“iPhone” Domain Names and Google
**I would like to thank Tom Ferris at security-protocols.com for giving me this article to post. Everyone should check out his website because he is a security genius.
So basically Google may be doing a preemptive strike against arbitragers trying to squat on any domain names including the words iPhone. iPhone is going to make a lot of people a lot of money and Google may be stopping these people in their tracks. Although i’m sure every variation of the word iPhone was taken atleast a year ago, now everyone is getting every possible kind of variation on the word. Here’s what I mean:
Anyways read this article from security-protocols.com and be sure to visit his site and give him credit!
Here’s the article:
So the past week Tom had been doing some research regarding domain names with the word “iPhone” in them. I just wanted to see what people were registering and what kind of sites where going up. So I wasn’t surprised to see that every variation with the word “iPhone” in them had been taken.
I am guessing that Apple (or Cisco?) may have also found this out, and has contacted Google and other search engines to have those sites deleted from their index. So back to my story, when I found out that you can change the wallpaper on the iPhone I had immediately registered themeiphone.com to add to my sister of sites which are also wallpaper specific. Last night I checked my SERPS for themeiphone.com and I was #2 for the keyword “iphone wallpapers” on Google. Below my site were a few others which were also going to be iPhone wallpaper sites. Fair enough, I have always liked competitors in this space.
So today I go to check my SERPS for themeiphone.com and it has been deleted from Google’s index! Now I know for a fact that I was not violating Google’s TOS because the site only had a landing page which says “Coming Soon!”. No doorway pages, 301 redirects to that domain, nothing. So I checked on the other sites which were going to be doing wallpapers and they have also been deleted:
Your search - site:iphonelive.org - did not match any documents.
Your search - site:themeiphone.com - did not match any documents.
Your search - site:iphonewallpapers.net - did not match any documents.
Your search - site:iphonewallpapers.com - did not match any documents.
So I guess the point of my post is that save your cash and do not register any domain names with the word “iphone” in them. Now I know people are going to say, well you shouldn’t buy domain names with a trademarked word in them. Yes this is true, but most companies dont care if all you are doing is promoting the product in a good way.
That was the full post from security-protocols.com. Thanks again Tom.
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Dave Davis Says:
“most companies dont care if all you are doing is promoting the product in a good way.”
Ehmmm, first of all, this is Apple. They are not most companies. Second of all, I beg to differ. In the past, EVERY company I have dealt with have had problems with their TM being used in a domain name.
MySpace is a perfect example.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 4:25 pm:
hey dave,
you may be correct.
thanks for the comment,
matt
[Reply]
dweller reply on January 18, 2007 6:47 pm:
it’s not Apple’s trademark.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 7:15 pm:
hey dweller,
it’s not an apple trademark…yet
thanks for the comment,
matt
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
scott Says:
A normal search in google of iphonelive.org and themeiphone.com both returned the pages that they were supposed to. Not sure why you didn’t get them but I did. 7:19pm Eastern 1/18.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 4:28 pm:
hey thanks for the comment scott
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Josh Highland Says:
I guess im going to be screwed… I own iPhoneCraze.com and YOURiphoneUNLOCKED.com
i wonder how much apple had to pay google to do that.
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Matthew Berman Says:
hey josh,
thanks for the comment
matt
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Blake Webb Says:
@Josh:
Cisco you mean?
I suspect that Google may be pre-empting the inevitable influx of squatters and reviewing the merits of these domains on an individual basis. That or the possibility that Google is trying to avoid problems from both Apple AND Cisco until the trademark dispute is resolved.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 5:49 pm:
hey Blake,
I 100% agree with you, preemptive strike.
Thanks for commenting,
matt
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Mark Says:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Athemeiphone.com&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
maybe you jsut caught them mid Pagerank update?
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 5:50 pm:
Mark,
This is also possible, gotta check it out over the next few days.
Thanks for comment,
Matt
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Dem Says:
I’m fairly certain that if a company doesn’t protect its trademark (no matter how small or insignificant the infringement) it can lose the right to that trademark.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 18, 2007 11:37 pm:
agreed.
thanks for the comment dem
[Reply]
Posted on January 18th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Error Forum Blog » Blog Archive » Interesting Bits Says:
[...] Is Google deleting iPhone related domains? [...]
Posted on January 19th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Goldwing Guy Says:
I think its simply google updating.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on January 19, 2007 10:53 am:
Goldwing-
Yes it was Google updating, but why de-index sites with iPhone in the domain?
matt
[Reply]
Posted on January 19th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Zoli Says:
Its good
[Reply]
Posted on February 27th, 2007 at 1:49 am
ryan Says:
I just purchased the domain name http://www.discountappleiphones.com. I amsuprised it is still available.
[Reply]
Matthew Berman reply on March 5, 2007 1:58 pm:
hey ryan,
ya thats a great domain, congrats.
thanks for posting.
matt
[Reply]
Posted on March 3rd, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Rian Says:
damn…I figured this would happen. I guess they dont want us helping them make more money. fine. how bout ifone?
[Reply]
Posted on April 12th, 2007 at 5:15 pm