Monthly Archives: September 2009

Mon 28th September 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Not-So-Uniform Domain Dispute Resolution Policy - Inconsistency in UDRP decisions. Officially, UDRP stands for Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. But sometimes it seems it should be called various-form, or not-uniform. How arbitrators decide cases can be a crap shoot. Here’s a recent example: ChinaDiesel.com. The complainant lost the case. But what’s interesting is how the arbitrator approached the first requirement of UDRP: “the domain name registered by Respondent is identical or confusingly ... read more ...
Sun 27th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Our First Annual “Worst Use Of A Great Domain” Award - As we all surf around the net, in search of the next great domain to acquire, you come across those domains that you just shake your head at in disbelieve that someone would use a great domain in such a fashion. So we are starting an award for the “Worst Use Of A Great Domain” So here is our pick for this years award: Justin.com You will have to click on it to see what I mean. Why is Justin.com a great domain? Well for one, there is the hugely successful Justin.tv, maybe the most famous and most ... read more ...
Sat 26th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Why Do Lawyers Spend Thousands a Month Renting Billboards & Don’t Spend A Dime For A Good Domain - In a recent 4 week period, I was up and down the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando, several times a week. I noticed as a “industry” no one group advertises on billboards more than lawyers. More than 1/2 of the billboards I saw didn’t even have a domain name on the billboard. The billboards almost all had phone numbers, 99% of which I still can’t remember even having seen the boards several times a day. The billboards which did have a URL with rare exception used a domain name containing ... read more ...
Fri 25th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Porsche Loses UDRP On Porscheexperience.com & Porscheguides.com Even After The Owner Offers To Sell Them - It’s becoming very  frustrating for domainers to know what the status of the law is regarding UDRP’s,  as decisions are all over the place an seem to have little consistency. In a decision released today, Porsche the car maker,  filed a UDRP on the domains porscheexperience.com and porscheguides.com. The owner of the domain according to the facts,  offered to sell the domains to Porsche for 5,000 euro’s. or around $7,500 at today’s exchange rates. Despite offering to sell the domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Files Patents for Enhanced Whois and DNS Records - Go Daddy files three patents for whois and DNS. Go Daddy Group, Inc., parent company of domain name registrar GoDaddy, has filed three patents related to interactive and enhanced whois and DNS records. The three applications were published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday. The applications cover various aspects of how to add additional information to whois and DNS records, such as information about whether the domain name is for sale and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Real Truth About New Top Level Domains - Here’s what is really happening with new TLDs. I’ve written before about why I’m opposed to how ICANN is releasing new top level domain names, even though I stand to benefit financially from the release. But over the past couple months we’ve heard plenty of spin from everyone involved in the process. So I want to clear a few things up. I’m going to tell you what everyone is thinking, but may not want to come out and publicly say. New TLDs will be introduced ... read more ...
Thu 24th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Another $100 Million For Twitter - According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter is about to get another $100 million from investors. The new money is coming from mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price, private equity firm Insight Venture Partners, and existing Twitter investors Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. After the funding, Twitter will be valued at about $1 billion. The $100 million investment is twice as much as Twitter had been expected. The participation of T. Rowe Price, a mutual fund is quite surprising and indicates ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Some .CM Prices In Free Fall, As Bidders Pass On NameJet Auctions - We told you about the earlier results of the .cm auctions at NameJet.com at the beginning of the month. However, the prices of  many of the .cm domains selling at NameJet.com, have been in a free fall, as bidders are passing on their chance to grab the domains. .cm auctions have been operating differently than normal NameJet.com auctions. Normally when a bidder defaults at NameJet.com auction, the domain is re-auctioned. However, with .cm domain auctions, NameJet.com has not  been re-auctioning ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cricket Wireless Gets a Domain Name Upgrade - Pre-paid wireless company gets a better domain name. Cricket Communications has a domain name problem, but it just fixed some of it. The pre-paid wireless company is growing quickly. But finding it on the web isn’t so simple. If you go to Cricket.com, you’ll find the recently sold domain name that pertains to the sport of cricket. (The previous owner of Cricket.com — Live Current Media — used to park it with ads for cell phones. It was the company’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker and Transamerica to Enter Mediation - Lawsuit heads to mediation. Moniker and Transamerica will enter into mediation to try to resolve their legal battle. Transamerica sued Moniker, claiming that Moniker owned domain names that infringed Transamerica’s trademarks and set up fictitious entities to hide its ownership. Transamerica later amended the complaint to suggest that Moniker didn’t own the domain names, but enabled the real owners hide their identity. Earlier this week Moniker filed a motion ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Economist: ICANN Will Be Set Free This Month - According to The Economist, deal between ICANN and U.S. government is imminent. The Economist is reporting that ICANN will likely be mostly set free this month, signing a four page “affirmation of commitments” with the U.S. government. The Joint Project Agreement, which currently governs some of the government’s relationship with ICANN, is due to expire at the end of this month. The new “affirmation of commitments” is due to go into effect the day before ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Acquires ParkingPanel - Sedo acquires another domain name parking company. In a long rumored transaction, Sedo has acquired domain name parking company ParkingPanel.com for an undisclosed price. ParkingPanel was launched in 2006, but ran into a few roadblocks. In March of 2008 it lost its advertising feed and was forced to look for an alternate provider. It announced its relaunch in August of 2008. But, like many small domain name parking companies, it has faced a tough slough in today’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Selling Your Domain Names Fast – Good Tips - NameMedia presentation is worth watching. This week NameMedia presented a webinar “How to Sell your Domain Names Fast, and for Maximum Value.” The webinar is now available for playback on the Afternic web site. I just watched the thirty minute webinar, expecting it to be one big pitch for NameMedia. And although that’s certainly there, the webinar has some good data and information. If you don’t know much about Afternic and BuyDomains, I recommend watching ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
e.Biz and x.biz Off to Strong Start in Domain Name Auction - One character .biz domain name auction off to strong start. An auction for one letter and one number .biz domain names at Sedo is off to a strong start. After just a day of bidding, e.biz leads the pack at $6,201 with 17 bids. X.com biz is close behind at $5,000 with four bids. It appears that all domains have a reserve of $5,000, and only e.biz and x.biz have met their reserves so far. However, many other domains are getting close, including u.biz and 1.biz. The ... read more ...
Wed 23rd September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Google Back to $500: Quick Poll: Which Is A Better Buy; Google @$500 Or Gold @$1K - Well Google has topped $500 a share after hitting a low of $280 this year. Today represents a 52 week high for Google, but its still well off its all time high of around $750. As you probably know, Gold has been a liitle over $1K an ounce for a week. Thought it would be fun to take a quick poll as to what you think is a better investment right now, Google at $500 a share or Gold at $1,000 an ounce. Planning on only keeping this up until Saturday so get your votes in. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CEO Of Zappos.com Is Keynote Speaker At DomainFest - Oversee.net announced today that the CEO and of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh, will be the keynote speaker at DomainFest being held on January 26-28, 2010, in Santa Monica, California. Zappos.com was founded in 2000 and has grown to a $1 billion-a-year online retailer. The company was recognized by Fast Company magazine as one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Hsieh and his team recently sold Zappos to Amazon.com for more than $850 million. (However, since this was a largely all stock transaction, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DotGreen to Battle DotEco - DotGreen to take on DotEco. When I wrote my tongue-in-cheek guide on how to my .Eco a success, I joked: Make sure the other side doesn’t decide to just get .green instead. You need to get their heads stuck on .eco. If they opt for .green, you could have long term competition. And that’s not what this is about; you need to get a monopoly TLD. I should have done some fact checking, because, buried beneath all of the hoopla around .eco, a group has announced .green. And, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zappos CEO to Keynote DOMAINfest Global - Keynote speaker announced for DOMAINfest Global. Tony Hsieh, CEO and Co-Founder of Zappos.com, will be the keynote speaker for DOMAINfest Global 2010. The event will take place January 26-28, 2010 in Santa Monica, California. This is a good choice for the show, given Hsieh’s background in internet marketing and domain names. Hsieh founded the popular banner exchange network LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft for $265 million. He also understands the value ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom Responds to Congress - ICANN responds to Congress. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom has responded to Lamar Smith and Howard Coble’s letter and questions. A copy of Beckstrom’s response is available here. Here are some highlights: Implementation Recommendation Team proposals: “The Board has not yet formally considered the proposals from the IRT… “After this extensive consultation, ICANN is recommending the implementation of versions of the IRT’s recommendations, such as a post-delegation ... read more ...
Tue 22nd September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo To Roll Out $100 Million Marketing Campaign Around “Its You” But Doesn’t Own The Domain - Yahoo announced today it plans to spend more than $100 million on its new marketing campaign over the next 15 months. The multimedia campaign will be launched in the United States next week, in the United Kingdom and India in October, and other countries next year, around the tag line: “It’s You”. However, the domain name itsyou.com doesn’t belong to Yahoo. ItsYou.com belongs to domainer, Gregg Ostrick. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Highest Court In The EU Says Its OK For Google To Sell Trademarked Keywords - The European Union highest court, The European Court of Justice, issued an “interim legal opinion” that Google does not infringed on trademark holders rights, by allowing advertisers to buy keywords of registered trademarks. As we told you back in May,  Google announced it would allow advertisers to buy the trademark keywords of its competitors. Also In May, Google announced that not only could competitors buy ads under trademarked keywords, but that they could even use the trademark, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
AreaRugs.com Sells For $400k - According to a press release today the domain AreaRugs.com was purchase for $405,000. More great news for the domain industry. Here is the press release: AreaRugs.com has new ownership, having been bought by a group of investors for an astounding $405,000 for just the domain. Randy Ward, President and CEO, AreaRugs.com Inc., says, “Our goal is to be the number one shopping destination online for area rugs. We feel we have assembled a great team to accomplish that.” Even in the desolate economy, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Testimony of Domain Name Hearings on Capitol Hill - A preview with links to testimony for Wednesday’s hearing. Wednesday morning, the House Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on the expansion of top level domain names. Four witnesses will testify: Doug Brent, Chief Operating Officer of ICANN, Richard Heath President of International Trademark Association, Paul Stahura, Chief Executive Officer/President eNOM, Inc., and Steve DelBianco, Executive Director of NetChoice. Here’s a preview of their testimony: Doug ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
800.com Buyer Dials Up Great Deal during $250,000 - 800.com goes for $250,000 because no one knows about the auction. You might call it Toy Story, part 2. It goes like this: domain sells at bankruptcy auction, few people know about the auction, more buyers emerge after news of auction gets out, potential buyers challenge sale in court, auction is repeated. That’s what happened with Toys.com, which ended up selling for about 4 times the initial “winning bid”. And it almost happened with 800.com, which was sold ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Private Jet Company Buys Jets.com - Concord Private Jets buys Jets.com for $375,000. When I asked Damian Klinger for the name of his company, he promptly answered “Jets.com”. “OK, I mean what’s your old company name,” I asked. Klinger is co-founder and president of Concord Private Jets, which just forked over $375,000 to buy Jets.com. And he’s excited about it. So don’t expect him to refer to his company as Concord Private Jets anymore. When the domain name became available, Concord ... read more ...