AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: Top-Level Domainia DATE: 10:21 AM ----- BODY:
Until recently, ICANN, the body charged with administering the domain naming system, has been very stingy about authorizing new top-level domains (e.g. .com, .net, .biz). Now, however, it's apparently open season. Anyone with $185,000 can have a top-level domain of their own.

Implications? Well first, it's a bit more hassle, confusion and complexity for those of us whose business involves gathering and maintaining this information. Second, it's a potential area of opportunity. Consider a legal publisher that buys the top-level domain ".law" and offers it to its advertisers, or hosts websites for law firms listed in its database. This could be an exciting marketing gambit.

But more profoundly, this move marks increasing erosion in one of the core uses of many directory products: providing basic company contact information. Think about it: you don't need a directory (or a search engine for that matter) to find the website for Microsoft, because the odds are very good that if you type the name of any big company followed by ".com," you'll easily get to that company's website. Should Microsoft acquire the ".microsoft" top-level domain, it will likely get even easier. Many web pundits believe that in the near future, you'll simply type "Microsoft" into your browser, and if Microsoft owns the corresponding top-level domain, you'll go right to it site.

The lesson here, which I've stated many times before, is that basic company contact information has become a commodity, and this new development even further erodes its value. If you think the $185,000 will keep a lid on things, don't forget innovative services like Telnic* that is vying to become a central company phone book on the web. Still not convinced? Then go over to Jigsaw (2005 Model of Excellence winner), which offers its database of 2.6 million company records free for the downloading.

The bottom line is that if "industry phone directory" is a part of the value proposition of your data product, it's well past time to start moving it up the value chain.

*Telnic is a 2009 Model of Excellence finalist, and its CTO, Henri Asseily, will explain how the company is executing on its vision at this year's InfoCommerce Data Content09 conference.

Model of Excellence Awards
We are pleased to announce that Netprospex Inc. is a finalist for an InfoCommerce 2009 Model of Excellence awards.

Review the Netprospex Model of Excellence profile here

Hear Netprospex Founder & CEO Gary Halliwell at DataContent 09
DataContent 09: All Roads Lead to Data. Full program here.

Labels: , , ,

----- -------- AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: A Model of Excellence Winner Does Us Proud DATE: 1:14 PM ----- BODY:
I don't think you can gush too much about a data content company that has an army of hundreds of thousands of field researchers gathering company and executive information, data entering it all into a central database, and best of all, doing it all for free. That company, as you may have guessed, is Jigsaw, an InfoCommerce Group 2005 Models of Excellence winner, and the company is finishing up a very busy week.

On Wednesday, Jigsaw announced the launch of Data Fusion, a service that I think truly qualifies for the label "revolutionary." Simply described, Data Fusion hooks seamlessly to company CRM databases to perform continuous data scrubbing. This scrubbing goes far beyond merely standardizing existing data to deleting dead records, updating current records and even adding new records. Data Fusion is a SAAS (software as a service) offering, meaning no software to buy or install, and steady recurring revenue for Jigsaw. I've been in this business for nearly 25 years, and publishers have been fantasizing about an offering like this for at least 24 of them.

On Thursday, Jigsaw announced a deal to license its executive contact information to D&B. It's a pretty slick maneuver when you can turn a competitor into a sales channel, and if nothing else, it's a major validation of Jigsaw's data quality and increasingly comprehensive database. All-in-all, not a bad week!Lessons for the rest of us? First, you can build a trusted, quality database off user-generated content if you go about it correctly. Second, the users who contribute data to you don't seem to mind at all if you aggressively monetize the resulting database, provided they continue to see value in participating. Third, with a well-crafted licensing agreement, it is possible to do business with competitors, so don't rule out this possibility without thorough examination. Fourth, software can add tremendous value to data when it empowers the business processes and workflow of your customers. The goal, as I like to put it, is to move from reference-oriented data to "data that does stuff." Jigsaw is showing us all that success in data publishing isn't puzzling at all.

Mark your calendars now to meet this year's Models of Excellence companies at the InfoCommerce Group's annual Data Content09 conference, October 27-29, at The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia.

2009 Model of Excellence Award Nominee: Telnic Limited


We're pleased to announced that Telnic Limited has been nominated for a 2009 Model of Excellence award for its "dot tel" product.

Click here for our full MofE product profile.

Labels: , ,

----- -------- AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: Do Tell DATE: 9:38 AM ----- BODY:
Even if you are not familiar with the term "top level domains" or TLD's, you know what they are: think dot com, dot biz, dot net, dot info, and so many others it's difficult to keep track of them all.

The purpose of TLD's has traditionally been remarkably limited. They provide conveniently remembered names that help you get to websites or send email. It's much easier to tell someone to go to www.infocommercegroup.com than to go to 64.78.29.122.

But there is a whole new twist on the concept of TLD's coming in just a few weeks. That's when a new TLD called dot tel opens for business. Operated by Telnic Limited, the new dot tel domain has big ambitions: it wants to be a full-fledged universal contact directory.

I am sure I am poorly describing the underlying technology, but when you order a dot tel domain name, you essentially get both a domain name and a home page. On that home page, you can provide four types of information in a highly structured format: basic contact details (physical address, phone, fax), navigational details (deep links to your corporate website or contact information for departments, subsidiaries or branch offices), geolocation details (links to Google maps) and keywords describing your business. The whole design and format is particularly well optimized for mobile devices.

This is a fascinating concept from a number of angles. First, by specifying a structure to the information that appears on a dot tel "home page," users can be sure of what they will find every time they go to a dot tel domain. Second, you can argue that a company might be better off promoting its dot tel domain than its current company domain because the dot tel domain functions as a convenient "switchboard" of sorts, making it easy for users to get to critical pieces of information conveniently. Third, if dot tel takes off, it could become a central reference database that provides always-current and trusted company contact data. This was a role I thought Plaxo was poised to assume before it decided to morph into a poor imitation of Linked-In.

This is a creative venture with a lot of potential. But will it fly? That's always the question with ambitious and ground-breaking schemes like these. But judging by the big ads in the big media I have been seeing for dot tel, a serious push is going to be made to get market traction. Keep an eye on this one.

Recent News from the InfoCommerce Blog:

Angie's List Gets More Financing
Jigsaw Goes Mobile with SkyData Partnership
ZANA Networks Partners with Kompass
Demandbase Partners with Jigsaw
RDC, Alacra Partnership Yields Compliance Product

Labels: , , , ,

----- --------