Monthly Archives: February 2009

Tue 24th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How The Japanese Avoid Domain Names - Japanese find ways to navigate web even before IDNs. In an article titled “Domain names? We don’t need no domain names”, IDG News Service writer Martyn Williams explains how the Japanese use the search box in lieu of domain names. Instead of typing Google.com into their browsers, they search for Google at Yahoo. On the Yahoo site they type in “Google” to get taken to the home page, bypassing the address bar in their browsers and registering another search ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Woot Pokes Fun with 59 Character Domain - Clever ad pokes fun at single serving sites. Those guys at Woot, the one-a-day product showcase, sure are clever. Consider this advertisement on downforeveryoneorjustme.com: Woot is poking fun at so-called Single Serving web sites that do just one thing. Part of the irony is that this ad is on the single serving web site downforeveryoneorjustme.com, which let’s you know if a web site isn’t loading. Now I know what you’re thinking, you should rush out and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotMobi Steps Up Enforcement for Non-Compliant Domain Names - Registry to take additional measures against buyers who haven’t developed domain names. It’s taken a long time, but buyers of premium .mobi domain names appear to finally be developing their domain names. dotMobi says it will take additional measures against those who have not taken this step as required in their purchase agreement. I’ve written several times about lack of enforcement of dotMobi’s premium domain buyer rules, but the registry finally started ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Acquires RevenueDirect and Why It Makes Sense - Sedo has acquired RevenueDirect, Dotster’s domain name parking service. Sedo has acquired domain name parking company RevenueDirect. For established domain parking companies, acquiring another domain parking company usually doesn’t make sense. Parking companies rarely have long term contracts with customers, so the acquirer risks seeing acquired customers leaving the ship after a takeover. But this acquisition makes sense for a couple reasons: U.S. Dominance: ... read more ...
Mon 23rd February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
.TV Domain Sells For As Much As A 3 Letter .com on NameJet.com - Yes shocking, but true. A  .tv domain sold on NameJet.com for just $100 less than a three letter .com sold for the day before. Interracial.TV sold for $5,000 yesterday while GGK.com a very good three letter .com fetched just $5,100 the day before. Here are the other sales from NameJet.com over $1,000 that sold this weekend that were on my list interracial.tv Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2009 Domain Name Wire Survey Preview and Winners - The results are in… Last Friday at Domainer Mardi Gras I presented some of the results from the 2009 Domain Name Wire survey. Over the next couple weeks I’ll be tabulating and disclosing more results here on Domain Name Wire. This year 401 people participated in the survey. This was less than in prior years, but that’s for a reason. I only promoted the survey on this site and to the newsletter rather than taking out ads in forums and search engines. I found ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bido Sells FixedLoans.com for $5,459 - Famed domain name sells for $5,459. The domain name that brought down Bido.com — FixedLoans.com — has helped the auction service get back on the radar. Just moments ago the domain name sold for $5,459. FixedLoans.com attracted a lot of attention in August of last year, and the auction eventually caused Bido’s servers to crash. The company decided to take some time off to make the platform more scalable. In previous auctions bidding topped $5,000 before crashing. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
One More Reason Not to Move your Domain Names Offshore - Fred, In practice, you can read the NAF Model Complaint form here: http://domains.adrforum.com/resource.aspx?id=755 “The Complainant will submit, with respect to any challenges to a decision in the administrative proceeding canceling or transferring the domain name, to [b](choose one jurisdiction:[/b] a) the location of the principal office of the concerned registrar or b) where the Respondent is located, as shown by the address(es) given for the domain name holder in the Whois ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Uses Widgets.com as an Example - Google uses widgets.com as example domain name. Google is releasing a new policy for Adwords advertisers that will allow them to only use one second level domain per ad group. Instead of using DomainNameWire.com and DNW.com in the same ad group, I’d only be able to use one of these. If you read through its examples, Google manages to throw in Rick Schwartz’s domain name Widgets.com: For example, an ad group containing the following group of display URLs would ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Tasting 2.0 - The new era of domain tasting starts in April. “The end of domain tasting” “Domain tasting is dead” “ICANN shuts down domain tasting” You’ve heard it all before. But as I’ve pointed out, new rules designed to kill domain tasting starting in April won’t kill it. Curtail it, yes. But not kill it. In some ways, the new era of domain tasting parallels to other changes in the domain industry. What used to be very easy will now become difficult. Domain ... read more ...
Sun 22nd February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Hands All Geo gTLD Extensions Over To Governments & That’s Just The Start Of The Problems - When it comes to applying for a Geographic (GEO)  New gTLD, The Second draft of ICANN’s Guidebook makes it pretty clear that you better either do it with the underlying jurisdiction or their blessing in writing. We all know that the government of cities of New York (.nyc), Paris (.Paris) and Berlin (.Berlin) were at the forefront of pushing from the new gTLD’s to be apporved as they already have plans for launch of these extension and are counting on the funds they will generate to help fill ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Auction Picks Were 82% Accurate - My picks for the Aftermarket.com auction were right 82% of the time. I used a stunningly complex methodology to pick the winners in yesterday’s Aftermarket.com auction at Domainer Mardi Gras: I made a gut call on whether or not someone would bid on the name. Yep, that’s it. No complex algorithms. No looking up advertiser or traffic counts. Just making a call. I was right 82% of the time. I underestimated the number of domains that would sell. I predicted ... read more ...
Sat 21st February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Thinking About Applying For Your Own gTLD? It Could Cost You A Lot More Than $185K - Having reviewed the Second Draft of the New gTLD Guidebook released the other day by ICANN, it looks like if you are planning on applying for one of these new extensions, you better have a lot of cash on hand. We all know that the “Evaluation Fee” for a new gTLD has been set at $185,000. However that just where the money flow starts. Next there is a “Registry Services Review Fee”, if applicable, this fee is payable for additional costs incurred in referring an application to the RSTEP for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Company Acquisition News Tuesday; More Observations from New Orleans - Big news coming Tuesday. A domain name company acquisition will be announced on Tuesday. Check back then for the news. Here’s a roundup of yesterday’s events at Domainer Mardi Gras in New Orleans. First, a couple more observations: Someone forgot to put in crosswalks in New Orleans… If inflation gets out of control, I’m hedging my bet with cheap plastic beads. These things are a valuable currency… Yesterday was the first full day of Domainer Mardi Gras. ... read more ...
Fri 20th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Marchex Down Over 15% on Earnings - Marchex, Inc. one of the stocks in our Domain Parking Stock Index, is down over 15% today after reporting earnings, yesterday. Marchex as of noon is trading, at $4.25 down $.78 Last night after the market closed Marchex announced earnings for the 4th quater of 2008. Highlights from the earnings report were: Revenue was $34.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to $37.0 million for the same period of 2007. GAAP net loss applicable to common stockholders was $128.7 million ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICA: Trademark Holders Attempting To Greatly Expand Their Rights Through The New gTLD Process - Trademark interests, like CADNA,  are actively trying to use the new gTLD process, to obtain substantial changes in current trademark protection to greatly expand their existing rights. Of greatest concern is the fact that they are seeking: 1.   A global brand registry, that has the potential to expand trademark rights well beyond the bounds of current law, by giving special protection to trademark owners’ “virtual rights” beyond the relevant marketplace and geographic restrictions of Trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in ES and tagged
177 millones de dominios registrados -   El número total de dominios registrados al finalizar el 2008 fue de 177 millones lo que representó un incremento del 16% en relación al 2007. Los dominios registrados siguen aumentando año tras año y aunque el “.com” y el “.net” siguen siendo los más solicitados, la suma de todos los dominios nacionales (conocidos como ccTLDs) ya representan casi el 50% del total. Según los datos facilitados por Verisign, los “.com”, “.net” y “.org” suman 90,4 millones mientras ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
LeatherSofa.com Tops Another 100k+ In Sales At NameJet.com - Well its another $100K+ performance over at NameJet.com this week. Over the last 4 days, just on the domains I follow, I counted 33 domains selling for over $1,000 each, for a total of $128K.  This works out to an average of just under $4K per domain, not bad in a week that has seen the stock market fall to a six year low. The top selling domain on my list, LeatherSofa.com which sold for a comfy $17,100. Here is a list of just the domains I followed, also please note that none of these are re-auctioned ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2009 Domain Name Wire Survey Results - A look at some of the results from the 2009 Domain Name Wire survey. Today during lunch at Domainer Mardi Gras I presented some of the results from the 4th annual Domain Name Wire Survey. The results I shared were mostly related to risk management and security (the focus of the conference). More results will be released on Domain Name Wire in coming weeks. You can view the presentation here (pdf). To summarize: Registrars: the most important things people consider ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 Observations from New Orleans - Here are some observations and a recap after one day in New Orleans for Domainer Mardi Gras. First, some observations: It’s deliciously ironic to hold a risk management-focused conference during Mardi Gras… Never eat a funnel cake covered in powdered sugar when wearing a black shirt… Having portable toilets every block or so during a drunken festival is a good idea… People wearing masks are scary when you’ve been drinking… It’s hard to hold a drink and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Handicapping a Aftermarket.com Auction - A preview of this Saturday’s domain name auction. Aftermarket.com, a Thought Convergence company, is holding a live domain name auction Saturday at Domainer Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The auction is already open for bidding online. The company put some unique twists on this auction. There will only be 50 domains, and every domain that sells for over $5,000 will be eligible for no interest financing for 6 months. It’s a neat idea, but we’ll see if it spurs ... read more ...
Thu 19th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
AfterMarket.com Auction: Our Picks & Analysis - Aftermarket.com will hold a live domain auction from the  Domainer Mardi Gras show, in New Orleans on Saturday February 21st at 3:45pm EST, 12:45 PST. Remote bidding will be available for those not in attendance. According to my records, storagefacility.com sold for $18,000 at TRAFFIC West in 2008.  I don’t know if the domain sale closed and if its the new owner or original owner selling it, but in either event, its a domain which is priced 20% of what is sold for less than a year ago, making ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
ICANN Releases New gTLD Guide Book: Still Includes No Price Caps: Your Domains Are At Risk - ICANN released its second draft of guide book for the New gTLD’s today. You can download the pdf version here by clicking here. As one of the most knowledgeable people on ICANN matters, George Kirikos points out on on his post on Circleid.com: “”There continue to be no price caps in place to protect registrants (see section 2.9). “””This is a backdoor way of allowing existing registry operators (e.g. com/net/org/biz/info) to get unlimited pricing power for existing domain names through ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bido.com Back In Action Today: Here’s What You Need To Know - Bido.com the unique 1 domain a day auction platform, returns to service today. As we all know the site was taken down for technical difficulties last year. Bido.com’s model of 1 domain a day all starting at $1, ensures a sale a day for the service and the domain holder.  The service saw a good deal of activity and had some nice sales last year in the four and five figures, and we expect it to return, better than ever. Some of the sale from last year included: You can list your domain for sale ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
It’s A Good Thing We Made It To The Playboy Mansion While Playboy’s Still Around - It’s looking like the Domainfest attendees, we were lucky to make it to the Playboy mansion while Playboy still around. Playboy Enterprises Inc (PLA), posted a wider fourth-quarter loss, hurt by $157.2 million in restructuring and other one-time costs, as well as weaker-than-expected revenues today. Playboy, which posted a net loss in each quarter of 2008, said it would be open to discussions about an outright sale of the company. Playboy lost $145.7 million in the 4th quarter alone, or $4.37 per ... read more ...