I was going true some domain names when I started finding weird Yahoo! domain names that they had registered, so I decided to do some investigations . Since more people then just Yahoo are using their name servers nsX.yahoo.com (they're also used for their hosting clients) that was a dead end, so I created a list of all domain names pointing to the same IP address as yahoo.com.

That's a big list with more then 8,500 domain names pointing to yahoo.com . Most of them are .com domains, but they also got .biz, .info, .org and .net domain names.

If you say that they pay about $7 per domain name then the total cost for all names on the list would be $59,584 and I'm sure they have even more domain names registered that I didn't find during this investigation.

Some of the domain names show us that they have prepared several partnerships with other companies: GOOGLEANDYAHOO.COM and MICROSOFT-YAHOO.COM.

Misspellings

When you got a popular site you have to protect your visitors from misspellings. Could also be names registered by phising sites trying to steal your Yahoo login.

AHOO-INC.BIZ
AHOOCHAT.COM
ALKAVISTA.COM
AYHOOO.COM
WW-YAHOO.COM
WWW-YAHOOSEX.COM
WWWAHOO.NET
WWWYAHOO.ORG
YAAAHOOO.COM
ZAHOO.COM

Just weird domains

Why on earth would they want to spend money on these names?

20042005AOLCOMDEGAULDYAHOOCOMHOT.COM
2005AOLCOMHOTMAILCOMMARRIAYAHOOCO.COM
92466.BIZ
92466.INFO
92466.NET
92466.ORG
DELETEYAHOO.COM
DIR–YAHOO.COM
LINCOLNHIGH95.COM
SCAM-YAHOO.COM
TLMDY.COM
WEBJ.INFO
XUNDUN.COM

Internet Service Provider

Soon we can start surfing with Yahoo and maybe even call our friends?

ADSLYAHOO.COM
ADSLYAHOO.NET
ADSLYAHOO.ORG
BIKERWOMANSBCGLOBALYAHOODSL.NET
DSL–YAHOO.COM
DSLYAHOOINTERNET.COM
WIFI-YAHOO.COM
WIRELESSYAHOO.COM
Y-VOIP.COM

Porn sites

Will Yahoo start a darker side of their search engine with porn and sex related stuff?

ADULT-YAHOO-CLUBS.COM
ADULT-YAHOO-GROUP.COM
ADULT-YAHOO-LINKS.COM
ADULTGROUPSEXYAHOO.COM
CHATFREESEXYAHOO.COM
DIRTY-PICS-ON-YAHOO.COM
FUCKYAHOO.COM
KATIESMILKJUGSYAHOO.COM
SEXXXXXXYAHOO.COM
SEXYAHOO.NET
YAHOO-GOOGLE-MSN-AOL-FREE-PORN-DIRECTORY.COM
YAHOO-PIMPS.COM

Yahoo Finance

Maybe this will be some new services at Yahoo Finance in the near future?

AMORTIZATIONCALCULATORYAHOO.COM
CALCULATORMORTGAGEYAHOO.COM
CALCULATORCARLOANPAYMENTYAHOO.COM
CONVERTERCURRENCYFINANCEYAHOO.COM
FINANCEYAHOOMORTGAGEPLANPERFECT.COM
SAVEFINANCEYAHOOCOLLEGEHELP.COM

Password hacking sites

These names must have been acquired by Yahoo's lawyers from password hackers or something.

BACKDOORTOYAHOOMAIL.COM
CRACKYAHOOMAIL.COM
CRACKYAHOOMESANGER.COM
HACKYAHOOEMAILPASSWORD.COM
STEALERPASSWORDYAHOO.COM
Y-CRACKERS.COM
YAHOO-CRACKER.COM

Yahoo Casino

Maybe a new service called Yahoo Casino, on an island near you but stil on international waters?

BEST-YAHOO-TEXAS-HOLD-EM.INFO
YAHOO-BETTING.COM
YAHOO-ONLINEPOKER.COM

Partnerships

Partnerships or trademark infringement? You decide.

AOLYAHOOMSN.COM
EBAY-MAIL-YAHOO.COM
EBAY-YAHOO.COM
FOXSPORTYAHOO.COM
GOOGLEANDYAHOO.COM
GOOGLEBLOGHOO.BIZ
GOOGLEBLOGHOO.COM
GOOGLEBLOGHOO.INFO
GOOGLEBLOGHOO.NET
GOOGLEYAHOO.NET
MICROSOFT-YAHOO.COM
SIEMENSYAHOO.COM
VISAYAHOO.COM
YAHOO-EBAY.COM

IDN

Domain names with international characters (i.e. non-latin alphabet).

XN–YAH-INAA.ORG
XN–YAH-UNAA.BIZ
XN–YAH-UNAA.INFO
XN–YAHO-7QA.BIZ
XN–YAHO-7QA.INFO
XN–YAHO-8QA.BIZ
XN–YAHO-8QA.INFO
XN–YAHO-SQA.ORG
XN–YAHO-TQA.ORG
XN–YH-MIA7EA.ORG
XN–YHO-ELA5G.ORG
XN–YHO-ELA6G.ORG
XN–YHO-QLA5G.BIZ
XN–YHO-QLA5G.INFO
XN–YHO-QLA6G.BIZ
XN–YHO-QLA6G.INFO
XN–YHOO-5NA.ORG
XN–YHOO-LOA.BIZ
XN–YHOO-LOA.INFO

The complete list of domain names found during this investigation can be found here.

While they may be breathing a sigh of relief at Yahoo! after seemingly escaping the clutches of Microsoft, this may still be the end of the road for the Yahoo! business with more vultures circling after they made the mistake of suggesting that they are ripe for takeover at the right price. Even though they could not agree a price with Microsoft, to many people they have sold themselves down the river….

Over the last decade life has been tough for Microsoft’s MSN searching engine and Yahoo! have not faired much better, but together it could have been such a different story. The innovation of the two boards and the massive firepower of Microsoft could have made a real difference but what does the future hold for both companies?

Yahoo!

The vultures are most definitely circling the company and it would come as no surprise to see a deal agreed with either a Venture Capital company or another of the major online conglomerates over the next few weeks. This episode has not been the best in the history of Yahoo! and they are now in a weaker position than they have ever been before.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s MSN offshoot seems to be lacking somewhat in size to attack the mighty Google and while the Yahoo! deal is a set back they have shown that they are looking ahead and making plans. Do not write off MSN as they will be back, most likely with a larger or similar sized partner in tow. This is just the start of a new life for MSN.

All in all this latest blow, after years of rumours and counter rumours about a possible merger, will further enhance the power of Google and give them a little more breathing space before they see any real contenders come forward to steal their crown. Thankfully for webmasters around the world, Google are of a size that they would never be able to make any sizeable acquisitions in the search engine world so any more growth will be purely organic.

Watch this space, there is more change to come in the not too distant future…….the landscape is changing…..

I decided to update my list of Pagerank 10 websites I posted earlier since Google is said to have updated their pagerank. So here's the updated list:

• validator.w3.org Downgraded to PR9
• web.mit.edu
• www.adobe.com
• www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/index.html New on the list
• www.adobe.com/downloads/ New on the list
• www.adobe.com/products/index.html New on the list
• www.adobe.com/downloads/ New on the list
• www.apple.com/quicktime/download Downgraded to PR9
• www.doe.gov New on the list
• www.energy.gov
• www.google.com
• www.keio.ac.jp Downgraded to PR9
• www.mac.com Downgraded to PR9
• www.macromedia.com (redirected to adobe.com)
• www.microsoft.com Downgraded to PR9 (could be because I was redirected to www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx)
• www.nasa.gov
• www.nsf.gov
• www.real.com
• www.usa.gov/index.shtml New on the list
• www.w3.org
• www.whitehouse.gov
• www.yahoo.com Downgraded to PR9

One of the more funny things about the update of pagerank is that both Yahoo and Microsoft got downgraded. Could it be because of the proposed merger between the two?

I used the Google toolbar in Firefox to check these sites so I may have missed someone . In that case, please let me know and I'll update the list.