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Microsoft Surface Computers and their Domain Secrets
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May 29th, 2007 by 
Jay Westerdal
Microsoft Surface Computers are the neatest thing I have seen in at least a year. It blows me away that a surface can be so interactive - I was watching the demos at Surface.com and it truly is amazing. The table top surface can sense when you put something down on it and then display graphics and stats next to it. For example, you put a drink on the surface computer and it sends a ripple effect across the whole surface. Or you could display a visual photo album and drag and drop with your fingers, that is another example they show which had multiple people doing it at the same time. Surface Computers are going to be awesome for games! Cardboard Board Games are Dead, Microsoft Surface just killed them.
But now down to business! Let’s talk domain names. Microsoft registered Surface.com to complete its Surface branding Strategy. But we need to back up to January 29th of this year to see how their team attempted to pull this off. A corporate proxy service at Register.com registered Surface Computing.com, Surface Computers.com and Surface Computer.com. We know this is Microsoft’s proxy. I have to say it is a brilliant brand and people will have no choice but to use the word surface computer to describe any product like this. I suspect Microsoft left a lot of names on the table though. Ouch. I have subscribed to a Mark Alert on the word “Surface”. I will get to see all the clever people that rushed out to buy Surface names. And there were plenty, here are just a few names that I just checked, and all of them were registered hours before me! Cheap Surface.com, Computer Surface.com, Surface Board Game.com, Surface Board Games.com, Surface Game.com, Surface Games.com, Surface Skin.com, Surface Widget.com. The rush is on. Microsoft should have turned their Brand Launch over to our firm. We have historic records of previous rushes and know what names will be pounced on.
I have to give Microsoft Credit, at least they got major names like “Surface.com” and “Surface Computer.com”. But they missed domains like Microsoft Surface.com. How could they do that? There are so many names they left on the Table Surface.
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Posted in Brand Creation |
May 30th, 2007 at 9:53 am
They don’t need to register any name with “Microsoft” in it, Jay. Anyone who does will quickly find that they’ve footed the bill for Microsoft to have the name transferred over.