Searching for sex?

This will probably get me red-flagged by search engine bots. Never mind. It IS about business and online communities I promise. Nothing gratuitious. Chris O’Brien at Mercury News has an interesting article on Gary Kremen of Grant Media

Eventually, Kremen turned Sex.com into a paid adult search engine, which delivered links to adult Web sites to people looking for porn online. Kremen eventually hired Steve Klopf to be his partner in running Sex.com.

“Our motto is, `We’ll deal with the adult industry so you don’t have to,’ ” Kremen said.

Lots of goodies in that link – including the fact he sold sex.com for 14 million and is now spending the money on a good cause.

And in April, he launched his latest legal assault on the Internet establishment. He sued the American Registry for Internet Addresses, a non-profit corporation that distributes and registers the central Internet addresses for people in North America.

Kremen believes the corporation has an unfair monopoly. It’s a battle that could take years and large sums of money.

“Am I going to make huge amounts of money off this?” Kremen said. “No. But their anti-competitive behavior is just wrong. And if I don’t do this, who will?”

A whore with a heart of gold? Just maybe.

On a slightly different note, I’m fascinated by the closed communities that are popping up. Strong security, no advertising, search engine exempt, word of mouth only. And no, it’s not only for paedophiles!

Technorati Tags Online Communities, Mercury News, Chris O’Brien, Gary Kremen, Grant Media