Salesforce.com has purchased the domain name Data.com from publicly traded media company UBM plc for an undisclosed price.  The press release states the domain name sold "for an amount that significantly exceeds the $1.5 million reserve.  Most people estimate it at 5 million dollars.

Why is this important?

Because domain names are all about branding.  Simple, effective names like Cars.com and Hotels.com make it easier for consumers to identify what service you are looking for.

In this case, all Cloud Service Providers offer one thing and only one thing:  they host your data. 

When you break it down to all the bits and bytes, it’s data you are uploading to the cloud, whether it’s your private cloud or using a public cloud.

It doesn’t matter if it’s photos, videos, documents, your CRM contact info, service desk info… it’s all data to me.

Box.com –> Box.net

If you’ve used cloud storage services like Box.net and Dropbox, you probably found the .net domain name a bit clumsy and confusing with Box.net.

Well no more, Box.net recently purchased Box.com and now redirects to the Box.net site.

This move clearly shows the importance of a simple domain name for branding, and it has to be a dot com.  No offence to other countries, but a dot com and an English website is the largest marketplace in the world.

Why did they buy it?

Salesforce.com declined to comment on its plans for the domain.

It’s possible that it will redirect to Database.com, which was announced at last year’s Dreamforce 2010.

Or it will become a new brand for Radian6?

Maybe it will be used in conjunction with Jigsaw, which Salesforce.com describes as “cloud-based data services”.

It could also be the name of a new service that has yet to be announced?  Remember, it’s just data which YOU turn into information!

I guess we’ll find out in 82 days… at Dreamforce 2011!