Monthly Archives: January 2009

Thu 15th January 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
New Yahoo CEO: My Gut Tells Me Not To Sell - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that that during her first company meeting yesterday, new CEO Carol Bartz told employees,  her “gut” was telling her not to sell Yahoo’s search business to Microsoft. Moreover, according to the same report, Yahoo directors don’t feel “there’s any pressure at all,” to get the Microsoft deal done soon. Yahoo’s Shareholders “gut” feeling in reaction, has been to sell. Yahoo shares are down almost 8% today, more than double that the percentage ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Responds to Our Post on New gTLD’s: We’re “Not In It For The Money” - We wrote a post back on January 3rd about ICANN annual report. In chatting about ICANN plan to introduce hundreds or maybe thousands of new extension I commented, that in my opinion, the is little demand for the new extensions and that its seemed to be driven by ICANN to generate additional revenue. Kieren McCarthy, General manager of public participation, for ICANN has responded to the post and due to the importance of the response and the fact that ICANN rarely responds publicly, I have put this ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger Gets Win for FullTerm.com - Domain lawyer Ari Goldberger gets another win, but the panel creates a tough hurdle for reverse domain name hijacking. Domain lawyer Ari Goldberger successfully defended FullTerm.com in a UDRP dispute at National Arbitration Forum. The case pitted Hologic Inc, maker of a device to determine if a woman is likely to give birth before full term, against domain owner Vertical Axis Inc. Hologic didn’t apply for a trademark to the term “FullTerm” until 2006, claiming ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
[UPDATED] Oversee.net Lays Off 18% of Staff - Company lays off 18% of staff in preparation for “very difficult economic environment in 2009″. Domain Name Wire has confirmed that Los Angeles-based domain juggernaut Oversee.net is laying off employees today. From what we’ve been told it’s in the DomainSponsor division, but the layoffs may be more widespread. We are waiting on comment from the company regarding the number of effected employees. [See Update] The layoffs come just two weeks before the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Great Domains Auction Looks Promising - January’s Great Domains auction hopes to match last month’s total. After selling over $500,000 last month, January’s Sedo Great Domains auction kicked off earlier today and runs through January 22. Already two low priced but notable domains have met their reserves: Forgive.com at $4,999 and gaps.com at $2,350 (the latter started with no reserve). There are two two character .com domains in the auction with reserves between $50,000 and $100,000. One is PZ.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Google Squeeze: How Google’s Black Box Affects Partners’ Revenue - Google’s black box of ad pricing makes it impossible to understand if partners are getting a fair share. When Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) offered a “direct to consumer” domain parking option last month, many cheered. “Finally, we can cut out the middleman!” they exclaimed. But others worried about potential downsides. Specifically, domain owners realized that they have little bargaining power with Google compared to parking companies that aggregate significant ... read more ...
Wed 14th January 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Adult Auction Nets $160K - The Adult auction held at the Internext show in Las Vegas yesterday resulted in $160,200 in sales. In all 32 domains sold. Here is the complete list: peeing.com                        $31,000.00 footsex.com                       $16,000.00 licking.com                        $16,000.00 xxxcartoons.com               $11,000.00 littletits.com                      $10,000.00 fetishcams.com                 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bob Parson Gets Covered by INC. Magazine - In a new story appearing in Inc. Magazine, entitled “The Way I Work”, Bob Parson discusses his daily routine as head of the world’s largest domain registrar. Parson also discusses the first Super Bowl ads, and his idea for the Godaddy girl,  which he seems to credits in large part with taking Godaddy.com from a 16% market share to having by far the most domains under management. It’s an interesting profile of one of the most successful people in the domain space. To read the whole article ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames Awarded Domain Backordering Patent - Company awarded divisional patent covering business of expired domains and domain monitoring. Expired domain name service SnapNames, a subsidiary of Oversee.net, has been awarded U.S. Patent number 7,472,160, covering a broad array of expired domain services. The patent is a divisional patent filing that continues several filings made by the company earlier this decade. Among the areas of invention covered include: Domain monitoring and acquisition – monitoring ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC Approves Two Go Daddy Ads for Super Bowl - Approval comes well in advance of big game. Domain registrar GoDaddy has a history of butting heads with networks over its Super Bowl commercials. This year is no different, although NBC has given the green light for two GoDaddy ads well in advance of the big game. GoDaddy is asking customers to vote on which ad should show during the Super Bowl. During my radio interview with Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, he mentioned my criticism of the company for becoming to institutionalized. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SedoPro Increases Eligibility Requirements - Minimum requirement to apply increases to 1,000 domains or $300 monthly revenue. Domain parking provider Sedo has increased its minimum requirements to apply for SedoPro, its advanced parking program. The new requirement is 1,000 domains or $300 in monthly parking revenue. Meeting these minimum requirements does not guarantee acceptance into the program; Sedo also considers the quality of your domains and traffic. I’m not sure when this change happened, but I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Use WPReviewSite to Develop Domains Fast - Simple user review site creation develops domain names fast. These days every one is trying to develop their domains. But it’s easier said than done. My experience with ParkingJudge.com and RegistrarJudge.com shows that you can develop dynamic, user-generated content sites with little programming skills. Here’s something that may surprise you. Both of these sites were developed using blogging software WordPress. On top of WordPress, I used a simple plugin ... read more ...
Tue 13th January 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Blodget: Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Will Get Done Now - It has been reported by several sources, that now that Yahoo has a hired a New CEO, an search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo will be announced possibly by the end of this month. Henry Blodget a frequent writer on the internet industry just published a story in the Silicon Valley Insider, that now that Yahoo has a new CEO that a deal with Microsoft should get done and soon. “””Sources close to Microsoft (MSFT) said the company has readied its proposal to be floated to the Yahoo board. And ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Names Carol Bartz New CEO; President Decker Resigns - According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo is going to name Carol Bartz, former chief executive of software company Autodesk, as the company’s next CEO. Bartz was chairman, president and CEO of Autodesk for 14 years and stepped-down in April, 2006. During her tenure, the company diversified its product line and grew revenues from $285 million to $1.523 billion in FY06. Bartz previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, most recently serving as vice president of worldwide field operations and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Answers.Travel Sold For Over $3 Million? - In a press release today, travel411 says they acquired the domain Answers.Travel for a staggering, $3.3 Million dollars, in an all cash transaction, which closed in the third quarter of 2008. According to the release: “””””Answers.travel claims to have a network of over 20,000 travel help desks, concierge services, tour guides, and travel information desks in every major and smaller travel destination across the world. They seriously get all of your travel questions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ParkingJudge: Rate and Review Domain Parking Companies - Site gives domainers chance to rate domain name parking companies. I’ve met one of my New Years Resolutions thanks to the launch of ParkingJudge, where you can rate and review domain parking companies. The site works just like RegistrarJudge.com, which now has nearly 200 reviews of domain name registrars. Currently, there are very few quantified resources to figure out which domain parking services to use. There are forums, where people complain or pump up their ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com Must Stop “Call In” Practice by March - Transfer authorization code process will be easier under new ICANN policy. Under ICANN’s new Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars, which goes into effect March 15, Register.com will no longer be able to require customers to call the company to request transfer authorization codes. These codes are used to transfer domains to a different domain registrar. (See Register.com’s Customer Service Lie) The policy states “Registrars may not employ ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dubai.info Sells for $35,000 - Dubai.info one of highest .info domain sales ever. Despite falling oil prices, Dubai is still booming. Apparently someone believes it’s booming enough to plunk down $35,000 for Dubai.info, making it one of the highest reported sales of .info ever. According to NameBio, this sale would be number 5 on the all time .info sales charts. The buyer appears to be Markus Sonermo, according to updated whois reports. (The name of the owner and his email address is the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Named in Complaint to FTC - Amended complaint from consumer groups targets call tracking technology. The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (USPIRG) amended a petition to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today to launch an investigation into mobile advertising and privacy concerns. The report calls out domain name company Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) for its VoiceStar subsidiary. According to the complaint: …Marchex surreptitiously gathers data ... read more ...
Mon 12th January 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
What Will Happen To Domains Once PC’s Go To Touch Screens? - The Wall Street Journal, is reporting that Microsoft is following Apple’s iphone lead and working on similar technology, for personal computer screens,  that could eventually replace the computer mouse. N-trig Ltd., an Israeli start-up that makes touch-sensing screen hardware, is expected to announce that Microsoft is the largest investor in a $24 million round of funding that also includes several venture-capital firms. According to the Journal, Microsoft is investing in N-trig to quickly adapt ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Semantic Search Technology Advances from Ask.com - According to Ask.com blog, the company has been working hard on changing its search engine to give answers to questions rather than just search results. I think this goes back to the days of askjeves.com, which is what that search engine promised years ago. However according to the blog, Ask.com is getting closer: “””””For millions of everyday queries, there is one, simple, direct answer the user is seeking, but the current generation of search relegates consumers to sifting through links ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telnic Trips Up with Baidu.tel - Company touts first-come-first-served .tel rights, but it sends a mixed message. Telnic, the company behind the new .tel top level domain name, sent me a press release today touting that Baidu.tel had been awarded to Baidu Europe, a company that uses Baidu.eu. .Tel has a first-come policy for claiming trademark domain names during the sunrise message. The implicit message is that Baidu, the Chinese search engine, didn’t get the domain because it didn’t apply ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Brings Humor to Company Mistakes - The Go Daddy Group CEO Bob Parsons brings a laugh to last year’s controversial issues. Last week I saw in my RSS reader that GoDaddy had published its latest Bob Parsons video blog including his “ding dong” awards for the past year. I assumed that he wouldn’t bring up some of GoDaddy’s own “ding dongs”. But over the weekend I had a chance to watch the video, and was delighted to see Parsons included GoDaddy employees bidding at TDNAM auctions and Standard ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 Million .EU Domain Names Registered - .EU domain name registrations continue growth, but is it being used? The domain registration ticker at EURid, registry for .eu domain names, has crossed the 3 million domain name milestone. According to statistics from EURid, about 50,000-60,000 new .eu domain names are registered every month. Germany and the Netherlands outpace other European countries in .eu domain registrations. I think .eu has been a failure, but I’m curious to hear what people on the other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Listings Syndicated to 1&1 Internet, but… - Sedo domain listings are now on 11… but I can’t get it to work. Domains listed for sale on Sedo are now being offered to customers of 11 Internet, one of the largest domain registrars. Sedo and 11 are owned by the same parent company. However, the system for buying or requesting a price on a Sedo domain doesn’t appear to work. When you attempt to register a domain, 11 will show a list of related domains that are for sale at Sedo. In this example I searched ... read more ...