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Microsoft is clueless when it comes to Domains. MSN Hotmail.com Deletes.
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April 17th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
Microsoft doesn’t seem to understand how to manage their own domain names. They have chosen to delete MSN Hotmail.com. They could have simply renewed the domain for $10 and that would have been the end of the story. Most large companies have several misspellings of their domain names or variations on it, but this is a generic combination of two words MSN + Hotmail. They even brand it as such on their login page - see the screenshot above. Large companies should always renew these type of domain names because they get a lot of traffic and they would not want other people to own them. Plus, they have branded it and driven all this traffic to it. Hotmail customers will be very confused next week when they see ads for other web email companies instead of a login page. Compete.com says that the domain gets 29,854 U.S. visitors per month, but we are sure that the number of visitors is far higher (compete’s numbers tend to be a bit low). Either way, this name should have been renewed.
The domain is currently in pending-delete status, so we know it will delete for sure. There is no way to get the domain back out of this status - the registry has a 30 day redemption status but Microsoft slept right through it. Whomever manages Microsoft’s domains should get a swift kick in the bum from top management. Once it does drop, many people will back order it. The highest bidder will win it, and they will confuse Microsoft customers. Microsoft is appearently clueless, so they will not even bid, but eventual they will find out that someone else owns their domain name and then they will spend a few thousand dollars to recover it. All this because someone at Microsoft thought they didn’t need it. After all, they own MSN.com and Hotmail.com, so why would they need MSNHotmail.com.
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Posted in Domain Typo Generator, Microsoft |
April 18th, 2007 at 9:53 am
It appears that ClubDrop saved the day for Microsoft.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Seems to me I remember that the domain hotmail.com suffered the same fate years ago. If I remember the story right, there was a web domain good samaritan who did what you often do, renewed it and then let Microsoft know that they had done this good deed for them.
Onward with Purpose,
Chaplain Paul Slater