Monthly Archives: July 2008

Mon 28th July 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Me Domain Name Auctions to Last a Loooong Time - Bids in final 24 hours extend auctions by 24 hours. I haven’t been paying much attention to the .me domain name auctions, but Michael Berkens has. Some of the domains are being bid up rather high, including Insure.me (135 bids, $26,130), Hug.me (74 bids, $13,016), Secure.me (93 bids, $7,540) and Portland.me (230 bids, $6,151). When will the auctions end? It could be a very, very long time before we find out. You see, the .me auctions get extended if there are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Does Google “Knol” About Product Naming and Domains? - Google’s latest hit is Knol, but it doesn’t own Knol.com. Google employees some wicked smart people. So why can’t it figure out this whole naming and domain thing? First it released Google Adsense. There was already a marketing company using the domain Adsense.com. (Ironically, that company was turned down when it applied to join Google’s Adsense program.) Then it bought YouTube, which sent a heck of a lot of traffic to uTube.com. Now Google has opened ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Revives OpenSRS Brand for Resellers - Company reinvigorates reseller program with legacy brand. Domain name registrar Tucows is breathing new life into its reseller program by reintroducing an old brand: OpenSRS. Tucows was the first reselling registrar on the web back in 1999, claims Tucows VP of Marketing and Product Management Ken Schafer. Tucows hopes to leverage the OpenSRS brand to create a consistent reseller brand. “We’re proud of those roots,” said Schafer in an interview with Domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameTumbler Helps with GeoDomain Mining - Tool makes it easy to find geo-related domains (and more). Every once in a while a new domain tool comes out and you don’t get around to using it. The buzz subsides and you never realize what you’ve missed. That’s what happened to me with NameTumbler, a free tool from WhyPark. You see, I’m a closet geo domainer. I’ve been buying city/state____.com domains for a couple years. To find available domains I created a spreadsheet of top cities and all 50 ... read more ...
Sun 27th July 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
.Me sealed auctions - Here are all the closed .me auctions to date with a price of a $100 or more. why.me        $6,600    105 lastminute.me    $3,605    13 finger.me    $3,055    21 social.me    $2,215    52 thats.me    $2,105    111 kuwait.me    $2,100    61 sky.me        $2,005    11 wellness.me    $1,855    25 gambling.me    $1,605    27 trademark.me    $1,520    37 profile.me    $1,505    20 uno.me        $1,305    7 extre.me    $1,305    ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
When will Apple’s share of a PC marketplace pass Windows?? - Apple computers seems to be on a unstoppable march to overtake window systems. The only question seems to be when. I for one have never owned an Apple but after doing a complete Vista clean reinstall in my Dell, the time has come. Everyone you talk to is having problems with Windows products and Apple is hassle free. I know Apple only controls 14% of the PC market right now, but consider a report by the NPD Group which said that Apple controls two-thirds of PCs costing $1,000 or more. “In notebooks ... read more ...
Sat 26th July 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Me Auctions Still Going and Getting Extended - More and more its looking like any decent .me name is going to be in the four figures and any really good .me domain is going to wind up in the five figures. Does this roll out change anyones mind about the hundreds of new extensions coming and there effect on .com pricing?? Domain Name    Bids    Time Left    Current Price insure.me          125    23H 32M     $25,705 hug.me              71    22H 21M     $13,000 secure.me         90    23H 1M ... read more ...
Fri 25th July 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Real Companies with Bad Names - When will companies choose names we can spell? I’ve ranted about web 2.0 spellings before. But it’s not just web 2.0 companies that choose bad names that you can’t spell or understand. It’s big venture backed companies that serve enterprises and consumers alike. I was helping my wife with some research the other day and she hollered out names of various companies so I could look them up on my computer. My frustration mounted as I tried to figure out how ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ex-Marchex Employees Pay Up For Competing Web Sites - Pair allegedly copied code and set up competing web sites while working at Marchex Does Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) have a good business plan? A couple of its former employees think so. The pair have agreed to pay $100,000 after allegedly copying Marchex code and creating competing web sites, reports Puget Sound Business Journal. They also agreed to take down the competing web sites. The article states: Publicly traded Marchex says it first got wind in November that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
World2Work Releases Statement About Fired.com UDRP Case - Company claims rights to domain because prior owner has not used it. After Domain Name Wire posted a story about the Fired.com UDRP case and contacted World2Work Corporation, the complainant, World2Work and its attorney released a statement about the case. The company claims that it should have rights to the domain name based on its 2004 trademark filing and the fact that the current owner of the domain hasn’t used it since it was registered in 1999: “When we ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Developers Turn to Search Engine Optimization - Buy domain. Develop. Then what? As domainers turn to development to monetize their domains, they may be discouraged to find the revenue on their developed sites not meeting expectations. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as developing mini-sites or full-fledged web sites, launching them, and letting the checks roll in. That’s when search engine optimization (SEO) comes into the picture. I’ve always been turned off by the SEO business because it seems so ... read more ...
Thu 24th July 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Me Auctions Like a Engerizer Bunny Keep Going AND Going - Wel the .Me auctions are stil going strong with all the ones i am participating in are still getting extended each day. Here are the current high bids for all auctions over $250 Domain Name Bids Time Left Current Price insure.me 111 20H 23M $23,605 why.me 103 20H 46M $6,580 hug.me 53 23H 55M $5,555 ski.me 31 7H 29M $3,773 survey.me 62 20H 28M $3,580 secure.me 64 23H 4M $3,105 ride.me 34 20H 34M $2,610 elect.me 40 23H 4M $2,505 tutor.me 37 23H 4M $2,205 portland.me 208 23H 4M $2,105 sky.me ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Hasbro Sues Over Facebook “Scrabulous” Game - Hasbro which sells the Scrabble board game, has sued over the Knockoff game on Facebook called Scrabulous. Hasbro on Thursday filed a copyright and trademark lawsuit in New York against the creators of the ad-supported Scrabulous application, which boasts an astonishing half-a million daily users. Hasbro said of Scrabulos “This is theft of intellectual property, It’s really no different from when the recording industry faced the issue of folks posting music on sites like Napster and letting ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Narnia.mobi Awarded to Trademark Holder - The World Intellectual Property Organization, ruled yesterday that the domain name Narnia.mobi should be transferred to the trademark holder. Domain name disputes focus partly on whether a “cybersquatter” is using the site for commercial gain and whether trademarks are involved. Mr Saville-Smith claimed yesterday that he had done nothing at all with the site and had not tried to make any money from it. The also argued that the trademark holder had a right to claim the domain during the .mobi ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Baidu Profit adult 87% - Baidu.com China’s leading search engine, and a member of our domain stock parking index, second-quarter profit soared 87 percent over the year-earlier period on rapid growth in revenue from smaller advertisers. Net income for the quarter ending June 30 was 265 million yuan ($38.6 million), or 7.62 yuan ($1.11) per share, on revenue of 802.6 million yuan ($117 million), the company said. Revenue was double that of the same quarter in 2007. Baidu said the rise in revenue came from growth in the number ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
C.S. Lewis Beats off .Mobi Cybersquatter - C.S. Lewis estate gets hands on Narnia.mobi. I have to hand it to Richard Saville-Smith and his family. Ever since the estate of C.S. Lewis, famous for The Chronicles of Narnia books, filed a UDRP against him for registering Narnia.mobi, his family has put on the pity plea with the media. How could they do this to our child, a big Narnia fan? We only registered it for a personal e-mail address. What horrible big money machine would come after us poor saps? A couple ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain and Search Tools Integrate New Google Data - Popular software programs tap into new Google search count data. A couple weeks ago Google launched a new “Overture score” type of tool that lets you see estimated search counts for keywords. (See Google Releases “Overture Score”-Like Tool.) Tool providers that cater to the search and domain businesses have been working overtime to use the new data in their systems. One of the tools that now uses the Google data is Adword Analyzer. This software pulls ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Update: Google Parking Changes and Arbitrage - What effect will Google’s changes in domain parking have on domainers? Over the weekend Julia Mackenzie scooped that Google was planning changes to domain parking. I reached out to Sedo and DomainSponsor to find out when these changes will be implemented and any details. DomainSponsor declined to comment. Sedo CEO Tim Schumacher said: “While we cannot discuss the confidential nature of our relationships with partners, Sedo generally welcomes any change which ... read more ...
Wed 23rd July 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Extends a Closing .ME Auctions an Extra Day - I have gotten several noticed today about some domains I am tracking in the .me auction. For some reason not explained in the e-mail, Godaddy has extended the closing of several domain auctions that was suppose to close today until tomorrow. Here is one of the notices I received: Dear Valued .ME Auction Customer, The closing time for the auction of ride.me has been extended. Please note the revised close date and current price below: Domain Name: ride.me Current Price: $1,000 Close Date: 07/24/2008 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Microsoft Executive who Lead Charge to Buy Yahoo Quits - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the head of Microsoft’s online business, who led the company’s bid to buy Yahoo,  is leaving the Microsoft for Juniper Networks. Kevin Johnson, is president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division, which includes both the online services business and Windows software for personal computers. The Journal also reported that Johnson’s departure will be followed by a reorganization of the business unit he oversaw. The Journal reports that Mr. Johnson ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Domain King Strikes Gold Again: Property.com sole to Foreclosure.com - Rick Schwartz just announced that he has sold Property.com to Foreclosure.com Although price and terms we not disclosed we would expect that it was a very lucrative deal for Rick and I’m sure that he is going to retain a interest in the new venture. Rick continues to lead the industry with ground breaking deals. This is really a great story because property.com, is a domain that Rick acquired just a few years ago for $750K. This domain was available to anyone for the $750K including myself at the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Daily Domain Drop Annnouces Weekly Auctions - Beginning next Wednesday, August 30th DailyDomainDrop.com is launching Weekly, Members only Auctions. Bidding is restricted to Members only and will begin at  $10.00 with $2.00 minimum bid increments and NO RESERVE.   Here is a summary of the August auctions: FriendlyCities.com  7/30 to 8/6 FeistyChick.com 8/6 to 8/13 GenderBlog.com 8/13 to 8/20 LaughSearch.com 8/20 to 8/27 Future auctions will include: GreenLosAngeles.com BubblegumIceCream.com StartupFirm.com Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Google Launches the Answer to Wikipedia - Wikipedia, which receives it material largely from unpaid, anonymous contributors has a new competitor. Google is taking the wraps off its own internet encyclopedia called “Knol”. Knol says Google, is designed to give people a chance to show off and profit from  their expertise on any topic. For the past seven months Knol, had been limited to an invitation-only audience of contributors and readers. But today anyone with a Google account will be able to submit an article and, if they choose, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
.ME Auction Updates - Here are the highest bids at the moment for the .ME auction for all auctions which have high bids over $500 Some of the domains start closing tomorrow. Domain     Bidder  Time Left   High Bid insure.me    94    22H 9M      $13,010 why.me        87    1D 0H        $4,501 ski.me        30    21H 17M      $3,505 hug.me        43    2D 0H         $3,005 secure.me    57    2D 0H         $2,005 survey.me    43    1D 0H         ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
FUSU.com The Newest Player for Domain Auctions - FUSU.com, announced today that it was entering the ever growing community of sites hold domain auctions. Their auctions will have only a 1% sales fee. Here is the full press release: Dear Fusu users, we are happy to announce the introduction of domain auctions to Fusu. Fusu Auctions allow you to list your domains for sale and gain exposure to the Fusu community of domain investors. We have two auction formats: * Anyone can list a domain for a Standard Auction. Fusu does not require domain ownership ... read more ...