New Speakers Added to DOMAINfest Global Lineup - Escrow.com Hits the $1 BIllion Mark - Screenshots.com Gallery Shows Sites That Led Strike Against SOPA

Mason Cole has been added 
to the list of expert speakers 
for DOMAINfest Global 

DOMAINfest Global is 12 days away but conference organizers are still beefing up an already strong agenda. Three new high profile speakers were announced today. Mason Cole, Principal at 5x5 Communications, a communications and policy consultancy in Portland, Oregon, has been added to the Everything You Need to Know about New TLDs panel that will open the show Tuesday morning, January 31. Mason is very well-known in the domain industry after serving as Senior VP in charge of communications at Oversee.net for many years, as well as on the board of the Internet Commerce Association.

Also added to the agenda were Eli R. Gooding, Media Evangelist for comScore, Inc., who will present Global Online User and Advertising Trends January 31st and Ken Taylor, Chairman, President and CEO at Marksmen, Inc., who will speak at the Domain Valuation Techniques for Buying and Selling workshop February 2.

DOMAINfest Global runs January 31 - February 2, 2012 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. We will, or course, be there to cover the event for you.

The privately held company, founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial, has pioneered the process of online escrow services and today it is the recommended transaction settlement service for many of the top names in eCommerce, including GoDaddy, Cars.com, Flippa.com, AutoTrader and eBay Motors.

In another note, Wednesday (January 18) was a landmark day for Internet unity. Several of the key sites on the web joined forces to go on strike (manifested in everything from home page protests to complete site blackouts) to protest two terribly ill advised and dangerous pieces of legislation (SOPA and PIPA) being considered by the U.S. Congress. The proposed acts could result in innocent websites being censored or even shut down without due process. Fortunately, the strike had its desired effect with many Congressmen and Senators dropping their support for the legislation. The battle is not over but the tide appears to have been turned. 

(Posted Jan. 19, 2012)