I just received an email update from Parked.com regarding the Yahoo and Bing merger, and the change over from the Yahoo feed to the Bing feed for Parked customers.  I would imagine this update also goes for WhyPark customers as well.

Here’s the email update:

As many of you may be aware, the migration from Yahoo to Bing.com/Microsoft is already underway and will be completed within the next few days.  All traffic that is currently sent to Yahoo in the US and Canada will be migrated from Yahoo to Bing.  Since these changes are being implemented in phases, we wanted to keep you informed of the process by providing specific dates of each phase to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Currently in the initial phase, 20% of all traffic we receive is sent to Bing. On Thursday, October 21, 2010 at 10am PST, Yahoo is scheduled to migrate up to 50% of the traffic to Bing.  Then in the final phase on Monday, October 25, 2010 at 10am PST, Yahoo will be migrating all of the remaining traffic to Bing.  So far the migration has been going very well and we’re seeing some nice increases in overall revenue across the board.

Parked.com has always utilized the PST time zone in regards to our reporting, because our primary ad provider, Yahoo, has always used PST.  Bing however, uses UTC as their time zone. As a result, we have decided to change the time zone of our reports to match those of Bing to ease the transition now and going forward.  This means that today we will be changing everything to use UTC which will result in 7 fewer hours in the reporting day.

While the overall migration is going very well, there have been some delays in receiving stats from Bing.  The stats for October 8th and October 15th were received after the payments were finalized for the 22nd payout date.  Instead of causing any disruption to the normal payout schedule, we have updated your account and added a credit on the next payment which will be on November 7th.  If you generated any revenue with Bing on these particular days, you will be receiving an email from us indicating how much additional revenue was added to your account.

There are additional changes that are currently occurring as a result of the migration including how keywords are used, changes in countries/markets, and traffic quality scores.  For more information on these and any other changes, please check our forum which is updated with the latest information as it becomes available. The forum is located at http://forum.parked.com/forumdisplay.php?23-Yahoo-to-Bing-Migration

If you have any concerns please don’t hesitate to contact your account manager with any questions or simply post them on the forum.

According to the current Whois record for Today.com, it looks like Microsoft recently acquired the domain name Today.com, and it now forwards to MSNBC’s Today Show website. Prior to Microsoft’s ownership, it appeared to be registered by a company called Marksmen, Inc. which has been known to acquire domain names on behalf of large companies like Microsoft. Prior to that, it was privately registered, and just before that, Domain Capital was shown as the registrant.

MSNBC was formed as a partnership between NBC and Microsoft, and according to Wikipedia, Microsoft owns 18% of the joint venture (as of 2005). When I learned of the Today.com acquisition, my immediate thought was about the Today Show. According to Compete’s analytics, Today.com receives close to half a million unique visitors per month.

The new domain name is certainly better than the laborious one being used currently, today.msnbc.msn.com. As with most private sales of this nature, the sales price probably will not be disclosed, but it is possible that it could appear on a financial report from Microsoft since the company is publicly traded.

Thanks to George Kirikos for the tip.

I was doing some domain research, and I noticed that Vaccination.com is now registered to a company known as Media Market of Boise, Idaho. As of September 24, 2009, the domain name was registered to Internet REIT, but on October 20, 2009, the domain name changed hands and is now registered to Media Market.

I don’t know anything about Media Market, but I do know they were the company who registered quite a few Bing related typo domain names just before they were acquired by Microsoft. Interestingly enough, Jamie reported that Microsoft recently acquired H1N1Symptoms.com, and the domain name resolves to the Bing results page for the search phrase “h1n1symptoms.” This is great for the owner of h1n1symptoms.us, as that website currently ranks #1 for the search term.

Prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of H1N1Symptoms.com, it was registered to TenPenny Group, a company that among other things, acquires domain names on behalf of Microsoft and other large companies.

I missed the article in TechCrunch on Tuesday until just now, but AOL’s Sphere, the self-dubbed “next phase in the evolution of AOL News,” is undergoing a rebranding effort. The new name of the brand will be Surphace, and the company will use Surphace.com as its domain name.

Of course, when people tell their buddies to check out “Surphace.com,” many of their friends will inevitably head to Surface.com instead, which happens to be a domain name owned by Microsoft, which redirects to the Microsoft website.

With AOL currently embroiled in a lawsuit against Advertise.com for trademark infringement, one can amusingly ask if AOL will believe that they deserve the Surface.com domain name to go along with their renamed brand. It surely would be a head scratcher, but I wouldn’t exactly be shocked. I wonder what Microsoft thinks of this.

On another note, I still don’t understand why some companies – especially large companies – still create brand names that are difficult to spell. This can only lead to brand confusion, lost traffic, and potentially even litigation. One would think they could find another brand name and buy the .com if they think it’s worthwhile.

In a shrewd move that many (probably most) companies don’t consider before launching a new product or service, Microsoft went ahead and purchased many Bing related typo domain names prior to launch. Some of the domain names now owned by Microsoft include, Bimg.com, Bibg.com, Bihg.com, and Binf.com.

All of these typo domain names were previously owned by other people and companies before Microsoft acquired them. One common link between these names is that it appears they were acquired by a company known as Media Market of Boise, Idaho between being owned by the former owner and Microsoft. You can see the Whois lookup for Bibg.com from February as an example.

One interesting domain acquisition they made was Bing.com. The reason it’s particularly interesting to me is that it was previously owned by General Mills, another Fortune 500 company.

Unfortunately, there were many Bing typos that Microsoft didn’t and/or couldn’t acquire. Among them include Bong.com, Bingo.com, Bin.com, Big.com, and Ing.com. I don’t know if the traffic increase can be linked directly with the Bing launch, but just look at the Compete scores for  Bong.com, Bung.com and Bin.com after May.