Monthly Archives: December 2005

Fri 30th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is GoDaddy Typosquatting? - Is the world’s biggest registrar typosquatting some of the world’s biggest brands? Typosquatting refers to registering domain names similar to popular sites but with misspellings or missing/added characters. For example, typosquatting would be registering yaho.com instead of yahoo.com. Millions of people type ‘yahoo.com’ into their browsers every day, and many of those accidentally neglect the second ‘o’. Typosquatting is a big business, and typo domains ... read more ...
Thu 29th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pearl Jam wins domain name - Rock band Pearl Jam won the rights to PearlJams.com. As is usually the case with arbitration involving high profile companies and celebrities, National Arbitration Forum issued a press release announcing that it found in favor of the complainant. But “won” is a strong word because the previous owner of PearlJams.com didn’t even respond to the complaint. Thus, the domain defaulted to the complainant. I’ve raised this issue before, but I’m uncomfortable ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NYTimes: Free Domains “Gadget of a Year” - Just days after Wired Magazine called the .xxx domain delay one of the top 10 worst tech moments of 2005, The New York Times has called Microsoft’s free domain offer one of the top 10 “Greatest Gadget Ideas of the Year.” An article by David Pogue published today refers to Microsoft’s Office Live service, which will offer a free domain to all users: “It took Microsoft, of all companies, to make getting your own dot-com name free. Its new Office Live online ... read more ...
Wed 28th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Annuity.com sells for $600,000 - Sedo is reporting one of the biggest domain sales of the year, Annuities.com, for $600,000. Details of the transaction are not available. Sedo’s home page also shows sales of RedWine.com for $19,500 and SiberPortal.com for $9,000. Hopefully we’ll get details on these transactions in next week’s DNJournal sales report. A couple new TLD domain sales to report… Cardiology.info traded hands for $1,000 at Afternic, and advertise.us sold for $1,300 at Sedo. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interland to change name to Web.com - Following the acquisition of Web.com and its assets by webhosting company Interland, the company announced that it will change its name and web presence to Web.com. Web.com is one of the best possible domain names for a number of uses, in particular webhosting. But I suspect part of this move is to change the company’s image. As one of the earlier “big” webhosts, Interland had its share of rocky experiences. I used Interland’s services for some of my first ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ASB.com sells for $50,000 - Domain buyers didn’t let the holidays slow them down, according to the latest sales figures from DNJournal. The biggest sale of the week was consummated at Sedo, which sold ASB.com for $50,000. That’s a solid number for a three character .com. Expired domains continued to sell for 5 figures. SnapNames sold the following domains: -TravelPlans.com $35,472 -AutoShippers.com $28,251 -CocktailDress.com $17,750 Enom’s Club Drop has been absent from the sales list ... read more ...
Tue 27th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wired Magazine: .xxx misfortune tech impulse of 2005 - Wired Magazine just released an article “Worst Tech Moments 2005″, and a domain name issue is in the top 10. Wired claims the US Commerce Department blocked passage of the .xxx domain name. (Although it is a bold claim that this was the reason for the delay, it is no doubt that pressure from interest groups helped table the domain). Wired author Kevin Poulson writes: “when ICANN decided to carve out a new [domain] for adult content, a Christian group called ... read more ...
Mon 26th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
After Christmas domain name traffic - Christmas has passed, but consumer web traffic isn’t slowing down. Everyone knows the web is packed with people looking for Christmas presents before December 25. But it doesn’t stop then. In fact, my affiliate sales on December 25 were the highest of the year! Why? People that just received new toys for Christmas – be it a new computer or MP3 player – are on the web looking for accessories and downloads. I saw a surge in domain traffic throughout the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Think ICANN’s Whois mandate are tough? - People who think they have to divulge too much information to ICANN in the Whois directory should consider what China requires of web site owners. China’s government started shutting down web sites days before Christmas if the site owner failed to register with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Big deal, right? Well the government is asking for more than site owner’s names and contact information. You are also required to provide your citizen ... read more ...
Fri 23rd December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will Dec 26 be large for domain name owners? - It’s been a great year for domain name owners, and it’s not over yet! Owners of consumer-related domain names that use parking services have seen lots of traffic in December. More and more consumers are going to the web to buy holiday gifts and are landing on parked pages. But the shipping deadlines for most consumer web sites have now passed and traffic to consumer domains is slowing to a drip in the last couple days leading up to Christmas. (The exception ... read more ...
Thu 22nd December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2006 Domain Name Survey update - 272 people have participated in Domain Name Wire’s 2006 Domain Name Survey. There’s still time to participate! I invite you to click here to take the survey. The survey covers a number of topics and will help forecast the direction of the domain name market in the coming year. Among the topics covered are: -What’s the most important feature of a good domain registrar? -Which domain parking service is best? -What is the best venue to sell domain names? -Do ... read more ...
Wed 21st December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Recycling.com sells for $300,000 - DNjournal’s latest sales figures are out, and it was an incredible week! The week was highlighted by the $300,000 sale of Recycling.com at Sedo. Sedo also sold ProShop.com for $100,000. As I mentioned in a previous post, Blogster.com sold for $100,000 in a private transaction. 3 announced 6 figure deals in a week — that’s not bad! Moniker had two big sales: LionsGate.com for $88,000 and SCW.com for $60,000. Tablet.com sold in an expired domain auction at ... read more ...
Tue 20th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company declines buy-back of Asia.com, India.com - How frequently do you see a line item for “Gain on domain names repurchase agreement” on a company income statement? EasyLink Services (NASDAQ: EASYE) has such a line item on its recently filed 10-Q. The company reported a one time gain of $1.9M from the transaction. This caught my attention and I did a bit of research: In December 2004 EasyLink signed a deal with outgoing executive Gerald Gorman in which EasyLink sold him a number of premium domains. These ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google competence clamp down on typo-squatting - The writing is on the wall for domain name typo-squatters who register domains and then park them on Google or Google-fed programs. An article in this week’s eWeek talks about Microsoft research of typo-squatting and how Google hasn’t done much to prevent typo domains from landing on its Adsense for Domains sites. This isn’t news to anyone in the industry, but increased spotlight will force Google to make changes. An article in the press isn’t a big issue. ... read more ...
Mon 19th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic gets ICANN accreditation - Oh, how far we’ve come… Domain name aftermarket Afternic just received accreditation as a registrar from ICANN. Those who’ve been in the domain business for a long time remember when Afternic originally applied for accreditation prior to being snapped up by Register.com (and later sold again). Originally, ICANN didn’t want to offer accreditation to the exchange because it was enabling people to make profits on domain names and sell them in the aftermarket. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Huge domain sales are in closing! - There are some big domain sales in the pipeline! First, over at DNForum, it appears there is a tentative deal for Racing.com. The details are subject to a non-disclosure agreement, but it appears the sales price is around $250,000-$350,000. Afternic is also having a great week. Gators.com is showing in the “Closing Soon” section for $55,000 . Afternic just closed a sale for GreatDating.com at $25,000. Some buyers are probably trying to close out their final ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic’s “Or best offer” - When you receive a bid for a domain name listed at Afternic you are presented with a number of options. First, you can accept the offer as is and execute the sale. But the bidder probably offered your minimum amount and you might want to get more. You can counter offer and negotiate with the buyer. Or you can just ignore the bid and wait for a higher offer. One option worth considering is changing your reserve bid to the offer amount. This basically says, “I’m ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameDrive Domain Parking - I’ve had a chance to give paid domain parking service NameDrive a thorough testing and I now feel comfortable endorsing it. I received my first payout this month. Ad Feed: NameDrive uses Google Adsense ads to monetize your domain traffic. Design: I like the choice of templates and simple page design. An example of a site parked at NameDrive is Alakazham.net. You also have a choice of one-click and two-click landing pages. Payments: Sent monthly via PayPal ... read more ...
Fri 16th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy offers giveaway Whois privacy - Domain registrar GoDaddy just announced a special offer for free domain name Whois privacy. To take advantage of the offer you must register or transfer 3 or more domains (no limit). Whois privacy services typically provide fat margins to registrars. GoDaddy’s normal fee is $8.95 per year–the same price as a domain registration. But competition is driving the price down. 11 offers free privacy with its $5.99 domains and iPowerWeb also offers free privacy. Should ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tim Anderson is half right - Tim Anderson’s recent opinion piece for ITWeek, titled “Domain Names are so last year”, gets it half right. Anderson talks about UnifiedRoot, the latest company to offer an alternative web address system. He discusses how it’s not worth registering a domain with UnifiedRoot, New.net, or any other alternative domain company. These alternative systems are a bad idea, and Anderson nails that on the head. But I disagree with his notion that domain names are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Do shorter ads get some-more clicks? - One of the driving forces behind increased interest in domain names is pay-per-click advertising. Pay-per-click listings are the number one revenue source for domain parking services such as DomainSponsor. GoTo, which later became Overture and now Yahoo! Search Marketing, pioneered the pay-per-click industry. But Google quickly dominated with its Adwords program. A key difference between Yahoo and Google was the length of ads. Google ads have a short 25 word title ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.EU domains and a morning period - When new domain extensions are introduced to the market there is typically a “sunrise period”. During this period companies can claim to have rights to certain domains, usually because of trademark ownership. For example, Microsoft can claim rights to Microsoft.extension. The idea is to prevent domain name squatters from snapping up trademarked names. But sunrise domain applications are filled with fraud. People try to trademark generic domains, like mortgage.extension, ... read more ...
Thu 15th December 2005
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What’s that about general control of a internet? - Have you been following the story about Sacha Baron Cohen? Cohen is a comedian who frequently makes fun of Kazakhstan (mostly for its politics). He has (had) a site on Kazakhstan’s country code, .kz, that made fun of the country and its backward government. Kazakhstan decided to block the site. Their official reason was that the domain violated the .kz requirements including keeping two servers in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan also claimed that the site was registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Blogster.com sells for $100,000 - The Blogster.com domain name has been purchased for $100,000. This comes on the heels of MyBlogs.com selling for $400,000. According to a press release: “We were attracted to the name immediately,” said Tony Colan, Vice President of Blogster.com. “Blogging is no longer just for teens, techies and political pundits. The growth, we expect, will be explosive, and as a result, we were willing to pay a premium for a domain that will help us build brand awareness ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hugo Chavez for $10,000 - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has a lot of enemies. Chavez is known for idolizing communist dictator Fidel Castro of Cuba and for his anti-globalist push. Those aren’t popular opinions and it’s no wonder Venezuela is in shambles right now (other than its control over oil). Do a web search for Chavez and you find plenty of critical commentary. One of the more popular anti-Chavez sites is AntiChavez.com which has been mentioned on CNN and Reuters. The domain ... read more ...