CHICAGO, June 27 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Corporations agitated by Internet buffs that register their expensive and carefully planned slogans as domain names have a new tool to track brand thieves.
Namedroppers.com, an Internet search application recently launched by LOGIKA Corp., provides users with lists of registered domain names that closely match the URL a domain applicant is trying to register. Other domain search options on the market provide only identical matches in a search, according to LOGIKA.
Also, through other search mechanisms domain applicants settle on a name after multiple, possibly thousands of searches. By providing lists of similar names, Namedroppers.com was designed to tighten the domain search process and to identify slogan and name thieves.
"There was no way to know if someone was using your brand name in a domain name," John Sortino, LOGKIA vice president of sales and marketing, told LocalBusiness.com. "People spend a lot of money building brand awareness and they certainly want to protect that domain."
LOGIKA secured the domain lists it needed for Namedroppers.com through a partnership with a Network Solutions offshoot. Namedroppers.com users that settle on an unused domain name are linked to Register.com, where they register their names. LOGIKA and Register.com split registration fees.
Namedroppers.com has been in a beta mode since January. It already has processed more than 1 million keyword domain name searches and its user rate has grown 250 percent every month.
LOGIKA received about $2.5 million in angel funding two months ago, Sortino said.
The 25-person company was founded as a consulting company and PeopleSoft partner in 1998 by Sortino, Matt Fordham and Bart Voypick. Sortino came from General Motors. Fordham and Voypick were with PeopleSoft.
The company also is fine-tuning the search/archive applications it personalizes for Websites. LOGIKA upgrades the free basic form of its search applications at a cost. "The higher you go the more robust the service is. We'll index more pages on the site," Sortino said. The company profits from advertising found on results pages.
"The beauty of our business model is that the advertising revenue is the gravy for us," Sortino added. "Subscriptions and licensing is the bulk of our revenue."
Searchbutton.com and Pinpoint.com are competitors of LOGIKA's Website services, but Sortino said Namedroppers.com lacks a competitor.
Marsha Barancik is a staff writer for LocalBusiness.com. E-mail her with story ideas or comments.
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