Monthly Archives: March 2009

Mon 9th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
I Swtiched from a PC to A Mac Under 4 hours: Here’s How - I finally made the move. After years of waiting for that round wheel on Vista to finish so I could get back to work, my computer freezing – having to pull the plug so I can get it restarted, waiting for Outlook to rebuild after “not closing down properly”, losing work in progress, failed hard drives and all the rest, I finally made the move over to a Mac. I have always heard that the downside of switching to a Mac is the switch itself and that it takes a few months to get use to. Well last ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Companies: Look to Austin for Smart Growth - Austin offers low taxes and a great technology workforce. Times are tough. It amazes me that so many companies make it harder on themselves by operating in oppressive business climates. Don’t get me wrong. I fully understand the value of running a business in California. There’s no comparison to the energy and talent in Silicon Valley. And if you’re looking for venture capital money, you’re in the heart of it. But you also pay the price in California ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Country Code Domain Name Forum Launches - Rick Latona launches ccTLD forum. Domain name investor Rick Latona has launched a forum dedicated solely to the discussion of country code top level domain names. Fittingly, he bought a premier domain name for the forum: ccTLDs.com. The forum includes separate sections for each of the major, non-commercialized top level domains (no .tv or .me here). It appears that Latona’s director of marketing Ray Neu (son of TRAFFIC co-founder Howard Neu) will be spearheading ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Changes in Store for Bido Auction Platform - I predict three major changes at domain auction house Bido. A week ago I wrote about the lack of high quality domain names for sale at Bido. Others agreed, and Bido co-founder Sahar Sarid chimed in. While Sarid was somewhat coy about planned changes at Bido, he dropped several hints. After reading his comments on Domain Name Wire and his five posts about accurate domain pricing on his blog, here’s what I think is in store for the site: 1. More than one domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Wire Turns Four - Happy birthday, Domain Name Wire Domain Name Wire launched four years ago today. Looking back, it’s certainly a time capsule of the domain name industry. Articles in that first month included: “Moniker Unveils Paid Parking Program” – Moniker’s now closed TrafficClub program got its start “Yahoo to challenge Google Adsense” – we all know how that played out “Registrars drop .us privacy protection this week” – privacy protection was nixed from ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
California Law Would Emulate New York Affiliate Tax - California would extend sales tax collection to many online merchants. As state governments get strapped for cash, expect them to extend the reach of existing taxes. NYAffiliateVoice reports about a new proposed law in California that is similar to a New York tax law. New York’s law requires online merchants such as Amazon.com to collect New York sales tax if it has any affiliate program members in the state. New York basically extends its tax collection nexus ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Park Domains? Enter a Parking Judge Contest - If you’ve tried three or more domain parking services, enter the Parking Judge contest. It’s been over a month since I launched Parking Judge, a web site that lets you review domain name parking services. I’m a bit surprised that fewer people have submitted reviews on the site than Registrar Judge had a at the same point. So I’m going to give you an incentive. Here’s how it works: -Submit three thoughtful and complete reviews at Parking Judge before ... read more ...
Sun 8th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Country Code Wars: The Battle For Turkey - A post today tells the story of 2 country code extensions, .tk and .tr. One is the official country code for the country of Turkey. One is for a small island in the pacific that has a population of only 1,200. Guess which is which? Yes .TR is the official country code for Turkey,  but Joost Zuurbier licensed the domain name rights of three tropical atolls, collectively known as Tokelau, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and then started marketing this extension,  .TK, to people in Turkey as being ... read more ...
Sat 7th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
LiveCurrent Selling More Domains - It’s been widely reported that LiveCurrent.com recently sold $1.65 million dollars in unidentified domains. LiveCurrent has listed currently for sale, at least 3 more of there domains; keyboard.com, leisure.com and mouse.com all at Sedo.com All listing are shown as make offer with the following minimums: Keyboard.com $25,000 Leisure.com $25,000 Mouse.com $10,000 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will Toys ‘R’ Us Flub $5.1M Toys.com Purchase? - Domain is merely forwarding to ToysRUs.com. Toys ‘R’ Us’ $5.1M purchase of Toys.com has been approved by the court. The domain has not been transferred according to whois, but the domain name is now forwarding to ToysRUs.com. Big mistake. Toys.com is extremely valuable for both its direct navigation traffic (people typing the domain name into their browser) as well as search rankings. For example, Toys.com is currently #4 in Google for the search term “toys”. ToysRUs.com ... read more ...
Fri 6th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
I Sued Google & Won - Just read a really interest post entitled Why I sued Google and Won, on the Huffington Post, by Aaron Greenspan. Apparently, Mr. Greenspan, had one of the new Adword, for domain accounts directly with Google and was making a few bucks parking his domains, until one day when Google terminated his contract without notice and without any detailed explanation. The post tells how he sued Google in small claims court and won!!! Basically Google argued that they could terminate the contract, at any time ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
You’re Not Going To Do What Frank Did - In a very interest post on NameCake.com, the guest author,  laid out some good arguments about the economy and how the domain industry will fair in it. One of the points the author made, is one I have read before on many blogs and boards, that the recession/depression of 2009-2010, will create a similar opportunity for someone to come along like Frank Schilling did in 2002-2003 to create a domain empire during the .com bubble. While I agree that fortunes will be lost and made in this harsh economic ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ghosts Can’t Tap Taps.com Domain Name - Paranormal society fails to win case for Taps.com. An arbitration panel — presumably made up of humans and not ghosts — has ruled that the The Atlantic Paranormal Society has no rights to the domain name Taps.com. The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) operates under the web address the-atlantic-paranormal-society.com, so it’s no surprise that the organization is seeking a better domain name. TAPS has a number of trademarks for the term, but the panel was not ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Should Domain Registrars Do with Expired Domain Names? - Perhaps letting domain registrars do as they please is OK. For the 2009 Domain Name Wire Survey I added a new option for the most important factors when selecting a domain registrar: what they do with expired domains. With all the commotion over what domain registrars do when domains expire (e.g. GoDaddy and Tucows), I wondered if this affected peoples’ decisions about which registrar to use. Apparently not; it was ranked the least important factor when choosing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Shouldn’t Regulate Morality - ICANN should strike moral objections from new TLD process. The new top level domain process includes a mechanism for TLD applications to be rejected on morality and public order grounds. This should be eliminated. ICANN doesn’t exist to determine what is and isn’t moral. In fact, I suspect it would rather not deal with the issue of morality and public order, but some of its international constituents want it to. So what’s an objection based on morality or ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Community and Geo Rules Should be Nixed from New TLDs - ICANN’s guidelines for community sponsors and location names should be removed from new TLD process. I’ve read the second version of the new TLD applicant guidebook from ICANN from cover to cover, and there’s one (OK, more than that) thing I still don’t understand: why are their special guidelines for “community” based TLDs and locations such as cities and states? If you represent a limited “community” you get special treatment. If you want to launch ... read more ...
Thu 5th March 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Even The Pope Doesn’t Like The New gTLD’s: Tells ICANN To Say NO To Religious Extensions - The new domain extensions problem have reached a new “high” as The Pope has called on ICANN to keep religion out of the domain name system. The Vatican warned ICANN of the “perils” of allowing new internet domains such as “.catholic, .anglican, .orthodox, .hindu, .islam, .muslim, and .buddhist”. ICANN, could find itself having to decide who gets to represent an entire religion on the internet, His Holiness pointed out, in a letter from Monsignor Carlo Maria Polvani. Religion-themed domains ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Deadline For TRAFFIC Domain Auction Submission Deadline Set: Mar 27th - Moniker.com announced today that submission for the live domain auction to be held at TRAFFIC Santa Clara will close on March 27th. Also Moniker.com limited submissions to 250 domains per submitter. Important: No typos, trademarks, hyphenated or crude adult names will be accepted for the TRAFFIC Santa Clara Auction. Moniker also urged submitters to keep the reserve prices down if you hope to make it to the live auction: “””Reserve pricing is the ultimate factor in leading to a successful auction.  ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google: Revenues Won’t Decline - Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said the economic storm will affect all forms of advertising, including the online ads that Google depends on, but said that he doesn’t expect Google to experience a decline in revenue. “We don’t predict things like that,” Schmidt said in a CNBC television interview on Wednesday, when asked if the company’s diversity would shield it from the economic slowdown. But, he added, “from my perspective it’s hard to imagine why you’d see a decline.” Schmidt also ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Viacom Loses South Park Domain Dispute - Company uses UDRP to go after copyright infringer. Panel doesn’t bite. Viacom has lost another domain dispute. But this time it wasn’t trying to steal a generic domain name; it was trying to shut down a web site containing copyrighted material. Viacom filed for arbitration under UDRP for the domain name StansDad.com. Stan and his dad are popular characters in the company’s animated South Park television show. But there’s no trademark here. Viacom tried ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Releases Two “Whitewash” Reports to Defend the Positions on new gTLDs - Reports argue new gTLDs should move forward with no price caps. I’ve been duped. When ICANN announced it was commissioning a report on the effect of price caps on new TLDs, I assumed it would seek an unbiased report. Instead, ICANN used domain owner’s money to hire an economist to defend its views. ICANN released two “studies” by University of Chicago economist Dennis Carlton: Preliminary Report of Dennis Carlton Regarding Impact of New gTLDs on Consumer ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPOsquat: U.N. Organization Caught Cybersquatting - WIPO caught cybersquatting on trademarked term. Pot, meet kettle. World Intellectual Property Organization, one of the providers of domain name arbitration services under UDRP, seems to have a cybersquatting problem of its own. Domain name attorney John Berryhill came across this apparent hypocrisy when he noticed the domain name Patentscape.info forwards to WIPO.int. Patentscape is a trademark of law firm Needle Rosenberg, P.C. Think “patent landscape”. Patentscape.info ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Arrington Deadpools New TLDs - TechCrunch founder says .eco and other domains dead on arrival. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, who himself has a background in the domaining world, is deadpooling .eco, a proposed new top level domain. I just don’t think the world needs another top level domain, and certainly not one that is designed for “individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Two Tools to Find Available Domain Names - HotNameList.com and Domain Pigeon take different approaches to finding available domain names. It’s still possible to hand register available domain names and make money. You just have to be smart about it. Here’s a look at two tools that can help. The first is HotNameList.com. The owner of this site contacted me back in October. I responded that I didn’t think his site had anything new or unique. He added some features, including one based on my suggestion, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AT&T Thinks Printed Phone Books are Passe - Flyer says white pages “available upon request”. I got an ATT Austin phone book in the mail the other day. It was addressed to a new limited liability company I recently formed. Never mind that I already received a couple phone books this year and didn’t request another one. But a flyer on top of the phone book caught my eye. It basically said we aren’t sending you a printed white pages (residential) and you should access white page listings through an ... read more ...