Monthly Archives: April 2008

Wed 9th April 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is Direct Navigation Too Expensive? - High domain prices might make purchases for direct navigation too costly. At an entrepreneurs’ retreat in Mexico earlier this year, I stumped about domain names and how entrepreneurs can use them to their advantage. One of the topics was using generic domains for “direct navigation”. For example, an entrepreneur who sells sports equipment might use BaseballBats.com to direct targeted traffic to his site. One of the entrepreneurs in the room was a successful ... read more ...
Tue 8th April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Online Retail Sales to Increase by 17% This Year - A study by Forrester Research released today concludes that online retail will increase by 17% this year to $204 billion, with clothing, computers, and cars topping the list of sales categories. “The State of Retailing Online 2008: Marketing Report,” is the first of a three-part series of reports based on the study. It forecasts $26.6 billion in clothing sales, $23.9 billion in computer sales, and $19.3 billion in automobile sales. According to the report report, search engine marketing drives ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN HATES YOU - The president of ICANN today, reveled what he thought of your domainers: your a problem and he doesn’t like you. In a story written in the gulfnews.com today the publication in writing about the possibility of ICANN granting of new domain extensions said: “”””Domaining, which is technically legal, is still somewhat controversial. Domainers purchase non-trademarked domain names in the hopes of either reselling the name at a profit. Some websites have resold for millions of dollars. Other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Upgrades Support System - Sedo launches true online support system. Sedo is a big success in the domain industry especially for a company that exploded onto the scene earlier this decade. But one complaint I hear is that its support is non-existent. Although non-existent is a bit of a stretch, I certainly share in this frustration. The key problem as I see it is that it doesn’t (didn’t) have a centralized support system (at least that customers could see). You would send a support email ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Back to a Future: iREIT Pricing Blunder - iREIT lets three letter domains go for under $1,000. Domain investors know the value of three character domains. These domain names are in limited supply and often represent acronyms of large organizations. Although poor ones sell for under $10,000, it’s not unusual to see them sell for six figures. Last month I wrote about how you can protect your three character domains from companies that want to steal them from you. But apparently I left off some other advice: ... read more ...
Mon 7th April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Pizza.net now adult to $430K - A few hours ago we wrote that pizza.net was at auction at godaddy at $18K, now its at $430K still with days to go and the reserve has not been met. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Michael Mann in Washington Post - A nice story about Michael Mann and his new, Washington VC group, appeared in the Washington Post today. Some of the projects the group has invested in are happybirthday.com, SEO.com and Phone.com You can check out the whole story here Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google got 2/3 of internet hunt trade in March - According to a report by information service Hitwise, Google Inc. received 67% of all U.S. Internet searches during the four weeks ended March 29. Google received 64% of all U.S. Internet searches in the same period a year earlier. Yahoo Inc. received 20% of U.S. Web searches, MSN Search drew 7% and Ask.com 4%. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Pizza.net during auction during Godaddy.com - After pizza.com’s very public sale last week at sedo.com, pizza.net is now on auction at Godaddy.com Bidding is at $18,105, reserve has not been met and the auction ends on April 11th Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo: Deal with Microsoft OK, if they compensate more - The back and forth very public negoiations and posturing between Yahoo and Microsoft continued today with Jerry Yang, chief executive of Yahoo, and Chairman Roy Bostock senting a letter Monday to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, reiterating that the current offer is “not in the best interests of shareholders” of Yahoo. “We are open to all alternatives that maximize stockholder value,” Yang and Bostock said in the letter. “To be clear, this includes a transaction with Microsoft if it represents ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Current Ebay Auctions - A few interesting domains for sale on ebay, all with bids Fag.net At $9,100 reserve not met, ending monday at 10:55 am PST NZC.com Currently at $6,222, ending April 12 America.mobi Currently at $2,033, reserve not met, ending on April 9 ecigarette.com Currently at $19,100, reserve not met, ending on April 9 Bad.tv Currently at $305, reserve not met, buy it now at $5,000, ending on April 14. Quit.org Currently at $1,625, reserve not met, ending on April 9 67601.com Currently at $355, reserve met, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo to Preview “Amp” Platform Monday - According to reports, Yahoo Inc. is going to show off a major upgrade to it advertising network tommorow, called “Amp”,  with an online video demonstration Yahoo promises Amp will make it easier for advertisers to aim their messages at specific demographic groups across scores of Web sites. “This is a revolutionary approach that will allow marketers and publishers to deliver a more compelling experience for consumers,” said Hilary Schneider, Yahoo’s executive vice president of global partner ... read more ...
Sun 6th April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NameJet.com Auction Results - These are some of the higher dollar sales at Namejet.com over the past few days, on our radar: freexpictures.com $7,299 netfish.com $5,911 givingtree.org $5,600 airsuspension.com $4,990 cameltoes.net $4,600 thecostumeshop.com $4,300 (reauction) craftroom.com $3,600 vegasflight.com $2,613 existential.com $2,600 netstyle.com $2,099 divingnews.com $1,900 filmdeveloping.com $1,733 luxurytravelpackages.com $1,655 toz.net $1,500 homemadefood.com $1,060 baae.com $1,015 Got to say don’t get givingtree.org. Anyone ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Microsoft sets Apr 26 Deadline for Yahoo - One day after Reuter reported that Microsoft was “evaluation” its offer for Yahoo based on worsening marketing conditions, on Saturaday, in a a letter to Yahoo’s board,  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is tired of waiting for Yahoo to work out a deal, warning that if a deal wasn’t reached by April 26 the software maker would launch a hostile takeover at a less attractive price. “It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium ... read more ...
Sat 5th April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Would Microsoft Really Walk Away from Yahoo??? - According to a report published by Reuters Microsoft is “evaluating” its $42 billion offer for Yahoo. The comments, suggest Microsoft is considering walking away should Yahoo fail to agree to terms, come on the heels of reports that executives at the two tech titans met this week but failed to reach an agreement on the cash and stock offer. Microsoft is worried that a slowing economy and changes in Yahoo’s business stand to lower its value. Yahoo’s top brass is to meet Monday to discuss the ... read more ...
Fri 4th April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Gets Outperform Recommendation - Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay, increased it price target on Google today to $750 a shares stating that Google is poised to gain from changes to its online ad platform, AdWords, which should drive revenue higher. According to Lindsay, Google by changing its AdWords program by ‘slapping’ low quality advertisers and arbitrage marketers off its search results pages by re-pricing many low-cost keywords used by these companies, is driving down paid clicks, but also driving keyword pricing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CAC Auction nets $108,000 - The CAC auction held by Moniker today from Amsterdam just ending resulting in a lack luster $108,000 in sales. The sales are were as follows, anything with a 0 was a pass. All names that failed in the live auction along with over 1,000 new names will be in the silent auction which will close next week. winnings.com $27,000 roulette.mobi $15,000 onlinecasino.at $7,500 casinoguests.com $5,100 winningpokerstrategies.com and winningpokerstrategies.$3,750 sportsrecords.com $3,250 jackpotguide.com $3,000 easypick.com ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CAC Live Auction Underway during Snapnames.com - The live gambling domain auction is now starting and online bidding is available at snapnames.com Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Pizza Vs. Porn; because did one sell for 4 times some-more than a other? - Ok so as we all know pizza.com sold for $2.6 million dollars at sedo.com today. Nice sale, except it pales in comparision to porn.com which sold for $9.5 Million several months ago. Seems strange doesn’t it?? You can advertise pizza on television. Porn you can’t. You can advertise pizza on the super bowl, porn you can’t, According to the New York Times, Pizza Hut’s annual ad budget is $75 million dollars. Domino’s Pizza is $50 million dollars. And did we tell you this is the annual budget. So ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
YouTube Chases Down YouTube.net - Google files arbitration for Youtube.net. Google (GOOG) and its YouTube division have filed for arbitration under UDRP to get control of the YouTube.net domain name. YouTube.net’s whois record currently shows an owner in China, and the domain appears to have bounced around between a couple different owners over the past year. When this happens, and especially when the whois information may be bogus, trademark owners have few options to get control other than ... read more ...
 
Written by The MediaWizard's Blog in EN
The LLLL.com Conundrum -

I’ve been examination a LLLL.com or 4 minute .com scenario, sincerely closely, for a longest of times. we started regulating DomainTools (or whois.sc as it was famous then) to collect these lists for a while in 2006. In fact, thats what got me meddlesome in domaining in a initial place. Well that and a fact that the programs were churning out domains that were good seo-wise though terrible viz code value, though thats another story.

Via: mwzd.com

Thu 3rd April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DNJournal.com: 1st Quarter best ever for domain sales - Ron Jackson, who tracks all reported domain sales and publishes the results weekly in the DNJournal, published his anaylsis of domain sales in the 1st quarter and has some great news for the industry: “””””The first quarter of 2008 wound up being the best domain sales quarter reported since we started tracking the market back in the fall of 2003. A total of $38,029,543 in domain sales were reported in 1Q-2008, a spectacular 78% jump over the $21,253,105 reported in the first quarter of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why GoDaddy Spent Lobbying Money on Pharmacy Issues - GoDaddy’s pharmacy lobbying is related to online pharmacy bill. In February I wrote about GoDaddy and its 2007 $580,000 lobby bill on capitol hill. One thing struck me as odd: one of the issues GoDaddy spent money on was pharmacy. Here’s what I wrote: According to the company’s self-reported lobbying reports, its lobbying activity included computers information technology, copyright trademark, telecommunications, law enforcement, pharmacy, and consumer product ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sk*rt Skirts Losing Its Domain - Company with miserable domain name wins arbitration. I wrote about Sk*rt, pronounced skirt, and its horrible domain name sk-rt.com last November. I don’t need to go into the details about why this is such a bad name, but I hypothesized that the owners of Skirt.com would go after Sk-rt.com: Not only is Sk*rt sending typo traffic to Skirt.com, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Skirt.com sued Sk*rt. My advice would be to not do this; just sit back and enjoy the steady ... read more ...
Wed 2nd April 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Unveils OneSearch 2.0 for Mobile Phones with Voice Search; Are .mobi in trouble?? - Yahoo announced the release of oneSearch 2.0, a new version of its award-winning mobile search service. Key enhancements will allow users to initiate searches faster using text or voice. Yahoo also plans to provide greater relevance through richer, more detailed search results by opening up Yahoo oneSearch to publishers to integrate content, simplify search input with Search Assist and voice-enabled search, and make search instantly accessible on the idle ... read more ...