Monthly Archives: February 2008

Thu 14th February 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
No Credit Crisis for Domain Names - Domain financing is still strong despite credit crisis. With all the attention on the credit crisis and subprime mortgages these days, I was curious if domain financing companies might be tightening standards and raising interest rates. I reached out to the authority on domain financing — Domain Capital president Robert Alfano — to find out if the domain financing business is changing. Domain Name Wire: Is it more difficult for borrowers to obtain financing from ... read more ...
Wed 13th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
News Corp. and Yahoo in Talks - According to reports, News Corp. and Yahoo are in discussions about combining MySpace and other News Corp.owned online properties with Yahoo. Reportly News Corp. would get a stake in Yahoo, and a private equity firm to contribute cash to the deal. The deal would allow Yahoo to remain independent while giving News Corp. substantial control over a huge array of Internet properties and advertising opportunities. We here at thedomains.com woudl prefer this deal to the acquisiton of Yahoo by Microsoft.     The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo’s Arbitrage Bomb: One Day Later - Reaction to Yahoo’s decision mixed, but one thing is clear: a lot of people will be affected. One day after Yahoo (YHOO) dropped a bombshell that it would no longer accept arbitrage traffic to its advertising feed, the reaction has been swift and loud. I’ve been monitoring domain forums and this is what people have to say: “well…back to working for a living…” “I’ll need to get back to SAP consulting. I’ve kinda forgotten some of my transaction codes…” “Quit ... read more ...
Tue 12th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Record Set: 10 Billion Web Video’s Watched in Dec 2007 - According to AVN.com there was a record 10 Billion video’s viewed on the web in December 2007. The figures suggest that about 141 million Americans viewed online video that month. The particular strong results was attributed to for one the Hollywood writers strike. The Top Five sites for viewing the videos were: Google sites including, YouTube.com and Google Video had 3.3 billion video views (32.6 percent),News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media (MySpace) was second with 358 million views (3.5 percent), ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Microsoft Answers Yahoo - In a statement released today Microsoft answers the rejection of it’s offer by Yahoo! ” It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties. We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey Focus: Most Influential Person in Domains - Here’s a focus on a new question on the 3rd Annual Domain Name Wire survey. Over 300 people have already completed the 3rd annual Domain Name Wire survey. If you haven’t done so yet, please take 3 minutes to complete the survey. You will be eligible to win a $100 credit at the domain registrar of your choice. There are a few new questions on the domain survey this year, and I wanted to bring your attention to them. This post will cover the question “Which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, Others - Yahoo will stop allowing arbitrage as of this Friday, will affect other major companies as well. In a major move sure to have ramifications across the online advertising industry, Yahoo (YHOO) has told its advertising partners that it will no longer accept “arbitraged” traffic as of this Friday. Here’s a look at what this means for domainers and even the revenue of big online advertising companies. Arbitrage Explained Click arbitrage involves buying an ad click ... read more ...
Mon 11th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Yahoo to Restart Merger Talks with AOL - According to reports today Yahoo is seeking to restart merger talks with AOL to fend off the Hostile bid of Microsoft which Yahoo rejected over the weekend. The report says that the AOL merger is one option being considered by Yahoo, the others being an marketing deal with Google or Disney. Yahoo and AOL previously failed to join forces because of differences over purchase price. Last week in TheDomains.com we noted that Time Warner was considering selling or splitting off parts of AOL. Yahoo’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Namejet.com Sales Update - Here are some notable sales from NameJet.com over the last few days. flagday.com $15,200 xxvideos.com $11,100 (re-auction) skinrashes.com $9,769 luxurymart.com $4,200 duckpond.com $4,100 airportrides.com $3,500 airportvans.com $2,988 orlandomap.com $2,900 totalfashion.com $1,770 freetrademarksearch.com $1,600 internalcontrol.com $1,560 scooping.com $1,110 prisonreform.com $1,100 Our bargain of the week award goes to childbirthclass.com $630 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Threats to a Domain Name Industry - Don’t get complacent; all is not well in the domain name industry. What keeps you up at night? As a business owner, I have lots of worries. If you are sleeping comfortably at night, assuming everything in the domain industry is swell, you might be in for a rough 2008. There are two main issues that keep me up at night. First, I’m becoming more and more concerned about hucksters and deep-pocketed corporations coming after average joe domainer. There are a lot ... read more ...
Sat 9th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
YAHOO TO REJECT MICROSOFT’S OFFER - According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal Online today, the Board of Directors of Yahoo!!!! plan to reject the bid of $31 a share offered by Microsoft a week ago Friday, saying it “massively undervalues” Yahoo.com It had been reported this week by several source that Yahoo was looking for Microsoft to offer at least $35 a share. According to this report, Yahoo will not consider any offers below $40 a share, twice what the company was trading for just 10 days ago. At $40 a share ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Investor Business Daily Publishes Article on Domain Industry - Investor’s Business Daily became the third major mainstream media outlet to publish an article about the domain name industry this week,  and this time it was 100% pure love for the industry. Here is the link The article highlights Oversee.net; Marchex; DemandMedia; NameMedia; Frank and  Kevin. The word is getting out. For all you new guys welcome to the party. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Time Warner, Yahoo Team Up to Cybersquat - Companies join the ranks of big corporations redirecting “error” traffic. Time Warner’s Road Runner internet service has teamed up with Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) to typosquat on millions of unregistered domain names. The feature from the two companies is called “Web Address Error Redirect Service” and automatically sends web users to a page full of search ads if they type in a web address that does not exist. It appears to override customer’s own preferences ... read more ...
Fri 8th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Dating and Social Networking Silent Auction Results - Looks like only 5 domains were sold at the silent auction of the Idate conference for a total of less than $22K. Here is the list of domains that sold: onlinebooty.com $18,830 BIGDAWG.COM $2,077 OnlinePersonal.com $1,180 GAYSENIORLIFE.COM $360 TOTALLYFREEINTERNETDATING.COM $360 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Microsoft’s Shareholders Not Loving a Yahoo Deal. - Well Microsoft’s investors have given their opinion of the proposed acquisition of Yahoo, and let the feet do the walking, as they hit the exit, Microsoft shares have lost 14% of there value since it announcing its $44 billion dollar bid for Yahoo. This 14% loss in share value equate to just about 40 Billion dollars in lost share value for Microsoft. So far the combined price for Yahoo could be said to top 80 billion dollars so far. There is also much speculation that Microsoft may yet raise it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MSNBC Reports on a Cruises.co.uk Purchase - Mainstream media has picked up on the sale first reported by DNJournal.com, of Cruises.co.uk by the same company that owned Cruise.co.uk. In an article by MSNBC, they cite it as the largest sale ever of a .co.uk. Good always to see domain sales news picked up by mainstream media outlets. There always so surprised how much domain actually sell for. Actually MSNBC goes as far to say the buyer paid 1.1 Million dollars for an “s”. Since he already owned the singular. What the MSNBC guy doesn’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainersToolbar Makes Accessing Domain Sites Easy - Simple toolbar makes accessing forums, sales, and news easier. If you’re like me, you spend much of your day surfing to the various domain news sites, marketplaces such as Sedo and Afternic, and forums looking for good domain deals and heated discussions. It’s tedious. Now there’s a simple toolbar that makes accessing updates from these sites easier. Called DomainersToolbar, it provides an intuitive interface directly in your Internet Explorer or Firefox browser. ... read more ...
Thu 7th February 2008
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How Did Pool Score Shoppers.com? A Glitch. - Pool sold Shoppers.com for over $166,000 this week, but the name should have been exclusive to NameJet. [Updated 10:24 CST] Pool.com landed a whale this week, catching Shoppers.com and selling it for $166,000 through its auction. Although the value of the domain is debatable, the bigger question is how Pool landed the domain since it was registered at Network Solutions, which has an exclusive relationship with NameJet for expired domains. One rumor was that the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Question of Domain Parking Arbitrage - Leonard Holmes of ParkQuick.com discusses domain parking arbitrage. Arbitrage involves making money because of a price differential between two markets. These days some people seem to be making a lot of money buying ads and sending the traffic to higher-paying ads on their domains. Not everyone is happy with this. Google, in fact, canceled some AdSense accounts because of this practice several months ago (the same time that they canceled accounts for “made-for-AdSense” ... read more ...
Wed 6th February 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google to offer giveaway song downloads in China - Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is preparing to enter into a joint venture with an unnamed online music company based in China in order to compete with Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) , the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. According to reports Google is planning on offering free licensed music downloads in China. Baidu.com also offers free music downloads, though the downloads aren’t licensed. Baidu.com is China’s largest search engine. Its stock was down $20 late today. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Time Warner: May Spilt adult AOL: Ad Growth Slows - Time Warner the owner of AOL, today announced it plans to Separate AOL’s ad operations from its dial-up access business. Time Warner which reported earnings today,  reported that the 4th quarter of 2007, was AOL slowest quarter of advertising growth. AOL’s $620 million in fourth-quarter ad revenue represents a year to year increase of less than 10 percent. AOL’s ad revenue grew nearly 50 percent a year earlier. AOL had 9.3 million paying subscribers as of Dec. 31, a third of its peak of nearly ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
YAHOO!: No Decision Yet - Yahoo Inc.’s board has not made a decision yet on Microsoft Corp.’s$44.6 billion bid, but according to reports, the directors of Yahoo are looking at all alternatives including “a wide range of potential strategic alternatives in what is a complex and evolving landscape” It seems like Yahoo is exploring any and all options before accepting Microsoft’s offer. Yahoo seems to want to keep its independence as least as a separatley traded public company. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Dating and Social Networking online auction closes Tommorow - Moniker.com silent auction from the Dating and Social Networking Show closes tomorrow. Domains will begin to close on Thursday February 7th at 2pm EST/11am PST. According to moniker here are the top names. We have not reviewed the list: “””More than 1,500 of the dating and social networking industries’ best search, traffic and brand oriented domains are currently available in Moniker’s Online Domain Auction from the iDate 2008 and Social Networking Conferences. A wide variety of inventory ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Shoppers.com Sells for $166K during Pool.com - The domain shoppers.com sold today at pool.com for $166K. The domain which was a network solutions registered name looked like it was going to be a pre-release domain at namejet.com and actually had bids up to $10,000 on the NameJet.com  prelease  auction. The question is why did the domain get dropped in the regular cue is rather through NameJet.com and what would hthe domain had sold for if the domain was auctioned at namejet.com instead.  My guess is it would have certainly went over 200K. Google+Michael ... read more ...