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Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Oct 12th 2006 10:11pm





The Internet Is A Series Of UTubes (And They're Clogged)

from the ooops dept

So, while you think enviously about the $1.65 billion YouTube snagged from Google (or, as someone pointed out, approximately $3 million per day of their existence), you can feel some sympathy for Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp -- owners of the site utube.com. Turns out, plenty of people have been hearing the name YouTube and assuming it was UTube. So, those people have been checking out the wrong site... and knocking it completely offline (which is why we won't bother even linking to it now). Of course, the head of Universal Tube knows an opportunity when his web server stats show it to him. He's already turned down a million dollar offer on the domain, and is holding out for at least $2.5 million.

11 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    `, Oct 12th, 2006 @ 10:54pm

    Would sell UTube to google for $5billion

    I would purchase utube and would sale for nothing less the $5 B

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Brad, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 1:34am

    Yeah

    And that's why you're a penniless idiot.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    SRNissen, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 2:43am

    Re: Yeah

    You're absolutely correct, he is. Who the hell pays $5E9 for a domain name that may or may not be relevant in half a year? A year? Five years?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    Ken, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 3:25am

    1 million?
    C'mon, take the money and run.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    ScaredOfTheMan, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 5:25am

    First...(sivasankaran) Why is you comment longer than the article? No one Cares....

    I hope this guy gets $10M for the Domain Name, good for him!

    I hope Yahoo buys it and redirects to their own.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Rabid Wolverine, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 6:18am

    People without brains...

    Google has gone completely insane.

    They spend over a billion dollars to buy something that has not proven that it's going to be a revenue stream for the long term.

    And with the attitude of it's founders (YouTube) I'll bet you that Google made a 1.65 billion dollar investment in something that is destined to fail!

    Arrogant people should remember:

    May Fortuna Frendo Vos...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Neal, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 7:30am

    Only an idiot would buy this guys domain for any significant price. Sure it gets a lot of hits and would bring in a lot of advertising income... if he'd switch to another host and put lots of ads on his site. That would only work for him though. He had his site first, he has an undeniable right to use that domain... i.e. he's obviously not typo squatting, so YouTube could never take the domain from him. On the other hand, if someone were to buy this domain from him they wouldn't have any such right to the name. In fact there's not a court in the would that wouldn't recognize this was just a case of typo-squatting. YouTube could grab up the domain in little more than the blink of an eye.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 7:39am

    Re: On youtube

    Dear god (wo)man,

    WTF do you keep posting that crap for? what do you have diarrhea of the copy/paste?

    If you have something to say, then say it, but quit copy/pasting some other news blog you read once.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    Andrew, Oct 13th, 2006 @ 12:55pm

    " They take the tube to go to work every week for a bum 350,000 dollar paycheck at the end of the month"

    Damn i wish i made that much

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    identicon
    directory, Nov 3rd, 2009 @ 2:37am

    what happened

    what happened to the court case ?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    icon
    Josef Anvil (profile), Feb 27th, 2012 @ 5:25am

    Update

    The guy waiting for the $2.5 million is still waiting. He should have taken the million when it was offered.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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