Shane’s Edit: Whois information taken down for a few reasons. I don’t think it’s wrong to publish it but I see the other side. Two, I want Jason for Visible.com to stop crying, you scrape everyone’s blog post without asking and then cry about this? If you want the Facebook squatter’s info it’s still available. Now you have to make one extra step. I am going to add this though. If you don’t want people to know your personal information DON’T MAKE IT PUBLIC. Get a PO box a business address or buy privacy.
I’m not on Facebook. I was once. I ended up having 3 friends, and about 237 friend requests from people I went to high school with that I just starred at because I didn’t want to talk to them. It was at that moment that I realized I did not want to be social and/or network. My girlfriend’s dog has a Facebook page, he has 7 times as many friends as I had.
Facebook announced some major changes yesterday, most notably being the Facebook Timeline which will allow you to document your entire life for everyone to see because it’s so interesting. As one would expect, Facebook decided to pick a name, program the technology, brand it, put it together in a marketing package, and announce it, all without buying the domain when they had the chance. Also as you’d expect, domain squatters jumped all over the opportunity to receive a UDRP hearing in the future.
I’d like give a big congratulations to Allison Jones, who is either a psychic or has a Facebook insider, as she had the insight to register FacebookTimeline.com last month. Also joining the “I swear I did this in good faith” club is Anthony Pernicka who decided to register FacebookTimelines.com yesterday as the changes were announced. Terrific move by both Aly and Tony and I’m sure both are excited for the letters heading their way.
Other additions announced were the Facebook Ticker and Smart Lists. FacebookTicker.com was registered back in 2010 and much to the delight of squatters everywhere, FacebookSmartList.com and FacebookSmartLists.com are both available for registration at the time of this posting. I’m sure those will be snatched up and I will be happy to make the buyer famous. Better pay for that privacy.
Below are the current WHOis listings for FacebookTimeline(s).com.
Why are you posting people’s information? Not cool.
Ron,
This is public information. You think he got it from the secret service? It’s on the Internets for all to see. Chris just highlighted. You know what’s not cool? Registering a name with the word Facebook in it.
Hey Dana,
I saw the post you deleted. Aren’t you glad you don’t have a hairless Chiguagua named “Ugly” and live on a street named “Smallwood”? ha ha
John,
. I pulled it because it was a bit too silly. Was trying to have a little fun but when nobody plays along it doesn’t work.
There were more than 30 bidders yesterday on Namejet for Facebooktabs dot com
It is illegal to use the word “Facebook” in a domain because it is trademark infringement, so anyone registering a domain like that runs the risk of getting sued by Facebook, and Facebook has been very active in suing domain owners in cases like this. It is not just an issue of bad faith in registering it, it is that Facebook owns the trademark on the word Facebook so it does not really matter why the owner registered it, it is that Facebook has a right to it.
Timelinesucks.com is available 😉
A relatively intelligent domainer registered socialtimeline.com. Its already on flippa.
What’s not possible for those who ‘think’.
@Eric – Saying that any domain containing “FACEBOOK” is a bit of an extreme position to take, don’t you think?
Trademark infringement takes into account usage as well, not merely the domain name alone.
Hence, FacebookSucks.com is an example of what could be a legitimate site.
They have no more right to walk in the corporate offices and steal a leather chair.
“Facebook” is a famous trademark –and is property –just the same as the furniture.
This is very NOT COOL. While I do not participate in trademark domains or agree with them, I think this is a stupid move to post information here regardless if it is available publicly. You are drawing attention to these people and stirring up trouble for them….I also see its been tweeted too..way to go for pissing someone off. I am sure there is some dirt that someone could pull up on you….everyone’s done something stupid before, how would you feel having someone write an article and throwing your name all across the net. Stupid, very uncool move. We are a community, lets not be creating animosity and creating trouble in this SMALL tightly-knit group.
Registering domains like this is dumb, but a popular blog dedicated to the domaining community that start’s taking cheap shots at the community is even dumber…..bothersome post…
As an added note, I dont think its the post that bothered me so much, if people want to go look for the WHOIS, that’s their agenda…but the fact that an authority domaining blog would go to the lengths to publish the WHOIS data boggles my mind. Pretty tasteless IMO.
If you think that it is cool. Why you don’t have your address contact in the website?
Urbana, Illinois…
Fran,
I think most people know where I work and where I live. Google me, you’ll find everything about me is pretty much public. Except the information that I don’t want to be public.
Facebook is a trademark…you in trouble…
The main reason I posted the whois info was to show the source of the information I wrote about. In my opinion, I don’t feel there is anything wrong about posting public information if the person in question chose to make it public. I can only imagine their intention in buying the domain is to try and profit off it so they probably want their contact information out there anyways. I own a handful of names that I would not want my public information shown with and therefore I pay the 10 dollars per year for privacy on those. Next time I will include a link to the whois information instead. Bottom line: if you don’t want your info associated with a domain, hide it. Its your responsibility to protect yourself, not the rest of the world’s.
@jason
DNW posts about UDRP cases, lawsuits and the people involved in those cases nearly every day. While he doesn’t post the whois details (address, phone, etc) most of the names of those involved are published.
@Shane, Hey Shane, I think you have one of the best blogs in the business, so I wasn’t crying but just sharing my point of view. I’m not attacking, but offering my thought’s, which is why there is a comment section right. 🙂 Regarding “scraping” yes I did run a RSS aggregation not different then 100 others out there that drove traffic too sites, no one had any concern’s except you which I promptly removed your feed. I don’t really see anything wrong with this, your publishing an RSS feed….and it was an aggregation of my favorite RSS feeds with full backlinks….I don’t see the problem there, but when you asked me to remove your feed, I very promptly did with even an apology I believe.
@Chris: I know your intentions were not bad. Here’s the way I see it, I’ve registered trademark domains when I started out, not evening knowing that was wrong. Its very likely these are amateur’s, actually..they have to be to be doing that, perhaps they need a friendly email explaining the trouble they could get into doing what they are doing. I know if a few years ago when I was registering my first names and I found my name and address plastered across the net I would be horrified. That’s where my concern came from.
Thirdly, this industry is SMALL. While I don’t know either of the registrant’s, recently there have been a number of disagreements in the industry between people I know well. Often I have heard from both parties and they are often calling for a listening ear and want me to take their side. I haven’t take a side yet because I could understand both sides of the situations. By posting the whois data it is really calling someone out by publishing their all their info. I just thought that was over the line, although I can totally understand the line is in different places for many people, although it appears many of your readers felt the same before I even posted a comment.
So Shane, Chris, I think your blog rock’s, I just felt, and still do think publishing WHOIS of people who MAY [benefit of doubt] have registered these domains not knowing the legalities or even ethics involved was a bit too far. I made that mistake and wasted money, and thankfully never any problems as a newbie. Thankfully I was never featured in a blog post for my mistake.
Cheers
Jason
Shane, you still haven’t called me! Offer is still open my friend.