Monthly Archives: September 2009

Wed 16th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Google: Chrome Market Share To Double Every Year - Google rolled out a new version of its Chrome browser today, Chrome 3.0 One year ago Google Chrome was launched and now has a  market share of 2.8%. However, Chrome Engineering Director Linus Upson has much bigger goals for the browser expecting that its market share will double for at least the next couple of years “If at the two-year birthday we’re not at at least 5%, I will be exceptionally disappointed. And if at the three year birthday we’re not at 10 percent, I will be exceptionally ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NameJet.com To Hold “Call To Action” .Me Auction - NameJet.com announced today it will be auctioning off 15 “Call To Action .Me domains, being released from the registry. The list of “call to action” domains auction starts on September 25th are: Chat.Me Photo.Me Monitor.Me Protect.Me Rescue.Me Answer.Me Drive.Me Rate.Me Know.Me Free.Me Review.Me Host.Me Link.Me Fix.Me Friend.Me A few of these are some of the best .Me domains I have seen on NameJet.com in while. Good luck to all. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Best Thing GoDaddy’s Expired Auction Does, Is Also The Most Frustrating Thing - As a daily participant in the Godaddy.com expired domain auctions, I run into the same situation several times a week and it brings out what makes this auction house one of the best in the industry, yet at the same time one of the most frustrating. The situation arises when you are the second highest bidder on a domain at an expired Godaddy auction. To Godaddy’s credit, if you are the second highest bidder and the winning bidder defaults, Godaddy sends you an e-mail telling you that the winning ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Congressmen Quiz ICANN on New TLDs, Price Caps and Independence - Congressional pressure mounts on ICANN. Two republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have written a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, quizzing him on plans to introduce new TLDs and the expiration of ICANN’s Joint Project Agreement, reports NextGov. Lamar Smith and Howard Coble say they are worried that the rapid expansion of new top level domain names will have “serious negative consequences” for U.S. businesses and consumers. They also address a major ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Fights for Mexican Domain Name - iPod and iTunes maker fights for Mexican country code domain name. Apple, Inc. has launched a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name iTunes.com.mx. .Mx is Mexico’s country code, and .com.mx is the standard second level domain used in the country (although Mexico is now opening up .mx at the first level). The arbitration panel should render a decision on whether Apple gets the domain name within a couple months. This isn’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Candy Maker Gets Hands on Hershey.mobi - Arbitration canceled — and Hershey gets the domain name. Hershey Chocolate Confectionery Corporation has picked up the domain name Hershey.mobi. The company filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum, but has canceled the arbitration and the domain is now in its control. It’s unclear on if the registrant of the domain handed it over upon receiving the complaint or if Hershey purchased the domain. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Hershey ... read more ...
Tue 15th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Decision: Use Of Privacy On Domain Registration = Bad Faith: ShoeZone.com - In a one panel WIPO decision ordering the transfer of the domain, ShoeZone.com to the holder of a UK trademark, the use of  Moniker.com privacy service on its registration was found to be an indication of bad faith of the domain holder Basically the owner of the trademark chased the domain for years, first unsuccessfully attempting to buying it from Footstar in 2003, who was using the site to sell footwear and then again in 2006 from Novus who acquired the domain from Footstar and again was operating ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bing Rolls Out “Visual Search”: Replacing Text With Pictures, What Does This Mean For PPC? - Visual Search enable users to search by browsing through images rather than scrolling pages of text-based results.  The search results will display sortable row of galleries of images pertaining to the subject being searched, Initially, the service will be limited to 4 main areas; travel, health, leisure and shopping and will be rolled out in the next 4 weeks. A search on Bing will display traditional results. But on the left side of the search result will appear an option to visualize the search. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. Postal Service Delivers USPS.mobi Domain Name - Dub-A, THIS IS AN IMPORTANT READ: Think about the logic of the USPS (which won’t take long to thing about), and maybe these “1984” manipulators are actually seeing some value for use in this domain. This could be frightening, and here’s why: Why else would they bother fighting for this domain? Could the USPS be preparing an “innocent” ad campaign, using “USPS.mobi” to engage in collecting data from cellphone users? Ahh.. consipiracy nuts! I love em! They’re so… correctly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rent.co.uk Domain Name Auction Clears $100,000 - UK domain name will clear six figures. The domain name Rent.co.uk is set to sell on Sedo this Friday for at least £65,000 GBP. That’s about $107,000 USD at today’s exchange rates. So far there’s only one interested buyer in the domain name, which would chart itself well for sales of .co.uk domains. 8q.com will also close on Friday. It has attracted two bidders and a top bid of $10,100. The most active auction at Sedo right now is for xoxide.com. It ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name News Bytes for Sep 15 - News bytes to start your Tuesday. Here are a few domain name news items for the week: Domain Name Wire Radio is coming. More later. Parked/Why Park Forum. Parked.com and WhyPark have created a user forum at forum.parked.com. Parked’s Donny Simonton has always been active on message boards, so you can rest assured you’ll get direct access through this forum. Hint: register for the forum to get more content. Got travel traffic?. If you have a good portfolio ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Arbitrator: If You Own .Com, You Should Get a Rest - Got the .com? You have a right to ccTLDs and other TLDs, says arbitrator. Here’s a World Intellectual Property Organization case that should raise some alarms. A panelist has awarded the domains sexywebcam.mobi and sexywebcam.tv to the owner of SexyWebCam.com, which also has a trademark for SexyWebCam.com. Arbitrator James A. Barker noted that the trademark includes .com, and is very different from having a trademark to the term ‘sexywebcam’. Nonetheless, ... read more ...
Mon 14th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
The Really Good News Numbers Behind The Mint.com Sale: Valuations Are Back Up - The purchase of the financial site, Mint.com for $170 million, by Intuit, is one indication that valuations may start returning to some pre-crash levels for acquisitions. The sales price represents 17x of annual revenues of Mint.com Nice. Six months ago I was told people were selling domains with revenues for 2x. Yes I know Mint.com is an active site with over million users, but at its sales price that works out to $140 per user, also quite impressive. As some parts of the economy are picking up, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A Landing Page That Looks Like A Google Search Results Page: Asking For Trouble? - Typing in some domains, I stumbled across a landing page, that looks like a Google search results page. The parking company, is FirstLook.com, using a Yahoo feed. Not only have I never seen this lander, but I’ve never heard of FirstLook. According to its site, FirstLook.com: “Is the industry pioneer in domain traffic optimization and monetization. Our long history in this space, spanning over 8 years, has allowed us to develop the most advanced optimization platform available today.” So maybe ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy to Advertise in 2010 Super Bowl - Domain name registrar signs up for 6th consecutive year. Domain name registrar and web hosting company GoDaddy has purchased an ad spot in next year’s Super Bowl on CBS. This will be the sixth consecutive year the company has advertise on the big show. The company has agreed to air two spots in the Super Bowl on February 7, 2010. If you’re wondering what the company might feature in its commercials, I have a hunch it will involve scantily clad women. GoDaddy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hotel-Reservation.com Domain Checks in for Over $200k - Hyphenated domain sale is a shocker. Sedo has brokered the sale of Hotel-Reservation.com for a shocking 142,800 EUR, or about $208,000 USD at today’s exchange rate. This is certainly one of the most expensive hyphenated domain name purchases of all time. With nearly 700,000 global searches monthly for this term on Google (and 25 million for the plural version reservations), the SEO value of this domain is certainly high. Whois records show that the likely seller ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawyers: We Started Investigating Moniker in 2005 - Lawyers say investigation against Moniker has been long-running. For the record, I have no idea if any of the allegations in Transamerica’s lawsuit against Moniker are true. But I do know that its lawyers bungled the first complaint they filed. It was rife with many “gotchas” that could be proven false with cursory investigation. So I was somewhat surprised to see, in an opposition to Moniker’s request for more time to make a filing, that the law firm says ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Not-So-Sexy Battle Over Hedonism Resorts Domain Name - Hedonism Resorts lose domain dispute. Let’s face it, domain name disputes aren’t sexy (save for DeepThroat.com). But talk of hedonism might make one more interesting. VRL International Ltd. and International Lifestyles, Inc., which operate the famous Hedonism Resorts and act as the exclusive travel agent for the resorts, respectively, have lost a battle for HedonismHotels.com. The owner of the domain name claimed he was previously a philosophy student at the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Overstock.com to Launch O.Biz - Overstock wins RFP for single letter .biz domain name. In the first material sign that the release of one and two character .biz domain names could be a boon for the .biz top level domain, Overstock.com has won the RFP for the O.biz domain name. The company will launch a B2B site for businesses to buy goods online at the domain name. According to a press release, O.BIZ will primarily focus on restaurant, office, and hotel products. All one character .biz domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Automated Domain Auction Fulfillment is Worth a Price - Domains at Moniker can be transferred quickly with direct and automatic fulfillment. I often hear grumblings about how Moniker requires you to have domains registered with them in order to submit them to auction. (It’s not a requirement for the big auctions, but there is an added charge if you don’t and the domain sells.) Many people think this is just a way for Moniker to get you to transfer domains to them, but that’s ancillary to the real reason: it allows ... read more ...
Sun 13th September 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oreo Gets Stuffed in Netherlands Domain Dispute - Kraft loses domain dispute for Oreo.nl. Kraft Foods Global Brands has lost a dispute over the domain name Oreo.nl. .Nl is the country code domain name for the Netherlands. A single arbitrator panel ruled that Kraft had not proven that the domain’s registrant did not have rights or legitimate interests in the domain name. The owner of the domain had used it for e-mail earlier this decade. The panel also debated the merits of claims to trademark rights on the term ... read more ...
Sat 12th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Can You Be Sued For Defamation For Just Registering A Domain? We Maybe About To Find Out - Defamation,  is a tort action where one party can sue the other for damages,  when they make false statements about the other,  in writing (libel) and spoken words (slander) which damages that person’s reputation or causes that person distress. The question is, can a domain name, in and of itself, be defamatory? The question is being asked because this week, TV and radio talk show host Glenn Beck, threatened to file such an action against the person who registered the domain, glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com. According ... read more ...
Fri 11th September 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
GM: Rolls Out Its “May The Best Car Win” Campaign With Yamaha Motors Owning The .Com - Yesterday General Motors, rolled out its new money back guarantee program called “may the best car win” Problem is MayTheBestCarWin.com isn’t owned by the new GM or the old GM for that matter, but by Yamaha Motors. Although Yamaha doesn’t manufacture automobiles they do make golf carts, which is what they are marketing through their site. So GM realizing that they couldn’t get maythebestcarwin.com, went ahead and registered TheBestCarWins.com on September 1st. Nothing wrong with that domain, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Barron’s: VeriSign’s Domain Registration/Renewal Fee To Drop To $4 A Year? - A very interesting post on the financial publication Barron’s today discussing VeriSign. In touting its undervalued stock price to investors, Barron’s noted that share prices of VeriSign have underperformed, compared to the stock market, and put the blame squarely on the decision Court of Appeals of in the case of CFIT vs. VeriSign. Barron’s Says: “””The litigation could force a rebidding of VeriSign’s contract with ICANN. In a worst-case scenario, VeriSign could lose the business when ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Judging Domains in a San Francisco Laundromat - A non-scientific look at small business domain names. This past Labor Day, while vacationing in San Francisco, I found myself feeding quarters into a washer in a laundromat. (Ah, the joys of traveling with a three-year-old). Perhaps it was a fitting situation, since I own both SanFrancisco.us and Laundromats.us. With nothing to do except watch the dryer spin, I started to analyze the flyers papered to the walls. It was encouraging that so many of the small businesses ... read more ...