A Nielsen Wire blog post broke the news that for the first time Android mobile phones (powered by Google) have outsold the iPhone in the United States this year.  In fact, Android sales are really heating up worldwide with almost a 900% increase in sales from a year ago.  I think that the power of branding with Google on your side is a real plus as more mobile customers make the move to more web capable smartphones.  Many new customers are also coming from the annoyed Blackberry customers who are making the switch to a device better suited for apps and browsing, not just email.

Companies that have embraced partnerships with Android are also seeing big their investments pay off in spades.  For instance Motorala’s HTC really got a boost when they decided to start producing Android devices.  Mobile service providers like T-mobile and Verizon in the U.S. are seeing lot’s of new customers attracted to their service because they want an Android phone.

I will say that I am very happy to have gone with Android myself. I am going on the third year with the original device (G1).  It’s funny that I am still discovering new features on my phone and really just now getting more into using apps.  I will say that I dread the day I have to replace this device with something that doesn’t have real keys.. I hate touchscreen keyboards.

By not buying NexusOne.com, Google reinforces the power of Google search over direct navigation.

Over the past few days I’ve read numerous stories by my peers suggesting that Google messed up by not registering the NexusOne.com domain name prior to launching its new phone initiative. My initial reaction was the same. But I quickly changed my mind: not acquiring the domain name was actually a smart move. Brilliant.

Hear me out.

Let’s think about the company we’re discussing. It’s Google. What does Google hate more than anything else? Direct navigation and direct search. It hates that people type domain names directly into the URL bar rather than going to Google first to search for it.

By not using NexusOne.com for its phone domain name, Google has just taught web surfers a lesson about direct navigation not always working. And what happens when someone types in NexusOne.com and sees this?

Odds are the next thing they’ll do is go to Google to search for “Nexus One”. There they will find one ad, a Google ad for the phone, along with the first search result: Google’s official web page for Nexus One.

It’s not like Google is going to lose sales over this. People interested in the phone will still find it.

Now, normally I’d say the company is inconveniencing its customers, like I did when Dell didn’t buy Adamo prior to launching its new line of computers. This is different, since the inconvenience sends customers to Google’s flagship web site to find what they are looking for.

But wait, couldn’t the current owner of NexusOne.com put up ads for phones? Google could sue for trademark infringement. And if a competitor buys the domain Google can quickly pick up the domain name in UDRP since the registration date would be considered after Google got its common law trademark.

So I’m going to respectfully disagree with my peers on this one. By not registering NexusOne.com, Google didn’t make a huge mistake. It was a brilliant move.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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A friend of mine emailed me early this afternoon to let me know that Google updated the Page Rank of my website to PR5.  Apparently, Google updated the PR for many websites some time in the last 24 hours or so. The meaning and impact of a website’s PageRank is debated, but a PR5 is better than a PR4

Here are how 20 of the Domain Superstar Top 100 Domain Blogs rank in PR:

1. DomainTools Blog – PR6
2. ICANN Blog – PR7
3. Namedrive Blog – PR4
4. Afternic DLS Blog – PR6
5. DNJournal – PR5
6. Domain Name Wire – PR5
7. TheDomains.com – PR5
8. WhyPark Blog – PR3
9. ElliotsBlog.com – PR5
10. Dot Sauce – PR5
11. MobiForge.com – PR5
12. Domain Name News – PR6
13. ChefPatrick.com – PR4
14. Fusible – PR1
15. DomainGang.com – PR3
16. InForum Blog – PR4
17. BruceMarler.com – PR4
18. RickLatona.com – PR4
19. DotWeekly.com – PR4
20. DomainNews.com – PR5

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Before acquiring or hand registering a domain name, I usually do some research on the term in Google. I want to see how many results there are, how many advertisers there are, and whether companies use the term in domain names associated with the product.

When doing my search, I have the Google auto-fill menu enabled, and Google provides a useful list of related searches as I am typing. I sometimes use the results that show up in order to get domain registration ideas. For example, when typing in USB, I get the following options: USB Hub, USB Flash Drive, USB Cable, USB Wireless Adaptor…etc.

Oftentimes, the results are peripheral products that I didn’t knew existed, and sometimes the .com domain of the phrase/term is available to register. When Google first started using the auto fill feature, I had it turned off. However, I’ve since turned it back on and used it to mine domain names.

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