It appears that Google will be heading into the wireless business and even as early as January 2010. The phone which is made by HTC and what others have said is the HTC Passion version, Google is calling the phone Nexus One.

Images of the new phone are starting to surface after Google is "dogfooding" the product to some Google employees to test drive it and the images of the phone do not reveal any HTC branding on the phone.

Google, like many companies often fail to own the exact match domain name of the product or service for whatever reason at launch time. For smaller companies, this likely is an oversight or lack of funding. Google doesn’t have either of those problems. Well, the product isn’t officially launched yet but word is getting out about it and Google doesn’t own the domain name NexusOne.com!

NexusOne.com was actually first registered in 1998 according to whois history records and is currently owned by a Peter Villanueva of Portland, Oregon. The first whois record is 8-13-2001, which also shows Peter as the owner of the domain name. Currently, the domain name only resolves to a blank white page.

Searches are already clearly starting to pour in on search engines, including Google which shows popular searches as you type in the search box on Google.

So is it a big deal not to own the exact match domain name of your company / service / product? YES! For one, it simply makes sense to own it and makes advertising easier and looks much more professional. It allows for customers to easily find you and lastly, when people search for you at search engines, it will help you rank higher for the exact match term while building trust in your customer seeing the exact domain name matching the product / service / company.

Now Google has an advantage over the majority! They own the most popular search engine in the world with a 72% stake in all search! They can clearly use Adwords and a category on there main domain name like google.com/nexusone which should and will help them provide the data searches are looking for at the top! There is a thing called Direct Navigation that they will have a lot more trouble with, without owning the domain!

So does Google really need to own the domain name NexusOne.com if that is the name of the phone they may or may not come out with? Technically, no they do not but they really should, even though they hold great power to display their content near the top.

Owning the exact match domain name is only a small piece of the puzzle, but for many companies that are not the size of Google, it’s an important piece of the puzzle. Google can work around it but why! They really should of purchased the domain name by now if that is the name they plan on using!

Sedo.com has brokered the sale for the domain name SPB.com for $65,000 USD. The domain name was purchased by SPB Software Inc. of Hackensack, NJ.

SPB Software is a leading brand in mobile software according to its site and now owns what would be considered the leading domain name for it’s company as well. SPB confirmed their new purchase (minus the price) with a tweet to their Twitter.com account as well.

Congrats to both the buyer and seller of SPB.com . It appears another company using the same acronym had owned the domain name before, so this was likely not an easy purchase by SPB Software. According to whois history records, the past owner was SPB Online Services, LTD.

3 letter domain name sales are interesting to me (each domain name sale is interesting really) but mainly acronym sales are always interesting. There is such a wide range of sales prices but I think one thing is clear with most 3 letter domain name sales…. The end user purchases are normally always very clear compared to domain investors trading them. Recently, many 3 letter .com domain names have traded as low as $3,900 range for lower quality combo’s but many quality 3 letter combo’s will trade between investors from high four figure range to lower five figure ranges.

SPB has wasted no time in switching from SPBSoftware.com (the old domain) to SPB.com and has SPB.com fully functional on it’s website with old links mapped out to the new domain.

A catchy and memorable domain name (maybe even a couple) paired with a nice clean and helpful microsite tied in with some of the popular social networking sites Facebook.com and Twitter.com is working!

Domainers have been stuck on what we call MiniSites. These minisites include about 5 pages of content and rarely get updated content there after. The Google Adsense and or banner advertising go along with these minisites is the main source of income for the site.

 The problem with minisites that many domain investors build, they never get touched again after they are built. The content becomes outdated pretty quickly and search engines notice this. Whatever ranking the site does get, is likely to fade overtime and so will revenue.

I have been seeing several new styles of "Minisites" which are now being called more and more Microsites. Really the same thing, but when I think of a minisite, I think of a domainers version of the 5 pages of content and really no legs for the site to grow.

Microsites are great IMO!

CheeseAndBurger.com is a perfect example of a microsite with legs! It is helpful to people who use it and the users are likely to come back again and again. The Wisconsin Milk and Marketing Board is the creator of CheeseAndBurger.com and the microsite that goes along with it. With over 3 million members on Facebook.com, of coarse it is important to focus on connecting where the people are!

Getting people to Become a fan on Facebook is important for these microsites and not always the easiest task, but after you have fans, making updates or posting what’s new from time to time keeps people in the loop in their Facebook feeds. Posting these updates is like sending out a press release but it is free and only takes seconds!

Using Facebook Connect, like CheeseAndBurger.com does with it’s recipes (of the burgers) get’s people tempted by simply seeing the yummy looking burger. Don’t think people click the Share on Facebook button? I see the stuff all the time in my feed of friends on Facebook daily! People use it!

Currently, CheeseAndBurger.com has 58,217 "fans" on Facebook.

Wendy’s uses a similar style microsite with WendysRealTime.com . It get’s you hungry just looking at the site and their product is getting noticed!

Microsites like these can be built for selling a single product like the As Seen On TV products are or really used for just about anything. Recipes, Contests, Events, Concerts, Photographers, Race Car Drivers and on and on and on!

Having a catchy domain name will greatly help in your marketing efforts and clearly the microsite should allow for you (the site owner) to add and add and add to the site if you want to grow it in any direction you so choose! Include in contests, games and updated features and functions will also help keep people coming back, talking about your site and keeping new visitors coming in!

Connecting your site with Facebook is vital! Twitter is important as well. These two social networking sites should be your main focus for now, until something else starts gaining ground. Be sure to have something useful to your "fans" and make sure you connect with your fans! Do not over do it with updates as that can be annoying.

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