Strong rumor on the street is that Gibson Domain Domain, Boston's largest independent real estate company (and, disputably, the largest real estate company, overall) is about to become a franchise of Sotheby's Real Estate.

(In fact, this may have already happened. I don't get out, much.)

No one at Gibson was available for comment, mostly because I didn't call anyone to ask.

The new company is believed to be called "Sotheby's Gibson Realty", meaning the mysterious "Domain Domain" name joins Jordan Marsh and Lechmere stores in the garbage heap.

An Internet search doesn't uncover much. www.southebysgibson.com was registered to a company in California, in summer, 2005. However, www.gibsonsir.com was registered on November 2, 2006. Other Sotheby's affiliates use the same naming ... www. xxxxxx sir .com.

The downtown Boston residential real estate community has seen a year of change.

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage merged its two South End offices and Gibson Domain Domain and Hammond RE, among other firms, saw high-level defecations (sp) to newcomer Keller-Williams.

Hmm. Will any locally-owned firm step up to the plate to service the Boston market?

We'll see, in 2007.