Monthly Archives: October 2008

Fri 31st October 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows President Responds to Our Post About YummyNames.com - Elliot Noss, the President and CEO of Tucows has responded to our post of a few days ago regarding the YummyNames.com, the site Tucows set up to sell some of the domains it acquired from it’s customers after they expired. The comments from Mr. Noss are unedited. Our comments will follow but feel free to comment: “””””I wanted to weigh in here and provide my view very specifically. apologies in advance as I am famously long-winded (stop laughing berryhill) first. what do we do? we have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Anatomy of a Domain Name Press Release - Silly press releases for eBay auctions abound. Here’s how they work. OK, Elliot. You got me. Earlier today Elliot Silver sent me and e-mail with the subject “BREAKING DOMAIN NEWS”. The body of the e-mail read “Big News… thought you might want to cover this…” and then there was a link to a press release on PRweb. Elliot sends me news leads from time to time, so I anxiously clicked the link. That’s when I knew I’d been had. The link was for a press ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Wins Yahoo Advertising Battle - Regardless of outcome, Google has won. You may have read yesterday evening that the Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) advertising deal may not go through, thanks to the U.S. government getting involved. Bad new for the companies? Not for Google, which played this perfectly. You see, if Google got the deal then it would have an ad deal with Yahoo that would help fill its coffers while rendering Yahoo’s advertising platform less valuable. Yahoo advertisers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Stories of Oct 2008 - A look back at the past month in domaining. It’s Halloween, which means we’re wrapping up another month of 2008. As I prepare to take my two year old daughter trick-or-treating in her flamingo costume, here’s a look back at the top stories on Domain Name Wire this month by total page views. 1. 10 Things I’d Do if I Were a New Domainer – a list of domain lessons learned (mostly the hard way). 2. Schilling and Berryhill Win Another UDRP – legendary domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Submit Domains to Aftermarket.com Auction by Saturday - Priority deadline is Saturday for Australia auction. Domainers wishing to sell their domains in the upcoming Aftermarket.com auction at TRAFFIC Down Under should submit their domains by this Saturday. Domains can be submitted through the online system at Aftermarket.com. The submission process is similar to the one used for the New York TRAFFIC auction. “From a customer’s perspective, the submission process itself is relatively the same,” said Thought Convergence’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Forbes Covers New Top Level Domain Names - Forbes Magazine covers new TLD launch, but has a few inaccuracies. The maintstream media has paid cursory attention to ICANN’s opening of the top level domain name landscape. A new article in the November 17 issue of Forbes (available now online) covers the topic. A couple observations: First, the article has many inaccuracies. Second, there’s common ground between domainers and Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse. Inaccuracies I find many of the statements ... read more ...
Thu 30th October 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WSJ.Com: Yahoo-Google Deal Maybe Dead - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google may walk away from its proposed advertising deal. The Journal is reporting that both Yahoo and Google may walk away from the deal as early as next week because as reported here for some time, the Department Of Justice is looking to block the deal. On Wednesday, J.P. Morgan Internet analyst Imran Khan, in a note to clients said Yahoo should forget about the Google deal and sell its search business to Microsoft. Khan suggests that Yahoo can gain an additional ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
UPDATE 1 On Startups.com: Domain Sells for $500K - The Washington Post is reporting that the domain Startups.com, that we reported on earlier today as being sold to KillerStartups.com, sold for $500,000. According to the reporter for the Post he spoke to CEO of Killerstartups.com who told him he acquired the domain for “mid six figures”. The Post went ahead to assume that meant $500K and said “”That is within reason for a primo domain name.”” According to the same article startups.com raised $17.2 million back during the .com boom before ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
NetworkSolutions Phishing E-mails Going Out - A couple of days a phishing attack caused tons of e-mails appearing to come from Enom.com to go out to domain owners telling them they were about to lose a domain because of inaccurate whois information. Today we started receiving the same type of phishing message from a forged NetworkSolutions site. Please be careful about all such e-mails as the crooks seem to be on the domain channel right now. Here is the message: “””””Dear Network Solutions Customer, We recently notified you that ... read more ...
 
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Registrar EstDomains Get Shut Off Notice From ICANN - ICANN has sent a letter to the EstDomains notifying them that their registrar accreditation would be revoked effective November 12. “This termination is based on your status as President of EstDomains and your credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery conviction,” Stacy Burnette, ICANN’s director of contractual compliance, wrote. ICANN rules permit the group to terminate registrars who have officers or directors convicted of a crime related to financial activities, she said. An ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Going Offshore? Watch Out for Australia, Too. - Moving domain names out of the United States may not be safer. Last week I wrote about a growing movement for transferring domain names away from United States registrars to other countries. I argued that: -Even if you move your domains to a non-U.S. registrar, U.S. courts could still claim jurisdiction through Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) or ICANN -Other countries also make silly decisions that could jeopardize your domains I gave the suggestion of an Australian court ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EstDomains Challenges ICANN De-Accreditation - Registrar says convicted president resigned in July. Domain registrar EstDomains might remain an accredited domain registrar after all. Yesterday Domain Name Wire reported that EstDomains received a notice of termination from Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN cited the conviction of EstDomains’ president Vladimir Tsastsin for credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in February as the reason for the termination. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BoycottKentucky.com Calls for Halloween Phone Zap - Site urges people to call Kentucky Governor on Halloween to express disappointment over domain seizure. BoycottKentucky.com, a site inspired in part by a Domain Name Wire article, is asking people to call Kentucky Governor Beshear on Halloween to help persuade the governor to end his seizure of domain names: Governor Beshear’s actions are downright scary!!! Call his office on 10/31/2008 and tell his staff that you oppose the Governor’s actions and urge him to ... read more ...
Wed 29th October 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
iMEGA Files Another Motion With Appeals Court in Kentucky Domain Seizure Case - The Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) filed another motion with the Court of Appeals in Kentucky today, this time asking the court to stay the 2 orders entered by Judge Wingate and suspend the forfeiture hearing presently scheduled for for December 3, 2008. In the 6 page motion, (153 pages with all exhibits) iMEGA states that the orders of Judge Wingate have caused and will continue to cause immediate and irreparable harm. Last week on October 22, 2008, iMEGA filed a ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Yahoo-AOL in Merger Talks? - According to reports merger talks are under way between Yahoo and Time Warner Inc’s,  AOL unit. While noting a deal was not imminent, sources say the two companies have engaged in “meaningful” due diligence about a possible combination for the past couple of weeks. Talks are focused on how to integrate AOL’s content and advertising business into Yahoo. Yahoo and Time Warner began talks several months ago, when the Internet company was looking for an alternative growth strategy to fend off ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Tucows Now Selling The Expired Domains They Kept From Their Customers - Well it was bound to happen. We have been talking about this issue for months. Tucows.com has been building up a portfolio of hundreds of thousands of domains by taking ownership of expired domains of its customers instead of letting them drop or sending them to a public auction like, well, almost every other registrar in the world (there are over 900 registrars). Tucows announced today that it has started Yummydomains.com to sell tens of thousands of those domains. “”””YummyNames, a new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
New Life for .XXX — though Hurdles Remain - Expect new TLD applications for .xxx, but expect challenges too. Poor .xxx. The top level domain that never was to be. On again, off again. With the new top level domain process getting into high gear and ICANN expecting 500 applications, you can be assured that some of them will be for .xxx, .sex, or .porn. But will they be approved? The morality police are on the prowl. Today ICANN released an explanatory memo “Morality and Public Order Objection Considerations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EstDomains Loses Accreditation, 280k Domains adult for Grabs - Registrar loses ICANN accreditation. Domain registrar EstDomains, Inc has lost its ICANN accreditation. The registrar had been the subject of many negative stories, including allegations that it perpetuated malware and spyware sites as well as spam. EstDomains also resold Directi services including its whois privacy service. (Directi is parent company of domain parking service Skenzo). Directi pulled the plug on offering privacy protection to EstDomains, thus ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Holders Shouldn’t Rush to Get New TLDs - .eBay probably not worth it. One of the examples the mass media has given for the potential of new TLDs is .ebay . “Imagine eBay (NADSAQ: EBAY) being able to create cars.ebay and electronics.ebay”, is the general line of thought. I’m imagining, and I’m not imagining much. Why not just ebay.com/cars? In general, I don’t think trademark holders should plop down the $185,000 to get their own top level domain. Combined with preparing the application and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Texas Domainer Wins Case Against California Agency - Attorney and domain investor wins case brought by California train service. Texas attorney, lobbyist, and domain investor Ramiro Canales has successfully defended an attack on one of his company’s domain names, CapitolCorridor.com. Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, which manages a Northern California train service, filed the complaint under UDRP. The train service has a web presence at CapitolCorridor.org. “California is in a financial mess, but it somehow ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Down Under Now Cheaper - Falling Australian dollar makes accommodations (and beer) cheaper. Yesterday I wrote about how the rising U.S. dollar is creating winners and losers in the domain name world. Today I received an email from TRAFFIC Down Under, the domain conference taking place in Australia next month, illustrating how the falling Australian Dollar makes the trip a lot more affordable for people traveling from the United States: Currently, with the weak Australian dollar, it is very ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Mardi Gras to Focus on Risk Management - Domainers head to New Orleans to learn about risk management (and partying). Modern Domainer Magazine’s Domainer Mardi Gras will take place in New Orleans February 19-21, 2009. The event is produced by Modern Domainer with support from Parked.com and other sponsors. According to an advance copy of the agenda obtained by Domain Name Wire, the event will focus on risk management for domainers. The conference overview reads: The domain name industry witnessed dramatic ... read more ...
Tue 28th October 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Congressman Wants Google-Yahoo Deal To Be “Thoroughly Investigated” - Representative Joe Barton, a Republican from Texas, asked the Justice Department on Tuesday to “thoroughly investigate” antitrust and privacy issues in a search advertising partnership planned by Google and Yahoo. Barton expressed frustration at Yahoo’s response to questions, he and his staff posed about the deal, saying they “seemed designed to obscure rather than clarify how the Google-Yahoo deal would work.” Barton in a letter send to Thomas Barnett, head of the Justice Department’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Rules for New Domain Extensions Announced (gTLD’s) - Last week at the ICANN meeting in Cairo, a rule book for the new extensions, hundreds or maybe thousands of them was published. I wanted to take a few days to read through and I can now summarize these rules as follows: Application fee with be $185,000. In addition, applicants must pay registrar fees and the costs of addressing potential objections. The application fee also does not include the cost of running the domain once the application is finally approved. In the event that two or more qualified ... read more ...