Monthly Archives: February 2010

Tue 16th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uniform Rapid Suspension Scheme for Domain Names Still on a Table - New proposal still doesn’t make sense. But reforming UDRP does. It’s baaaack! After being almost shot to death, the so-called “Uniform Rapid Suspension” idea (basically a very fast UDRP for alleged trademark domains) is back. When URS was originally proposed, it was ridiculed from just about every sector of the domain name world. But a new group was formed to try to salvage it. Originally created by “Implementation Recommendation Team”, it was then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy, Neustar, IPC Say No to Nairobi Meeting - Groups back out of Nairobi meeting over security concerns; will test limits of remote participation systems. Domain name registrar Go Daddy, registry Neustar, and the Intellectual Property Constituency have all informed ICANN that they will not be attending the upcoming meeting in Nairobi due to security concerns. Security has been a major concern for the meeting, but was escalated last week after it became known that a suicide bomb attack was planned against the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gets Patent for Suggesting Alternative Domain Names - Patent describes system for providing alternatives to already registered domain names. When you search for a domain name at any major registrar, and the domain isn’t available, the registrar will likely serve up a list of similar domain names that are available for registration. VeriSign just got a patent for part of that process. U.S. Patent 7,664,831 (pdf) was applied for in 2001, based on a provisional patent application filed in 2000. Here’s the abstract: A ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo and GoDaddy Tops for Domain Sales - Where’s the best place to sell domain names online? Sedo and GoDaddy have been selected as the two best online domain name sales venues in the 2010 Domain Name Wire Survey. Sedo’s position at the top of the charts is nothing new — it took 40% of the vote. But this is down from 48% last year. Where did those 8% go? Well, more people are flocking to GoDaddy. Here are the top five: 1. Sedo 40% 2. GoDaddy 13% 3. NameMedia (Afternic, BuyDomains) 10% 4. Forums ... read more ...
Mon 15th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Debts.Co.Uk Sold For Millions? - According to a report, the domain Debts.co.UK was purchased with other assets for £2.7m in December 2009,  which at the time was equivlent to approximately $4 Million dollars. The company Cleardebt bought the assets of Relax’s assets, including more than 6,500 Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and debt management plans, as well as the debts.co.uk domain name, from the administrators. Since this was not a pure domain sale we may never know the price attributed to just the domain, and therefore ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Weather Doesn’t Spoil Domainer Mardi Gras - Bad weather not enough to ruin Mardi Gras. Despite mother nature’s best attempt, the weather couldn’t spoil the second successful Domainer Mardi Gras conference. The event kicked off last Thursday night in New Orleans, concluding in the wee hours of the morning Sunday. Widespread snow storms made it difficult to fly into New Orleans, but most of the 150-odd registrants made it. For those that didn’t, Domainer Mardi Gras’ technical team did its best to bridge ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Rick Latona Most Influential in Domain Industry - Results of survey for “most influential” person in domain industry. Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the most influential of them all? The answer is Rick Latona, according to the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. The question of who has the most influence on the domain name industry is always controversial. I received a number of comments this year about what this question means. Can influence be only good? Can it be a company? Really, it’s up to you ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools Selected as Top Domain Research and Management Tool - Whois service gets MVP. Perhaps it’s only fitting that the top domain tool is, well, DomainTools. The popular whois service was selected as the “most valuable” software or hosted application for domain research and management, according to respondents in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. 39% of those surveyed picked DomainTools, nearly three times as many as the next highest vote-getter. Here are the top five results: 1. DomainTools (39%) 2. FreshDrop ... read more ...
Sun 14th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
2 Hours On The Panel Its Clear That The New gTLD’s Are Just About The Money - I sat on a panel Friday at the Domainer Mardi Gras with Jeffrey Eckhaus from Demand Media, whose company is expected to apply for at least several new gTLD’s, Ken Hansen from Neustar whose company is trying to provide the back end for many of the new gTLD’s registries, Mike Rodenbaugh who is an attorney hoping to represent some of the applicants for new gTLD’s and who also sits on the ICANN committee working on the new gTLD’s and Mr. John Berryhill, who represents domain owners against trademark ... read more ...
Sat 13th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Escrow.com Rated Top Domain Name Escrow Service - Escrow.com selected as best domain name escrow service. Escrow.com is the best escrow service for domain names, according to a survey of over 500 domain name owners. In the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey, 55% of respondent picked Escrow.com as the top service. Sedo’s escrow service came in at number two with 24%, followed by Moniker at 13%. Afternic’s escrow service came in a distant fourth. EscrowDNS.com also received votes. EscrowDNS.com was recently ... read more ...
Fri 12th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
eBay Has To Pay Hundreds Of Thosands of Euro’s For Typo Searches For Louis Vuitton - According to Reuters, a Paris tribunal found Ebay  guilty of misleading consumers today by using mis-spell versions of  Louis Vuitton as search engine key words to redirect users to Ebay website links. The suit was brought by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH),  which also makes Christian Dior perfume, Tag Heuer watches, and the champagne that carries its name. The tribunal ordered Ebay to pay 200,000 euros ($275,800) in damages and 30,000 euros in legal costs incurred by Louis Vuitton. It also ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN Meeting Conference Center Target of Bomb Threat - Bomb threat for Kenyan conference venue. Security is a major concern for ICANN’s upcoming meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. The situation took a negative turn yesterday, when ICANN received a U.S. State Department notice about a potential terrorist attack on the conference center where the meeting will be held: As of early February 2010, individuals affiliated with al-Shabaab al-Islamiya were planning suicide bombing attacks on the US Embassy and Kenyan International ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Mardi Gras Kicks Off in New Orleans - Despite snowstorms, most make it to conference in New Orleans. This could have been a story with photos and videos from last night’s Domainer Crawfish Boil in New Orleans. But it’s not. It’s about how difficult it has been to get to New Orleans. Thanks to widespread snowstorms, air travel ground to a halt yesterday. Apparently the snowstorm will cause the most canceled flights since 9/11. My personal adventure started when American Airlines called me at 9 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: DNForum is Best Domain Name Forum - Rating the top domain name forums. DNForum is the best domain name forum, according to a survey of 500 domain owners in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. 37% of respondents who have visited a domain forum selected DNForum as the best. In the five years of the survey, DNForum has been selected top forum four times. DNForum is owned by Adam Dicker, who until recently was also a vice president with GoDaddy. Now that he is unchained from full-time duty, you ... read more ...
Thu 11th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NonProfit? ICANN Releases Salaries: Beckstrom Over $2.2 Million Guaranteed; CFO $270K Per, Lawyer $230K Per PLUS PLUS - ICANN released its “compensation practices” today (pdf file) and for an organization that is “non-profit” there is some serious money being made by the insiders. According to the document, CEO Rod Beckstrom entered in to a three year employment agreement effective 1 July 2009 with a base salary of US$750,000 per year. Right. 3 years @ $750K per Guaranteed. In the height of the recession when over 10% of the population is unemployed, the leader of the non-profit monopoly got a guarantee of  ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechCrunch: Google Buys Social Networking Site Aardvark For $50 Million - According to a report in TechCrunch, Google has acquired Aardvark, a San Francisco start-up whose service melds Internet search and social networking for an estimated $50 million dollars. Aardvark, which counts two ex-Google employees among its founders, has pioneered a new type of Internet search dubbed “social search.” Instead of looking at Web pages to find answers to search queries, Aardvark’s service taps a person’s network of social contacts. The deal is Google’s sixth purchase announcement ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Company That Bought Insure.com For $16M; QuinStreet Fails To Impress Wall Street On IPO - The highly-anticipated QuinStreet IPO received a lukewarm reception on its trading debut on Thursday. The company, which competes with Google and Yahoo to sell advertising, raised $140 million selling 10 million shares for $15 each. This was below its expected range of $17 to $19 a piece. Shares of QuinStreet which is trading under the symbol QNST traded down $.06 to close at $14.94 after its first session. Quinstreet bought the domain name insure.com for $16 Million back in November 2009. Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afilias Buys The .Mobi Registry - Afilias Limited, an Irish Limited company, and the registry operator for .INFO, announced today that it acquired all of the issued and outstanding capital stock of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd. (known publicly as dotMobi) the registry which owns the .Mobi TLD, and plans to continue operating dotMobi as a wholly owned subsidiary. From the Press Release: “Afilias has long been a leader in launching new TLDs and now supports over 50 percent of the entire universe of registrations in TLDs launched since ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
MediaPost: “”Marketers Might Pay Just About Any Price For A Solid Domain Name””” - You have to check out a very positive article about the value of domains, written by Laurie Sullivan for Media Post today. She wrote in part: “””Marketing and advertising agencies looking to strengthen campaigns might pay just about any price for a solid domain name if it means building a better relationship with consumers.”” “”Companies can build the greatest campaign in the world, but if no one identifies the Web site domain name with the brand, even the most expensive names become ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WSJ: Covers VeriSign, The No Bid Contract To Run The .Com Registry & What Happens After 2012 - The Wall Street Journal had an article discussing VeriSign today and its contract to run the .com registry “The domain name business remains the subject of a lawsuit originally filed in 2005, by a group calling itself the Coalition for ICANN Transparency – arguing that VeriSign’s deal with ICANN violates antitrust laws, while artificially inflating prices.” “”The lawsuit had been dismissed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed course and potentially re-started ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Afilias Aquires DotMobi - Registry acquires .mobi operator. Domain name registry Afilias has acquired DotMobi, the registry for .mobi top level domain names. Afilias is best known for managing the .info domain name registry. It also provides registry services for more than 15 million domains. Afilias supports .INFO, .ORG, .aero, .ASIA, .AG (Antigua and Barbuda), .BZ (Belize), .GI (Gibraltar), .HN (Honduras), .IN (India), .LC (St. Lucia), .ME (Montenegro), .MN (Mongolia), .SC (the Seychelles), ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Snow Slows Down Domainer Mardi Gras Procession - Widespread snow brings travel to a halt. Domainers heading to Domainer Mardi Gras in New Orleans are facing a big obstacle: lots and lots of snow. Domain Name attorney John Berryhill had to call it quits after the Philadelphia airport shut down. “It is really difficult to describe the weather situation here,” Berryhill wrote in an email. “I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve seen plenty of snow. This is an ungodly amount of snow.” Lest you think Berryhill ... read more ...
Wed 10th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
You Got A Spare $250 Million Laying Around? You Maybe Able To Buy Hooters (Domain Name Comes With) - According to the New York Post,  Hooters is shopping itself around for an undisclosed amount but which is estimated to be by analysts the Post talked to in the $250 Million dollar range. Hooters’ has 450 owned and franchised restaurants and of course also owns the domain Hooters.com. What does this have to do with domaining you ask? Honestly not much but as I’m packing for New Orleans and the Domainer’s Mardi Gras show, how could I pass up a chance to write about Hooters? Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google To Build Out Its Own High Speed Broadband Network - Google announced on its blog this morning that they are planning to build and test their own “ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.” “”We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.”” “””Our goal is to ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
How Much Will Historia.com Sell For? Its Already Over $10K - The domain Historia.com is currently in a closed auction on NameJet.com. With over 2 days to go the domain already has a high bid of $10,099. The word Historia of course is Spanish for History. It is also the name of a Cable TV channel in Canada. So the question is how much will this domain wind up selling for on NameJet.com? Place your predictions below. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...