HostExploit applauds Oversee.net for fixing problems that landed it at top spot at recent “Bad Hosts” list.

HostExploit, a group that compiles a list of what it calls “Bad Hosts”, no longer lists Oversee.net as the #1 bad host.

In its fourth quarter report, the group says Oversee.net is now ranked as the #12 bad host.

Why? It’s kind of hard to tell. Last quarter I reached out to both Oversee.net and HostExploit about the ranking. I heard back from neither so I guess I’m on my own to interpret the results.

But HostExploit applauds Oversee.net in its latest report, stating:

For a responsible host, the shock of finding they are ranked unusually high, or even worse in the #1 position, can be enough to prompt immediate remedial action.

Take, for example, the Q3 2011 #1 overall Bad Host (#1 for both Badware and Infected sites) AS33626 Oversee.net. This customer oriented reseller swiftly investigated the causes behind its undesired status. The introduction of a clean-up program and new procedures promptly reversed the trend. (More on this in a future case study.)

The clean-up for Oversee.net progresses with an added confidence that their high ranking will drop further and take them off the #1 spot for badware.

Indeed, Oversee.net is still ranked #1 for badware. But the report notes that it continues to work on negating false positives for badware on parked domains. (Oversee.net is parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor.)

Sedo is also on the overall “bad” list at #39. Google is ranked #43.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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IAC’s sponsored listing/traffic monetization unit sold.

IAC has sold its Sendori unit for a total consideration of $3 million, nearly three years after buying the company, according to a recent SEC filing.

When Sendori launched, it provided a way for domain name owners to monetize their domain names without requiring domain visitor to click on ads. Instead, domain visitors are automatically forwarded to relevant advertisers’ sites.

Sendori’s consumer facing web site now promotes a tool that edits your computer’s DNS and says it will save you from phishing, malware, and other vulnerabilities. However, a number of domain parking companies still work with Sendori for so-called “zero click” monetization.

IAC purchased Sendori in January 2009 for an undisclosed price. Rumors pegged the purchase at $25 million, although the company said that was not accurate. Sendori was merged into Ask Sponsored Listings, which may be part of this sale.

An agreement to sell the company was reached on November 3 and was expected to close on or around November 10, according to the filing. The name of the buyer was not disclosed. The filing is from November, so an update should be provided in a future filing.

The filing shows Sendori’s revenue was $9.3 million in Q1 of this year. Q2 revenue fell to $7.0 million and Q3 revenue was only $5.3 million. It had losses in five of the last seven quarters.

The company wrote down $4.9 million in capitalized software costs and took an intangible asset impairment charge of $0.6 million in Q3 in preparation for the sale.

$2.3 million of the $3.0 million purchase price is contingent on the collection of outstanding accounts receivable.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Rise of mobile has big affect on CPCs.

I just reviewed Efficient Frontier’s Q4 report for online advertising, which includes predictions for 2012.

The good news? The company predicts search spend will increase 15%-20% in 2012. On the downside for domain parkers, CPC will decrease 4% on top of 5% Quarter-over-quarter that they reported in Q4.

To be fair, this isn’t an across the board drop in CPC. A lot of it is attributed to an increase in mobile ad clicks, which currently cost less.

Here’s some other interesting data.

Mobile ads are exploding. It’s 7%-8% of search spend right now, up from 2% a year ago. Efficient Frontier expects it to be a whopping 16-22% of all paid clicks by the end of 2012!

This includes tablets, which I think should be a separate category from mobile phone traffic.

Yahoo/Bing ROI tops Google. The combo continues to have a better return-on-click for advertisers, but needs to grow its base to attract advertisers.

Facebook is huge in online advertising. The company predicts it will account for 5% of all online ad spend by the end of the year. In Q4 it reached 2.7% of biddable online advertising spend.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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