Happy New Year - Just a quick note to wish all our readers, advertisers and everyone in the domain community a healthy and happy new year.
See you on the flip side.
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Thu 31st December 2009
comScore: Online Christmas Season Sales Hit $27 Billion - According to a report released by comScore today, people spent $27 billion online from November 1 through December 24, a 5% increase over last year.
Here is a the detailed chart from comScore:
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
In Play: Live Current May Have Sold Leisure.com -
Live Current Media sale of Leisure.com may be in the works.
The whois information for Leisure.com has changed, signaling a possible sale by Live Current Media (livc.ob). The whois record for the domain name on December 22 showed Live Current Media; on December 30 the record changed to GoDaddy’s Domains by Proxy. The nameservers also changed from SedoParking.com to GoDaddy nameservers and the web site has a placeholder now.
This follows the pattern of previous ... read more ...
2009 Domain Dunce Award: Parava -
Domain name registrar shuts down, exposing a host of unknown problems.
It wasn’t quite RegisterFly, but the fall of domain name registrar Parava this year was a stark reminder that the domain registration business remains poorly regulated with lax compliance.
ICANN sent a breach notice to Parava on February 27th, notifying it of major infractions including not paying accreditation fees, failing to escrow whois data, and failing to take action in response to invalid ... read more ...
Wed 30th December 2009
A Belated 2008 Domain Dunce: John Berryhill -
Better late than never, here’s a 2008 Domain Dunce Award.
What do you mean today is Wednesday?
This week I’ve run a series of posts with Domain Dunce Awards for 2009. But there was one I missed last year that is worth giving a retroactive award for.
This one goes out to John Berryhill, the well known domain name attorney. What could a domain name lawyer due to earn this not-so-prestigious award? It’s more what he didn’t do: renew his domain name Berryhill.net. ... read more ...
TRAFFIC Networking Campaign Nets 250 Requests -
“Who do you want to meet” campaign successful.
As you heard on DNW Radio, networking is the biggest reason people go to domain name conferences. With that knowledge, Rick Latona’s team came up with an ingenious advertising campaign for TRAFFIC Las Vegas. Through banner ads, people were able to enter the names of people they’d like to meet at TRAFFIC, and the organizers would try to make it happen:
So far, 250 people have taken TRAFFIC up on its offer, Latona ... read more ...
2009 Domain Dunce Award: .CM Launch -
A controversial “relaunch” goes awry.
.CM, the country code top level domain name for The Republic of Cameroon, has a storied history amongst domainers. Kevin Ham struck a deal to wildcard the domain name, sending lots of typo traffic of .com domain names his way. Ham, including his deal with Cameroon, was the subject of a cover story in the late Business 2.0 magazine.
This year Cameroon decided to open up .cm and offer it to individual registrants, and opted ... read more ...
Tue 29th December 2009
Kiev.com Sells for $88,000 -
Ukranian geo domain tops sales chart.
Kiev.com, a domain for the capital of Ukraine, has sold for $88,000 at Sedo. The domain represents the top completed sale at the sales venue over the past two weeks. Russia.eu (European Union country code domain) sold for $24,000. Sedo sold Russia.com for $1.5 million last month.
Here are other notable sales from the past two weeks:
.COM
swype.com 25,000 USD
6m.com 16,055 USD
computerspeakers.com 14,500 USD
shepperton.com 13,225 GBP
singlecity.com 12,950 USD
bedstar.com 12,000 EUR
privy.com 12,000 USD
lifedash.com 10,500 USD
tbk.com 10,000 USD
g66g3e.com 10,000 USD
tbk.com 10,000 USD
thinkspot.com 9,999 USD
ifeed.com 9,900 USD
catholicsoulmates.com 8,995 USD
bookee.com ... read more ...
iGuide for Apple Tablet? Not Likely. -
Domain records show Apple connection to iGuide.com unlikely.
If you’re one of the many Apple bloggers out there, your holiday season has been filled with speculation about Apple’s upcoming tablet. The consensus is that will be called iSlate, since Apple has acquired the iSlate.com domain name.
But another possibility is iGuide. MacRumors points to an Apple trademark application for iGuide. Robin Wauters over at TechCrunch did some investigating and comes to ... read more ...
Top 10 Domain Name Wire Stories of 2009 -
A look back at the year in domain news.
As 2009 draws to a close, here’s a look at the top 10 stories on Domain Name Wire this year, as measured by traffic. Of course, traffic doesn’t equal importance…
10. Toys.com, Birthdays.com, Hobbies.com Sold at Auction – Domain Name Wire’s story about a quiet bankruptcy auction started a big ripple. A DNW reader petitioned the court to set aside the sale of Toys.com. That resulted in a re-auction and a decidedly ... read more ...
2009 Domain Dunce Award: SnapNames Due Diligence -
Due diligence in expired domain company acquisition missed a couple big problems.
Mergers and Acquisitions due diligence is thankless work. You have to learn everything about a company, including things about it that its current owners don’t know, in a short period of time. If you get everything right, no one remembers to thank you a couple years later. If you mess up, everyone knows about it.
And that’s exactly the case with SnapNames. The due diligence ... read more ...
Mon 28th December 2009
Finally A Well Reasoned WIPO Decision Denys The Complaint Of A Trademark Holder Against a Domainer - “”All year, we have been citing WIPO decision for being inconsistent and blatantly unfair to domain holders.
Finally today as a late Christmas present to domainers we finally have a good decision, not only because the panel ruled in favor of the domain holder but because the panel took the time to very methodically discuss when trademarks will be protected, the circumstances under when domain parking is “legitimate use”. Moreover the domain holder in this case was a domainer. Someone ... read more ...
Altria Gearing Up to Sell Marijuana? -
Company files case against owner of marijuana domain names.
Altria Group, the parent company of tobacco company Philip Morris USA, has filed an arbitration proceeding to get the domain names AltriaMarijuana.com and AltriaCannabis.com.
Is the company getting ready for the day pot becomes legal? Perhaps, but the company is probably more concerned about the content on the web sites. Both sites invite visitors to “Fight Against the Legalization of Marijuana” and ... read more ...
How Much Email Marketing is Too Much Email Marketing? -
Finally, my inbox can rest.
Christmas is over. And it couldn’t have come too soon for my email inbox. It was inundated with email promotions for holiday gifts.
These emails weren’t technically spam. After all, I had ordered gifts from companies such as Harry David last year, and I gave them permission to send emails to me with special offers in the future.
But how many emails can a company send without violating the sanctity of that opt-in? Harry David and ... read more ...
2009 Domain Dunce Award: Panelist Andrew F. Christie -
“My scenario is where someone named James Wilson Marriott has jwmarriott.com…”
That’s a great scenario. Clearly, what you describe would be a scummy, rotten, unlawful, and bad faith thing for him to do. He should be stopped from running those hotel ads.
In fact, you describe the allegations in two ACPA cases in which a domain name was not transferred. Mr. Uzi Nissan did in fact run ads relating to foreign cars at his nissan.com domain name. He has been enjoined from advertising ... read more ...
Sat 26th December 2009
2000-2009: The Decade That Changed The World & Gave Birth To Domaining - In preparing for a few “end of year” type posts, I realized not only are we about to say goodbye to 2009, but to the decade in which domaining was basically born.
The 2000′s, what a decade it was.
Filled with huge, almost non-stop life changing news, events, and technologies
Even before the decade started, millions of people thought the world was going to come to a halt when computers hit 1.1.2000 (few original computer programs anticipated a year starting with something other than “19″) ... read more ...
Fri 25th December 2009
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays - We wish you and your family and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Mike, Judi and Bandit
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Reports: Apple To Name Its Coming Tablet Computer: iSlate.com - According to many reports out today Apple is going to name its upcoming Tablet computer “iSlate” and yes it appears to own or control the domain.
The excitement over this new product which is expected to be formally announced on January 26th, caused the shares of Apple to hit an all time high of $209 yesterday.
Concerning the domain, iSlate.com, Back in August 2005 the domain was registered to a domainer:
Registrant:
Eurobox Ltd.
p.o. box 108
St. Petersburg 197022
RU
Then October 2006 the domain ... read more ...
Thu 24th December 2009
CircleID: “End All Domain Auction Sites” So The “Speculators” Don’t Get Them (That’s You) - Alex Tajirian,a contributing writer to CircleId has written a post calling for the end of all domain auction sites and replacing them with a centralized clearing house for all expired or dropping domains.
The reason?
Simply Mr. Tajirian thinks the “Speculators” (that is you he is talking about) are getting too many of the good dropping domain names and businesses, SEO guys and end users can’t get them.
Who is Alex Tajirian you ask?
According to his Bio, he “launched the first domain-name ... read more ...
Did You Know Google Owned A Twitter Like Site? The Tale Of Jaiku.com - Do you think that Google owns EVERYTHING?
I didn’t know that Google owned a Twitter like site at Jaiku.com until the other day.
I sure didn’t know that Google paid for $12 Million for the privilege.
Go check out the site for yourself and tell me how its worth $12 Mills.
If nothing else it should inspire you to do your own project on a domain you already own.
Did you know that
Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Wed 23rd December 2009
ShoePavilion.com Sells For $15K On NameJet.com - The domain name ShoePavilion.com sold on NameJet.com today for $15,600.
The domain which still gets over 3K monthly visitors according to Compete.com had as many as 25K monthly visitors a year ago.
speakerphone.com on a re-auction went for $9,900 slightly higher than it sold for a month ago on NameJet.com
Nutriscience.com sold for $5,200 despite a trademark being registered on the term.
Finally a few days ago a domain with quite a bit of traffic, FirstNationalBank.com, sold for $69K,
Google+Michael ... read more ...
GE Loses Domain Dispute for GEEntertainment.com -
GE loses domain name dispute. Did it fall on its own sword?
General Electric (GE) has lost a domain name dispute under UDRP for the domain GEEntertainment.com.
This is an interesting case for two reasons:
1. The complainant provided too much information to the panel, giving the keys to the panel to find in the respondent’s favor despite receiving no reply from the respondent.
2. It appears the panelist did some of his own research to supplement his findings. ... read more ...
Domain Name News Bytes Dec 23, 2009 -
Brings me back to that “thick skin” story… I’m a little upset that a domain I submitted to the charity auction by Whypark sold for very little money. It was worth 10 times the amount paid by the buyer… hey people, it’s a charity! Put some money in there! Ok, that rant is over.
On another note: Here’s an anecdote for fans of domaining, domain newsites, and the show, “SURVIVOR”:
The quote for the Theme Of This Story:
“This ain’t no social event”
Russell Hantz: ... read more ...
Tue 22nd December 2009
WIPO Says A Parked Page “Is NOT A Legitimate Or Bona Fide Use” In Taking Away A Generic Domain SaveChildren.com Away - In a WIPO decision released today, a sole panelist Harrie R. Samaras, awarded a generic domain name, savechildren.com to the charitable organization, Save the Children.
The complainant of course holds a federal trademark for “save the children” but does not hold any mark for “Save Children”
In giving the domain to the charity the panelist stated:
“”The format of Respondent’s website is that of a pay-per-click site, i.e., a site that generates money for Respondent each time a user clicks ... read more ...
You Know Of A Rags To Riches Domain Story? The TLC Network’s New TV Show Accidental Fortune Is Listening - A new TLC show, Accidental Fortune is looking for a real rags to riches domain name story for its show.
According to a producer for the show, they are looking for a story where someone sold a domain name (or site), for six figures or more in which the owner had a minimal cost.
They do not want a story about a domain sold by a professional domainer or someone who makes a living in the domain business.
The best example is Joe Francis, who owned the website Joetheplumber.com who was reportedly offered ... read more ...