Monthly Archives: April 2010

Mon 19th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
If ICANN Were a Democracy… - Comments overwhelmingly opposed to .xxx. But that doesn’t answer the question about what ICANN should do. I decided to check in on the .XXX comment period today to see how the comments were coming in. This is what I saw: Thanks to an effort by Focus on the Family, there are over 13 pages of comment titles for the current comment period. Many of them are form submissions with the same title and same content. So how much should these comments from “MITTENS1120″ ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Adds Two Board Members - Demand Media bolsters board with media and web analytics talent. Demand Media, parent company of eNom, has added two members to its board of directors. Peter Guber, chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group and Josh James, who co-founded Omniture, have joined the board effective immediately. Guber founded Mandalay in 1995 after leaving Sony Pictures Entertainment, where he was CEO. James founded web analytics firm Omniture in 1996 and took it public in 2006. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Wire Auction is Now Live - First ever auction runs through April 27. OK, don’t freak out. I’m not starting to compete with Latona, Sedo, Snap, etc. But I am running a one time auction on the SnapNames platform in conjunction with a number of different bloggers. Last January I was talking with Craig Snyder of SnapNames and I said, “Hey, why don’t we hold an auction on SnapNames with a bunch of inventory from domain bloggers?”. He liked the idea, so I ran with it. I assembled about ... read more ...
Sun 18th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
After Spending $9 Million Trying To Get The .XXX Extension, ICM Goes On The Offense - The President of the ICM Registry, Stuart Lawley posted an open letter on Circle ID, clearly going on the offense in its bid to get the contract from ICANN to run the proposed .XXX registry. The open letter is addressed to “ICANN and the Internet Community”, and is republished below: ICM first applied to run the registry for the .XXX extension in 2000, reapplied in 2004 and is currently awaiting ICANN’s final decision after a recent three member “Independent Review Process” Panel found ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Warns 4 Registrars, Gives 15 Days Notice - ICANN puts four domain name registrars on notice for breaches. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has warned four domain name registrars that they are in breach of the terms of their accreditation agreement, and has given them 15 working days to cure the breaches. Three of the registrars are in breach of the agreement for failure to escrow domain name whois information as required by section 3.6 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Western ... read more ...
Sat 17th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WTF: GDB.org Sells On NameJet for $13K, Aiba.com For $8K? - The domain name gdb.org sold today on Namejet.com for a staggering $12,906. Close behind in 5 figure sales were katherine.com at $18,150 and Perfecta.com at $10, 200. Aiba.com also sold for 8,100. Bigprizes.com went for $4,700. All WOW. I’m not to proud to admit it. GDB.org for $13K?  I don’t get it. Aiba.com for $8K? I don’t get it. Perfecta.com for $10K I get and katherine.com at $18K says a lot about the .me first domain auctions that just closed on Friday where much more popular first ... read more ...
Fri 16th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Quick Poll: Which Domain Is Worth More Sex.com or Dating.com? - One of the readers of the blog suggested I ask this question in light of Moniker.com press release today saying that the domain name dating.com would be included in the Domainfest Ft. Lauderdale Auction. As you know Sex.com is now subject to a bankruptcy proceeding. One of the part owners of the company that owns the domain Sex.com has stated that the domain is worth $50 Million. Others including myself feel Sex.com is worth less today than the last time it sold for a reported $12M-$14M. So the questions ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Moniker Finally Starts Accepting Pre-bidding For Its Live Domain Auctions As Bidding Opened For DomainFest Ft. Lauderdale - Well its taken many years but finally Moniker.com looks like they are going to start open their live domain auctions up for pre-bidding, starting with the Ft. Lauderdale DomainFest one day event and auction on May 13th. This is how it will work according to the press release: “”Pre-bids can be submitted on any domain listed in the auction until May 13 at noon US Eastern time.” “”The highest bid for each domain will then become the starting bid in the live auction. “”All live auction ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
David Ortiz Of The RedSox A CyberSquatter? Jay-Z Says Yes - According to allhiphop.com Jay-Z sued David Ortiz of the Boston RedSox today, for not only opening a night club in the Dominican Republic using the same name as Jay-Z ‘s club, 40/40 but for also using the domain name fortyforty.net. According to Jay, Ortiz’ club opened in October of this year, while Jay-Z’s first 40/40 location in New York opened in June of 2003. Jay-Z claims Ortiz is capitalizing on the fame and value of the club, by using the name according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Using Google Webmaster Tools New Organic Search Data - Google opens up a wealth of organic search data for your web sites. Use it. Google recently expanded the organic search data it provides to web site owners who use Webmaster Tools. Now you can see rich data about where your web site has ranked for key terms, how many times it showed up in search results, and the click-through rate for each position. Here’s an example: For years, SEOs have discussed the relative number of click-throughs you get at different positions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Google Ad Formats Could Help Domain Name Parking - Google trying new ad formats — could they land on a parked domain near you? During the past two quarters Google has been rolling out a number of new ad formats for search ads on Google.com. On yesterday’s investor conference call, the company explained a few of them. Site Links – these came online in Q4, and basically deep link to sections of an advertiser’s web site. For example, here’s an ad for Toys R Us: Product Links – ads for specific products ... read more ...
Thu 15th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
CIF.com Sells On NameJet For $17K, Again - Like Yoga Berra once said its Deja Vu all over again as the domain name CIF.com went up on NameJet.com today for re-auction after the last winning bidder at $17,001, apparently didn’t pay. The domain sold today again for $17K. On the .Me front, the domain Madison.Me sold for $1,115,  Robert.Me sold for $1,160,  and Richard.me sold for $1,600 and  Paul.me sold for $2,100 today. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Revenue Up 23%; Earnings Up 37%; Shares Down $30 After Hours - After the market closed today, Google posted a 23% gain in 1st Q revenue and a 37% increase in earnings. Google posted net income of $1.96 billion, or $6.06 a share, up from $1.42 billion, or $4.49 a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenues in the 1st quarter totaled $6.77 billion, compared with $5.51 billion in the year-ago period. Net revenue, (after payouts to partners only increased 2.2% to $5.06 billion. The street was disappointed. Shares of Google are down $30 a share or over 5% to $565 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Me First Names Start Picking Up Steam As James.Me Sells For $5K & 39 More Domains Are Added - On the 3rd day, of the 5 day Personal Name auction running on NameJet.com, one domain hit just short of $5K and the registry announced that they were adding 39 new domains to the auction. On today’s front, here are results for the domains we were tracking: james.me $4,911 john.me $2,711 jack.me $2,200 madison.me $1,115 johnson.me $760 jose.me $670 justin.me $640 jason.me $605 lisa.me $600 kevin.me $530 kelly.me ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Demand Media IPO Could Disclose Guts of eNom Operation - Demand Media contemplating IPO — which could mean an open book on the company. Financial Times is reporting that Demand Media is exploring an Initial Public Offering and could file as early as August. Demand Media is a fascinating story. What started as a domain startup quickly acquired eNom and Bulk Register, then found itself creating content through a massive and efficient supply chain. As when any company files to go public, an S-1 from Demand Media would ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Louis Vuitton Loses Domain Dispute for Mobile Domain Name - Fashion company loses dispute over LVMobile.com Louis Vuitton has lost a domain name dispute against Demand Domains for the domain name LVMobile.com The company claimed that LVMobile.com infringed on its LV trademark, and that the parked domain at LVMobile.com included links to the fashion company’s competitors. It also alleged that Demand Domains is a front for Demand Media’s eNom registrar. Demand Domains countered that Louis Vuitton does not have exclusive ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Level Domain Holdings Reports Annual Financial Results - New top level domain company reports financial results. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM:TLDH) today reported financial results for the year ending October 31, 2009. TLDH is parent company of new TLD consulting company Minds + Machines. For the year, TLDH lost about £1.4M on revenue of £0.315M. Much of its revenue was from a portfolio of domain names and two web sites including an iPhone app review site. In November it sold its entire portfolio of mainly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
I Won a Tucows Auction - I just won an exciting domain name related auction that you may not have known about. Last month Tucows hit the 10 million domain milestone, making it just the third registrar to reach that number of domains under management. To celebrate, Tucows staffers each received decorative cookies (see picture). One Tucows employee put the cookie up for auction on eBay with this description: This item is going to move quickly! Don’t lose this chance to own a piece of history. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Opens Closeout Auctions to Public - Registrar opens up “closeout” section of domain aftermarket. GoDaddy has removed the membership requirement to its domain name aftermarket platform in order to be able to buy “closeout” domains. Closeouts are last-effort sales of expired domain names priced at $5-$9 plus the cost of registration. Previously, buyers had to have a membership to Go Daddy Auctions (a.k.a. TDNAM) in order to purchase these domains. Membership is no longer required. 25,000 domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo Files Patent App for Discovering SEO Link Spam - Search engine files patent application for methods of detecting link spam. Ever since people caught on to how Google used the number of incoming links to a web site in its ranking algorithms, people have tried to game the system. From selling links to creating link farms, SEO has focused much of its attention on link building over the years. As a result, the search engines have had to counter this by trying to separate good links from bad. Yahoo has filed a patent ... read more ...
Wed 14th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
World Trademark Review Launches Blog - World Trademark Review (WTR) officially launched its blogs today. “The WTR is now the only dedicated trademark publication in the world.” “”For eight years WTR has covered the most important trademark stories of the day, and has broken some of the most significant trademark stories of recent times, from exclusive analysis of the ECJ’s recent decision in the Google keywords case to news of how the top 100 globally protected trademark list has resurfaced on the domain name agenda.” “”WTR ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
SnapNames “Geo Auction” Is Live With Lisbon.com, Raleigh.com, Bucharest.com, Crete.com All Up For Sale - SnapNames is holding an Online Auction in conjunction with the GeoDomain Expo®. The Auction began yesterday on April 13, 2010 and closes on May 4, 2010 at 3:15 p.m. EST. There are definitely some head turners in this auction including: Lisbon.com Raleigh.com Bucharest.com Crete.com We will of course be be posting our picks the week the auction closes. This is also not to be confused with the Here is the entire list of domain name in the auction as usually with Moniker/Snap, reserves are stated in ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Oversee/Moniker/Snap Reports 42% Increase in Sales in 1st Quarter - Oversee.net tonight reported that sales jumped 42% between the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. Here is the info from the press release: “”The figure includes premium names sold through the companies’ aftermarket sales channels–DOMAINfest Global’s® Moniker Live Auction in January 2010, Moniker Brokerage Services and SnapNames Moniker Showcase Auctions. “”Top sales include: •    Guns.com ($800,000)* •    PartySupplies.com ($360,000) •    ScreenSavers.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Customer Commercials Follow a Same Script - Registrar getting lots of commercial submissions — but few good ones. After critics panned Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercials (again) this year, the company went to the marketing playbook and created a contest for customers to make their own commercials. The top prize is $100,000, which would buy you about 10,000 domain names. I expected customers to move away from the traditional Go Daddy commercial script of just throwing in some hot chicks acting like they’re ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FriendFinder Will Help You Hook Up with NoStringsAttached.com - Social networking and adult entertainment company snaps up two generic domain names. Last week Michael Berkens sold the domain names NoStrings.com and NoStringsAttached.com for a combined $75,000 at Sedo. The buyer? FriendFinder Networks, a network of dating and hookup sites famous for its AdultFriendFinder.com web site, where people meet for casual sex hookups. FriendFinder was bought by Penthouse Media Group a few years ago, which renamed itself to FriendFinder. The ... read more ...