Monthly Archives: April 2010

Thu 8th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Big Sedo .TV Auction Ends Tomorrow & Every Domain Has A Bid - The Sedo .TV auction closes tomorrow, April 8th at noon EST and every one of the 114 domains has a bid. As of the time of publication, 81 domains have met reserve while 34 have not. In all there are just about $200K in bids. It will be interesting to see what amount this auction brings in. My guess is $800K. You can place your guess below for bragging rights. Here is the list of domains that have met reserve and will sell: business.tv     10,099 jobs.tv             10,099 japan.tv    ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Chef Patrick Joins Oversee.net - Domain blogger goes to work for Oversee.net. Patrick Ruddell, aka Chef Patrick, has joined Oversee.net’s Moniker as Domain Sales Specialist. Ruddell had been looking to become a bigger domain broker in 2010, and now he will have the backing of one of the industry’s biggest companies to do just that. Ruddell will work on the domain brokerage team as well as be involved in the auctions. He will also be co-host of the Domain Masters show. The job won’t interfere ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MobilePhones.co.uk Sale May Result in Dropped Call - Sellers disputes auction, saying it didn’t authorize sale of domain. Last month the domain name MobilePhones.co.uk sold on Sedo for 91,500 GPB. At the time, that was about $137,000 USD. Since then, the buyer received some unfortunate news: apparently the seller is saying it didn’t authorize the domain name to be sold. In a lengthy (currently 12 page) thread at Acorn Domains, buyer Angie Barrow explains: …I have just been informed by Sedo that the seller ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afilias Tells New TLD Applicants to Limit Their Expectations - How many registrations should a new TLD expect? A call for new top level domain name applicants to be realistic about how many domains they can sell is coming from an unlikely source: domain name registry Afilias. In a blog post today, Afilias points out that history tells us new TLDs don’t get substantial registrations: …Well, here we are in 2010 and the industry has now grown to over 190 million domain names. If you think it was because of new TLDs, you’d ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Newsletter Now Includes Expired Domain Suggestions - Subscribing to the DNW newsletter has a new perk. Are you a subscriber to Domain Name Wire’s email newsletter? If not, you’re missing out. The newsletter synthesizes recent domain name events, presenting them to subscribers in an easy-to-consume format. Over 1,000 people subscribe to the newsletter, including domain parking ad feed providers, domainers, domain parking companies, lawyers, and investors. But if you’re looking for another reason to subscribe ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Latona Domain Sales Newsletter Switches to Auction Format - Latona shakes up newsletter — no more fixed priced domain names. With 15,000 subscribers, Rick Latona’s domain name sales newsletter is the most popular newsletter for selling domain names. Today Latona’s company announced a big change: it will no longer sell domain names for fixed prices. Instead, domains will be auctioned off on Latonas.com. People can still submit domain names with a price, and the price will become the reserve price for the domain. Auctions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Good News: YH.com Returned to Rightful Owner - Owner gets domain name back after long ordeal. Last week I wrote about the domain name YH.com, which was stolen from its owner and offered for sale. I received good news today: the owner has gotten the domain name back. The entire domain name industry should pat itself on the back for stepping up to the plate. According to T.M. Camp, whom I interviewed for the previous story, the domain name was returned thanks to “some concerted efforts by GoDaddy, Escrow.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD Debate Mirrors Health Care Debate - New TLD debate has degenerated into nonsense. If you live in America, the past several months have been all about loonies on both sides of the health care debate. They’ll say just about anything, even if it’s not true, to sway opinion on health care. The new top level domain name debate is really quite similar. Like American political issues, you have people on extremes on both sides of the issues. On one side you have Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse ... read more ...
Wed 7th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
HitWise: Yahoo Search Market Share Going Back Up - According to Hitwise, Yahoo market share of search results rose to more than 15% in March from 14.6% the previous month. Google had 69.97% of all U.S. searches, down slightly from February’s 70.95%. Bing had a 9.62% market share, down from 9.70% the previous month. This is the first increase for Yahoo in a LONG time. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Flying.com Sold For $1.1 Million - According to a press release today, UsedAirplanes.com has completed the purchase of Flying.com for $1.1 Million: “””UsedAirplanes, Inc., the parent company of UsedAirplanes.com, announced today that they have completed the purchase of the domain name Flying.com for $1.1 million. The first (beta) version of Flying.com will be launched on June 1, 2010 to display all of the used airplanes and aircraft from the company’s flagship website UsedAirplanes.com. The company will spend the remainder ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CitizenHawk: Pulling a Sheets Off a “Typosquatting Recovery Firm” - New site watches a watchdog. One of the more controversial domain name companies is CitizenHawk. The company was founded in 2007 to help brands recover typos of their domain names. On behalf of clients, the company sends demand letters to registrants of typos and files UDRPs as well. When it recovers a domain, it has an agreement with the client that CitizenHawk may monetize the domain for a period of time. This is usually done through the client’s affiliate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RL.com Case Shows What Can Happen if You Buy a Stolen Domain Name - Buyer of hijacked RL.com domain name has spent dearly on legal bills. In light of recent domain thefts, you might ask yourself what can happen if you happen to buy a stolen domain name. Look no further than the case of John Laxton, who bought the domain name RL.com for $15,000 in 2005. RL.com was originally registered by Dale Mayberry in 1995. He also owned the domain name mat.net, and used a mat.net email address as the registered contact for both RL.com and Mat.net. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Flying.com Buyer Explains “No-Brainer” Rationale for Buying Domain - Invest in a domain name or stick your money in the bank? Mark Horne says it’s an easy decision. When I first heard that a company called UsedAirplanes, Inc. had purchased the domain name Flying.com for $1.1 million, I instantly did a double take. It turns out I’ve written about the company and its knack for using great domain names before. I talked to UsedAirplanes, Inc. President CEO Mark J Horne today to understand why he invested seven figures for the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrar Ads on “Coming Soon” Pages Need to Be Addressed - Unpaid parking still a common complaint in UDRP cases. For many years domain name registrars have shown pay-per-click ads on domain names registered by their customers but not in use yet. It makes sense; the customer usually doesn’t care and it helps the registrar earn money and hopefully keep registration prices down. As far as I know, all major registrars show these ads. The problem comes in when a domain gets hit with a frivolous UDRP case and the complainant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Offers Tools to Secure Domain Names - Two tools from VeriSign help keep your domain names secure. With a couple recent high profile domain thefts, and the recent hijacking of Baidu’s nameserver settings, I reached out to VeriSign Chief Technology Officer Ken Silva to learn what VeriSign offers to help domain owners protect themselves. “Over the next 12 months, we’re working so that from the time a person registers a domain name and creates an account to when it gets resolved, almost every single ... read more ...
Tue 6th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.CO LandRush & Pre-Registration Are Open At GoDaddy & Other Registrars W/ Different Prices - The Land Rush period for the .CO extension starts on June 21st and application are already being accepted at least at 3 registrars. The Landrush is going to be a bit pricey. There are 10 registrars in total that will be allowed to sell .CO domains and each can have slightly different pricing. For Landrush which is opened to everyone, each registrar is charging a non-refundable application fee of $10. For each domain registered in the Land Rush period, the fees are running from $295 at Godaddy to ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Register.com Becomes The 2nd Top 10 Registrar To Join Afternic’s Domain Listing Service - NameMedia’s announced today that Register.com, has joined the AfternicDLS (Domain Listing Service), as a premium promotion partner. The AfternicDLS Premium Promotion Service is Afternic’s most expansive distribution network.  The Domain Listing Service will list exact matches of owned domains and suggestions of other owned domains when someone seeks to register a domain at one of the partner registrars. According to the CEO of NameMedia Kelly Conlin, “Through its global distribution network, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Mike Mann Files Objection, Says Sedo Should Auction off Sex.com - Mann files opposition to Dom Partners’ motion to dismiss bankruptcy petition; Sedo CEO files declaration about value of Sex.com domain. The three companies owned by Mike Mann that forced Sex.com owner Escom, LLC into bankruptcy have filed an objection (pdf) to Dom Partners’ motion to dismiss the bankruptcy case. Mann says he filed the bankruptcy petition because he was concerned that the auctioneer chosen by Dom Partners to auction off Sex.com was unqualified: In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bankrate Buys InsuranceQuotes.com - Bankrate gets another category killer domain and web site — InsuranceQuotes.com. Financial information company Bankrate, Inc. has purchased the lead generation web site and domain name InsuranceQuotes.com, according to whois domain name records. The whois record for the domain name briefly transferred on April 3: Bankrate 11760 US Highway One suite 200 North Palm Beach, Florida 33408 United States The expiration date for the domain also extended by one ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hearst Buys Pilot.com for $300,000 - Media company buys domain name Pilot.com. Media conglomerate Hearst has purchased the domain name Pilot.com for $300,000. Hearst is well known for publications such as Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and the San Francisco Chronicle. A review of Hearst’s products does not show much related to “Pilot”, so we’ll have to wait to see what the company is up to. Domain brokerage Sedo handled the transaction from a private seller. Sedo also brokered the sale of Nasty.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gregory Ricks Sells 199.com on 4.cn, 500.com is Next - Ricks scores big sale on Chinese domain site. I have to admit I wasn’t familiar with domain name brokerage site 4.cn before I learned about a recent sale by Gregory Ricks on the site. But now that Ricks has his money and the domain name is transferred, Ricks is certainly a believer. Ricks sold the domain name 199.com in an auction on the site for 368,666 RMB (yaun), which is about $54,000 USD. It was his first big sale on the site, and it has given him the confidence ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Can Live Current Media Hold On? - Is the end near for Live Current Media? It has already gone down as one of the biggest missed opportunities in the domain name world. Will it come to an end soon? By all accounts, Live Current Media had one of the most valuable category-killer generic domain name portfolios. It still has many good domains. But poor execution has led the company to sell off many of these domain names to raise cash to survive. The company reported a loss of about $4 million for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
In Battle Over Retail Distribution, NameMedia Leaving Sedo in a Dust - Register.com agreement latest win for NameMedia. Today NameMedia — which operates Afternic and BuyDomains — announced that it has signed Register.com as a premium promotion partner. That means that visitors to Register.com can purchase any of the domains at the “premium” promotion level listed on AfternicDLS in a simple purchase with instant fulfillment. It also means domains registered at Register.com are eligible to be listed at the premium level on the ... read more ...
Mon 5th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Our Picks From The “No Reserve” SnapNames Auction Ending Thursday Apr 8th - SnapNames.com Spring “No Reserve” auction ends Thursday April 8th at 3:15PM EST, in accordance with SnapNames.com normal closing rules. We have gone through the list and picked out what we believe are the best domains on the auction (except for the couple we may bid on). Just to let you know the “no reserve” title is a little misleading, as the minimum bid for any domain appears to be $300. As of the time of publication 5 domains already have bids. Here are our Picks: BookmarkThisSite.com ClaimLostMoney.com ComputerCollection.com ComputerWorkers.com CustodyHelp.com DeliciousChocolates.com DiscoDuck.com FileReturns.com LatinDanceInstruction.com LeaseEmployees.com NiceCall.com NYCArchitects.com PrintingJob.com Refinanced.net RoofSupplies.com SpamProof.com StrongGrowth.com TestingSite.com ThermalGear.com TireProducts.com VinylCleaners.com WarrantyProviders.com WeddingDayPhotographer.com WoodRefinish.com Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MLB Comes Out Swinging With MLB.TV, Yet The NFL Won’t Spend $3K on NFL.TV - The first baseball game of the season got underway tonight with the traditional Red Sox/ Yankees matchup. Major League Baseball is heavily promoting MLB.tv as a platform for people to watch baseball on MLB.tv or MLB.com. Major League baseball could have just used it’s .com to promote the product, so its notable that is using the .TV version. Great thing for the .TV extension But on the other hand  the domain NFL.TV is still available for purchase for just $3K and the National Football League for ... read more ...