Monthly Archives: December 2008

Mon 15th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
“Dear Press, we am a Cybersquatter” - Here’s one of the reasons the mainstream press doesn’t characterize legitimate domainers fairly. Last week there was quite a media frenzy about a company that sold GeorgeWBushLibrary.com back to the previous owner who let it expire. Michael Berkens pointed out that it’s stories like this that get people interested in cybersquatting* themselves. Berkins may be right. Did the recent media frenzy prompt another cybersquatter to announced a celebrity name s(he) ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Partners Question Company’s Domain Parking Decision - Google’s Adsense for Domains partners question Google’s moves. In business lingo it’s called a channel conflict. Imagine times were still good in auto sales and you wanted to start a Cadillac dealership. You paid Cadillac a hefty franchise fee, spent several million dollars building a showroom, and then bought a couple hundred cars as inventory. Then one day Cadillac contacted you and said, “Thanks for all of your help. We’ve decided we’ll begin selling ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito Joins Tucows Board - Joi Ito joins Tucows Board of Directors. Creative Commons CEO, technologist, and venture capitalist Joi Ito has joined domain registrar Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) Board of Directors. In addition to serving as Creative Commons’ CEO, Ito is CEO and founder of Neoteny Co. Ltd, a venture capital firm investing in Internet technologies and services, and Kula Co., Ltd., an internet software company. Mr. Ito is the Chairman of Six Apart Japan, a weblog software company; ... read more ...
Sun 14th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Scotland Looking For It’s Own Extension: Will New gTLD’s Hurt The Value Of Existing Country Code Domains - A government studey in Scotland, found almost 60% of organizations there, and more than 80% of those questioned worldwide, support the idea of Scotland having it own gTLD, when they are released late next year. Suggested addresses are .sco or .scot, which would create an alternative to the current .co.uk. First Minister Alex Salmond commented on the survey, saying: “I think in terms of the profile of Scotland internationally, in the modern world, probably your domain name is one of the key characteristics ... read more ...
Sat 13th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Open Letter To ICANN: Our Take On a New Domain Extensions - As we wrote a few days ago, Monday is the last day for submitting your comments on the New domain extensions, the gTLD’s, which is an incredibly important issue for all domain holders. It effects all domain holders because the rules that are applied to the new gTLDs can be used to amend existing contracts for all existing extensions.  So even if you have no interest in acquiring any new gTLD domains, you still need to be interested in the contract under consideration. As we stated in our previous ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Appeals Court Hears Arguments On Domain Seizure Case - However, the forfeiture hearing has been stayed, pending a ruling from the Court of Appeals. In oral arguments Friday, lawyers representing six domain names, two online gambling trade groups and The Poker Players Alliance said the Commonwealth’s action is legal and constitutional flawed. They focused on four arguments: ■ Wingate does not have jurisdiction to allow the state to seize domains registered in other countries where gambling is legal. ■ Domain names are not gambling devices. ■ ... read more ...
Fri 12th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Outing Buyers Of Trademarked Domains - Last week we wrote about two domains that were at auction at TDNAM. Both of which were obvious trademark infringing domains, and both of which had high reserve prices, due to the fact that they had a lot of traffic, and were generating substantial PPC earnings. Last week we attacked GoDaddy.com for this practice, bascially selling trademarked domains for their anticiated earnings and then sticking the money in its pocket. Now its time to out the buyers of those 2 domains. EdHardyClothing.com (bought ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
United Internet Buys Domain Registrar for EUR 34M - United Internet bulks up by 1.1 million domain names. United Internet AG, parent company of 11 and Sedo, has purchased domain registrar united-domains AG from LYCOS Europe for about EUR 34M. The final transaction price will depend on united-domains AG’s financial results for 2008. united-domains AG manages about 1.1 million domain names for 180,000 customers, and is Germany’s second largest domain registrar. The company was founded in 2000 and is still run ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Could Use Domain Channel to Get Leg Up in Search - Is Microsoft looking to buy into the domain market? It could be a winning strategy. You may have read a few rumors lately that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may be getting into the domain name business. The last time I talked to a Microsoft representative on the record, he said the company was very interested in the domain channel but had no immediately plans to provide an ad feed to parked domains. Would Microsoft be so bold as to buy up hundreds of thousands of generic ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker MaxLock Gets Maxed Out - New Portfolio MaxLock covers more and costs less. In September I wrote about MaxLock, a new product from Moniker that improved the security of domain names by making it harder to transfer domains out. Just recently CheckFree.com had its domain hijacked when someone logged in to CheckFree.com’s Network Solutions account and changed the nameservers. Fabulous has a free product called Executive Lock that would have prevented this hijacking. Now Moniker has put ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How “Google Direct” May Hurt You in a Long Run - Google Adsense for Domains’ mass-market approach will strain domain name industry. Almost all of us were surprised today when Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it was opening up its Adsense for Domains program. It used to offer domain advertising relationships only to people with massive traffic, then it shut down the application process completely, and now it’s offering it up to anyone with a domain. From talking to a couple sources, it sounds like Google partners ... read more ...
Thu 11th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
So Much For Google Dropping The Domain Channel - A few months ago the industry was on its heels, troubled by reports on some blogs that Google was about to drop the domain channel from its PPC programs. Today with Google’s announcement that it is actually opening AdSense for all domain owners, directly through Google, regardless of traffic levels, all domain holders should take a collective breath of fresh air. Here’s some of our thoughts: Some will think this will hurt Paring companies using Google’s feed. Let’s remember that all feeds ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
This is Why People Squat On Domains: GeorgeWBushLibrary.com Sold Back For $35K - Yuma Solutions, the developer of the site GeorgeWBushLibrary.com, let the domain registration lapse and a a company in Raleigh NC, Illuminati Karate, picked up the domain off a drop list, registered it for $10 and sold to back to the developers for $35,000. George Huger, lead Web developer for Illuminati Karate is quoted as saying: “It worked out very well” Mark Mills, owner of Yuma Solutions, could not be reached for comment. The Tallahassee, Fla.-based Yuma Solutions has a history with the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Changes Severance Bonuses To Help A Sale - According to a regulatory filing that was made to settle a shareholder lawsuit, Yahoo overhauled a severance program it passed earlier this year to thwart an unsolicited buyout bid by Microsoft. The plan promised generous cash and stock benefits to virtually all of Yahoo’s nearly 14,000 employees if they were fired, took a pay cut or resigned after being involuntarily reassigned to another job within two years of a takeover. The sweeping coverage would have cost Microsoft an additional $462 million ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
New President Of Microsoft Online, Speaks - Microsoft published a QA with Qi Lu, who was hired as president of Microsoft’s Online Services Group. “””””Lu will lead Microsoft’s efforts to expand and strengthen its search and online advertising efforts. Lu comes to Microsoft four months after leaving Yahoo!, where he most recently held the position of executive vice president of Engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group.”” Some of the more interesting quotes in the release: “””the Web as a platform for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Offers Domain Parking Direct to Publishers [UPDATED] - Google lets customers bypass DomainSponsor, Sedo, and other domain parking companies. [See update at bottom with latest information.] In a surprising move, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is now offering Adsense publishers the opportunity to park their domains directly with Google, rather than using a second-tier provider such as DomainSponsor or Sedo. Domain Name News caught on to this official Google post earlier today. I’m personally shocked at this move, given the retreat ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous’ Executive Lock Would Have Saved CheckFree.com - Service prevents nameserver changes without multiple levels of confirmation. In light of the CheckFree.com nameserver “theft” last week, I opined that registrars must offer added security for important domain names. Specifically, important domain names should require more than just a username and password in order to change the nameservers. It turns out at least one registrar has an official product offering to do just that: Fabulous offers Executive Lock. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Wire on Go Daddy Radio Show - I’ll have an open talk with Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons next week. I’ve written a lot of good things about domain registrar GoDaddy over the past few years. But I’ve also called the company out numerous times when it did no-so-good things: such as Standard Tactics. Yesterday Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons called me to talk about Standard Tactics and invite me to be his guest on next week’s Radio GoDaddy show. I accepted the offer. On Today’s Radio Go Daddy show, ... read more ...
Wed 10th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Another Waste Of A Great Domain: Network.com - According to a story published today Sun Microsystems acquired the domain “network.com” when its purchased a company, StorageTek. For a year or so, the domain has been the portal to Sun’s internet-based grid computing service. Now, the URL has a “what do you want to see” page up, pending a possible relaunch. Sun’s senior VP of the Cloud Computing Business Unit, Dave Douglas, says “we still have a lot of customers using it,” he admits that “it’s not an active development focus ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Zappy Interviewed By Israel’s “Globes” Business Publication - Globes Online, a business pubication in Israel published a story and interview with, Mike “Zappy” Zapolin, one of the most successful domainers in the industry. The interview covers many of Zappy’s success stories, like Diamond.com, Shop.com, Computers.com, Music.com, Insurance.com, Beer.com, Chocolate.com, Jeans.com, and Patent.com, along with Andrew Miller, with whom he created Internet Real Estate Group. My favorite quote from the story is: “In 2001, I wasn’t worried about the bubble, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Connect Connects Domainers - Social networking tool for domainers not limited to DOMAINfest attendees. As part of its DOMAINfest Global domain conference, DomainSponsor has launched an online social networking platform called DOMAINfest Connect. It is open to everyone: attendees, potential attendees, and people who just want to network with other people in the domain industry. DOMAINfest Connect is powered by introNetworks, a social networking platform provider. It’s easy to use and seems ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MTV: Don’t Be a Jackass - MTV wants Jackass.com. It better prepare for an uphill battle. Who are you calling a Jackass? MTV’s parent company Viacom (NYSE: VIA.b) filed for arbitration to get the domain name Jackass.com, a case that commenced at WIPO on December 5. There are two problems for Viacom: it’s a generic term and it’s owned by Future Media Architects. Jackass started as a TV show on MTV featuring people doing stunts and pranks. After running on MTV from 2000-2002 two Jackass ... read more ...
Tue 9th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
YouTube Hits 100 Million Viewers a Month - According to comScore: Google reached a record 100.5 million unique video viewers in October, up from 83.7 million six months ago. YouTube drew 99.5 million of those viewers. Hulu reached 24.0 million unique viewers in October. Fox Interactive Media video (myspace.com) reached 60.8 million people in October, up from 52.0 million in April. That’s a total of 180 million people watching a video on the net in one month, on just three sites. Any doubt on how powerful the internet is. Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
With Its Business Ethics Called Into Question, GoDaddy Shoots SuperBowl Commericals & Plans The Party Of The Year - After last weeks, revelation in the domainnamewire.com that Godaddy is warehousing domains, and our discussion of how this action is jeopardizing the whole domain industry, now we see where some of the ill gotten profits are going. GoDaddy shot two completely different SuperBowl ads this week near Los Angeles. Both concepts feature auto racing superstar and GoDaddy Girl Danica Patrick. “We have two options and they’re both absolutely…GoDaddy-esque,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
First iPhone Domain Registration App Released - I Want My Name, a domain registration and management platform from ideegeo Group LTD, released the first iPhone application which allows domain registration on the go. The iWantMyName DomainApp is a free search and registration tool for domain names in over 80 extensions. Its core features are: - Search for domain availability for the most popular top-level domains - Instant domain registration in a few seconds - Bookmark search results - Whois information lookup After installing the tool from Apple’s ... read more ...