Monthly Archives: February 2009

Thu 19th February 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Toys.com To Be Auctioned Feb 27 - Minimum bids, asset purchase agreement, and 10% deposit required by February 25. In the continuing saga of Toys.com, a new auction will be held February 27. The domain name was originally won at a bankruptcy auction earlier this month for $1.25M by Faculty Lounge Partners. However, another party indicated it may be willing to pay more for the domain name. Faculty Lounge, of which domain name lawyer Ari Goldberger is a partner, will be the stalking horse bidder ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Issues Latest New gTLD Guidebook - ICANN responds to comments from first draft guidebook. [I’m on a plane to New Orleans so have had little time to review ICANN’s many documents released today. But here’s a summary.] After receiving hundreds of comments, mostly requesting major changes or clarifications to the original draft of the new TLD handbook, ICANN has made a good effort to acknowledge the comments. It released a 154 page analysis of the comments received and its response to them. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Baaaaaack! Bido.com Relaunches Today - Domain name auction platform relaunches after long hiatus. Remember Bido? Yeah, I know, it’s been a long time. The once a day domain name auction house launched to much buzz only to be sidelined by technical snafus. After a long (and I mean long) wait, Bido finally rears its head again today. When you log into Bido, you won’t notice a bunch of new features. Most of the work has been on the back end. But there are some neat twists, all designed to get the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Median End User Domain Name Sales Price $1200 - NameMedia provides data on the SMB end user market for domain names. Earlier this month I reported that the median sales price for domain names at Sedo last year was $500. I pointed out that this number represents a mix between end user sales and investor sales. If you’re looking for a better number for the small and medium business end user market, look no further. NameMedia, which focuses on the SMB end user market through BuyDomains and other market channels, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domainer Mardi Gras Starts Today - New domain industry event kicks off this evening. I’m off to New Orleans for Domainer Mardi Gras, a new domain industry event organized by Modern Domainer Magazine. Thursday night’s festivities include a cocktail reception and crawfish boil. Too bad I don’t eat seafood. I’m giving two presentations. First, I’ll provide some of the results from the 2009 Domain Name Wire survey during lunch on Friday. Ron Jackson will be giving a sales update during the ... read more ...
Wed 18th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN: Roll Out Of New gTLD’s Running Behind - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) admitted today that its plans to launch new generic top-level domains (g’TD’s) is running behind schedule.According to ICANN, it is currently investigating a number of technical and economic issues surrounding the introduction of gTLDs. These include determining whether there’s enough space on the Domain Name Servers to handle the potential influx, the cost of registration and the potential market impact. The gTLDs were intended ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Yahoo Wins PPC KeyWord Ad Case - A federal court has handed Yahoo a victory in a lawsuit stemming from a dispute about pay-per-click ads. The case, questioned whether Yahoo should have allowed a keyword allegedly associated with one company to trigger an ad for a rival. High-end meat retailer Heartbrand Beef, based in Yoakum, Texas, says it’s the only U.S. seller of “Akaushi” beef, or beef from cattle that were descended from a breed originally from Kumamoto, Japan. The Texas company alleged that a rival beef marketer, Lobel’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
FaceBook Suspends It’s New Terms Of Service - Facebook.com has suspended the new Terms Of Service (TOS), it imposed unilaterally on February 4th, without notice, and reported about here, a couple of days ago. Facebook.com, facing a storm of complaints from consumer and privacy groups over the new TOS (you can read our post the other day for exact details) which among other things, gave Facebook.com, the ownership of all content uploaded to it, forever, to do with as they please. On the front page of Facebook.com there is not the following statement ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Check The Laws Of The Host Country Before Dealing In ccTLD’s - Before jumping into the ccTLD game, remember that these domains, being country codes, are subject to rules and conditions placed on them by the host country. For example both Canada (.ca) and the European Union (.eu) have presence requirements for domain holders. China (.cn) regularly shuts down sites which violate state rules against porn and political thought.  Government action can be taken in these countries just on domain names. In the US you can register bushsucks.com but don’t expect to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Off Topic: It’s Time for Personal Responsibility - It’s time Americans agree to take responsibility. I was playing out in the yard with my daughter this afternoon when I stepped in a pile of some dog’s poop. I lost my cool, which is unusual for me. After cleaning off my shoes and regaining control, I asked myself why I lost my temper. Then it hit me: I’m tired of people not taking responsibility. One of my neighbors wasn’t responsible and didn’t pick up after his dog. And I paid the price. All day, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign to Pay $6M More to ICANN in FY 2010 - Proposed budget includes increased contractual fee from VeriSign. Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published its Proposed Framework for FY10 Operating Plan and Budget (pdf). ICANN’s Financial Year 2010 runs July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Despite the possibility of declining domain registrations, ICANN will get a $6 million windfall thanks to a fixed fee provision in its dotcom agreement with VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). VeriSign will ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hells Angels Sue Alleged Cybersquatter for $2 Million - Clearly ignorant cybersquatter can now answer question “What’s the worst that can happen?” There are two types of cybersquatters: big, systematic cybersquatters and small, just-don’t-know-any-better cybersquatters. Sometimes it’s the big guys that get hit with lawsuits, but a recent case shows even the small time cybersquatter can be hit hard. That’s the case of Fawn and Terry Myers, who are named in a lawsuit alleging they registered about 20 domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign: 177 Million Domain Names Registered - Latest industry brief shows rate of domain registration growth slowing. VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) has released its latest Domain Name Industry Brief (pdf), which shows an all time high of 177 million domain names in existence. Although the total base of domains is growing, the growth rate is falling. The total base of domain names increased only 2% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the third quarter. New registrations in the fourth quarter totaled 10.1M, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Toys.com Back On Auction; May Sell for Over $1.25M - Toys.com will be auctioned again; Faculty Lounge will be stalking horse bidder. Domain Name Wire has learned that the sale of Toys.com has been halted by the bankruptcy court and the domain name will be auctioned again. Faculty Lounge, the company that won the domain name at auction earlier this month, will be a stalking horse bidder in the auction. Eli Columbus, a shareholder in Winstead PC’s Business Restructuring/Bankruptcy Practice Group (which is not involved ... read more ...
Tue 17th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Owners Of ThePirateBay.org On Criminal Trial - ThePiratebay.org, with an estimated 22 million users, is one of the most visited torrent sites on the Internet. Torrent sites basically list content that is available for download from other sites. As you might guess, much of the listed content involves copyrighted material, like Hollywood movies, music videos, songs, software, video games and other protected works. Sweden brought criminal charges against, 3 defendant’s that administer the site, and one other that helped finance it. The case stems ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoDaddy.com Still Growing & Hiring - With daily news of layoffs by the ten’s of thousands, and business closings topping the news,  it’s great to see a company that is actually expanding in this lousy economy and it’s excellent news that it is in our industry. According to the Phoenix Business Journal, GoDaddy Group is expanding it Scottsdale headquarter by about 21,000 square feet. The space will house additions to the company’s customer care center and to house additional product developers. Godaddy.com has seen its work ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge: DONE Ventures’ Domain Purchase is Done Deal - Bankruptcy judge approves sale of domain names to DONE! Ventures. Earlier today, U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Brendan L. Shannon handed down an order affirming the sale of a number of eToys’ domain names to DONE! Ventures. The domains included in the $200,000 deal are: birthdays.com birthdays.net birthdays.org birthday.net ebirthdays.com e-birthdays.com e-birthdays.net happybirthdays.com eparties.com pinata.com The domain name whois records for these domains still ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DevHub Opens to Public - Web site creation system open to new registrations. DevHub, an online web site creation system, is finally open to new users. DevHub allows users to create web sites using a simple, drag-and-drop system. Using dozens of APIs, users can add real estate listings, local search results, advertisements, and job listings into their web sites by literally dragging them onto the page. Examples of web sites created with DevHub include BankProfiles.com, InvestmentsofWashington.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Stats Delay Hits Domain Parking Companies - Delay in revenue stats hits major domain name parking companies. A domain name parking stats delay from Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) has hit a number of domain name parking companies, preventing them from providing final parking stats to customers for the past few days. Yahoo is one of the biggest domain name advertising feed providers. The outage appears to have started late last week when parking companies started to notify customers of stats delays (or simply not update ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia Upgrades Parking Platform - NameMedia improves stats and landers for its three domain parking programs. NameMedia, parent company of BuyDomains and Afternic, has released several improvements to its three domain name parking platforms: GoldKey, ActiveAudience, and SmartName. The improvements span three areas: 1. Reporting – improvements to reduce timeout issues and site downtime and improvements to data discrepancy reporting. This includes a move to a new data center as well as database ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arbitrator: Viacom is a Jackass - Arbitrator decides Viacom shouldn’t get Jackass.com. “We look like Jackasses.” This is a follow up to a story Domain Name Wire first published in December. Viacom (NYSE: VIA.B), parent company of MTV, filed a UDRP complaint to get the domain name Jackass.com. As I pointed out then, Viacom had an uphill battle. Not only is the term Jackass generic, but it was facing an domain registrant that wouldn’t step down. In fact, Viacom is lucky that it lost this ... read more ...
Mon 16th February 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
NY Governor Proposes Tax on All Downloads Including itunes and Porn - I warned last year that state governments desperately looking for new sources of revenue would look to place taxes on downloads including songs and videos from itunes. Today the Governor of New York David Patterson, announced he is proposing a tax on all on Internet downloads. The so-called “iPod tax”,  would levy a 4% tax on all music and video downloads, including porn. According to reports the only holdup maybe some New York Republican who don’t like the idea that the state would be making ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
FaceBook Users Beware: All The Content You Put On FaceBook Belongs To Them, Forever! - Facebook.com’s  terms of service (TOS) was just updated less than 2 weeks ago. Before the update, the TOS, provided that when you closed an account on FaceBook.com, any original content you uploaded to your FaceBook profile would expire. No more. Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. If you close your account Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. FaceBook can even sublicense ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trademark Holders Continue to Reclaim .Me Domain Names - Sprite.me and Firefox.me go back to their rightful owners. When .me launched to the general public last year, it was clear that a lot of people hadn’t heard of cybersquatting. Domain names like Porsche.me, Toyota.me, and Firefox.me were snapped up (and not my their familiar namesakes). Many of these domains were picked up at auction for a substantial amount of money. Why did .me attract so many deep pocketed cybersquatters? I can only surmise that .me attracted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Perspective: The Domain Industry is Doing Fine - When you put the current situation in perspective, the domain name industry is buzzing along nicely. Let’s face it, 2008 wasn’t the best year in the domain industry. It certainly wasn’t as good as 2007 on a whole. Nor 2006. But what about compared to 2004? The reason we’re down in the dumps about domaining is that the industry was doing very, very well for a couple years, so domainers lost perspective. Perspective is important. Today I filled up my gas ... read more ...