Site Speed – New addition to Google Web Search Ranking
Apr 10th
The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced today that Google has added a site speed factor to their web search ranking algorithm. According to the blog post, “Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. But faster sites don’t just improve user experience; recent data shows that improving site speed also reduces operating costs.” Also, according to the blog post, rankings of fewer than 1% of all search queries are affected by the site speed signal that the Google engineers have added to the search ranking algorithm – which in reality translates to 1 out of every 100 queries. To evaluate your site performance, the blog post contains links to tools like Page Speed, YSlow and Web Pagetest, etc.
This change raises more questions than answers. Increasingly more sites are turning towards providing online interactive functionalities than just general information. The sites that provide interactive functionalities may have slower load times due the usage of images (as in photo galleries), embedded audio/video (as in gaming sites), or even sites that generate its content from databases. Large sites, that run on CMS like Drupal, may also be effected due to the numerous pre-process functions of the CMS.
As the blog community has started vehemently responding to this change, Google may make changes soon and this change may stay or may be rolled-back. Whatever the case, a point has been raised strongly – site performance is critical to engaging your users, whether you have a large site or provide sophisticated functionalities.
What’s your opinion? Do you think this is a good change?
Dropdown menu in Drupal 6 theme
Apr 3rd
Drop down menu – a smart way to present really long list of navigation links. While there have been many JavaScript based drop down menu for ages (read Dreamweaver’s mm menu), in the recent past, CSS based drop down menus have driven a more convincing point.
When it comes to Drupal, we can implement a drop down menu in your theme using the “Son of Suckerfish” CSS menu. What we are going to do is, define a region to print the suckerfish menu, have a preprocess function in the theme template file to create the appropriate link levels, add CSS and finally call it in the page.tpl.php file. Additionally, for IE, we are going to have a nifty JavaScript to fix some CSS issues. Here we go:
- Add suckerfish region in your theme’s .info file, like,
$regions[suckerfish] = Suckerfish - Create a new suckerfish.css file in your theme folder’s root with the following:
#primary a.active,
#secondary a.active {
color: #CDCD8F;
}
#suckerfishmenu .block {
margin-bottom: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
}
#suckerfishmenu .block, #suckerfishmenu .box {
padding: 0;
}
#suckerfishmenu .title {
display: none;
}
#suckerfishmenu {
line-height: 28px;
background-color:#787878;
border-top: 1px solid #fff;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu { /* top level ul */
padding: 0 0 0 0px;
list-style: none;
z-index: 100;
display: inline;
float:left;
}
#suckerfishmenu a {
color: #fff;
display: block;
padding: 0px 14px 0px 14px; /* padding between menu elements */
margin: 0;
text-decoration: none;
font-size: 98%;
font-weight: bold;
border-right:1px solid #fff;
}
#suckerfishmenu a:active,
#suckerfishmenu a:hover {
text-decoration: none;
background-color:#005daa;
}
#suckerfishmenu li {
display: inline;
float: left;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
height: 1%;
}
/* second-level lists */
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
list-style: none;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul {
position: absolute;
width: 200px;
left: -999em; /* to hide menus because display: none isn't read by screen readers */
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li {
/* height: auto; */
float: left;
width: 200px;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li a:link,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li a:visited {
color: #fff;
background: #787878;
width: 170px;
border: 1px solid #484848;
}
/********************************************************/
/* ADD DOWN ARROW */
/*
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li.expanded a {
background: #787878 url(../images/menu_arrow_down.jpg) top right no-repeat;
padding-right:20px;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li.expanded a:hover {
background: #484848 url(../images/menu_arrow_down_h.jpg) top right no-repeat;
}
*/
/********************************************************/
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded a {
background: #787878 url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded a:active,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded a:hover {
background: #005daa url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul a:active,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul a:hover {
background-color: #005daa;
text-decoration: none;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu a {
background: #787878;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu a:active,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu a:hover {
background: #005daa;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded a {
background: #787878 url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded a:active,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded a:hover {
background: #005daa url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li {
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul a {
color: #fff;
width: 200px;
line-height: 26px;
font-size: 95%;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul a:active,
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul a:hover {
background: #005daa;
text-decoration: none;
}
/* margin for pullouts */
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul ul {
margin: -29px 0 0 200px;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li:hover ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li:hover ul ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li.sfhover ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li.sfhover ul ul ul {
left: -999em;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li.sfhover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.sfhover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li li.sfhover ul {
left: auto;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li ul ul ul{
margin: -29px 0 0 200px;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li:hover ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li:hover ul ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li.sfhover ul ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li.sfhover ul ul ul {
left: -999em;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li li li:hover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li.sfhover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li li.sfhover ul, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu ul li li li.sfhover ul {
left: auto;
}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded ul.menu li a { background: #787878; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded ul.menu li a:active, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li.expanded ul.menu li a:hover {
background: #005daa;}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded a { background: #787878 url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded a:active, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded a:hover {
background: #005daa url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu a { background: #787878; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu a:active, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu a:hover { background: #005daa; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded li ul.menu li.expanded a { background: #787878 url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded li ul.menu li.expanded a:active, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li.expanded li ul.menu li.expanded a:hover {
background: #005daa url(../images/menu_arrow.png) 100% 50% no-repeat;}
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li ul.menu a { background: #787878; }
#suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li ul.menu a:active, #suckerfishmenu ul.menu li li.expanded ul.menu li ul.menu li ul.menu a:hover {background: #005daa; }
- Open the template.php file from your theme folder (if it does not exist, create a new template.php file in your Drupal theme folder’s root). Add the following to your template.php file (remember to change all your_theme_name to your theme name)
/* adds suckerfish.css */
drupal_add_css(drupal_get_path('theme', 'your_theme_name') . '/suckerfish.css', 'theme');
function phptemplate_menu_links($links, $attributes = array()) {
if (!count($links)) {
return '';
}
$level_tmp = explode('-', key($links));
$level = $level_tmp[0];
$output = "<ul class=\"links-$level ".$attributes['class']. "\" id=\"".$attributes['id']."\">\n";
$num_links = count($links);
$i = 1;
foreach ($links as $index => $link) {
$output .= '<li';
$output .= ' class="';
if (stristr($index, 'active')) {
$output .= 'active';
}
elseif((drupal_is_front_page()) && ($link['href']=='<front>')){
$link['attributes']['class'] = 'active';
$output .= 'active';
}
if ($i == 1) {
$output .= ' first'; }
if ($i == $num_links) {
$output .= ' last'; }
$output .= '"';
$output .= ">". l($link['title'], $link['href'], $link['attributes'], $link['query'], $link['fragment']) ."</li>\n";
$i++;
}
$output .= '</ul>';
return $output;
}
- Open your page.tpl.php, add the following code, where ever you want the suckerfish menu to come:
<div id="suckerfish_container"> <?php if ($suckerfish): ?> <div style="clear:both"></div> <div id="suckerfishmenu" class="clear-block"><?php print $suckerfish; ?></div> <?php endif; ?> </div><!--suckerfish_container-->
- Go to your menu administration page (admin/build/menu) and add menu items to your primary links with multiple levels. Remember to set the parent links to expanded, so that it will drop down the child links.
- Go to your blocks page (admin/build/block) and place the primary links under the suckerfish region. If you don’t see the suckerfish region, go to admin/build/themes and enable your theme again
- Any style / color changes can be done in the suckerfish.css file that we added earlier
IE 6 Fix
- Create a new suckerfish.js file in your theme folder’s root and add the following code
sfHover = function() {
var sfEls = document.getElementById("suckerfishmenu").getElementsByTagName("LI");
for (var i=0; i<sfEls.length; i++) {
sfEls[i].onmouseover=function() {
this.className+=" sfhover";
}
sfEls[i].onmouseout=function() {
this.className=this.className.replace(new RegExp(" sfhover\\b"), "");
}
}
}
if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", sfHover);
- Add the following IE specific code before the </head> in your drupal theme’s page.tpl.php
<!--[if lte IE 6]> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php print $GLOBALS['base_url']."/"; print $directory; ?>/suckerfish.js"></script> <![endif]-->
Go back to your browser and enjoy your drop down menus.
While customizing the Drupal Theme for MIT – Enterprise Forum’s (India) site, I was asked to add a drop down menu. Roople Theme‘s Newsflash Drupal Theme implements the Son of Suckerfish menu for drop down. I used portions of Newsflash theme as a base for putting Suckerfish menu into my new theme. The chunks of code used in this article is taken from the Newsflash Drupal theme. Newsflash theme provides many more features, that can be set easily in the theme settings. Another popular module that I have used for drop down menus is Nice Menu module.
The Son of Suckerfish menu was earlier featured in http://www.htmldog.com/articles/suckerfish/dropdowns/.
About Domain Names – in a nutshell
Mar 31st
A domain name is the address of a website. For example, www.google.com is a domain name and the entire website address – http://www.google.com is called the Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
Top-Level Domains
The “extension” of a domain name is called the Top-Level domain (TLD). So in www.google.com, .com is the TLD. There are 3 types of TLDs – generic top-level domains (gTLD), country code top-level domains (ccTLD) and infrastructure top-level domains.
gTLD
Generic top-level domains are the most popular of all domains. Some of the gTLDs are:
- .com – originally intended for use by commercial organizations
- .net – originally intended for use by Internet related sites
- .org – originally intended for use by non-profit organizations
- .biz – for use by businesses
- .info
ccTLD
The country code top-level domains also have the 2 letter country code that is used to designate a country. For example, www.airtel.in is a ccTLD and .in represents India. A list of all countries ccTLD can be found at the IANA Website (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).
The .IN ccTLD allocation is overseen by a Government of India appointed organization – INRegistry, operated under the authority of National Internet eXchange of India (NIXI). The registration of popular ccTLDs like .IN, .CO.IN, .NET.IN is provided by many organizations. However, to register .GOV.IN, .MIL.IN is exclusively registered by National Informatics Centre (NIC). The ccTLDs .AC.IN, .EDU.IN and .RES.IN is registered exclusively by ERNET.
Infrastructure top-level domains
Infrastructure top-level domains is exclusively used for Internet infrastructure purposes such as in-addr.arpa for IPv4 and ip6.arpa for IPv6 reverse DNS resolution, uri.arpa and urn.arpa for the Dynamic Delegation Discovery System, and e164.arpa for telephone number mapping based on NAPTR DNS records.
Reserved domains
As per the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), the following 4 top-level domain names are reserved and cannot occur in production networks within the global domain name system.
- example – reserved for use in examples
- invalid – reserved for use in invalid domain names
- localhost – reserved for use in local computers
- test – reserved for use in tests
Domain Name formats
- domain names must be at least 2 characters long
- domain names cannot be more than 63 characters long, excluding the domain extension
- domain names can only have alphabets, numbers and hyphen (-). They cannot have spaces, underscore, or any other symbol
- domain names that are a combination of alphabets and numbers (alphanumeric) are acceptable. For example, www.theysing2me.com is a valid domain name
- domain names cannot start and end with a hyphen
- domain names are not case-sensitive, i.e., echopx.com is the same as EchoPx.com
IP Addresses
Along with the domain name, each website also has an Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses are what computers use to connect over the internet. Each computer on the internet has an IP address. The IP address can by a static IP or a dynamic IP. Internet Servers use static IP and computers that you use for connecting to the internet uses dynamic IP. You can find your from www.whatsmyip.org.
IP addresses are regulated by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). 209.191.93.53 is the IP addresses of Yahoo.com (type the IP 209.191.93.53 in your browser). When you type a website address in your browser’s address bar, the computer searches the Domain Name System (DNS) which is maintained by ICANN. The domain name is then translated into the corresponding IP address and the computer connects to the website.
Subdomains
A subdomain is a subset of a larger domain name. For example, blog.echopx.com is a subdomain of echopx.com. Even a in domain address like www.example.com, www is the subdomain of example.com. The subdomain www is also called canonical domain names.
Subdomains are usually used either for load balancing or for organizing sites. Websites that have very high traffic, use load balancing techniques to redirect visitors to one of their subdomains like www1.example.com. Others use subdomains to organize their website information. For example, echopx.com is the corporate website, where as blog.echopx.com is used for blogs only and domains.echopx.com is used for online domain name registration.
Registering Domain Names
A domain name is registered by a registrar. The registrars are appointed by ICANN. All domain names are registered with the ICANN registry.
A domain name is registered for a specified period of time, i.e., from 1 year up to a maximum of 10 years at a time. The domain name registration fee is usually charged on an yearly basis. You can continually use the domain name by renewing it within the specified time limit. If you do not renew it within the specified time, it will expire and will be available for anyone for registration.
Domain name expiry, grace period, retrieval
Whenever a particular domain name is not renewed till the expiry date, it would slip into the Renewal Grace Period. During this period, any website and mails associated with the domain name would become non-functional. Renewal Grace Period are different depending upon the domain name extensions. For example, .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info have 40 days renewal grace period, where as, .in has only 15 days. A .eu domain name does not have any grace period. If you do not renew the domain name even in the Renewal Grace Period, then the domain name would be deleted and the domain name will go into Redemption Grace Period (provided there is no back-order for this domain name) and you would get a chance to redeem it.
Redeeming a domain name is expensive, time consuming and generally a manual process. It can take up to 5 working days to redeem a domain name. The Redemption Grace Period is generally of 30 days after the domain name is deleted and during this period, only the current Registrar of the domain name can redeem the domain name. If the domain name is not Redeemed during this period, then it would move to the Pending Delete period for 5 days. In this status, the domain name can not be Redeemed and after this period, the domain name would be available for fresh Registration.
Domain pointing
During the domain name registration process you will be asked where you want the domain name to “point”. This is the IP address of the server where your web site will be located and there should be a primary and secondary server. You can obtain this information from your web hosting company. There may also be a listing for other optional servers. The registrar may provide the IP addresses of at least two delegated name servers on their site. You can change this if you have your own. It can also be changed at any time later if you change servers. It can take 48-72 hours for your domain name to be set-up and available on the web.
Summary
While a domain name is nothing more than an alias for the IP address, it is increasingly becoming a very important tool in marketing your website. Being aware of what it is and how to keep it secure is crucial. Read our earlier article on how to protect your domain name. If you have any specific questions / comments, do post it here.
Slideshow with Drupal Views Cycle module
Mar 29th
Views Cycle is a nice module that uses the jQuery Cycle plug-in to provide image slideshow with many different types of transition effects. In Drupal, you are going to create a content type to upload images, generate a view for the uploaded images and style it with the Views Cycle module. The module also provides with many variable settings that you can set. [For Drupal 6]
Requirements:
- CCK: http://drupal.org/project/cck
- Views 2: http://drupal.org/project/views
- Views cycle: http://drupal.org/project/views_cycle
- jQuery cycle plugin: http://www.malsup.com/jquery/cycle/
Installation:
- Download and enable CCK & Views modules. To allow image upload, also add imagefield module. Imagecache is optional.
- Download views_cycle and the jQuery cycle plugin. The jQuery cycle plugin also includes a javascript file – jquery.cycle.all.min.js. Copy this file into the views_cycle module directory and rename it as jquery.cycle.js. Now, enable views_cycle module.
Create content type:
- Login as admin and go to admin/content/types and click on the Add content types tab to add a new content type
- Give a Name to your content type and enter the machine-readable Type. For example, Name – Animation and Type – cycle_anim
- In Submission form settings, remove the body field
- In Workflow settings, uncheck Promoted to front page
- In Comment settings, set it to Disabled
- Click on the Save button
- In the Content types list page, click on Manage fields for the new content type that you have created just now
- Add a new field with Label as Image and Field name as field_anim_image
- Under Select a field type, select File and in Form element select Image. Click on Save button
- In Permitted upload file extensions, enter values as png gif jpg jpeg
- Under Global settings, check the Required checkbox and set Number of values to 1. Click on the Save field settings button
- Click on the Display fields. And under Teaser, select Image and under Full node, select Image linked to node
Create content:
- Browse to node/add and click on the Animation content type to add images for the animation
- Create at least 2 nodes with different images
Create view:
- Browse to admin/build/views/add
- For View name, enter Animation and set the View type to Node. Click Next button
- Click + (Add) button under Fields and select Content: Image (field_anim_image). Click the Add button
- Set the Label to None and under Format, select Image linked to node. Click on Update button
- Click + (Add) button under Filters. Select Node: Published and Node: Type. Click on Add button
- Under Node: Published configuration settings, set it to Yes and click Update button
- Under Node: Type configuration settings, for Is one of, check Animation under Node type. Click Update button
- In the Basic settings group, for Style, click on Unformatted link. Set the default to Cycle and click Update button
- Under Default style options, set the various values for your animation. You can come back to the view and change the values later.
- Now you can add a block view or a page view for your animation.
With my animation, the Views Cycle out put the animation with images put in unordered list and default padding on the top and left sides of the container. One way to fix this is through your CSS. Though this module is simple and very nice, there are other variations for slideshow / carousel / rotator with many more features like the DD Block (http://drupal.org/project/ddblock) for Drupal. Have a look at the comparison here http://drupal.org/node/418616.
[This article is for Drupal 6]
Protect your Domain Name
Nov 12th
Very often we get clients who want to transfer their domain name from their existing registrar (or their resellers) to a new registrar. In most of the cases, the domain transfer process gets contentious with their existing domain resellers. As it turns out, it happens mainly because the client is not the “registered” owner of the domain name.
Many a times, a domain name registration service provider (domain reseller) approaches a client offering to register their domain name. The unsuspecting client just asks the domain reseller to register it on their behalf and make the payment outright. However, when the domain reseller is registering the domain name, the domain resellers provide their contact details and email address instead of the client’s contact details & email id. Hence, the domain reseller becomes the official owner of the domain name. A simple whois search will reveal the actual owner of the domain name. Try a whois search at http://www.internic.net/whois.html.
So, how do you ensure that you are the registered owner of your domain name? How do you protect your domain name?
- Be sure to get your own domain name control panel – Most registrars offer password protected interfaces to users to manage their domain names. So, while buying your domain name, insist on getting a domain name control panel. Set your own password and use a complex, hard to guess password.
- Ensure your registrant details are correct – Each domain name has the following details entered in the InterNIC’s WHOIS information database – administrative contact, billing contact and technical contact. Each of these contact have details like person name, organization name, address (street, city, state, country, postal code), phone, fax and email address. Ideally, you can have all of them – administrative, billing and technical contact details with your details. Even if a domain name reseller has registered the domain for you, do a WHOIS search for your domain name and it will reveal the contact details. If it is not in your name, insist with your domain reseller to change it.
- Use a domain lock – Most domain registrars provide a domain lock that can prevent a domain name from being transferred without your knowledge. Typically, you can set the lock / unlock from within your domain name control panel.
- Use a privacy protect – Most domain registrars provide Privacy Protect service. With the privacy protect service on, you can hide the details of the actual owner of the domain name shown through a whois search. It instead points all the contact details to a single address & email that is provided by the registrar. If your domain name reseller has put a privacy protect, ask him to remove it, so that you can verify the actual registrant details and you can yourself turn on the privacy protect from within your domain name control panel.
- Get a hard copy bill / invoice from your service provider – Just in case you need it, it is always prudent to insist on a hard copy bill / invoice from your domain name service provider. In times of need, it can prove as your legal proof for purchase of the domain name. Do not forget to ensure that the domain name is spelt correctly (along with the TLD or the extension like .com or .in) and the period of domain name registration (the start date and end date).
- Stay on top of your domain name renewals – Most of the times, domain name registrants lose control of their domain names through neglect or carelessness. It is important that you renew your domain name within the domain registrar specified timeframe. Remember – a domain name is yours only as long as you have paid for the said period. After a domain name has expired, it is up for grabs for anyone in the world.
- Use domain monitor – There are many free domain monitor that send you an email, the moment there is any change to the registration details. DomainTools offers a free domain monitor service.
Echo Px provides domain name registration service with your own control panel, free domain lock, free privacy protect and auto-reminder service for domain renewals (visit our domain name store). Moreover, we have worked with many clients who have had their domain names “hijacked” and helped them get their the domain names “released”. If you have such issues, post it in the comments.
Interesting Domain Name Facts
Nov 8th
“What’s in a name? That we call rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Shakespeare famously wrote in Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2). More so, what’s in a domain name? Googling around threw up so many interesting domain name facts. I may not be able to list all, but the most interesting are:
- .com is the leading registered TLD (top level domain) with 83,085,276 domains followed by .net with 12,531,679. The others that follow are .org (7,857,092), .info (5,350,434), .biz (2,014,322), and .us (1,632,469) – stats as of 06-Nov-2009
- While .info is the 4th largest TLD, 33% of it are operated by Germans
- United States accounts for 68,958,024 of all registered domain names followed by Germany with 6,091,311. While China is placed 5th with 3,484,435 registered domain names, India is ranked 15th with 542,246 domain names – stats as of 02-Nov-2009
- Speaking of rarity, most of the great .com domain names have been taken up, especially, the 2 & 3 letter domain names which were all registered by 1997. Right now, all 2 & 3 letter domain names with .net, .org, .info, .biz and .us are also taken
- Registered on 15-Mar-1985, Symbolics.com is the oldest domain name. Followed by BBN.com on 24-Apr-1985 and Think.com on 24-May-1985
- Xerox.com was registered on 09-Jan-1986, Sri.com on 17-Jan-1986, HP.com on 03-Mar-1986, IBM.com on 19-Mar-1986, Sun.com on 19-Mar-1986, Intel.com on 25-Mar-1986 and GE.com on 05-Aug-1986
- The most expensive domain name is Sex.com at a whopping $14 millions, followed by Fund.com ($9,999,950 – sold in 2008), Porn.com ($9,500,000 – sold in 2007), Business.com ($7,500,000 – sold in 1999), Diamonds.com ($7,500,000), Beer.com ($7,000,000), AsSeenOnTV.com ($5,100,000 – sold in 2000), Korea.com ($5,000,000), Casino.com ($5,000,000), SEO.com ($5,000,000). The list is endless.
- The longest domain (at present) is Thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com
- Airtel is one of the largest telecommunication company in Asia. Vodafone is a close competitor to Airtel in India. Airtel.com is registered. However, when you open www.airtel.com, you will be redirected to Vodafone. Airtel.com is registered by Vodafone
So what are you waiting for? Go. Grab your domain name before any one else does. To add to it, there are great discounts on domain names right now. Go to Echo Px Domain Names Store and buy it online.
.IN domains @ Rs.280 – Over 60% Off!
Nov 5th
Register your domains with over 60% discount on .IN and Third Level .IN Domains. You can now avail of New Registrations on .IN and Third Level .IN @ Rs.280 only. So hurry and make the most of the best prices in the industry before the 29th of January, 2010.
Note:
- This Promo is applicable to the first year of Registration only.
- Renewals and Transfer-Ins will not attract this Promo Pricing.
- There are no restrictions on the number of Domains that can be Registered during this period.
- The Promo Ends on the 29th of January, 2010.
Get started, buy online at Echo Px Domain Names Store.
Welcome to Echo Px blog
Nov 4th
Echo Px is a website design and web application development company based out of Bangalore, India.
We believe that web is a business tool that you should use to build your communication and to bring in more interaction with your business partners. So watch this space for releases and updates of web services by Echo Px.
