Monthly Archives: March 2010

Mon 15th March 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Radio Station Duped by Google News Into Airing Old Sex.com Story - Google News results in radio station picking up three-year-old story. [Update: KLIV has posted a note on its home page about the error: “We Goofed! Earlier today KLIV aired a story, reprinted here on KLIV.com, regarding former Internet entrepreneur Stephen Cohen’s legal dispute with the web site Sex.com. While the domain name is up for auction this week the information regarding Cohen was taken from a 2007 Associated Press story regarding a court case which we ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registry – Registrar Integration Debate Far from Over for New TLDs - Some integration between registries and registrars likely for new TLDs. Last week I reported about an ICANN board resolution that called for “strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. No co-ownership will be allowed.” In other words, domain name registrars such as Go Daddy and eNom would not be able to own a domain name registry similar to Neustar or VeriSign. Well, the resolution is only half the story. Now that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New UDRP Goes into Effect Today – Still No Response from ICANN - Yes, we do disagree on that. I think that if we *had to* balance the interests, I do not hold domain owners up as more important than ethical and free trade. But, I can respect your position as being simply one of differing values. However, I don’t see that any legitimate registrants could possibly be harmed by this. *Legitimate* registrants are those who stay far from others’ IP rights and who update their Whois information. Seems kind of easy to do. Also, I disagree with ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Does a Press Insist on Quoting eBay Starting Prices for Domain Names? - Press perpetuates silly domain prices and negative view of domain investing. Perhaps it makes for easy filler. But why must the press always quote outlandish starting prices for domain names on eBay? Whenever there’s a celebrity scandal, big news story, or product launch, it seems that many writers need something to grab onto that has a number in it. “A seller is auctioning off TigerWoodScandalName.com starting at $1 million…” “Someone has posted TastelessHaitiEarthquakeName.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bankaholic Founder to Contribute to MO.com - Entrepreneur who cashed in on sale to BankRate.com will contribute to MO.com. MO.com has announced that Johns Wu, the entrepreneur who founded Bankaholic.com and sold it to BankRate for $15 million, will be contributing to MO.com. MO.com is a new site that profiles entrepreneurs as a way to learn from each other. It was founded by Brian Null, an entrepreneur and domainer who built and sold OfficeSupply.com and GolfCourses.com. Null interviewed Wu, himself now a ... read more ...
Sun 14th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Report: Google 99.9% Certain It WIll Close Down In China - According to the Financial Times, Google talks with China have reached an impasse and Google is now “99.9 percent” certain to shut its Chinese search engine, Google.cn. Google.cn is currently ranked as the 14th most visited site on the net by Alexa.org The Financial Times went on to say Google has drawn up detailed plans for closing its Chinese search engine “to bring about an orderly closure as the company takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by authorities”. Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Ngo Wants to Be a Secure .Org - Non-profit proposes .ngo top level domain name. A U.K. charity wants to create a secure .org top level domain name at .ngo. Non-profit Article 25 has set up a web site at dotNGO.net describing its plan: There is currently no secure version of .org that can give any public reassurance that your donation is going to a registered charity. .ngo will fill that need. We belive(sic) that .ngo will become the single secure and trusted domain of legitimate charities and NGOs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal Settle - Fallout from acquisition resolved in confidential settlement. At long last, Thought Convergence and Jay Westerdal et al have settled their lawsuit stemming from Thought Convergence’s acquisition of Westerdal’s Name Intelligence. The parties participated in a second mediation session with Hon. George P. Schiavelli (Ret.) on March 10, during which both parties came to a settlement. Terms of the settlement are confidential. A court document notifying the court ... read more ...
Sat 13th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoVideo.com Sells For $18k on NameJet.com - The domain GoVideo.com sold on Namejet.com today for $18,100. The domain has an Alexa rank of under 2M and according to Compete gets between 1K-3K visitors a month. The domain used to be owned by an electronics company that made dual  VCR/VCR DVD/VCR devices but that day pretty much came and went and today the domain name went for $18K. Here are a couple of other interesting domain that went on NameJet.com in the last few days. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Our Prediction: Who Will Make The Most Money Off The New Extensions? Hands Down, Godaddy.com - After the developments this week we are ready to make an early prediction on which company is going to make the most off the new extensions. By a mile its going to be Godaddy. Godaddy announced this week that the have a market share of 50% of every new domain registration. That’s  huge. Think about Google and search. What is your perception? Google owns the market, right? Yahoo, Microsoft and Ask.com are just also ran’s. What is Google’s actual market search share? Around 67%. Google has three ... read more ...
Fri 12th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
As We Predicted .XXX Decision Is Pushed Off Until Brussell Meeting - As we predicted in our blog post last month, ICANN pushed off a a vote on ICM Registry’s proposal to run the  .XXX domain name extension to “no later than its Brussels meeting,” which is scheduled for June 20-25. ICANN directed its general counsel and chief executive to formulate “possible process options” to the plan that would be available for public comment. The ICANN board will  post the options and a report within 14 days on its website. The options will be posted for 45 days. ICANN ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Poll: How Long Until New Top Level Domain Names? - When do you think new TLDs will be available for registration? Another ICANN meeting has wrapped up. Blows were dealt to many, but some progress was made. With EOI off the table, the focus is on settling the “overarching issues”. The intellectual property constituency, which didn’t show up to Nairobi, was perhaps the biggest winner. New TLDs are going to happen. It’s a matter of when. During Domainer Mardi Gras, I asked my panel when they thought new TLDs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board Drops Bomb on Registrars Hoping to Launch New TLDs - Board opts for separation of registrars and registries for new top level domain names. [Update: Minutes from board meeting emphasize pending plan from GNSO.] ICANN’s board resolved today that there will be “strict separation of entities offering registry services and those acting as registrars. No co-ownership will be allowed.” However, the board left the possibility open for compromise, stating that if the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) comes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Shocker: ICANN Nixes Expressions of Interest for New TLDs - No Expressions of Interest for new top level domain names. I guess I’m not in the internal loop at ICANN, but I’m surprised that its board voted to completely nix the idea of “Expressions of Interest” for new top level domain names. The idea was simple. If you want to apply for a new top level domain name, you would make a $55,000 deposit per TLD and name the string. This would resolve a whole host of issues. First, we’d know how many TLDs will be applied ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Delays .XXX (Again) - .XXX decision pushed until next ICANN meeting. Should we really be so surprised? ICANN’s board has decided not to act on the independent review of its decision to deny ICM Registry the .xxx top level domain name. Until further comment. Insert joke about delayed sexual gratification here. ICANN has punted. “Let’s think about this some more” is the message, a message that ICANN has sent for years on a variety of topics. The ICANN board originally authorized ... read more ...
Thu 11th March 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Utah House and Senate Pass CADNA Backed Trademark Bill, Why This Is VERY Bad News For Domainers - The “UTAH E-COMMERCE INTEGRITY ACT” which was just introduced in December of 2009, passed the Utah Senate last month, was voted into law by the Utah House today. When I first wrote about this bill in December,  it was meet with the usual domainer apathy I see when I write about something that can have huge negative effects on their holdings. Sine then, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) has been lobbying very hard to get this bill passed, even holding a meeting in Washington in ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Another Generic Domain Lost In WIPO When Domain Holder Fails To Respond: 7Days.com - In a WIPO decision issued today a pretty generic domain domain,  7Days.com was awarded to a the owner of a trademark registered in Greece and Portugal. Although the domain was parked, none of the links were alleged to go to the trademark owners site or competitors site, just a general parking page. “”The Panel finds on the undisputed evidence of the Complainant that the Respondent has not used or made demonstrable preparations to use the Domain Name for a bona fide offering of goods or services. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Fined 95,000 Euro’s By A French Court For A Parked Page & Ordered To Post The Verdict - If you think the trademark laws are tough in the United States, you should check out the french laws. If you visit Sedo’s home page for France, you will see on the bottom of the front page a judgment of a French court entered against Sedo for a total of 95,000 Euro’s for apparently just parking a domain its didn’t own. The case involved the domain Euridile.fr, which the court found infringed on the trademark of EURIDILE owned by the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI). On February ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
ABC Evening News Covers Domains: .Anythinggoes: “Is This The End Of .Com’s”: Watch Now - ABC evening news has a story on ICANN plan to release an unlimited amount of extensions called “.AnythingGoes”. The first line from the story: “Is This The Beginning Of The End For .Com’s?” You can watch the whole 1:28 second piece The piece seems to come back around at the end to boost up .Com’s after all concluding: “How is anyone ever going to find you if they can’t remember your address” Thanks to Scott Ross for the heads up. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
I’m A Guru?: Wait Until You See Who Owns The Newest Blog Aggregator Gurus.com - I just literally stumbled across  a new blog aggregation service called Gurus.com which is covering the domain industry along with blogs of some other industries.  The site is using the Slogan; “one site, all the gurus” Of course most of you are familiar with Domaining.com and NameBee.com which have been serving the domain community quite well as blog aggregators. Gurus.com is categorizing domain blogs as: “Web Development and Domains Gurus” The only blogs currently covered by Gurus.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Sends Press Release After Buying $1,088 Domain Name - Company brings new meaning to “pumping”. I’m not sure what it’s like being a company traded on the pink sheets. But a lot of them try to do whatever they can to hype themselves. Today The Amergence Group (PINKSHEETS: AMNG) sent out a press release titled “Amergence Group Successfully Bids on and Acquires PanPacific International Domain Name.” The company bought PanPacificInternational.com from BuyDomains “in concert with its venture partner, PanPacific ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Whois Privacy Has Its Limits - Complete anonymity isn’t guaranteed with whois privacy services. Using a whois privacy or proxy service to register and set up a gripe site? Or perhaps some other web site or domain you don’t want attached to your name? Be prepared for the potential that your information will be disclosed. There are two types of whois security services: privacy and proxy. A privacy service generally shows your name but includes a service’s address, phone, and email. With ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
MobilePhones.co.uk Tops $60,000, Auction Ends Today - Big UK domain name to sell later today. An auction for MobilePhones.co.uk ends today on Sedo at 6:31 PM EST. The domain name has attracted 6 bidders and 18 bids, pushing the price up to 40,500 GBP — roughly $60,000 USD. Another sale in the works at Sedo is the web site and domain name Species.com. Sedo listed this in a Great Domains auction and it did not sell. A later bid of $37,500 was received, and the domain name is now in auction, closing in two days. It ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Updates from Domain Name Wire - 6 updates from Domain Name Wire. Here are six quick updates. Four are related to domain names; the other two aren’t but are worth checking out. On-Topic 1. I have updated the DNW disclosures page. It describes my role in the domain name industry as it is relevant to the site. Please read it. 2. If you have any three character .com or .net domain names and are interested in auctioning them off, please contact me directly at editor (at) domainnamewire.com. 3. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
American Express Wants .Me Domain, Samsung Goes After ccTLDs - American Express gets into .me UDRP game, Samsung starts collecting ccTLDs. American Express has joined a list of companies to use domain name arbitration to get their .me domain names. The company filed a complaint with WIPO for AmericanExpress.me, which is owned by a New Jersey resident. The domain currently has a GoDaddy parking page. First ad? “American Express® Cards”. Other companies/brands to get their corresponding .me domain names through UDRP ... read more ...