Monthly Archives: December 2009

Tue 22nd December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
iCarly Teaches Youngsters to Not Let Their Domain Names Expire - iCarly teaches kids at a young age to make sure their domain names don’t expire. This is a little old, but you’ll still get a kick out of it. A reader just sent me a link to an iCarly episode that deals with domain names. I must admit I’ve never seen this Nickelodeon show before, but the description of this episode makes it almost worth paying the $1.99 to view the episode on Amazon UnBox: “iWant My Website Back” – Spencer gets a new credit card after ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BestPennyStocks.com Sells for 2 Million Pennies - Investment domain name sells for a whole lotta pennies. NameMedia, which sells domain names through its BuyDomains web site and Afternic DLS platform, has sold the domain name BestPennyStocks.com for 2 million pennies. That’s $20,000. The domain name was one of 394 domain names the company sold this past week for a grand total of $606,000. The median .com sale price was $1,185.50 and the median .org/.net price was $750. Another interesting sale is VGmail.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paris Sues Paris.org Owner in French Court - French cyberbullies step up attack. Ville de Paris — the City of Paris — is continuing its multi-prong attack on domain name owners by filing a lawsuit against the owner of Paris.org, this time in French Court. The owner has had the domain name since 1995. The move to Paris is another attempt to find some sort of venue that will give the city exclusive rights to use “Paris” in a domain name. But it’s not a guaranteed win for the city. In fact, it previously ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Russians Not Keen on IDN Top Level Domain - Story shines light on fears of IDNs, but it’s really an issue of ccTLDs. The reaction was swift and positive — finally, after years of typing in Latin-based top level domains, people who use different character sets would soon be able to type in new top level domain names in their own alphabets. What’s not to love about that? Apparently a lot. A story in yesterday’s New York Times says that many Russians are wary of their government’s plans to introduce ... read more ...
Mon 21st December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN
Overnight Twitter Becomes Profitable, Thanks To Google & Bing - According to a report by Bloomberg News, Twitter will make about $25 million from search deals it announced in October, with Google Inc. and Bing. The report goes on to say that the revenue generated from Google and Bing, will be enough to push Twitter into profitability. “”An agreement that made Twitter’s messages searchable on Google’s site will generate about $15 million, said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the terms aren’t public. A similar deal with Microsoft’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afilias Releases Annual .Info Report: Over 5.3 Million .Info Registered - Afilias the registry for the .INFO domain, released its 2009 .INFO Annual Report today, According to the report, the .Info extension currently ranks 7th among all Top Level Domains (TLD’s) and is has the most registrations of any TLD first introduced since 2001. .Info, has  over 5.3 million domains registered. According to Afflias, over 70 % of all .Info’s resolve “to real content and over 1 million unique Web sites.” “The top regions for registrations are North America at 61% and Europe ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Radio – DevHub Founders - Cofounders and management team of web site building platform talk on DNW Radio. In this episode of DNW Radio, we talk with EVO Media Group founders Geoff Nuval, Mark Michael, and Daniel Rust. EVO Media Group is known for its DevHub web site building platform. I first met Nuval on the bus ride to the Playboy Mansion at this year’s DOMAINfest Global in Los Angeles. They’ve had a wild year since then: they’re expanding quickly and have closed on $1.5 million ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Confessions of a Thick-Skinned Blogger - Cheap shots — I’ve had my share. Well, moderately thick-skinned, anyway. When I started writing Domain Name Wire in early 2005, I was just getting my feet wet in the world of instantaneous, anonymous, public feedback. As any blogger will tell you, it isn’t always pretty. You have to have thick skin in this world. If you have thin skin, you take attacks personally and let it eat away at you. Thanks to the relative anonymity of leaving comments on blogs, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expressions of Interest for New TLDs Still a Long Wait - Idea to get data on new TLDs will probably take longer than expected. If the current draft plan (pdf) for accepting “Expressions of Interest” for new top level domain names is adopted in similar form, ICANN won’t start accepting applications until June 2010 at the earliest. The delay is because ICANN will shift its planned communications efforts for new TLD applications to promote Expressions of Interest instead. The current proposal for Expressions of Interest ... read more ...
Sun 20th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What Was The Best Domain Buy Of 2009? (Revised With Your Picks) - I have updated and restarted the poll with some of your comments and suggestions. The only option I did not give you is to vote for the $7 Million dollars portifillio that DirectNavigation.com Reported on last week. It’s simply unfair to judge a portfolio acquisition against a single domain acquisition. I also removed the “something else choice”, they were all good buys so pick the one you think was the best. Here is the post from yesterday: Well this year has certain seen some huge domain ... read more ...
Sat 19th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
When It Comes To WIPO & UDRP’s: If You Screw Your Reputation, Your Going To Lose Your Domains - In a decision which should serve as a cautionary tale for all domainers, a LLLL domain was awarded this week to the complainant because of the domain owners reputation and history. For all of you domainers that don’t think your reputation or history follow you into a UDRP or WIPO action, this case demonstrates quite clearly that you are sadly mistaken. The case involved the domain CPQD.com, not a well known trademark or anything that rolls off the tongue too easy. Why would the sole panelist award ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Peruvian.com Sells For $8K On NameJet.com - The domain Peruvian.com sold for $8,103 on NameJet.com today. Here are some other notable sales from NameJet.com this week: quickcashadvanceloan.com $4,500 sqp.com $4,401 santacostume.com $4,350 activate.net $3,000 hablaespanol.com $2,600 mortgagedallas.com $2,550 icaan.org $2,200  (typo for ICANN.org, not the smartest purchase of 2009) pizzaspecials.com $2,200 laurelhill.com $1,600 nafc-aboriginal.com $1,210 orbiting.com $1,111 couloirmag.com $1,100 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Fri 18th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
This Time Its Microsoft That’s Sued For TradeMark Infringement For Bing: Good Thing For MSFT There Is No Quick Take down Procedure In Place, YET - A St. Louis company Bing! Information Design filed suit this week against  Microsoft for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition, over Microsoft’s used of the term “Bing” as its new search engine. Bing! Information Design is a small, privately held information graphics and multimedia design company and use’s bing.biz at its web address. The company says it has used the mark “Bing!” since at least 2000 and has applications pending to register the mark. Bing! Information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is eHelper.com a Typo of EdHelper.com? - When is a typo not a typo? Is eHelper.com a typo of EdHelper.com? Yes, according to National Arbitration Forum panelist Sandra J. Franklin. In a decision handed down yesterday, Franklin awarded the domain name eHelper.com to the owner of EdHelper.com. It’s a strange decision since eHelper is fundamentally different than EdHelper. It’s not a typo in the same way EdHlper.com would be, and eHelper.com is a legitimate, stand alone name for a possible web site. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Isn’t Stupid. That’s Why It’s Raising .Com Prices - VeriSign price increase makes sense for the company. There has been a collective whine from the domainer community over the past 12 hours after news broke that VeriSign is increasing .com prices again. I’m whining, too. But this is an expected and smart move by VeriSign. VeriSign’s contract with ICANN allows it to raise prices 7% in any four years of its current six year contract. It raised prices in the first two years, bringing VeriSign’s take of a .com ... read more ...
Thu 17th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
VeriSign Sends You An Early Christmas Present: .Com and .Net Fees To Increase 7% - I Guess VeriSign just sent all of us an early Christmas present. My registrar just informed me that they received a notice today from VeriSign today that they were raising their fees by 7% on July 1, 2010. VeriSign fees for .com registrations and renewals will be increasing to $7.34 from its current $6.86 and .Net fees for registrations and renewals will be increased to $4.65 per year. Don’t forget ICANN’s fee of $.20 (currently) , is in addition to VeriSign’s fees and of course each registrar ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
ComScore: Down Goes Yahoo, Down Goes Yahoo - The title of this blog is a homage to one of the great sports announcing calls of my lifetime when Howard Cosell called the Ali-Fraser fight. However in this case it looks like Yahoo is losing the fight for search engine share. According to comScore Yahoo’s search market share in November fell to 17.5% from 18% in October marking the the lowest share ever recorded for Yaho. Yahoo has lost share for 10-straight months. Bing gained 0.4% of the search market up to 10.3%. Google share grew to take ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling & Ron Sheridan Named PITCHFEST Judges As DomainFest Agenda Is Released - DOMAINfest unveiled its agenda for the show taking place on  January 26-28, 2010 in Santa Monica, Calif. PITCHfest and LAUNCHfest Contests The PITCHfest contest will uncover new, innovative products or services designed to enhance the value of parked or developed domain names by driving increased traffic and revenue.  The prize,  the DOMAINfest Global 2010 PITCHfest Service Innovator trophy, will be awarded for the idea with the most creativity, viability, originality, and revenue potential. Individuals ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Kentucky Files New Motions In Domain Seizure Case, To Add New Parties & Amend Its Complaint - According to the pokernewsdaily.com, the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed a motion today “to add parties to its case and amend its original complaint.” In September 2008, the Commonwealth seized 141 domains and several hearing and appeals later the battle goes on. The Supreme Court of Kentucky heard oral arguments on the case in October and the decision is expected shortly. (You can read more about this case here and here.) According to this story, the Commonwealth filed a motion to amend its complaint ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Which Domain Software and Services Do You Use? - Help shape the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. It’s almost time for the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey, where you get to pick the best domain name registrars, parking companies, and services in the industry. Last year the survey included a free-form question about which third party domain name software or hosted application you find most valuable. We received a lot of different answers. This year the question will be multiple choice. With that in mind, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Tasting Down 99.7% – But It’s Coming Back - Domain tasting is down, but the registration game is merely changing. ICANN is reporting that domain name tasting is down 99.7% since it implemented new policies to thwart it. Tasting is registering a domain name to test for traffic, and returning it within five days for a full refund if it doesn’t get enough traffic. The new policies limited the number of domains a registrar could return for a refund. This changed the domain tasting model on its head and eliminated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Goodwill Non-Profit Sues to Get Goodwill.com Domain Name - Charity sues company that bought domain name for $55,000 in NameJet domain name auction. Non-profit Goodwill Industries International has sued the owner of Goodwill.com for alleged trademark infringement. The lawsuit (pdf) names Cyber2Media, Inc., the owner of the domain, and Oversee.net, which briefly monetized the domain on its DomainSponsor platform, as defendants. For years, the domain name Goodwill.com was used by Goodwill Group, Inc., a Japanese staffing company. ... read more ...
Wed 16th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here We Go Again: Utah Introduces Its Own “Snowe” Bill To Take Your Domains Away: The Utah E-Commerce Integrity Act - Senator Stephen Urquhart a state senator in Utah, and Chairman of the Transportation and Public Utilities and Technology Committee, is sponsoring a law called the “UTAH E-COMMERCE INTEGRITY ACT” which among other things “prohibits the registration of domain names under certain circumstances, commonly referred to as cybersquatting and provides civil and criminal penalties for violation. The bill as a whole is similar to the Snowe Bill introduced in 2008 into the US Senate which seeks to prohibit ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Gold Vs. Google; 3 Months Later - It was just about three months ago today that gold first hit $1,000 a ounce and Google hit $500 a share on the same day, prompting us to  write a post and asked you, which was a better buy. We picked Google. Today Google hit $600 a share. Gold is trading at $1,137.50 So Google is up 20%, in the 3 months Gold is up 11%. The poll results were split equally. We will continue to follow this as either one reaches a milestone. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WordStream Releases More New FREE Keyword Tools Today - Back in September we wrote about a FREE keyword tool by the company WordStream. Today the company announced the roll out of 2 more FREE keyword search tools: The Keyword Niche Finder and The Free Keyword Grouper: The Keyword Niche Finder – Instantly identify and target the most profitable keyword niches The Keyword Grouper- Group and organize vast lists of keywords into actionable keyword groups to turn into ad groups or website content According to the company the Free Keyword Grouper lets marketers ... read more ...