Monthly Archives: November 2009

Mon 30th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
“Largest Spam Gang” In The World Fined $15.5 Million Dollars - From the FTC today: “”At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal judge has ordered the mastermind of a vast international spam network to pay $15.15 million in a default judgment for his role in what was identified by the anti-spam organization Spamhaus as the largest “spam gang” in the world. The spam gang deceptively marketed products such as male-enhancement pills, prescription drugs, and weight-loss pills. Ringleader Lance Atkinson, a New Zealand citizen and Australian ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ModelDirectory.com Sells For $16K+ On NameJet.com, In A Busy Weekend - It was a pretty busy 4 days over at NameJet.com during the holiday in the US. The domain name ModelDirectory.com lead the pack selling for $16,665. The domain seems to have had minimal traffic at best and seems like a huge price, but I’m sure one of you out there in the domain world can tell me why it was worth the price. In some other notable sales: Smallbusinesslaw.com sold for $12,211, another domain IMHO think went for more than it should have. disposables.com went for $5,533 iDisplay.com sold ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Goes to Getty Center for a Bit of Contrast - Conference to include night at The Getty. Oversee.net today announced that that it will hold a networking dinner at the Getty Center on Wednesday night, January 27, during its DOMAINfest Global conference. The Getty sits on a 110-acre hilltop site in the Santa Monica Mountain range. The entire campus will be reserved for DOMAINfest attendees, which will get access to its architecture, gardens and views of Los Angeles and the coast. Guests will have exclusive access ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paris Wins Parvi.org in Disturbing Domain Name Arbitration Decision - Paris wins domain as arbitrator throws out “registration AND use” in bad faith. In September I wrote about the city of Paris, France filing a UDRP against three domain names: WifiParis.com, Wifi-Paris.com, and Parvi.org. Paris was just handed a victory in the Parvi.org case; the other two cases are pending. What’s disturbing about the Parvi.org case is that the panel found that the domain name was likely not registered in bad faith, but still handed the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Blockbusters: Russia.com Sells for $1.5 Million, Marchex Sells Dominio.com for $250,000 - Two big domain name sales over holiday week. In what should have been a lackluster week thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, Sedo turned in one of its best performances of the year for domain sales. Leading the pack was a sale you’ve probably read about already, Russia.com at $1.5 million. The buyer wants to remain anonymous, and is using GoDaddy’s whois protection to shield their identity. The domain currently points to a basic GoDaddy parking page. Another ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
DNW Radio: Antony Van Couvering Discusses gTLD “Expressions of Interest” - Our latest guest on Domain Name Wire Radio is Antony Van Couvering, founder of new gTLD consulting company Minds + Machines. I invited Antony onto the show to discuss ICANN’s Expressions of Interest for new top level domain names. On the show, Antony discusses how this idea was born, as well as critical components he believes are necessary for the Expressions of Interest to help ICANN predict the number and type of top level domains that will be applied for. If ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum Provides Shortcut to UDRP Arbitrators - Law clerk may have written much of your domain dispute. Being a domain name arbitrator under UDRP for National Arbitration Forum doesn’t pay particularly well. That is, if you are an arbitrator who takes your job seriously. But National Arbitration Forum provides a shortcut to arbitrators, allowing them to “cut-and-paste” their way to quick decisions. Here’s how it works. When an arbitrator receives a new UDRP domain name case, (s)he is also provided with ... read more ...
Sun 29th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
And You Thought Domain Rules Were Unfair, FaceBook Just Takes Them Back Upon Complaint - Consider the case of David Lloyd who registered his nickname ’squaresheep’ on Facebook, the nickname he says he has been known by for over 10 years and used  on other services like Hotmail and Skype.com However last weekend, Facebook notified him that his username had been revoked and awarded to a cooking website of the same name, which had been established for only one year. Facebook told Lloyd that the vanity URL had been taken away from him because it violated its terms and conditions. Facebook ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea Accepts PGA Buyout, What Does it Mean for Fabulous? - Photon Group to acquire Dark Blue Sea. Does a nickel make all the difference in the world? Dark Blue Sea has accepted (pdf) Photon Group’s takeover bid after Photon upped its offer from 30 cents per share to 35 cents per share. In a joint statement, Dark Blue Sea Chairman Vernon Wills stated “We are pleased with the increased offer. It is in the best interests of DBS that this transaction is concluded as promptly and efficiently as possible.” Let’s rewind ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Heading to TRAFFIC or DOMAINfest? Better Get Your Hotel Now. - Hotel rooms are booking quickly for January domain name conferences. It’s hard to believe that the 2010 domain conference schedule kicks off in about seven weeks. As it creeps up on us, be sure to make your hotel reservations now. Rooms for the TRAFFIC show at the Hard Rock hotel in Las Vegas are cheap — only $159 a night — thanks to the global recession. That doesn’t include taxes and resort fees. You can book your room online using the link on TRAFFIC’s ... read more ...
Fri 27th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Domain/Site Auction Platform You Probably Never Heard Of: Flippa.com - Well at least I never heard about Flippa.com until yesterday, when someone wrote me about a domain name they had for sale on this platform. It looks like the service has been around since June 21, 2009. Flippa.com (TM) was “created by a team from SitePoint, led by Mark Harbottle, co-founder and chairman of SitePoint.” “Investors in Flippa include Mark and his co-founder in SitePoint, Matt Mickiewicz, as well as veteran internet entrepreneur Leni Mayo, and MelbourneIT Director ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Black Friday: Better and More Enjoyable on a Web - This year’s Black Friday made a major push to the web. I remember the first time I decided to brave the crowds for Black Friday, the official first shopping day of the holiday season. I had to drop my wife (girlfriend at the time) off at the airport for an early morning flight, so I decided I may as well stop in at the electronics store for a few deals. What I saw was a joke. The shameless consumerism of America. People lined up a hundred deep hours in advance, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Giving Thanks, Domain Industry Edition - Taking a positive view of the industry in 2009. Despite another rough year for much of the domain name industry, there’s a lot I give thanks for. 1. Companies are creating new solutions for domain monetization. As domain parking revenue continues to fall, companies are stepping in to fill the void with creative solutions. There’s DevHub and WhyPark on the quick site development side, and innovative directory and sales solutions such as Octane360. 2. There ... read more ...
Thu 26th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com Site is Up & Running & Asking For Contributions - Yes someone actually has a site up and running on the domain, GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com, or as they call it Goog4. What is the site, its just the Google search box broken into 4 squares so you could perform mulitple Google searches without switching windows or tabs in your broswer. Cool idea. Problem is it isn’t Google doing it. The domain was just registered a few months ago and the site “authors” are asking for users to support the site to the tune of $5. “””We’re trying hard to ... read more ...
Wed 25th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Our Turkeys Of The Year Awards, 2009 Edition - Its that time again, for our second annual Turkeys of the Year awards. This is how I started off last years post and unfortunately all of its still applicable, so I will repeat it here: “With so many people out of work; losing their homes, companies out of business and retirement plans wiped out, as an industry, we are very, very fortunate.” Here are our Turkeys of the Year: 1.  Halvarez.  First and foremost on the hit parade is the bidder know as Halvarez which was identified as Nelson Brady, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Adam Dicker Shutting Down Domain Registrar - GoDaddy VP no longer using his accredited registrar. I always thought it was odd that DNForum owner Adam Dicker still owned his own domain name registrar after he took a job as VP at GoDaddy. So when I saw that ICANN was not renewing his accreditation for Domain Jingles, Inc., it gave me a chance to reach out to him. As it turns out, Dicker moved his domains to GoDaddy a long time ago and hasn’t been actively using his registrar. In response to an email, Dicker ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dan Warner Joins DomainAdvertising.com as CEO - Warner joins Directi’s new venture. A familiar face in the domain name world is joining Directi’s DomainAdvertising.com as CEO. Dan Warner, previously the Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operation Officer of Dark Blue Sea, the company that runs Fabulous, has joined the company and already hit the ground running. Warner explained how the company plans to shake up the domain industry: We will be doing the exact opposite of most domain companies. Significant capital, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DevHub Creator Snags $1.5 Million Investment - EVO Media Group picks up investment from private equity group and angel investors. EVO Media Group, Inc., the company behind web site building platform DevHub, has secured a $1.5 million investment. In addition to an undisclosed private equity group, investors include a number of angels: Geoff Entress of Voyager Capital, John Cunningham of Clearfir, Alex Algard CEO of WhitePages.com, Jeff Schrock of Intel Capital, Richard Wolpert (former President of Disney Online). ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Calling Out a Worst UDRP Decisions of All Time - New web site calls attention to bad UDRP decisions. There have been a number of poorly decided domain name cases under UDRP, many of which I’ve written about on Domain Name Wire. Now a new site is calling attention to many of these cases in an effort to alert ICANN to flaws in the UDRP process. The 2009 UDRP Wall of Shame highlights a number of these cases and why they were decided incorrectly. One example is Versa.com. Versa Capital filed a UDRP for Versa.com ... read more ...
Tue 24th November 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Mantels.com Sells For $20K On NameJet.com - The domain name Mantels.com sold for $20,300 today on NameJet.com A nice category killer domain at a reasonable price. Also selling today was another really nice domain, Ojos.com for $8,702 Ojos is Spanish for eyes. This mystery of the day for me was the domain Horan.com which sold for $6,500. I know there are a lot of people with this last name and many companies use it as well, but $6,500 for me seems like a reach. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Wordoid.com, A New FREE Domain Tool Helps You Find Domains That Sound Like… - We are all familiar with those Web 2.0 names, Twitter, Flickr, Joost,  just to name a few and now we have found a new online tool, that lets you find these kind of domains. Wordoid.com, spits out words that kind of sound cool, or sounds like another word or contains a keyword you input. You can ask for results using 4 languages English, Spanish, French and Italian. The site describes itself as: “”Wordoids are made-up words. They look nice and feel great. They are good for naming things Naming ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ETSU.com Sells For $7,700 on NameJet.com - The domain ETSU.com sold for $7,700 on NameJet.com today. According to compete.com the domain did receive between 500-2,000 visitors a month over the last year. etsu.edu is the official site of East Tennessee State University. Some other notable sales included: SpeakerPhone.com $9,766 gamingindustry.com $3,100 marketingpromotions.com $2,300 GreatMortgage.com $1,778 PersonalRobot.com $1,771 GoEverywhere.com  $1,700 SeekJobs.com $1,600 (re-auction) Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Cost-Per-Click Prices Down 29% in One Month - Marketing analytics firm reports steep drop in Yahoo click costs. According to marketing analytics company Covario, Yahoo’s cost-per-click prices were down 29% after instituting widespread variable click pricing in September. Although it’s unclear what universe of click data Covario used to calculate this, Yahoo is happily quoting it. Covario says the typical CPA is down 11% since the change. Although initial estimates among parking companies were that parking ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Green Day Wants AmericanIdiot.com Domain Name - Green Day show heads to Broadway; rock group wants domain name. Alternative rock band Green Day has filed for arbitration to get the AmericanIdiot.com domain name. The timing of its arbitration request is not coincidental. Green Day’s American Idiot album was released back in 2004 and won a Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2005. Hit singles from the album include “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends”. So why go after the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Awarded Patent for Local Search Integrated with Whois - Google gets patent for integrating local contact information with search results. Google has been awarded U.S. patent 7624101 for “Enhanced Search Results”. The enhancements are related to Google’s local search capabilities, including returning a result for a business that includes a phone number, address, and map. You’ve probably seen these search results at the top of a Google results page: The patent describes a system that captures phone and address ... read more ...