: Dropbox Acquires The Domain Everyone Thought It Had: Dropbox.com

#50

Post by invisible »

vlad wrote: post #35

First, Dropbox has not commented on why Dropbox.com redirects to them, nor about their lawsuit of the domain owner. Therefore, this is a horrible news article, with an assumption that Dropbox holds an new ownership stake in the domain. Second, it's actually quite possible Dropbox asked the .com holders to forward traffic to the real site in order for both parties to value the domain's contribution to downloads/upsale…

I would say putting ads and turning a profit by advertising competitors of the brand your domain is mimicking would be considered squatting a domain.
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