Monthly Archives: November 2006

Thu 30th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Denies .Travel DNS Wildcard Request - The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has denied Tralliance Inc.’s request for a DNS wildcard for the .travel domain. Tralliance is the registry in charge of the .travel domain, a rarely used top level domain name. The company requested clearance to introduce a DNS wildcard. A DNS wildcard would basically redirect any traffic to non-existent .travel domains to parking pages. This idea is similar to VeriSign’s (NASDAQ: VRSN) controversial ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registrations strike 112 million - Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) is reporting that over 112M domains have been registered as of the end of Q3 2006. A record number of domain names are now registered, at 112 million, which is 30% higher than just one year ago and 6% higher than the previous quarter. The five largest TLDs remain .com, .de (Germany), .net, .uk (Britain), and .org. 9.4 million new domains were registered during Q3, the third highest number of registrations ever in a single quarter. New registrations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Seeks Comments on Whois Task Force Report - The Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is seeking public comments about the latest report from its Whois task force. The public is invited to comment on the Preliminary Task Force Report on Whois Services, which discusses a number of findings and recommendations about the domain name Whois database. The report was issued on November 22. The public comment period will continue until January 15, 2007. After the public comment period, the Whois ... read more ...
Wed 29th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex might have $24M in heading domains - Domain name giant Marchex may be holding up to $24M in trademark-infringing domains. David Kesmodel’s expose on domain company Marchex (NASD: MCHX) continues to dig up dirt. After discovering that the company was monetizing a number of trademark typos through its parking program, Kesmodel has now uncovered a number of potentially trademark-infringing domains that the company actually owns. These include ibmlaptops.com, ibestbuy.com, chasemortgagega.com, cheapdisneytickets.com ... read more ...
Tue 28th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia (BuyDomains, ActiveAudience) buys Afternic Domain Name Marketplace - NameMedia, owners of BuyDomains, have purchased Afternic. NameMedia announced today that it is buying Afternic. This probably explains the recent Afternic push to eliminate adult domains from their system. NameMedia is a privately-held, venture-backed company headquartered outside Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts. Afternic is an auction-based marketplace for buying and selling domain names. Afternic‘s in-house parking service has used DomainSponsor as a preferred ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Goes on Patent Filing Binge - GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar, has filed almost 50 patent applications in recent years. Yesterday I wrote about GoDaddy receiving a patent that covers many aspects of domain whois privacy. After digging a little further I discovered that the company must have recently hired a patent attorney — GoDaddy has almost 50 patent applications pending. Like any company on a patent binge, some of the applications have merit and some don’t. One interesting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Do we need Title Insurance for Domain Names? - Title insurance would provide peace of mind when making a large domain purchase. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I read an article in Forbes (November 13, page 148) about real estate title insurance. The article was about how real estate title insurance is a joke and overpriced. But as I read in the article how titles are investigated, in dawned on me that a title check service for domain names would be helpful. Title checks and title insurance would prevent you from ... read more ...
Mon 27th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media aims for 2007 IPO - Demand Media, founded by former MySpace executive Richard Rosenblatt earlier this year, hopes to go public in 2007. When Business 2.0 published an article in December 2005 called “Masters of Their Domains”, many in the domain industry sighed. They knew that a bunch of people would read the article and believe they could still get rich with domain names. An employee of a domain parking company told me that after the article appeared they got calls from people ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Awarded Patent for Domain Privacy - GoDaddy has been been awarded United States patent 7,130,878, which covers many aspects of domain whois privacy services. In what could prove to be a major competitive coup for GoDaddy, the company was awarded a patent for so-called domain privacy services on October 31, 2006. The patent, filed for in July 2003, lists GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons along with Joshua Coffman and Barbara Rechterman as inventors. The title of the patent is “Systems and methods for domain ... read more ...
Wed 22nd November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Traffic Increasing for Holiday Shopping Season - Traffic to consumer-related domain names will begin its seasonal spike this weekend. Thursday is the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Holidays usually mean a reduction in internet traffic to parked domains and web sites. But this coming weekend marks the start of the fast and furious holiday shopping season, in which domain owners report a spike of traffic to their consumer-related domain names. Owners of consumer domain names, such as those related to ... read more ...
Tue 21st November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Selling Domains 101: Part Two, Domain Aftermarkets - This is part two of Domain Name Wire’s “Selling Domains” series. Domain aftermarkets, also called domain exchanges, are very active sites for buying and selling domain names. In this article I will discuss the largest aftermarkets and strategies for selling your domains on these sites. The two largest aftermarkets are Afternic and Sedo. Afternic has a storied history that can be split into three parts. First, it was a startup that revolutionized the way ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy “Cancellation Confirmations” Cause Alarm - Domain registrar GoDaddy is now sending out “cancellation confirmation” notices when users transfer their domains to other registrars. When a domain owner receives a message that one of his domains has been cancelled, he certainly takes notice. GoDaddy has sent “cancellation confirmation” e-mails for a while when users cancel a domain registration or a service associated with a domain name. But now the company is sending out the same notice when customers ... read more ...
Mon 20th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Happens When Domain Registrars Merge? - The recent acquisition of BulkRegister by eNom created headaches for some BulkRegister customers. Are more acquisitions on the horizon? Many years ago I used an online bank called CompuBank. It was a great internet-only bank that offered free free checking and billpay. When I sent deposits in by mail they posted the next day. It was great. But then a larger bank called NetBank acquired CompuBank. NetBank was horrible and botched the integration with CompuBank. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex tests domain parking service, full of heading typos - Domain company Marchex is testing a domain parking service for non-Marchex owned domains and it appears they are monetizing trademark typos and adult names. Domain company Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), famous for buying a $160M domain portfolio, is beta testing a domain parking program for non-Marchex domains. But the company isn’t doing a good job keeping trademark typos and adult names out of its beta, writes David Kesmodel. (David is an ex-WSJ.com writer who also ... read more ...
Thu 16th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.eu Domain Name Wholesale Prices to Fall - The registry responsible for managing the .eu domain announced that it is cutting the wholesale price of its domains in half. The launch of the .eu domain earlier this year was a success in terms of the number of domains registered. It remains to be seen if the domain itself will take off and what the effects of extensive acquisitions by domain investors will be. But now that the initial registration rush is over EURid, the registry in charge of managing the .eu ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Selling Domains 101: Part One, Terminology - This is part one of a new series about selling domain names. Every week I receive e-mails from Domain Name Wire readers asking about the best way to sell domains. The truth is there’s no “best way”; it depends on your domains and objectives. This is the first in a new series on Domain Name Wire about selling domains. As the first article, we’re going to start with the basics by defining some terms: Domain Aftermarket – web sites that allow you to list ... read more ...
Wed 15th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy offers present cards - The world’s largest domain registrar is now offering gift cards that can be exchanged for domain names and other products. Earlier this year I was on a mission to find a domain registrar that offered gift certificates. I was starting a promotion for Domain Name Wire readers in which I’d offer free domain registrations. I hit a number of deadends. The only registrar I found offering gift certificates charged close to $20 per domain registration. I realized ... read more ...
Tue 14th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNForum cracks down on copyright domains - DNForum, the largest online forum for domain name owners, is cracking down on trademark-infringing domains sold on its site. Last week the forum announced that it will begin deleting posts for selling “obvious” trademarks and trademark typos, such as mikrosoft.com or samsunng.com. Sales of trademarks and trademark typos have been rampant on DNForum and I suspect the heat has been on owner Adam Dicker to stop this. In some ways DNForum could be compared to the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo auctions are delivering results - Sedo’s new auction system is delivering results, including a 6-figure sale. It’s been less than a month since domain aftermarket Sedo launched its new auction format and it is already delivering big sales. Tractors.com sold for $153,500 to lead the charge. Another key sale was W2.com, which sold for $31,000. (W2 is a common tax form in the US.) There are two types of listings in Sedo’s auctions. The first is a brokerage-assisted auction. In this scenario, ... read more ...
Fri 10th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic nixes gambling and adult domains - Domain aftermarket Afternic has decided to stop selling “vice” domains. In a bold and industry-leading move, domain name aftermarket Afternic has decided to stop brokering adult, gambling, violence, and other vice domains. This is just the latest in series of actions that have limited the value of adult and gambling domains. Most major advertising feeds don’t support these industries, and last month internet gambling took a hit in the United States with the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo releases .mobi domain parking - Domain aftermarket and parking company Sedo has released new domain parking templates for mobile phones. The new templates allow .mobi domain owners to monetize traffic. .Mobi domains are for use on mobile devices and are attracting significant attention. At October’s TRAFFIC domain auction Flowers.mobi sold for $200,000 and Fun.mobi for $100,000, and additional sales are being announced daily. Earlier this week Yahoo announced it is creating a new ad program ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NetMovie.com sells for $31,500 - NetMovie.com is the latest high-value domain to sell at domain name aftermarket Afternic. Afternic’s hot sales streak continues after its recent sale of Mannequins.com for $103,000. The domain sales company just sold NetMovie.com for $31,500. On November 7 the company also rang up $17,750 for parkmerced.com. Look for a few more big sales coming down the pike as well. Auctions for Slapper.com, Granny.net, and Jogger.org end today. Slapper.com has a $10,000 offer ... read more ...
Thu 9th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Defining Direct Navigation, Marchex - What exactly qualifies as “direct navigation” and does it result in higher conversions than search? The domain industry typically defines direct navigation as the act of typing a common name into your web browser, such as baseball.com, when you are looking for information about baseball. This is an alternative to search, such as typing “baseball” into the Google search box. There is frequent debate about the value of traffic that comes from direct navigation ... read more ...
Wed 8th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft becomes domain registrar - Microsoft has become an ICANN-accredited domain registrar. Microsoft is now an accredited domain name registrar. There are a several reasons Microsoft likely took this step. First, Microsoft gives away a free domain with its Office Live service. Before becoming a registrar it was registering these domains through Melbourne IT. By becoming a registrar Microsoft will have more control over the process and get the wholesale domain price (approximately $6.25 for .com ... read more ...
Tue 7th November 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pay-per-click entrance to .mobi - Yahoo moves into mobile advertising, leading the way for .mobi PPC advertising. Domain speculators usually look at potential pay-per-click advertising revenue as the starting point of valuing a domain name. But the recent launch of .mobi domains posed a quandary: how do I value a domain when there’s no standard for mobile advertising? Yahoo! may have the answer. The company announced that it has a new platform for mobile advertising. It is unclear if it will ... read more ...