Monthly Archives: May 2010

Thu 20th May 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WSJ: Microsoft Files “Click Laundering” Suits Against “Shady Sites Known As Parked Domains” - Well we have all heard of click fraud but we have a  new term to deal with as of today. According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft filed two lawsuits for  “Click Laundering”, on Monday in federal court in Seattle against Eric C. Ralls and the company he founded, RedOrbit Inc., a Dallas science news and shopping site, plus 20 unnamed defendants (Johe Doe’s). Microsoft claims RedOrbit engaged in “click laundering,” a term for making bogus clicks on third-party sites look like legitimate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Extended Auction Bombs - Extended auction fails to live up to success of live auction. Last week DOMAINfest had a successful live domain name auction. Unfortunately, the extended auction didn’t perform too well. Only 8 out of 797 domain names sold, or a sell through rate of only 1%. It’s disappointing, but I’m not terribly surprised. I only came up with five domain names to mention in my preview post a couple days ago. (Mind you, none of the five I chose sold. But it goes to show ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Forget .Me, How About .Ego? - Entrepreneur kicks around idea for .ego top level domain name. Got a big ego? You might be able to pick up YourName.ego once new top level domain names are released. A Florida man has filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “.ego” for “Extension of domain names for identification of personal users on a global computer network”. I contacted David Ways today to see what his plans are for the domain name. “.Ego encompasses ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotSPORT Continues the Trademark Frontrunning - Company tries to get leg up in new TLD process with trademarks. I’ve written a couple times about prospective new top level domain applicants trying to trademark the names of their proposed TLD (e.g. .eco). But it appears dotSport LLC, one of the companies going after what will likely be a competition for .sport, is being quite aggressive. According to filings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the company has tried to register DotSport, RegistryDotSport, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Epik Provides Excuse to Visit Seattle in September - Epik announces developer conference. Rob Monster’s Epik has announced its inaugural Epik Developer Conference to take place in Seattle September 15-17. Although the schedule is very tentative as of now, Monster says the event will include lessons on the entire lifecycle of domain names: acquiring, developing, operating, and selling. He also promises client case studies with specific examples of sites that are profiting from the Epik network. Epik provides a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Open Thread: Are You Going to TRAFFIC Vancouver? - Start networking now for next month’s TRAFFIC show. The next T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain name conference is in 2 1/2 weeks, and this will be the first ever of the franchise to travel to Canada. It will take place June 8-10 at the Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel. Please submit a comment below if you are making it to the show. This will help everyone network. According to the TRAFFIC site, the admission price has increased to $1295 effective today. However, the ... read more ...
Wed 19th May 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Our Picks & Pans From The DFG Extended Auction Ending Tomorrow - Last week Moniker.com held a live auction at  DomainFest Ft. Lauderdale and tomorrow, May 20th at 3:15pm EST the extended auction from the show will close on SnapNames.com. As usual all of the Live auction domains that didn’t sell are back, like jeans.com ($2M starting bid) and  Hobbies.com (min bid at $353K) as well as hundreds of other new domains. We went through the list and picked out what we felt are the best buys and most interesting “new” domains in this auction as well as some of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICM Tells ICANN To SH*T Or Get Off The Pot on .XXX: But Is It Too Late? - Now that the comment period for the .XXX extension has closed, the ICM Registry sent a letter to ICANN asking them to make a decision on the extension. In the letter ICM states in part: “””ICM, having been a respectful and diligent member of the ICANN community, and having invested many millions of dollars and a full seven years in trying to bring .XXX to fruition, calls upon the Board to act decisively and with finality on this matter.  Over the years, every interested voice has been ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom Announces .Com Price Increases - Here come the price increase notices. It’s that time of year again, when domain name registrars send out notices to their customers about .com price increases. We actually got a reprieve last year as VeriSign didn’t increase prices. But they’re back this year, to the extent allowed: 7% for .com and 10% for .net at the wholesale level. eNom sent a notice to its customers today with .com increases of 55 cents across the board effective July 1: Tier / OLD Tier ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Withdraws Request for “Domain Name Exchange” Service - Registry nixes domain trade-in plans — for now. Last month VeriSign submitted an evaluation request to ICANN for a so-called “Domain Name Exchange”. VeriSign has withdrawn the request according to the evaluation status on ICANN’s web site. The service would basically allow domain name registrars to return unused domain names in exchange for others. This would be ideal for companies that sell web packages for less than a year at a time. For example, a web ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Picks for Tomorrow’s DOMAINfest Extended Auction - Domains to watch in tomorrow’s auction. The extended auction for last week’s DOMAINfest Global power networking day in Fort Lauderdale ends tomorrow at 3:15 EDT. After looking through the list I came up with 5 extended domain auctions I think are worth a look. There were plenty of good domain names, but many of the ones I got excited about had reserves that I think are too high for investors. CharterPlanes.com $11,770 – I’m not quite sure on this because ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Understanding a Value of VeriSign’s Monopoly - The definition of a cash cow. Just how valuable is VeriSign’s monopoly on .com and .net domain name registrations? With rumors that the company is seeking a buyer for its security group, leaving it basically with just registry services, the monopoly is being thrust back into the spotlight. At latest count there are roughly 87 million .com domains registered and 13 million .net domains. As of July 1, the price VeriSign charges on .com will be $7.34 and .net to ... read more ...
Tue 18th May 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Will Moniker.com Sell Another Million Dollar Domain Today? - In the Moniker showcase auction ending today, the domain name Quotes.com has a $1M bid. While the domain has not hit reserve at $1M, it maybe one of those domains that sell shortly after the auction as Slots.com did last week. If so it would mark the 3rd Million dollar sale for Moniker in just about a week, giving a real shot in the arm to the industry. We will keep you updated Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A First For Me: we Push A Sedo Offer To Auction - When it comes to pushing a Sedo offer to an auction, I was a virgin until now. For the first time, I pushed an offer I received from Sedo.com to auction with the $offer serving as the starting bid. I have gotten quite a few offers from Sedo in the past six months, resulting in a few sales and a lot of no sales. When I got an offer through the  Sedo.com platform for the domain, LatinGirlfriends.com I decided, instead of trying to negotiate a higher price, I would take the $5K offer and start an auction. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jaegermeister Bombs Shot Cup Seller - Company shuts down web site of specialized “shot cup” seller. You can say goodbye to Jager Bomb Shot Cups. Well, at least you’ll no longer be able to buy them at Jager-Bomb.com. Mast-Jaegermeister AG, known for its strong liqueur, filed a complaint against the owner of Jager-Bomb.com with National Arbitration Forum. As it turns out, Jaegermesiter has trademarks for the term “Jager Bomb”. As early as 2002, consumers began to mix a cocktail drink called ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Diapers.com Parent Ready to Launch Soap.com - Quidsi acquired Soap.com earlier this year; set to launch new site. Earlier this year Quidsi, the parent company of Daipers.com, acquired the domain name Soap.com. It looks like it’s getting ready to launch a new site or brand and is sending out a teaser to the press. Given the success Diapers.com has had with its flagship web site, it makes sense that the company would pick another great category-killer domain for its next brand. Of course, it could just be a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Frank Schilling to Auction Off…Watches? - Frank Schilling to sell at an auction, but not his domain names. Auction house Christie’s is getting set to auction off some of Frank Schilling’s gems. 31 of them, to be exact. But these aren’t domain names. They’re watches. According to a profile on Christie’s web site: In the world of watches, it is the ultimate luxury: not one or two watches, but an entire collection of timepieces. In the world of collector Frank Schilling, this luxury is a reality. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
You Real.ly Need to Stop This URL Hacki.ng - Why in the world would you handicap your company like this? So I’m reading this story about ShopSocial.ly today and I’m scratching my head. The new social shopping web site is branding itself as ShopSocial.ly rather than ShopSocially. Thankfully, the company has the domain name ShopSocially.com, which it then forwards to ShopSocial.ly. But this is still a big mistake. The company is relying on the Libyan country code to base its entire business. All of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How ICANN Plans to Spend $60 Million of Your Money This Year - New TLDs are top budget item — but also the only line item to decrease. If you’re reading this blog, you are probably one of the many people that funds ICANN’s operations. You pay the registrar, which in turn pays ICANN and the registry. The registry also pays ICANN. In short, without domain registrants, ICANN has very little money. So how ICANN spends its money should be important to you. The non-profit has released its draft proposed 2011 financial year ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ccTLD Most Important Factor in Google Location Determination - Targeted a specific country? Get your ccTLD. It’s no secret that Google uses several factors to determine where a web site is “located” and thus determine its relevance to each individual searcher. But there has been a lot of debate about which factors are most important. The two I hear mostly commonly are if the domain has a particular country code domain name and where the web host is. Now Google search-spam czar Matt Cutts has laid it out on the table. ... read more ...
Mon 17th May 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
eMarketer: Internet Ad Spending To Increase 11% This Year: Search To Increase 16% - eMarketer today revised its forecast on 2010 online ad spending upwards According to eMarketer’s, US spending on online advertisements will reach $25.1 billion, up from $22.7 billion, or an increase of 11%. In December 2009, eMarketer called for only 5.5% growth. “As Google makes gains, so does a large slice of online advertising,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of an upcoming report on US advertising spending. “When Google reported a 21% jump in net US ad revenues ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Me Auctions Return To NameJet - NameJet.com has announced another group of registry and privately owned .Me domains that will be heading to auction. The domains start at either $69 or $99 and the backorders must be placed, a week from today, on May 24th to participate in the auction. The auction features a lot more first and last family names as well as some call to action type words. Here is a complete list: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Our Picks From The SnapNames Monthly Showcase Auction Ending On Tuesday - SnapNames.com monthly showcase auction for May will close Tomorrow Tuesday May 18 at 3:15pm EST in accordance with its normal closing procedures. The auction features “Money Finance” domains. There are about 650 domain in the auction. Here are our picks which we think are the best buys and/or most interesting domains in the auction: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
For Sale: One Slighly Used Auction Platform & The Domain Bido.com: Deadline Tuesday - As you know the auction platform Bido.com closed down a couple of weeks ago and the assets of the platform including the domain name Bido.com (plus 82 other related domains), the software code, the user list, the website, the vanity toll free number 1-800-611Bido, and twitter account@Bido all comes with. I’ve been told that they currently have an offer in “the mid-six figures” and will be selling the assets to the highest bidder on Tuesday May 18th. I know they spent a ton of money in development ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Sells IPS.com for $37,505 - Another five figure sale courtesy of Go Daddy Auctions. Last week I wrote about GoDaddy selling BusinessTube.com for $25,000. Go Daddy only reports certain sales it makes each week, and only sales made on its Go Daddy Auctions site. So we don’t always see five figure deals on its lists. But they did it again this week, selling IPS.com for $37,505. The domain’s whois record has been protected by privacy for a while so it’s unclear who the buyer is. Before ... read more ...