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Facebook is moving into the global market with much success, but according to BusinessWeek, the competition overseas has the traffic, and the brands, to put up a decent fight. Here are the social networking sites defending their turf:

Hyves: The Netherlands: 5.7 million users
Hyves is based on the English word “beehive”. It has extended its brand beyond the title, naming the bulletin board feature (equivalent to Facebook’s ‘wall’) “krabbel.” This created word has become so popular, it may find its way into the Dutch dictionary.
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The practice of buying and selling domain names has become a lucrative business for many web hosting sites. A new trend is emerging called domain front running – i.e., temporarily registering searched domains for the purpose of re-selling them or earning revenue via ads placed on the domains landing page. By registering the domains, the registrar locks out other potential registrars from selling the domain to a customer.

Another trend is the buying of generic domain names and selling them for outrageous amounts of money. Take for example, www.americanplumbing.com. The domain is owned by a web hosting company who is selling it for $29,600.00.

URL availability, or unavailability, for that matter, can seriously limit the brand name development process. What kind of URL conflicts have you experienced?

By: Jessica McGrail