23andMe Snags GeneticSc...

Quick, how many pairs of chromosomes do you have? If your mind just drew a blank — or an image of Ethan Hawke fiddling around with tweezers in GATTACA — then you probably aren’t alone. The answer, of course, is 23 pairs, for a total of 46 chromosomes. And it’s what the name of well-funded genetic testing company 23andMe , which has raised some  $52.6 million to date, refers to. Despite the reference (which may not be obvious to most people), that name isn’t a bad one, as it makes an intimidating topic sound more friendly and accessible. But now the company has another option at its disposal that’s a lot more straightforward (and SEO friendly, no doubt):  GeneticScreening.com . As was first reported by DomainShane, 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki bought the domain for a mere $2200 on Sedo in the last two weeks. The domain now redirects to 23andme.com. The domain is a big deal for the company. 23andMe is easy enough to remember, but the term ‘Genetic Screening’ is a generic term that can encompass countless types of tests, and could eventually become extremely popular in Google searches. DNA testing isn’t exactly a hot topic for most people just yet, but it will be — in the coming years such testing is likely to explode as researchers uncover which chunks of DNA contribute to which traits and diseases. Reached for comment, the company confirmed that it has indeed acquired the domain, and that while there are no immediate plans for using it, it “may be integrated into continuing business development planning.”

Today In Wishful Thinki...

Like most people, I love dogs. But also like most people I am completely irresponsible — Like, I can’t even keep my iPhone consistently charged let alone take care of another creature (Yeah I know, I’d be a great mother, we’ve already discussed this ). This being said, wouldn’t it be so cool if you could own a dog, but for a limited amount of time? Like you wouldn’t have to commit to it forever or anything — because that is just asking too much —  but maybe you could just borrow it. I don’t know where I’m going to be waking up TOMORROW let alone a MONTH FROM NOW, so if only there were like a Dogbnb, where you could temporarily have like, a dog? To pet. Well move over Rover.com , apparently Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky is already on top of this, and has  secured the domain Dogbnb.com . Hahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha, smart. I totally asked Chesky if Dogbnb was a joke (or more likely, a place to board pets while people travel), but he hasn’t responded to my email. Whatever. So who wants to let me borrow their puppy?

Digital media, brand ad...

​Brand marketers who favor creative ads that run at scale should not believe digital media to be the domain of direct-response advertisers and ignore the channel's capabilities, said the heads of two industry trade organizations at the "Digiday Agency" event on Dec. 12 in New York.

Digiday 2011: Integrate...

​Brand marketers who favor creative ads that run at scale should not believe digital media to be the domain of direct-response advertisers and ignore the channel's capabilities, said the heads of two industry trade organizations at the "Digiday Agency" event on Dec. 12 in New York.

Tablets.com Goes Up For...

Domain name investment company XF.com Investments is putting one of the most valuable single-word domains up for sale today: tablets.com . The company says it feels like now is the perfect time to release the domain for sale, with the tablet industry projected to be a $70 billion market by 2014, according to the analysts at RBC. No target price, asking price or minimum bid has been set on the offer. “We are going to let the market determine the final sales price,” says XF’s Aron Meystedt. “We feel the size and growth of this industry will drive the final sales price of Tablets.com up, however, we haven’t set a target price yet,” he added. “Once a bid comes across that we feel is fair for this opportunity, we will accept it and move forward.” The company also noted that recent sales for other single word domain names like toys.com, clothes.com and sex.com have traded for 7 and 8 figure sums. And Citrix’s iCloud.com, which it acquired as a part of the $200 million purchase of Cloud.com earlier this year, was assigned a value of $18 million. At present, the tablets.com website is hosting a rolling odometer that’s meant to demonstrate how fast the tablets market is growing. As of this morning, it’s in the $37 billion range. Although not a household name, XF.com Investments is known for owning the first .com on the Internet: Symbolics.com . The company wasn’t the original owner of the domain, however – i t bought it in August 2009 for an undisclosed sum. Originally, the  domain belonged to defunct Massachusetts-based computer manufacturer  Symbolics , which first registered it on March 15th, 1985.