Monthly Archives: June 2010

Wed 30th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Moniker Sells Slots.Ca for an Amount “In Excess of $200K” - Moniker.com just informed me, that hot on the heals of the sale of Slots.com for an amount in excess of $5.5M they have brokered the sale of the domain name, Slots.CA for “an amount in excess of $200,000.” The buyer was not disclosed but this marks yet another six figure sale by Monte and his team in this year. The next big even up for Moniker will be a one day DomainFest Event in New York on August 18th. I have seen a few domains that will be up for auction at that event, and it may wind up ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Adult Tradeshow Operator Sues A Competitor Over 19 Domain Names, Seeking $1.9 Million - According to xbiznewswire.com, the parent company of the Exxxotica adult trade show filed suit against a competing adult-consumer show operator Adultcon, claiming that its owner is squatting on 19 domain names. The complaint, was filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. There is currently a annual show for Exxxotica Miami Beach,  a Exxxotica New Jersey and a new adult show to be held in Los Angeles in July. Adultcon is holding its 19th annual adult show in Los Angeles in September which ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
French Regulators Cite Google For “Lack Of Transparency” Over Keyword Advertising & Give Then 4 Months - France’s antitrust regulator accused Google on Wednesday of a “lack of transparency” over its keyword advertising service and ordered it to clarify conditions for the product within four months. The Autorite de la Concurrence was responding to a complaint filed by a French data services company Navx in February, which alleged the world’s top search engine had abused its dominant position by canceling Navx’s AdWords contract. “Google has implemented the content policy of its AdWords ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name News Stories of June - A look back at June in domaining. It’s the last day of June, which means it’s time to review the top five stories on Domain Name Wire over the past month. They are ranked by total number of views. 1. Yahoo Settles Lawsuit and Gets Flicker.com Domain Name – After many years of neglect, Flicker.com can now be put to good use: redirecting internet users who know how to spell to the correct web address. 2. Web.com Buys Register.com for $135 Million – One of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Companies Head to Austin for HostingCon - HostingCon comes to the Lone Star State. The web hosting industry is descending on Austin, Texas next month for HostingCon. The event will take place at the Austin Convention Center July 19-21. Tickets are still available, starting at $489 for the entire three day conference. I’ve identified a number of domain name related companies that will be in attendance and/or exhibiting: dotMobi eNom OpenSRS (Tucows) LogicBoxes/Reseller Club Dark Blue Sea VeriSign Afilias So ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Competitor Sues Experian, Says It’s Cybersquatting - Credit report companies spar over domain names. Adaptive Marking LLC has sued ConsumerInfo.com, an Experian company, over its use of the FreeCreditScore.com domain name. Adaptive Marketing uses the domain names FreeScore.com and FreeTripleScore.com. You’re probably familiar with TV commercials for the latter domain, in which people are asked to say “Free Triple Score dot com” three times fast. ConsumerInfo.com bought the FreeCreditScore.com domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy to Launch x.co URL Shortener - Coming soon, x.co URL shortener. Domain name registrar GoDaddy is releasing a new URL shortener at x.co, according to a tweet by company founder and CEO Bob Parsons: This is likely a .co “founder’s program” deal. .Co has already done a deal with Twitter for t.co, which will be Twitter’s own URL shortener services. .Co is Colombia’s country code top level domain name, which is currently being liberalized. The domain registrar is one of ten accredited ... read more ...
Tue 29th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic Launches a “Portfolio Manager” Inventory Management Tool; In Beta Sales Increased 20% - NameMedia today announced the launch of Afternic Portfolio Manager a new, easy-to-use domain distribution and inventory management tool for large portfolio owners to sell their names through the industry’s largest domain marketplace at AfternicDLS. Afternic Portfolio Manager is available immediately at no cost. “Afternic Portfolio Manager provides our customers the ability reconcile their inventory in a single request, while providing instantaneous add, edit, and remove domain functionality,” ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Testing CPA Ads: Is This The Start Of The Switch From PPC - According to Investors.com, Google testing a CPA ads system. CPA stands for Cost Per Action, a service in which advertisers pay for ads they run on Google’s network only when a consumer takes “action.” Action means that the consumer makes a purchase or fills out a form or some sort of registration on an advertiser’s Web site. According to the story, Google uses “software and various means to track its ad-prodded actions, but the model pretty much requires that advertisers go to the expense ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
University of Texas Loses Domain Name Dispute - University loses fight for TexasSports.org. I have to admit I’m a bit ashamed of my alma mater today. The University of Texas lost a UDRP case against Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis for the domain name TexasSports.org. The University’s official athletics site is TexasSports.com, and it was concerned that some people might type in .org instead of .com. This is plausible given that it’s a non-profit. TexasSports.com gets over 300,000 visits per month. Still, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China Puts Domain Registrars in Tough Spot, Again - CNNIC reverses role of registry and registrar, and communicates poorly to boot. [Update 7/1: Go Daddy is sending out an email to its .cn customers today, which also links to CNNIC’s notice.] Imagine if VeriSign sent an email to the all .com registrants asking them to click a link to verify they have the correct email address.* If you didn’t respond within 15 days, your domain name was subject to deletion. Sounds crazy, but this is the latest threat from China ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fannie Mae Spends $50,000 to Buy Domain Name - Fannie Mae dips into pockets to buy KnowYourOptions.com. Mortgage backer Fannie Mae has spent $50,000 (of basically your money) to buy the domain name KnowYourOptions.com. The site will no doubt explain your options if you find yourself behind on your mortgage. The deal tied another domain name — VideoDating.com — for the top spot at domain broker Sedo this week. The seller of VideoDating.com is Steve Newman. He was president of GreatDomains back in the day ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP Panelist Rules NameMedia Can Keep Generic Pantaloons.com - NameMedia wins UDRP case brought by Indian retailer. NameMedia has successfully staved off an attack by Indian clothing retailer Pantaloon Retail for the domain name Pantaloons.com. The retailer is part of Future Group, and owns Pantaloon.com, but not the pural version. Pantaloons is a generic, albeit somewhat antiquated, clothing term. But it’s still a generic word, the panelist noted. NameMedia put up a SmartName shop on the domain name, which shows numerous ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Inks Deal with Tyra Banks for Fashion Site - Demand’s deal with Tyra, and what it says about creating profitable content: you need hub sites. Demand Media has entered into a partnership with Tyra Banks to create a new digital brand for the beauty and fashion industry. I expect this to be similar to the company’s deal with Lance Armstrong for LiveStrong.com. Basically, the company created a new branded web site with star power, plugged it into Demand’s content pipeline and social media machine, and started ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verify your .Cn Email Address in 15 Days or You Might Lose your Domain - CNNIC wants you to verify your email address, like, today. This may sound like a really bad phishing scheme, but it’s coming from a legitimate source. RRPproxy is reporting that all owners of China’s .cn domain names are receiving an email notice to verify their registrant information. Failure to respond within 15 days may mean your domain name is processed according to “relevant provisions of the Registry”, which RRPproxy says means the domain name could ... read more ...
Mon 28th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.XXX Lawley & Godaddy’s Parsons On Fox Business Channel Tonight As Domains Take The Spotlight - I learned that both Stuart Lawley from the ICM Registry, who got tentative approval for .XXX last week and none other than Bob Parsons from Godaddy.com will be on the same program tonight on the Fox Business Channel at 8PM EST. They both will appearing separately on a new  program called “Money Rocks” Fox Business Channel can be seen on channel 359 on Directv and I assume many cable networks throughout the country. It should be interesting, not to be missed television on domain name night on ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tell The World HowDoYou.com & Win $10K - At the ICANN meeting, VeriSign had the cameras running to capture attendees answers to how .com changed their life. Its part of VeriSign year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of the 1st .com registration. The campaign is called, HowDoYou.com. Basically VeriSign is looking for you to tell how .com changed your life and is putting up a prizes of $10,000, $5,ooo, $2,500 plus they are giving away 10 iPads. To enter the contest which is opened until August 31, 2010, to anyone in the world click ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Releases New Portfolio Manager for Big Domain Sellers - New API makes it easier for large domainers to manage inventory on NameMedia sales network. Domain name sales venue Afternic has released a new product for large domain name portfolio owners called Afternic Portfolio Manager. The company bills the product as an easy-to-use domain distribution and inventory management tool for selling domain names. Among its features is the ability to instantaneously add, edit, and remove domains from Afternic and its distribution ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Company Wants to Help Unmask Private Whois Records - A possible new entrant into the trademarked domain recovery industry. NameDepot.com, Inc. has filed a trademark application for “RealRegistrant”, with services described as: Application service provider, namely service, software, database, web interface, and technical support for users to obtain information about the owner or registrant of a domain name when the WHOIS information is obscured by a domain name WHOIS Privacy or Proxy service; domain name information ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WhyPark Builds Trust Through Small Payment Error - Domain company makes a small error, but builds trust in the process. Let’s face it, the domain name business is based on trust. One of these areas of trust is for parking company affiliate programs. As an affiliate of numerous parking companies, I really have no way of knowing if I’m being paid my actual share of referrals. I just have to trust that the parking company is playing straight. I received a pleasant surprise in my inbox this morning from Craig Rowe ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Q&A with ICM Registry: 30,000 .xxx Preorders Since Friday - Stuart Lawley talks about the future of his TLD. ICM Registry founder Stuart Lawley just got back from a successful ICANN meeting in Brussels. In this QA, Lawley answers some common questions about the .xxx top level domain name. He also reveals that the company has received 30,000 pre-reservations for the domain since the news broke last Friday that .xxx is on path for final approval. DNW: Given the process you still need to complete before launching .xxx, when ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Poll Hits Front Page of CNN.com - Possible new top level domain name gets even more exposure. If you’re ICM Registry, you couldn’t ask for better publicity for the .xxx top level domain name: CNN has a poll on its home page asking people “Do you think pornographic websites should have their own “.xxx” domain?” So far a whopping 272,555 have voted in the poll. 83% have answered “Yes”. It’s an unscientific poll, and who knows the thinking behind why people are answering “yes”. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The Domain Name T-Deficit - Calculating the frequency of first letters in domain names. Is the letter “T” under-represented on the interwebs? Maybe, although you can draw your own conclusions as to why, and if you really care. Paul Kedrosky took a look at the top 1 million domain names on the web according to traffic and tallied them according to their first letter. He then compared that to the frequency of each first letter in the English language. He found that the letter T has the biggest ... read more ...
Sun 27th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sticky Points On New gTLD’s: Terrorists, Territories, & Trademark Violators Are Worse Than Child Murders - From the ICANN meeting in Brussels this week there are a few more “sticky points” that coming out of the new gTLD process. The sticky points as I call them are issues raised by commentators in the public sessions on the new gTLD’s. Many of the issue surround who is disqualified from owning a gTLD. The guidebook requires a background check on all officers, directors and owners of 15% or more of a new gTLD. Some members of the Arab community seem to be quite upset with the language in the Guidebook ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Save Money on Your Domain Renewals - Time is ticking, but here are some extra ways to save money. You have just three days until most discount domain name registrars increase their prices on .com and .net domain names thanks to wholesale increases by registry VeriSign. It’s your last chance to cleanse your portfolio and renew domains early to save some money. I’ve already renewed almost all of my domains that expire before the end of the year. Thankfully, you can save even more money on your renewals. ... read more ...