Monthly Archives: June 2010

Sat 26th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Domaining & Time Zones: It’s Better To Be Early Than Late - In the past two months I’ve had the opportunity to be in a time zone 2 hours earlier than EST and in Europe which is 6 hours later than EST and I have to say without a doubt its better to be early than late. Actually I enjoyed being a couple of hours behind EST. I would get up at 8am local time which was 10am EST and worked until noon or 2pm EST, and got most of my work done. However In Europe where it’s 6 hours later than EST, I found it almost impossible to conduct business. When Europeans ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
All Major Media Outlets Got It Wrong, .XXX Isn’t Just For Porn Sites - I saw literally hundreds of articles today on the conditional passage of the .xxx extension by ICANN and everyone seemed to miss a very important point. .XXX isn’t just for adult content. Sure the intent of the extension if for porn sites to use .XXX domains, but in fact there is nothing that requires any site using a .XXX extension to displaying porn. So you certainly could sell cars under cars.xxx or computers under computers.xxx. Just look at the headlines of Major media mainstream publications: CNet.com ... read more ...
Fri 25th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Quick Poll: How Many Registrations Will .XXX Have After Its First Year? - As we told you they would yesterday the ICANN board made it official today and voted to approve the .XXX extension. I spoke to ICM’s founder Stuart Lawley yesterday shortly after the vote and he told me he would expect the first .XXX domains to go live by no later than 1Q 2011. In an article published by the AP today, Mr. Lawley is quoted as saying he expects .xxx to attract at “least 500,000 registrations”,  citing the 110,000 reservations ICM has already received. He was further quoted as ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Former Justice Department Chief Blasts ICANN Decision on .XXX - Trueman says decision was “foolish and unnecessary”. Pat Trueman, former Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, called ICANN’s decision on .xxx today “foolish and unnecessary” in an interview with Domain Name Wire. Trueman served in the Justice Department starting with Ronald Reagan in 1988 to the end of the administration of George H. W. Bush. Trueman said ICANN’s board appears to be caught up with process in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX Resolution Approved, But Red Tape Could Slow Down Introduction - .XXX still has hurdles before it becomes a top level domain name. As expected, ICANN’s board approved a resolution today that allows ICM Registry’s .xxx application to move forward. But there are hurdles, or at least red tape, between now and the introduction of the top level domain name. Reading the resolution aloud during ICANN’s board meeting today, board chairman Peter Dengate Thrush noted several steps that remain: -The staff must conduct expedited due ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Get IDN Country Code Top Level Domain Names - Asian language top level domains coming to the internet. The Board of ICANN has approved the delegation of two Chinese-character country code top level domain names to China, two to Taiwan, and one to Hong Kong. During ICANN’s board meeting today in Brussels, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom called it a historic moment: Just one brief remark and that is to say this is a truly historic moment. More than one out of five people who walk on this planet speak Chinese as ... read more ...
Thu 24th June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN To Approve .XXX - In an ICANN public forum held in Brussels today, it appears ICANN is set to approve the .XXX  tomorrow. Citing the findings of the independent review panel which found that ICANN acted against its own rules when it rejected the .XXX extension, it appears ICANN board has no choice but to approve the extension. Early indications is that the ICM registry will have to jump through just a couple of more hoops but passage looks certain. As a domainer I have been against the extension, as I see no benefit ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Parking Scammers Get Aggressive - As parking companies get more sophisticated, scammers get creative. Ask any domain name parking company what their number one nuisance is and they’ll say fraud. Click fraud is big, but it all starts with trying to get an account at the parking companies. One large parking company told me it approves fewer than 1% of the applications it gets. They’re not trying to be selective; it’s just that 99% of the applicants are trying to set up accounts to perpetrate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Mint Condition: How Domaining is Like Collecting Baseball Cards - There are many similarities between baseball card collecting and domain names. I suspect that many domainers collected sports cards growing up. There are a lot of similarities between baseball cards collecting and domaining. We like to show off our prized domains. We often gravitate toward certain themes, such as collecting four letter domains. We monitor pricing trends. We go after “scarce” domains such as LLL.com. And we constantly try to buy, trade, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Board Set to Approve .XXX Domain Friday - .XXX to get green light, but the value to ICM registry has wilted. Ex-ICANN staffer Kieren McCarthy is reporting that ICANN’s general counsel has spilled the beans on .xxx, saying ICANN will approve the new top level domain name tomorrow during its board meeting. Make no mistake, this is a monumental moment for ICANN. If it were up to the organization it would have let .xxx die years ago. But an independent review panel found ICANN erred. And, despite having ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Traveling to a Changed Colombia - Security is only a minor concern for upcoming ICANN meeting in Colombia. My image of Colombia is colored by the past. It’s an image of the days of Pablo Escobar, rampant kidnappings, crime, and guerrillas forces. It’s shaped by books such as Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo and the 2000 film Proof of Life. So when ICANN announced its December meeting would be held in Cartagena, Colombia, my first thought was “here we go again”. Another Nairobi. Another Mexico. ... read more ...
Wed 23rd June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
So What’s In The ICANN Goody Bag? - Anyone who has ever been to a TRAFFIC domain show or other industry convention, knows that all attendees get a goody bag full of stuff from sponsors and advertisers that pay to give there stuff away. The ICANN show is no different and DomainNameWire.com even pointed out last week the curious relationship between ICANN and Sponsors. So I was pretty interested to see what swag was included in the handsome ICANN Brussels backpack that each attendee got; 1 .Org key chain. 1 .Org notebook, the paper kind, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company Says Woman Has No Right to Her First Name in Domain Dispute - Company claims women has no rights to her first name. Let’s say your first name is, I don’t know…Andrew. And you register Andrew.com. There are of course companies that use the name “Andrew” as well. Could they claim that you have no rights to the term “Andrew” and be able to get that domain name through UDRP? Of course not. But that’s what Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A., which published an Italian women’s magazine Grazia, tried to do to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fairwinds Says Typosquatting Costs $327 million, Based on $2.74 Per Click - Report makes some lofty estimates for typosquatting. Fairwinds Partners, the group behind Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, released a study today suggesting that typosquatting costs the 250 most visited web sites $327 million per year. Like the creators of many studies, Fairwinds has something to sell — services to the very brands that are affected by typosquatting. There are a number of assumptions in Fairwinds’ report, and also a lot of references to its ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pricing Released for TRAFFIC Dublin - Registration open for August’s domain name conference. Registration for The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain name conference taking place in Dublin, August 24-26, is now open. Early pricing until July 15 is €695, although there’s also a link for a lower $730 USD price at the time of writing. Hotel rooms are available for only 159 EUR per night. In a blog post today, show organizer Rick Latona noted: You can’t talk about Dublin without mentioning beers. Folks, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Donates Domain to Estate of Queen Rocker Freddie Mercury - Domain registrar gives domain to estate of Freddie Mercury. Tucows’ Yummy Names has donated the domain name FreddieMercury.com to the estate of the late lead singer of rock group Queen. An announcement on QueenOnline.com reads: In a recent act of fantastic generosity, domain registrar company Tucows Inc. secured the domain name FreddieMercury.com and donated it free of charge to Freddie’s estate. We would openly like to thank Bill Sweetman and his team for their ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AOL Ad.com Trademark Claim Refused as Generic - Trademark examiner refuses Ad.com trademark again. AOL’s continued battle to trademark a domain name it doesn’t even own has hit another roadblock. On June 21, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examiner refused the trademark for Ad.com on the grounds that it’s generic. The USPTO previously refused the mark because Ad.com was merely descriptive of AOL’s services. In response, AOL amended the application to add a claim of acquired distinctiveness. In refusing ... read more ...
Tue 22nd June 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Australia Proposes New Rules On Domains & Requires Every Internet User To Have Anti-Virus Programs On Their Computers - According to the inquisitr.com, an Australian governmental committee is proposing a whole set of new rules on internet users, domain owners, and registrars. “””The Hackers, Fraudsters and Botnets: Tackling the Problem of Cyber Crime report from the House Standing Committee on Communications Inquiry into Cyber crime makes 34 different recommendations”” Recommendation 20 of the bill states that domain name registrars must filter applications for domain names to attempt to identify any ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Day 2: The Heat Is Turned Up On Registrars : How Much Will This Cost Us? - At ICANN today the hot discussion centered around registrars, and the roll law enforcement wants to place on them to curb illegal activity on the net. The bottom line is that if law enforcement gets their way, registrars are going to have a lot more obligations and therefore a lot more costs and guess whose going to foot the bill You The domain registrants. In attendance today were some heavy hitters in the world of law enforcement. The FBI. The Secret Service. Representatives from the federal law ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Book Review: Slurls Pokes Fun during Double Meaning Domains - New book gets a laugh out of unfortunate domain names. I first became amused by domain names with double meanings when a now-defunct domain name blog put together a list several years ago. One example on that blog was TherapistFinder.com, which, when not capitalized, looks like TheRapistFinder.com. This sort of double-meaning domain name is what computer programmer Andy Geldman calls a Slurl. And he’s taken Slurls to the next level in his book Slurls: They Called ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Hits 6 Figures with Three Domain Names - Domain broker has good sales week. Sedo completed three six figure domain name sales last week, capping off a great week for the company. First, it sold the three number domain name 027.com for $100,000. It also sold Pengyou.com and Pengyou.net, each for $100,000. PengYou appears to be a Mandarin word for “friend”. Two of Sedo’s other big sales are ones I’ve already written about, including Rage.com for $49,999 and TVs.co.uk for 51,000 GBP. Here are other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will ICANN Insiders Get Leg Up with New TLDs? - I have read the Tim-Berners Lee and his opposition to .mobi and .xxx. I disagree entirely with the notion that .com is the only king and any other TLD are useless and could have no value to their appropriate constituencies and communities. So Tim-Berners should have a little talk with the 1.3+ million that have signed the .music initiative and tell them that they wanting their .music is not in the public interest or in their interest, even though they want it. Also it depends on the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7 Steps to a Launch of New TLDs - Kurt Pritz explains what’s left to do in the long march to new top level domain names. During Monday’s New gTLD Program Update session during ICANN’s meeting in Brussels, ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz spelled out the steps remaining to launch new top level domain names. Here they are in his words. 1. “So we’ll take the public comment in and then make a recommendation for community and board decision whether this should be the last draft version ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ESPN Wants ESPN3d.com Domain Name For New 3D Network - Sports network asks arbitration panel to give it domain name for new 3D network. Sports network ESPN has filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name ESPN3d.com. The company announced its new ESPN 3D network in January, saying that it would show 85 sporting events in 3D during its first year. The 3D broadcasting kicked off this month with matches from the World Cup, but the network still doesn’t have the ESPN3D.com domain name. It ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Global Moves to Feb for 2011 - Largest domain conference sets date for 2011. Oversee.net’s flagship DOMAINfest Global conference is moving back a week this year to the first week of February. The conference will take place February 1-3, 2011 and will again be held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. Hotel reservations for the event are already available. If it’s anything like last year, the hotel will sell out in a hurry even though the entire hotel is reserved for ... read more ...