Monthly Archives: September 2010

Thu 30th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Abandons Plans for 1 and 2 Character .Net Domains - Short .net domain name idea off the table. VeriSign has withdrawn its request to ICANN to allow it to release one and two character .net domain names. The company asked ICANN back in August to let it auction off any one or two letter .net domain name that wasn’t already registered. Some one and two letter domains were registered prior to a restriction on the practice that was introduced for technical reasons. A number of other registries have either already distributed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotMobi to Auction Off Remaining 1 and 2 Character Domain Names - Company asks ICANN to let it auction off short domain names. dotMobi is asking ICANN (pdf) for permission to auction off remaining one and two character .mobi domain names. Back in 2008 dotMobi requested permission to release one and two character domain names through an RFP process. Now the group wants to auction off any remaining ones, and then open up unclaimed short domains to general registration. Many other registries have released (or are in the process of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Biz Prices to Increase Along with .Org - Another domain name price increase announced. .Biz domain name registry NeuStar has informed ICANN (pdf) that it intends to raise wholesale prices for .biz domain names effective April 1, 2011. That’s the same time that Public Interest Registry will raise its rates on .org domain names to $7.21. The wholesale cost of a .biz domain name will increase from $6.85 to $7.30. That does not include an ICANN fee of $.18 cents that registrars must pay, so the wholesale ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
[UPDATED] FB.com Domain Name Sells…to Facebook? - FB.com domain name sells. Likely buyer: Facebook. American Farm Bureau has sold the domain name FB.com, as George Kirikos noted this morning on Twitter. The domain names whois record now points to a division of Mark Monitor, which manages domain names for Facebook. So did Facebook buy the domain name? I’ve contacted both American Farm Bureau and Facebook for details. A PR representative for American Farm Bureau told me he’s not sure how much the organization ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy.com’s Size Comes Back to Haunt it in uBid Court Case - Court rules that world’s largest domain name registrar can face a lawsuit in Illinois. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has dealt a blow to domain name registrar Go Daddy, deciding that Go Daddy should face a cybersquatting lawsuit filed by uBid in Illionis. uBid, which is based in Illinois, sued Go Daddy because some of the registrar’s customers registered typos of uBid.com and these domains were parked with advertisements by Go Daddy. Go ... read more ...
Wed 29th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
How Is Your Blog Doing? TechCrunch Sells For $25 Million - According to several reports the blog TechCrunch has sold to AOL for “only” $25 Million. TechCrunch has become a go to source for ground breaking internet news, and we hope that continues somehow despite the apparent sale to a huge mainstream media company. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Now That TRAFFIC Has Announced A Show For 2011, Whose Going To Run The Auctions? - The TRAFFIC show organizers announced yesterday that its going to hold its first show of 2011 right before the ICANN show in March in San Francisco. Now the questions becomes who is going to run the domain name auctions for them. I have checked with the show organizers and they confirmed that they don’t have a contract with anyone to run the auctions for them next year. There are certainly quite a few possibilities: RickLatona.com, they are currently running the auctions for TRAFFIC and will be ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN May Test Whois Privacy and Proxy Services - How do whois privacy services respond to requests to reveal owner information? The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) has asked ICANN to consider the cost and feasibility of extended whois studies. ICANN has already undertaken studies to determine what percentage of whois records are accurate. The next study is to see how whois privacy and whois proxy services respond to requests to reveal the actual owner of domain names. The study would involve working ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expert Discusses How to Sell Developed Web Sites - Thought I would stop by and read Andrew’s article and comments, and I am impressed by the insightful comments this has instigated. I would like to address the comments from Jeff and others relating to valuations below. But first, I want to establish that while I do have expertise and years of practical experience buying, selling and brokering website businesses and premium domain names, I am by no means admitting to be a stellar public speaker! I appreciated the opportunity to connect ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gold or White, Live Current Shareholders Get a Raw Deal - Proxy battle doesn’t give shareholders a great choice. Live Current Media shareholders are being asked to make a choice ahead of next month’s shareholder meeting: gold or white. The current CEO Geoffrey Hampson and his board want shareholders to vote with their gold proxy card, which would mean they get to stay at the helm of the company. Former company president David Jeffs is asking shareholders to fill out the white proxy card, which would replace Hampson and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Gap Sues GapNote.com Social Network - Clothing company says you can’t use the term “gap” in your social media web site. Clothing company The Gap has sued GapNote.com and its founder for trademark infringement. GapNote.com is a new site that helps people chronicle their past, present, and future, and the gaps in between. The lawsuit claims that the site should not be able to use the term “gap” anywhere in its name because the clothing company owns rights to the domain name. The Gap claims: Defendant ... read more ...
Tue 28th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here We Go Again: The 1st Quarter of 2011 Shaping Up To Be A Busy Conference Schedule - Just a little over a week ago RickLatona.com announced he was canceling the TRAFFIC Hong Kong show due in large part to the number of domain shows this year: “The simple fact of the matter is that we are in a cottage industry.” “The domain world is small and it can’t sustain so many companies fighting over attendees. So, I’ll bow out.” So its interesting that 2011 is already setting up as a busy conference schedule in the domain world. DomainFest is kicking off the 2011 shows with its ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Is FaceBook A Domain Killer? AdAge Says Yes - A new article by Adage.com asks the question that we have asked in the past, which is whether Facebook is a domain killer. According to Adage, several big brands’ Facebook Pages are seeing more activity than their websites. “For example, Kraft Foods’ Oreo is the number 3 brand page on Facebook, with a fan base of over 10.1 million growing at a rate of 71,000 new fans each a day.” “Meanwhile, their branded website, NabiscoWorld.com, has seen U.S. traffic drop in the last year from 1.2 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia sells VSAT.com for $61,600 - Four character domain name appears to go from end user to end user. NameMedia, which operates Afternic and BuyDomains, has brokered the sale of VSAT.com for $61,600. Historical whois records show the seller is Metro Communications Company, Inc of Illinois. The buyer is using whois privacy, but VSAT.com is now forwarding to VSAT.eu, the site of Elektrikom Satellite Services. Other notable .com sales include: lakegeorgehotels.com $18,000.00 collectionsagency.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Group Wants to Become New UDRP Provider - Comment period open to review proposed arbitration provider. Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) has sent a proposal to ICANN to become a resolution provider under UDRP. Based in Jordan, ACDR is a joint venture between Arab Intellectual Property Mediation and Arbitration Society (AIPMAS) and the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP). ACDR plans to charge about the same as other UDRP providers for low volume cases. One or two domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$500k IPO.com Sale One of Many Big Sales during Sedo This Week - IPO.com headlines strong week for domain marketplace. Sedo had a great sales week including the sale of IPO.com that Michael Berkens wrote about on September 22. But that wasn’t the only notable sale the company brokered. In second place was AirTickets.com at $80,000 followed by ResumeWriting.com at $66,000. ResumeWriting.com appears to have been sold by Frank Schilling’s Name Administration. But the buyer is peculiar. The current whois shows that EditMeNow.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domaining.com Launches Numeric Domains Marketplace - Another week, another niche marketplace from founder of Domaining.com. I think we should award Francois from Domaining.com the “prolific domain marketplace creator”. He’s at it again, launching a marketplace for number-only domain names at NumericDomains.com. The site already has a number of listings, primarily consisting of 3 and 4 number domains. NumericDomains.com quickly follows the launch of TrafficDomains.com, a site dedicated to selling domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
From Domain Industry to TechCrunch, Now Arrington Cashes Out to AOL - Michael Arrington sells his business to AOL. It’s official. AOL has purchased TechCrunch. GigaOm was the first to break the news last night that AOL was buying TechCrunch. The popular tech blog confirmed the news today. TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington spent much of the five or so years directly before starting the blog bouncing around in the domain name industry. In 1999-2000 he worked for Real Names, which was supposed to be a competitor to domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Athens Plans .Athens Top Level Domain Name - Municipality wants .athens, but may run into challenges with trademark application. Add Athens to the list of municipalities that want to register their own top level domain names. I haven’t seen anything on the web about the city’s plans, but it filed two trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “.Athens” and “dot .athens” back in February. I hadn’t seen these yet because the original applications didn’t list domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First Two .Co Domain Disputes Decided - Companies belatedly pursue .co domain names. World Intellectual Property Organization has handed down its first two UDRP decisions for .co domain names since .co was relaunched over the summer. In two separate decisions, WIPO panelists found in favor of the complainants for lafitness.co and tilda.co. Twenty-one .co UDRP cases have been filed since August. In some cases the domain owner handed the domain name over voluntarily. For example, Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon.com Gets Patent for Selling and Leasing Domain Names - Amazon granted patent for domain name marketplace. Amazon.com subsidiary Amazon Technologies, Inc. was today granted U.S. patent number 7,805,379 for “Method and system for leasing or purchasing domain names”. This patent, which was applied for in December 2007, seems to conflict with a number of existing domain name marketplace and domain monetization technologies that were commercially available at the time the patent application was filed. One conflict in particular ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Win a New iPod Touch or Kindle from DNW Certified Stats - Try out free stats sharing service and win a prize. Have you tried DNW Certified Stats yet? It’s the easiest way to share domain name parking stats, and today I’m giving you another reason to give it a try: I’m giving away your choice of a new 32 GB iPod Touch with Facetime or an Amazon Kindle 3G with a $100 Amazon gift card to one lucky person who uses DNW Certified Stats. Here’s the deal: 1. Sign up for a free account at DNW Certified Stats if you don’t ... read more ...
Mon 27th September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First Ever IDN Event and Auction on Tap for New York in October - New York City event will educate about Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). Few topics have received greater attention this year than IDNs. So it’s fitting that the first ever “IDN Event and Auction” will take place October 30, 2010 at the Haru Restaurant in New York City at 7 pm. The event is organized by IDNTools and will be sponsored by Register.com, Moniker and SnapNames. The goal of the event is to educate domain registrants about IDNs, their value ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Says It Can Scale Up to 1,000 New Top Level Domains a Year - Technical infrastructure can handle 1,000 new TLDs a year, but there will be other bottlenecks. One of the interesting things to come from ICANN’s closed door board retreat over the weekend is this tidbit: ICANN thinks it can delegate up to 1,000 top level domain names a year without technical root scaling problems. Staff has also developed a model and a rationale for the maximum rate of applications that can be processed over the next few years. Staff is directed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Coming to America: Mark your Calendar for Mar 2011 - ICANN meeting coming to America next Spring. For the first time in a long time ICANN will hold its international meeting in the United States March 13-18, 2011. That means U.S. residents won’t have to make a trip that involves three plane hops and 12 different time zones to attend the meeting. You probably don’t pay attention to ICANN policy that much if you’re a domainer. You aren’t excited by policy. You probably don’t care much, either. That has ... read more ...