Monthly Archives: March 2009

Fri 27th March 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dell Buys Adamo.com Domain Name - Dell decides it should use the domain name Adamo.com for its new computer. When Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) launched its sleek new laptop called Adamo it overlooked one important marketing issue: it didn’t own the domain name Adamo.com. As we reported last week, the domain name was owned by Tucows (AMEX: TCX) in its Yummy Names organization. Apparently Dell saw the error of its ways. Domain Name Wire has confirmed that the computer manufacturer purchased the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PaintballGuns.com Auction Attracts Attention during eBay - eBay domain name auction attracting lots of bids. It’s unusual for a good domain name to be auctioned on eBay, but an auction for PaintballGuns.com has topped $20,000 with just three days to go. There is a reserve on the domain name and no indication from the seller about what it is, which means the auction could be for naught. But the reserve has already been lowered once, and could be lowered again to strike a deal. So how much is this domain name worth? Fortunately ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Are we an Armchair Domainer? - Second guessing and postulating isn’t just for football. Yesterday I read a guest post at Domain Name News titled “Armchair SEOs Play with Toys.com“. It was a good article about Toys.com losing its Google ranking, and how it’s easy to sit back and say “Toys ‘R’ Us” screwed up”. It’s easy to say that from the outside looking in, but we really don’t know the circumstances. It got me thinking about a lot of domainers out there that I’d describe ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The .Tel Search Engine Factor - Will .tel be good for search? I have my doubts. Checking in at forums and on comments at Domain Name Wire, it’s clear that a lot of people think .tel domain names could be a search engine gold mine. The premise is that the data on .tel domains is very structured, and Google can easily index it. Thus, if you get a good keyword.tel you can get traffic and include links to other web sites. This is true. But people expecting Wikipedia-like saturation and rankings ... read more ...
Thu 26th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
PimpThisBum.com: How A Homeless Man Holding A Sign Hauled In $50K - CNN.com reported on a site which raised $50,000 in less than 2 months, whose sole promotion was giving a homeless man a sign to hold with a Web site’s address. Sean Dolan and his father came up with a plan to drive traffic to his website PimpThisBum.com by simply giving Timothy Edwards, a homeless man,  a sign to hold while panhandling in Houston. Mr. Edwards, the homeless man was paid $100 cash, per day guaranteed to carry the homemade sign. “”””Their idea worked.  Visitors seeing the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
FREE Cool Tool To Analyze ALL Domain Drops - DropDay.com, is a cool FREE tool which attempts to  analyze all domain drops at SnapNames.com, NameJet.com, Godaddy.com, Pool.com and Afternic.com,  in a search-able database. So this tool should catch all “real true” expired dropping domains, as well as those registrars that drop their domains to a specific service, plus all privately sold domains through SnapNames.com and Afternic.com. In all according to DropDay.com,  there are between 120,000 – 170,000 daily dropping domains shown. All ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
A Non-Domainers Take On The New gTLD’s: “There Pointless” - In a article appearing in  Popular  Science, discussing Al Gore proposed .eco extension, the author takes a non-domainers look at the new gTLD extension and concludes: “””For domain names not associated with a trademark, who really cares about anything except “.com”?””” “””I think there’s this general sense that whoever lays claim to the “.com” version of a domain is the legit owner and everything else is suspect or secondary.””” “””How else can you explain ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Gambing For Glory: One Of Mike Mann Cool Companies Get Covered By Fox News - Michael Mann, legendary domainer, who since selling BuyDomains.com several years ago, has been busy developing business on and off the web. One of Mike’s companies, X3O Emerging Technologies, a storefront where gamers compete in cash, video game tournaments, was the subject of a 4+ minutes story on Fox News in Washington DC yesterday. To watch the video click here. Bottom line why are successful people, successful? They stay ahead of the curve, thinking of the next big thing. Domains last time. Professional ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Create Your .Tel Domain Name - A quick guide to getting your .tel domain name online. If you read Domain Name Wire frequently then you already know my opinion about .tel. But I know some people are getting into this, so I thought it would be worthwhile to register a .tel and share my experience. I registered my last name, allemann.tel, at Moniker for $14.95. The registration process was a little different from other domains. I had to provide whois info for my .tel domain, and had a choice ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Elizabeth Taylor Wants Her Name Back - ElizabethTaylor.com in dispute (again). Actress Elizabeth Taylor wants the domain name ElizabethTaylor.com and she (or her company) has filed a domain dispute with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name. But this isn’t the first time Taylor has tried to get the domain. In June of 2005 she filed for arbitration to get the domain name and lost. Part of the respondent’s defense was that the name Elizabeth Taylor is common. The panel actually decided ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Tel Tops 100,000 Registrations - New domain extension tops 100,000 registrations. The new .tel top level domain name now has 100,000 registrations, just one day after launching in general availability, registry operator Telnic announced. That’s certainly a good start, but the true test will be if Telnic’s non-domain registrar channels can deliver. If we assume an annual ongoing registration fee of $15 and that Telnic gets about half of that, 100,000 domains means $750,000 in revenue. With ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PopSci Author Points Out a Obvious About New TLDs - Tom Conlon understands what new TLDs are all about: nothing. Popular Science author Tom Conlon published an article today about .eco specifically, but mostly about the challenges any new top level domain faces. The headline of his article is appropriately named “A New Type of Domain Name, A New Waste of Money”. And for domain names not associated with a trademark, who really cares about anything except “.com”? Sure, a few sites like del.icio.us and last.fm ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Bracket Time: Domain Madness Auction Opens - Auction underway at Aftermarket.com. Domain Consultant’s Domain Madness auction is off and running at aftermarket.com. The auction features a wide range of domain names starting at $0 and going up to $1.65M. The auction concludes March 31. Domain Madness took a creative marketing approach to generate buzz for the auction. Going with the basketball March Madness theme, you could predict which domain names you expect to sell. The person who correctly predicts ... read more ...
Wed 25th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
YouTube.com Blocked In China, Again - According to news reports, YouTube.com has been blocked in China by the Government since Monday. “We do not know the reason for the blockage and we are working as quickly as possible to restore access to our users,” said Scott Rubin, a spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube. China has blocked the site before,  most recently in March 2008 during the riots in Tibet. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
NetworkSolutions.com Picks A New President - NetworkSolutions.com today announced that Tim Kelly will join the company as President on April 1st. According to the press release, Mr. Kelly joins Network Solutions from Sprint/Nextel where he was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). “I am very excited to have an executive of Tim’s caliber join our team. Tim’s marketing expertise, broad operational acumen and deep experience around the customer make him uniquely qualified to lead us into the next phase ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Politics or Porn: Depends On The Extension You Type - In a yet another example of how you can get embarrassed if you fail to do a complete domain check, prior to launching a internet campaign, the Liberal party of Canada just learned the hard way. Canada’s official opposition party, launched a website, OnProbation.ca, on Monday to “make sure that Canadians have the facts” about the Conservatives stimulus plan, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in a press release. However, if Canadians accidentally go to OnProbation.com, a very easy mistake ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
VirtualSex.com WIPO Action Rejected Despite Trademark: This Is A Good Decision - In a rare trademark battle over an adult term, in a one man panel decision, the World Intellectual Property Organization ruled in the favor of the owner of the domain, VirtualSex.com, Network Telephone Services of Woodland Hills, California,  rejecting the claims of Digital Playground of Chatsworth, California, which owns the trademark, on the term “Virtual Sex”. Digital Playground, which has a 40% market share of the DVD adult video market, claimed Network Telephone Services, purchased the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Defends Frontrunners.com Domain Name - Arbitration panel determines Marchex can keep domain name FrontRunners.com. If there ever was a frontrunner for “dubious UDRP domain arbitration case”, FrontRunners.com may be it. Bradley D Mittman MD dba FRONTRUNNERS has a trademark to the term FrontRunners for use in connection with educational conferences and services in the field of medicine, including tutorial sessions and correspondence courses. But you’ve probably never heard of the company or any ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Tel Expands Distribution Capability - Telnic inks deal with MySpace and directory companies. When I last saw Telnic’s Justin Hayword, he told me the company had something in the works that would address one of my chief concerns about .tel: getting to critical mass quickly. Telnic has signed a deal with MySpace and British Telecom (BT) to sell the domain names, and also with a German directory provider, which should give the domain a boost. The truth is the typical domain channel for selling domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker: Online Archive and Last Call for Auction Submissions - Deadline for next TRAFFIC live domain auction is Friday. Domain owners wishing to submit domain names for Moniker’s upcoming live domain name auction at TRAFFIC in April have until this Friday to submit domain names. The online submission form is available on Moniker’s web site. Submitting domain names is much easier than in the past when you had to email a spreadsheet. Moniker has a simple online form for submitting domains now. Domains accepted for Moniker’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Weather Underground Sues Navigation Catalyst for Cybersquatting - Navigation Catalyst back in court. Navigation Catalyst Systems, Inc. finds itself in a familiar place: in court defending itself against cybersquatting claims. This time the plaintiff is The Weather Underground, Inc. Navigation Catalyst distributed a browser plugin for its New.net product that allowed it to capture typo information, which helped spur the company into alleged massive typosquatting registrations earlier this decade. The lawsuit does not mention this ... read more ...
Tue 24th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Cloud.com To Hit The Auction Block - We know that cloud computing is one of the big new technology topics. So its interesting to note that today,  SYS-CON Events announced that the domain name Cloud.com will be auctioned during the upcoming Cloud Computing Expo, March 30 – April 1, 2009, which will be held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Here is more info on the conference: Cloud Computing Conference Expo 2009 East. No reserve price was announced, but certainly a six figure domain. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
.TEL Registration Opens - Just to a short note to let everyone know that .tel registration is now opened, with registrars charging as low as $14.95 a year. The system started accepting domains about 1 hour ago. To read more about the .tel extension click here Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VirtualSex.com Pickup Attempt Denied - Owner of VirtualSex.com defends domain name in arbitration. An arbitrator with World Intellectual Property Organization has ruled that the owners of VirtualSex.com can keep their domain name. A challenge was mounted by Digital Playground, Inc, an adult movie producer. Digital Playground has a hard-fought trademark on the term “Virtual Sex”, and claimed first use in commerce back in 1994. The respondent registered the domain name in 1995 and said it had not ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LAinsurance.com Sells for $100,000 - Detroit-based insurance agency shells out 6 figures for domain name. L.A. Insurance has purchased the domain name LAInsurance.com from NameMedia for $100,000. Although the number may seem high for a geo insurance domain name, this deal makes perfect sense for the buyer. (As it turns out, “L.A.” is not a geography to this company). L.A. insurance has 150 locations and currently uses the domain name LAInsuranceAgency.com. It’s no doubt that a number of its ... read more ...