Monthly Archives: April 2009

Fri 17th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
SusanBoyle.com Getting 1,800 Visits an Hour - Texas artist getting surprise attention thanks to singer by the same name. An artist in Kerrville, Texas is getting some unexpected attention thanks to her name: Susan Boyle. Susan K. Boyle, the artist, owns the web site SusanBoyle.com, where she displays her paintings. Ever since Susan Boyle, the singer, became an international phenomenon, the hit counter on the artist’s web site has been spinning. (The singer doesn’t own any of the common U.K. domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Susan Boyle Didn’t Get Her Domain Names in Time - Singer didn’t register her name as domain names. When you become an overnight sensation, registering domain names is probably not on the top of your mind. So I’ll forgive Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle for not registering SusanBoyle.co.uk. But shouldn’t the show’s producers have been on top of it? I doubt it was on top of their mind given that they don’t even own BritainsGotTalent.com. (The producers do own the British .co.uk version). Whois ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sigourney Weaver Wants Her Domain Name - Actress files with National Arbitration Forum to get SigourneyWeaver.com. Actress Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien movie series (photo), has filed for arbitration to get the domain name SigourneyWeaver.com. The case will be handled by an arbitration panel from National Arbitration Forum under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy. The domain name was originally registered in 1999, but changed hands in 2004 or 2005 to the current owner. The whois record for the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Chili’s Ad Firm “Gets It” with PJBlands.com - Ad agency registers typo before launching campaign for PJBlands.com. This morning I saw a commercial for Chili’s that satirizes a restaurant with bland food made of cardboard. In the lower corner of the ad is the domain name PJBlands.com. Visiting the domain name you’ll find a mock web site for the cardboard-serving restaurant. Chili’s ad agency Hill | Holliday registered PJblands.com in January 2009 and added whois privacy before launching the ad campaign. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GeoDomain Expo Auction Now Live - GeoDomain Expo auction launches with interactive map. DomainConsultant and Aftermarket.com have teamed up to hold a live domain name auction at next week’s GeoDomain Expo in San Diego. The auction, which is now live, has about 50 domain names. Most of the domain names are location names, such as SierraMadre.com, and others are long tail geo domains such as MichiganCarInsurance.com. A number of good domain names have no reserve. Some of my favorites are: Minneapolis.net NewYorkLoft.com Tacoma.info TampaBay.info Living ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Takes Different Approach to Apps - Go Daddy develops its own hosted applications. Go Daddy recently released a customer relationship management (CRM) application. The news isn’t that Go Daddy launched a web-based CRM app. It’s that Go Daddy continues to offer more online software applications and could easily become a small business hub for software-as-a-service. A captive audience According to Compete.com, GoDaddy.com is one of the top 400 trafficked web sites. Most visitors to the main GoDaddy.com ... read more ...
Thu 16th April 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Remixed and Relaunched: The Domains Is Back Up! - After 16 months, we figured it was time for a makeover. April 16th has been a very special day for me for the last 21 years. 21 years ago today I married my beautiful bride Judi. So its a perfect day for a remix and a relaunch of thedomains.com As you can see, the logo has changed, along with the layout, the design, the fonts and after many inquires, my right hand man, Adam Matuzich,  finally convinced me into accepting some advertising. I gave Adam a few rules to follow. First, I didn’t want ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pool Taking Pre-Orders for Non-Existent Domain Names - Pool teams up with Quintaris to offer pre-orders domains for new TLDs. In a move that will surely add confusion to an already crazy process, domain backordering service Pool.com is accepting pre-orders for non-existent domain names such as .xxx and .web. The service accepts pre-orders for second level domain names on about 50 top level domain names that it thinks will be pursued. Customers can also pre-order a domain for any top level domain they can think of. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hewlett-Packard Wants .HP Domain Name - Technology company requests exception to ICANN rule. Technology behemoth Hewlett-Packard — better known as HP (NYSE: HPQ) — wants ICANN to reconsider its rule that new top level domain names must be at least three characters. HP wants to apply for .hp, which is forbidden because two character top level domain names are currently reserved for country code domain names. In a letter to ICANN, the company said it may be at a competitive disadvantage to competitors ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Santa Monica Tussles with “I Am Domain Names” - Santa Monica loses UDRP for IAmSantaMonica.com. Remember that guy Stephen Webb, who started showing up at domain conferences a couple years ago promoting his “Iamcityname.com” and “WeArecityname.com” domain names? He had a bit of success, striking deals with a couple cities and even selling IAmSeattle.com to the Space Needle in Seattle. But one former client apparently didn’t understand the meaning of “lease”. Santa Monica Convention Visitors Bureau ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Still Cheap to Fly to GeoDomain Expo - GeoDomain Expo is still affordable, even at the last minute. Don’t let airfare get in the way of going to next week’s GeoDomain Expo in San Diego. It’s still cheap even at the last minute. I priced airfares from 3 major U.S. cities to San Diego on Orbitz, arriving Thursday April 23 and leaving Sunday April 26. These prices don’t include taxes and fees. New York $238 (direct from $338) Seattle $208 (direct from $278) Houston $388 (direct from $478) Registration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
This Morning’s Domain Name Humor - Halloween costume company changes domain from bad to bad, “dash-com” domains launch. I got a chuckle this morning reading a release from an online Halloween costume web site: KBCostumes.com has changed its name to http://www.shop4halloweencostumes.com “We feel like it’s a better domain name,” says the owner. They have changed the name, but the idea is the same; purchase online costumes for less! Hmm. I don’t like KBCostumes.com, but Shop4HalloweenCostumes.com ... read more ...
Wed 15th April 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Got To Love This: Blogger Responds To C&D From Goldman Sachs By Filing Suit Against Them - Last week,  Goldman Sachs (GS) sent an Cease and Desist letter,  demanding that blogger Mike Morgan take down his gripe site GoldmanSachs666.com, saying that the site violated Goldman’s intellectual property rights and that the domain constituted trademark infringement. The “666″ in the domain’s refers to address of Goldman’s headquarters in New York. So instead of waiting for GS’s UDRP to arrive in the mail, Mr. Morgan, filed a preemptive lawsuit against the investment bank in the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
WSJ: Yahoo To Fire Hundreds More - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Yahoo, is preparing another significant round of job cuts. According to the report, the cuts are likely to affect several hundred employees on top of 2,400 jobs cut last year. The Journal says the cuts could be announced as soon as next week, when Yahoo reports its first quarter earnings. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Financial Firm Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Arbitrator finds Versa Capital Management guilty of misusing UDRP proceedings. Lately it seems that UDRP arbitration panels are ignoring the question of reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH), which broadly defines when I company misuses or abuses the UDRP proceedings process. Panels aren’t required to consider RDNH, and many have decided to skip the issue altogether. (There are no penalties for committing RDNH.) But I guess it takes a particularly egregious and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cuba Policy Changes Lead to Domain Name Opportunities - Thawing relationship with United States may present opportunity. Over the past few days I’ve read lots of news about the thawing relationship between the United States and Cuba. (President Obama relaxed restrictions on people traveling from the U.S. to Cuba and on remittances to Cuba.) Every time I saw a headline for Cuba I thought of domain investor and broker Rob Sequin. Sequin is an expert on Cuba and writes HavanaJournal.com. He also owns about 2,500 domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Does Vint Cerf Think About New Top Level Domains? - Father of the Internet thinks there needs be a solid rationale for adding new TLDs. Domain investor George Kirikos recently found an article by Tim Berners-Lee, a key inventor of the World Wide Web, explaining his opposition to adding new top level domain names. It got me thinking, “what do other important people in the internet world think about new TLDs?” The answer for Vint Cerf was right under my nose on Domain Name Wire. Cerf is considered a “father ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Roundtable Price Increases Tomorrow - Tax day is last day for $795 admission. You may be thinking more about taxes today than domain conferences, but take note that today is the last day for discounted admission to June’s Domain Roundtable conference. I’ve gone to a lot of domain conferences over the years. One of the best with regards to meeting a diverse group of people in and tangential to the domain industry was Domain Roundtable in 2006. The conference included not just the usual domainer ... read more ...
Tue 14th April 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google’s Earning Set For Thursday: Will It Be Google’s 1st Down Quarter? - With Google scheduled to report earnings after the close of the market on Thursday, the question is will this be Google’s first down quarter? Yes amazingly, since going public in August 2004, Google has never had a down quarter; a quarter in which  its gross revenue was lower the previous quarter. However, according to TechCrunch at least one analyst, J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan predicted that Google’s revenues will decline 2% from last year,  13% from last quarter and earnings per share will ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Like To Play Poker?: Did Demand Media Give A “Tell” In Their Comments To ICANN - If you play poker or watch it on TV, your probably family with the term of a “Tell”.  If your not, this is basically something you do, a motion, a habit, something you say or do, that gives away what kind of hand you have. Its called a “tell”. Demand Media had some very interesting comments to ICANN regarding the new gTLD extensions. “We cannot see the benefits of limiting cross ownership of registries and registrars.” Demand Media (Demand) owns enom.com a registrar and seems to want ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New York City Still Exploring .NYC; No Partner Yet - New York City still exploring options for .nyc domain name. New York City’s Law Department responded to the second draft of the new top level domain name guidebook, raising concerns to a number of points including the cost of applying for and running a new top level domain. One commentor on the story asked if New York had a deal with a third party in which the city wouldn’t incur any out-of-pocket costs. The answer is no. New York City is in the very early stages ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker’s Live Domain Auction Looks Like a Winner - Moniker meets the challenge with superb list of domain names. My general response to a list of domain names published for a live domain auction is usually subdued. Rarely do I see domain names that are priced to sell. But after taking plenty of flack for its last auction, Moniker seems to have stepped up to the plate for this month’s TRAFFIC auction. (See a full list of domains in the auction here.) In the under $5,000 category, there are a number of good domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Countries Could Force Use of Country Code Domains - India law may require hosted email providers to use .in. An amendment to information technology laws in India may require hosted email providers to use the .in country code domain name and use local servers. This would make their data subject to Indian law. Apparently this stems from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, after which the government of India had difficulty getting network information from the terrorists’ Blackberries. If the information is housed outside ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Resounding Opposition to New Top Level Domains - Most constituents opposed to new TLDs; propose major overhaul. The comment period for the second draft of ICANN’s new top level domain name applicant guidebook concluded yesterday. Most commentors suggested ways to fix the process and rules, but these same commentors are opposed to any adoption of new top level domains. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find more than one comment in favor of new TLDs from an organization other than those trying to launch new ... read more ...
Mon 13th April 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Moniker.com Releases It’s Live Domain Auction List For TRAFFIC Silicon Valley - Moniker.com tonight, released a tentative list of domains for it’s live domain auction, which will be held as part of the TRAFFIC Silicon Valley show later this month. The Moniker.com auction will be held on Wednesday April 29 at 3 PM PST. Remote bidding will be available on SnapNames.com. The list seems to include some excellent domains, including many one word .com, at very reasonable reserves. The list also includes some very good short domains including a numerical one, 700.com which at a range ... read more ...