Monthly Archives: January 2008

Thu 17th January 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ItsYourDomain Working to Fix Whois Bug - Bug affects 600 domain names according to company. ItsYourDomain, a registrar purchased by Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) last year, is working to fix a bug that keeps whois records as “Pending Renewal or Deletion” when domains are won at SnapNames. According to Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows, the bug affects about 600 domains. It affects existing ItsYourDomain customers who win expired domains through SnapNames. After winning the domain, the whois record remains as ... read more ...
Wed 16th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
How will Domain’s Fare in a Recession? - Ok, I know we are not officially in a recession. A recession is defined technically as a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for two or more consecutive quarters. We do not have that. Yet However there is no doubt that the overall economy is in trouble. And (as they said in the show the Music Man) that’s with a capital “T”. Citibank wrote down 18 Billion dollars related to mortgage investments and announced that they lost 10 Billion dollars in the 4th quarter. Citibank also cut it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Moniker.com Adult Auction Nets $1,200,000 -   The Live adult domain auction just concluded at the Internext show in Las Vegas and the sales totaled approximately $1,200,000   The silent auction continues on moniker.com and closes next week.   Here are the results as best as I could tell on the webcast:       Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Will Recession Hit Domains? - Will a recession hit domain values and underlying pay-per-click revenue? When TechCrunch covered Oversee.net’s $150M investment (see Domain Name Wire story), the popular blog suggested that a recession could hurt the domain industry: Buying domain portfolios and domain-related marketing businesses is becoming pretty capital intensive. As long as there is money to be made in online advertising, domainers like Oversee.net will continue to do well. But if a recession ... read more ...
Tue 15th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Oversee.net Receives $150 Million Investment - Oversee.net announced today that Oak Hill Capital Partners will invest $150 Million dollars in their company. Oversee announced on January 3, 2008, that they acquired Moniker.com. Moniker.com is a top ten domain registrar and the host of many live domain auctions including those at the TRAFFIC shows. Moniker.com is holding a live adult domain auction today in Las Vegas. Last year oversee acquired snapnames.com an online domain auction company. SnapNames.com is hosting their first live domain auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net Receives $150M Investment from Oak Hill Capital Partners - Domain company continues aggressive growth; receives $150M investment. Oversee.net, parent company of DomainSponsor, SnapNames, and Moniker, expects to close a $150M investment round with Oak Hill Capital Partners by the end of the month. Oversee.net has been on an aggressive growth trajectory over the past year. In January 2007, the company scored a $60M line of credit from Bank of America. This was partially used to purchase SnapNames this past summer. Earlier ... read more ...
Mon 14th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ADULT DOMAIN AUCTION TOMMOROW - Moniker.com will host the live adult domain auction, from the AVN/Internext show, at the Palms Hotel and Casino starting at 4pm PST, Tuesday January 15. Approximately 250 domains will be auctioned. In our opinion here are the top names scheduled for tomorrow (As you may be aware moniker.com list ranges of reserves rather than the actually reserve.) Tomorrow, before the auction, we will post out picks as the domains most lightly to sell at this auction. Feel free to make your predictions on this auction ... read more ...
Sun 13th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Well.org Nets $29,100 during NameJet.com - A few notable sales last couple of days at NameJet.com: Well.org sold for $29,100 HonkyTonk.com $17,600 Movie-Trailers.com $11,200 BrainTumors.com    $15,900 CandyKitchen        $6,400 PerfectEnglish.com    $2,500 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Fri 11th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Blog vs. Manningsmind.com: Lesson in Old Media / New Media -   If you have watched any pro football over the last 18 weeks, you will have seen the Sprint commercial for ManningsMind.com.   The commercial features Peyton Manning, the quarterback for the Super Bowl champions, Indianapolis Colts, deciding whom to throw the football too.   If you watch Pro football every Sunday like myself, you have seen the commercial, or at least changed channels on it, well over 100 times.   Until today I never went to the site.   Sprint’s ad budget is reported ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainTools.com Auction Results - With just a couple of auctions stil opened this looks to be the results from the domaintools.com auction held today   TampaCar.com                $2,000 Grampa.com’s                  $2,900 NewHavenHousing.com $1,000 PasadenaHousing.com    $1,000 RichmondHousing.com   $1,000 MadisonHousing.com      $1,000 BuilderLoans.com            $8,000 Untrue.com                       $3,000 ArlingtonHousing.com    $1,000 Fenway.org    ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows CEO on Network Solutions, Front Running - Tucows discusses Network Solutions “customer protection measure” and front running. It’s been a few days since news first broke about Network Solutions’ new practice of reserving any domain searched for on its site. A lot of industry observers have weighed in on the practice, but most registrars have been relatively quiet. I talked with Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) President and CEO Elliot Noss today, and he’s not shy about his position. “For me this is ... read more ...
Thu 10th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainTools.com Auction Closing Soon - The domaintools.com auction closes today at 2pm EST, 11am EST There are 175 names at auction. With around 2 1/2 hours left before the auction closes there are bids on only three names. Untrue.com $3,000 Grampa.com $2,700 Easttimor.org $350 If you would like to bid, click here. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Atty.com Sells during NameJet for $48,900 - The biggest sale for NameJet.com was recorded yesterday when atty.com sold for $48,900 Great name for an attorney. Others closed this week: zkw.com $7,800 employerbenefits.com $4,600 floridasports.com    $4,500 c-s.com    $3,900 inventorymanager.com $2,300 Closing  next couple of days (current bids): Candykitchen.com $3,700 BrainTumors.com $9,000 HonkyTonk.com    $3,100 Well.org    $2,600 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools Auction Sells $30,000 in Domains - Bidders absent during online live auction. DomainTools‘ January auction has concluded with lackluster results. Based on sales completed during the live portion of the auction, I calculate $31,800 in sales with a median price of $1,000. Domains are still available for purchase, however, and the number will increase before everything is said in done. Already a couple late bids have been received. So what went wrong? 1. It was put together too late. The call for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
No, It’s Not 2005 - Domain Name Wire experiences FIFO syndrome. Accountants out there know what FIFO means — first in, first out. Domain Name Wire experienced its own version today, as the order of articles on the site were reversed. If you landed on the home page you saw the very first posts ever written at the site, back in March of 2005. That’s a little embarrassing, given that the quality has improved remarkably since then. Worse, many RSS readers started receiving these ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Domain Name News Stories of 2007 - A look back at a watershed year for domains. It’s time again for Domain Name Wire’s annual roundup of the domain industry. In 2006, the top stories were surging domain values and major investors entering the market. This year includes some familiar stories, but also includes new trends in the industry. 7. Registries increase prices. We new it was going to happen, but it still hurts. This year VeriSign increased the wholesale price of .com domains by 7% and ... read more ...
Wed 9th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Skenzo Cancels TrafficClub Feed - As reported by domainnamenews.com,  Skenzo.com announced on its website today that they will no longer offer its monetization services to Moniker’s TrafficClub.com parking platform Moniker.com was acquired by Oversee.net last week. Ovesee.net is the parent company of domainsponsor.com Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
How to Make Money in 2008 - To make money in 2008, you need to start like any other year, concentrate on products and services that appeal to people’s basic needs. Especially when the economy starts to soften you got to start by looking at what people really need to make them happy, or what they need to live their lives When we grew up, we were told that people had two basic needs, food and shelter. So now you’re sitting by yourself in a room, with a roof over your head and a refrigerator stocked with crap. Happy?No That ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Editorial: Where Network Solutions Went Wrong - If Network Solutions had good intentions, then it had a very poor implementation. Yesterday was media-frenzy day in the domain world. Thanks to a thread on DomainState and article at Domain Name News, major media outlets picked up on the story of how Network Solutions is reserving all .com domains searched for by its customers. Domain Name News’ server melted down with traffic, and DomainNameWire ran slow all day. If you missed it, here’s the story. I didn’t ... read more ...
Tue 8th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DOMAIN TASTING REPORT ISSUED, PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD NOW OPENED - The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) which is ICANN’s main policy body released its report on domain tasting today. ICANN describes domain testing as follows: “Domain tasting is where someone uses existing legitimate processes to register a domain name and then tests to see if the address has sufficient traffic to provide more income than the annual registration fee (usually through the addition of pay-per-click advertising). If the address is deemed sufficiently profitable, it is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions Faces PR Nightmare Over Domain FrontRunning - Domain registrar locks domains searched on its site. [Update: see Editorial: Where Network Solutions Went Wrong] Network Solutions has implemented a program that locks users from registering domains with other registrars. According to the company, it’s goal is to keep criminals from “frontrunning” domains searched at its site. Here’s the deal, as reported at DomainState and a couple blogs: If you try to register a domain at Network Solutions, but decide ... read more ...
Mon 7th January 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domain Parking Stock Index Historical Data - 5 days | 3 months | 6 months | 1 year         We have now added a historical chart for the Domain Parking Stock Index which tracks the closing price of the index each day starting with January 2, 2008, which was the first trading day of this year. To see the chart just click on the DPSI link on the index.     The index is updated in real time all day long. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Wall Street’s Outlook for 2008 - Piper Jaffray, a Wall Street firm, predicted that internet stocks will outperform the market in 2008 and named Google as one of its top picks. Needham Co. another Wall Street firm, predicted e-commerce growth of more than 20%, for 2008 and similar growth rate for online advertising and retail sales. They also predicted that the growth rate of the Chinese internet market will continue to to double that of the US market. TNS Media Intelligence, a research firm that tracks ad spending, predicted that ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
OVERSEE + MONIKER: OUR TAKE - Over the weekend I have read many opinions about the Oversee.net purchase of Moniker.com from Seavast, the company that bought Moniker.com over a year ago, on some boards and forums. Some have even used the “M” word to describe the aftermath, a Monopoly. People seem concerned that the combined company will ultimately be bad for domain holders and the industry although good for Oversee and Moniker. We look at this deal as the continuation of the consolidation of the industry. It certainly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
David Beats Goliath, Dori Media International Loses Battle for Domain - Dori Media International called out for Reverse Domain Hijacking by WIPO arbitrator. Fred McCaw was a bit late to the domain market. Getting started in 1999, he realized all of the good english-language domains were registered. So he registered generic domains in foreign languages, including his native Filipino. The first domain he registered was Rebelde.com, which means “rebel” in Spanish and Filipino. Over the holidays McCaw successfully defended a reverse ... read more ...