Our “BigUps” for 2008 - For our last post of the year, I thought I would out give out some credit for some of the achievements in the domain space for 2008, in no particular order:
Rick Schwartz. I have been involved with domains since 1997. If I had been blogging all along, I’m sure Rick would have made the list almost every year, and this year is no exception. Whether it’s his monster sales like ireport.com or his development deals like property.com and widgets.com, or his ability to create and operate a show ... read more ...
Monthly Archives: December 2008
Wed 31st December 2008
Peaches Uniforms Wants a Bite Out Of Peaches.com -
Uniform company files arbitration to get Peaches.com domain.
Peaches.com wouldbe sweeter.
Peaches Uniforms, a seller of fashion uniforms and scrubs to women in the medical industry, has filed an arbitration request with National Arbitration Forum to gain control of the domain name Peaches.com.
Peaches Uniforms, founded in 1987, filed for a trademark on the term Peaches for medical uniforms in 2006. The trademark was granted in April 2007.
Peaches.com was originally ... read more ...
2008 Domain Dunce Awards: Fired.com -
“Sorely misguided” complainant loses bid for Fired.com.
[This is the second Domain Dunce award for 2008. See the first one for Verizon.] What do you do if you want a domain that’s already registered and you don’t want to pay for it? Furthermore, you have no chance of winning a UDRP arbitration because the domain was registered years before your first use of the domain? And the domain is generic? And it isn’t infringing on your brand?
According to ... read more ...
Tue 30th December 2008
Know When To Hold & Know When To Fold - David Castello, pointed out to me today an update on a story we wrote about a back in October, about a Steven Thiele, a body builder, who registered a several domains of Indian tribes in Florida; miccosukeetribeofindians.com, miccosukeetribeofindiansofflorida.com and a domain named after tribe chairman Billy Cypress, billycypress.com.
In the October story, we pointed out that the domain holder was offered and turned down $100,000, insisting he wanted $500,000 for the domains. At the time we questioned ... read more ...
GoDaddy Donates $1.7 Million to Charity -
GoDaddy tops last year’s giving by $300,000.
With all of the negative news I’ve written about Go Daddy this year, it’s nice to end the year on an up note. Today the company announced that its total philanthropic giving for the year is $1.7M, topping last year’s $1.4M in giving. That’s about $1,000 per employee, a very respectable number.
Go Daddy supports a number of non-profits from local (Phoenix Children’s Hospital) to international (Make A Wish ... read more ...
Top 10 Domain Name Wire Stories of 2008 -
As the year crawls to a close, here’s a look back at the most viewed stories of 2008.
Good riddance.
That’s what most people are saying to 2008. After losing half their retirement savings, seeing the value of their homes plummet, and fearing for their futures, most people want to forget 2008 ever happened.
But the domain name world survived. Here are the top 10 stories on Domain Name Wire for the year ranked by number of views.
1. Standard Tactics, LLC: How ... read more ...
Mon 29th December 2008
Top Domains At SnapNames.com - The following domains are our top picks for backorders at Snap.
You can simply click on the link to backorder:
987.net
antisocial.com
babywebcam.com
bargained.com
chemotherapy.net
cif.com
condition.net
dexe.com
illegal.net
imode.com
ladder.net
mecca.net
multimediacard.com
premiumgifts.com
shed.net
sportsticket.com
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
YP.Com Sold to Yellow Pages For $3,850,000 - According to SEC filing, a public company Live Deal Inc. (NASDAQ:LIVE), sold the domain YP.com, on November 5, 2008, to YellowPages.com LLC for $3,850,000.
The domain, according to the company, was an active site and was the source of ongoing revenues from the sale of Internet Advertising Packages.
The site current is branded as Yellow Pages.com
The Seller is now using the domain LiveDeal.com
No doubt a significant part of the purchase price was due to the revenue derived by the site, but still ... read more ...
MartinLutherKing.org: Make’s a Best Case For Defensive Domain Registrations - A story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution point out how important it is for all businesses and “famous” persons to engage in defensive domain registrations.
The story tells the tale of MartinLutherKing.org, which is owned and operated “””by a white supremacist group called Stormfront, described by one watchdog organization as the largest “hate group” online. It has used King’s name for its Web address since 1999.”””
Unfortunately according to the article if you type the term ... read more ...
Our Predictions For 2009 - To say the least 2008 has been an interesting year, in the domain world, and well beyond.
Here are out predictions for 2009, in no particular order:
1. The Kentucky Domain Seizure Order Will Be Reversed By The Kentucky Court of Appeals.
The Governor of Kentucky’s action in seizing 141 gambling domain names was unconstitutional from the start, and we expect early next year, that the Kentucky Court of Appeals will reverse the ruling. On the other hand, if the appellate court affirms the decision ... read more ...
2008 Domain Dunce Awards: Verizon -
Verizon likes to play both sides of the fence. For that we give it an award.
With just a few days left in 2008, I thought I’d write about a couple of the more egregious stories in domain names this year. Think of it as the dumbest moments in domains.
The first winner is telecom giant Verizon (NYSE: VZ).
Verizon, a member of Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), aggressively pursues cybersquatters that infringe on its trademarks. There’s nothing wrong ... read more ...
The Perils of Trying to Go Public -
NameMedia’s withdrawn IPO more painful than it looks.
It may appear that NameMedia’s decision last week to to drop its planned initial public offering is just a temporary setback. Aside from the costs of filing its S-1 to go public, going on the investor roadshow, and obliging quite period regulations, did it really cost the company anything? The answer is yes. And it’s not the time, money, or decreased morale that hurts the most. It’s the disclosure.
By ... read more ...
Sat 27th December 2008
Amazon Has it’s “Best Ever” Shopping Season -
Although overall Retail sales during the shopping were down 5.5%, Amazon called its 2008 holiday shopping season “the best ever”.
Amazon.com today announced the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second.
“We are extremely grateful to our customers,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming ... read more ...
Fri 26th December 2008
iPhone/iTouch Accounts For a Bigger % of Internet Traffic Than Chrome? - The Silcon Valley Insider, (the blog) is reporting that 5% of the traffic to its site on Christmas from the Apple iPhone or the iPod touch browser.
According to Google analytics, visits to the blog accounted for more than 5% of visits to the blog on Christmas day.
Specifically, 3.22% of their visits came from the iPhone’s Safari browser on Dec. 25, and 2.00% came from the iPod touch, for a total of 5.22% share.
That is up 90% from last Christmas, when 2.39% of their visits came from the iPhone ... read more ...
NY Times: Online and Print Ad Revenue Down - The New York Times Company, announced today that total revenues for the company had fallen 13.9% in November compared with a year ago.
Ad revenues were down 20.9%.
Most worrisome: Internet revenues, long seen as the potential salvation for the company’s future as more of the world’s news audience migrates online, slid along with print.
Even though the company’s flagship Web site, NYTimes.com, got a 10% traffic boost in November, total Internet revenues decreased 2.6% and Internet advertising ... read more ...
8 Domain Name Blogs in My RSS Reader -
A look at domain name blogs I read frequently.
Earlier this year I published a list of blogs that I subscribe to. That list has changed somewhat over the year because some blogs have disappeared and others emerged.
I generally subscribe to a domain blog’s RSS feed if I find it insightful. A rehash of news articles does little for me. Analysis or an interesting angle is important. I also require a blog to be around for more than a few months before I subscribe, ... read more ...
How .Gov Domain Names Work -
.Gov domain names are highly restricted domains. Here’s how they work.
Yes, it’s a slow newsweek. Save for a $33 million cybersquatting judgment and NameMedia pulling its IPO, not much goes on in a holiday week.
So here’s another post I saved for a slow newsweek like this. Earlier this week I reviewed .edu domain names including who could register them. In this article we’ll take a look at .gov.
.Gov is a top level domain name reserved exclusively for ... read more ...
Thu 25th December 2008
Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays - Wishing all of you my best wishes for a great holiday.
Maybe we all learned this past year to value the important things in life, family and love.
Enjoy
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Wed 24th December 2008
Court Awards Verizon Record $33 Million Dollar Judgment In a Cybersquatting Case - In the largest cybersquatting judgment ever, a federal court in the Northern District of California has awarded Verizon $33.15 million in a case in which an Internet domain registration company tried to take advantage of Verizon and Verizon customers by using Internet names chosen to be easily confused with legitimate Verizon names.
The default ruling came in a case filed by Verizon against OnlineNIC, a company based in San Francisco that had unlawfully registered at least 663 domain names that were ... read more ...
Verizon Wins $33 Million in Cybersquatting Case -
Verizon wins default judgment against top 15 domain registrar.
Customers of OnlineNic, Inc., a top 15 domain registrar with over 1,000,000 domains registered, should be concerned about the state of the registrar after a judge ordered the company to pay $33 million to Verizon (NYSE: VZ).
A judge entered the default judgment of $50,000 for each of the 663 domain names OnlineNic owned that allegedly infringed Verizon’s trademarks. OnlineNic didn’t respond to the ... read more ...
Scarlett Johansson Wins ScarlettJohansson.com Domain Name -
Actress wins domain name at WIPO.
Actress Scarlett Johansson has won rights to the domain name ScarlettJohansson.com in an arbitration decision at World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Johansson has starred in numerous movies including Lost in Translation, Match Point, and The Ghost Whisperer and been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards.
The details of the domain name arbitration case are rather interesting. Apparently the owner of the domain, ... read more ...
Tue 23rd December 2008
How .Edu Domain Names Work -
.Edu has strict eligibility requirements for post secondary education institutions.
Utexas.edu. Phoenix.edu. London.edu. All of these domains belong to accredited post secondary education institutions and use the .edu top level domain name. This article will review the requirements for registering a .edu domain name.
Administrator: The U.S. Department of Commerce awarded Educause the administration of .edu domain names in 2001 and its agreement currently runs ... read more ...
Mon 22nd December 2008
SolarEnergy.com Bought For $1.6 Million? - According to a press release today, Solar Energy Initiatives, Inc. (OTCBB:SNRY), in announcing its financial results for the quarter ending october 31, 2008, states:
“”””In the first quarter of 2008, capital expenditures were approximately $1.6 million, the majority of which was related to the acquisition of business assets, primarily the solarenergy.com domain name.”””
I have no heard or read about the sale of this domain, but it certainly reads as if this domain was ... read more ...
3/31/09: Death of Domain Tasting (Or is it?) -
Domain tasting is down, and will take another hit in March. But that may not be the end of it…
Domain tasting — the practice of registering a domain to test for traffic and deleting it for a refund within a specified grace period — is down 84% since ICANN inacted a budget measure to make the scheme more expensive. But that was just a temporary fix. By March 31, 2009, all registrars will face even harsher penalties for engaging in the practice. But as I detail ... read more ...
ICANN Releases Upgraded Invalid Whois Reporting System -
New system improves submissions and tracks registrar compliance.
ICANN has updated its Whois Data Problem Report System (WDPRS), which anyone can use to submit reports of inaccurate whois information on a domain name.
According to ICANN, the new system offers many improvements:
* More detailed information is captured from complainants to assist registrars in investigating Whois inaccuracies
* Duplicate reports regarding the same domain name are not accepted by the ... read more ...