the author mentions he bought the domain from a domain name squatter...
When I buy domains from such folk I always do some due diligence to check things like:
* The complete whois history of the domain (who had it before they 'squatted' it - might there be a trademark issue, etc). Worth paying $10 for.
* Is the domain on any spam blacklists, corporate firewall black lists (adult content, gambling etc), etc
* What kind of search pollution does the domain have
... looks like I should add "is domain already on Google Apps"? And if so, negotiate the Google Apps account be shut down by the current owner as part of it the escrow fulfillment requirements. Thanks for this heads-up!
To the OP: If the expiry doesn't run it's natural course, I would contact Don Dodge at Google who is a community-focused executive who runs Google Apps. See if you have any mutual contacts via LinkedIn otherwise email me for an intro (see my profile for addy)
Thanks Ben. That's a great list of things to check. I did check the search pollution and whois history. I didn't think to check the email reputation - oops! Thankfully, I'm not planning on sending much email through it anyway.
I've met Don a few times and I actually pinged him a couple days ago via twitter but haven't heard back from him yet. Perhaps you can forward him the link to my post? Part of the reason I blogged about this was in hopes that Google would reassess how they're handling their verification process.
When I buy domains from such folk I always do some due diligence to check things like:
* The complete whois history of the domain (who had it before they 'squatted' it - might there be a trademark issue, etc). Worth paying $10 for.
* Is the domain on any spam blacklists, corporate firewall black lists (adult content, gambling etc), etc
* What kind of search pollution does the domain have
... looks like I should add "is domain already on Google Apps"? And if so, negotiate the Google Apps account be shut down by the current owner as part of it the escrow fulfillment requirements. Thanks for this heads-up!
To the OP: If the expiry doesn't run it's natural course, I would contact Don Dodge at Google who is a community-focused executive who runs Google Apps. See if you have any mutual contacts via LinkedIn otherwise email me for an intro (see my profile for addy)