Monthly Archives: September 2010

Wed 22nd September 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live Current Proxy Battle Exposing Ugly Truth - Company has murky past. The battle over Live Current Media’s board is heating up, and with each war of words more of the company’s questionable past comes out into the open. In Live Current’s Preliminary Proxy Statement for its upcoming meeting, current CEO Geoffrey Hampson said he began to have a falling out with the Jeffs family after Hampson didn’t have Live Current buy the web site Makeup.com. Confused? Take a look at the players. David Jeffs – former ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Energy and People Drove Epik’s First Developers Conference - My thoughts on last week’s conference in Seattle. I’ve re-written this blog post a couple times as I try to get my head around the Epik Developers Conference last week in Seattle. I’m reflecting on what it means for Epik as well as for the domain community. This is no easy task. So I’m going to punt and go with a stream-of-conscious. Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. Professionalism – this is something often lacking in the domain name community. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
EFF: New Domain Takedown Bill Would Break a Internet - EFF calls bill “misguided gift to a shortsighted industry”. Electronic Frontier Foundation is weighing in on the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, and it doesn’t like what it sees. In an analysis EFF posted online, the group says the bill would “break the Internet one domain at a time — by requiring domain registrars/registries, ISPs, DNS providers, and others to block Internet users from reaching certain websites.” EFF makes several ... read more ...
Tue 21st September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DigitalTrust.com Sells For $15K On NameJet.com; Karat.com Tops $18K with a Day to Go; How High Will It Go? - The domain name DigitalTrust.com sold for $14,600 today on NameJet.com Its a nice domain, but personally think it went for too much unless it went to an end user. A couple of other interesting sales on NameJet.com today including Solars.com for $6,100, PremiumLife.com for $2,655 and ParentsKnow.com for $2,200. The really interesting auction is the one that closes tomorrow for the domain Karat.com. The auction already is over $18K with 250 bidders in the closed auction this may well be the next big ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Cisco: 25 Billion Internet Users by 2025 - According to a study Conducted by Cisco Systems , the internet will grow to 25 BILLION users by 2025 and will produce $3 TRILLION in commerce. The report says that in 1995 there were 16 million Internet users worldwide and today there are about 2 billion. So the internet has grown 100x from 1995 to 2010. So no one should we be surprised that values of domains rose drastically since 1995. As one blog recently noted its was 1995 that Tv.com sold for $15K. Now we all know Tv.com would be an eight or ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Vail.Co Sells For $15K as The .Co Land Rush Auctions End With Another $200K + In Sales - Another great Geo domain, Vail.co topped the.Co Land Rush Auction results reported by the .Co registry today (we already reported on Ban.co auction but the registry didn’t report it until today) In all other $200K+ in Land Rush domain name auction results were reported The .Co land rush auctions are coming to a close and just a handful of auctions are still ongoing, so this appears to be the last report we will be getting of Land Rush auction results. I expect in the near term one of the auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey Ashford University, Go Back to Math Class - University loses claim for domain name registered five years prior to its existence. Bridgepoint Education’s Ashford University has lost a UDRP case for the domain name Ashford.net because it doesn’t understand how dates work. Bridgepoint bought Franciscan University of the Prairies in 2005 and renamed it Ashford University. It also got the corresponding Ashford.edu. In this UDRP case the University went after the owner of Ashford.net, but the domain name was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HP Puts Digital.com Domain Name on a Auction Block - Digital.com goes up for sale. Technology giant HP is offering the domain name Digital.com for sale, but it’s going to cost you. The domain name has been listed in Moniker’s upcoming live domain name auction taking place in Prague October 6. Reserve price: somewhere between $1 million and $5 million. HP got the domain name when it acquired Compaq. Moniker will auction off 80 other domain names during its DOMAINfest conference live domain name auction. Among ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DONE! Ventures Calls B.S. on NBC Over Women.com Deal - Company continues push to make NBC honor sale of Women.com and .net. DONE! Ventures has filed an opposition (pdf) to NBC Universal’s Motion to Dismiss its lawsuit over a failed transaction for Women.com and Women.net. DONE! had agreed to purchase the two domain names through NBC’s broker Sedo for $1 million. However, NBC backed out of the deal after it was allegedly vetoed by NBC Universal President CEO Jeff Zucker. DONE! sued to force NBC to complete the deal. NBC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Announces Prague Party Locations - Networking and partying gets underway in a couple weeks in Czech Republic. DOMAINfest has announced that it will hold networking events and parties at two exclusive locations during October’s event in Prague. On October 6, Moniker and SnapNames have obtained exclusive use of the National Museum in Prague’s Vaclavske Square for a dinner party. It’s the oldest and largest museum in the Czech Republic. On October 7, DomainSponsor will host a dinner and party at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registration Base May Top 200 Million This Quarter - There may already be 200M domains registered. It’s possible that the total number of domain names currently registered has already exceeded 200 million. In VeriSign’s latest Domain Industry Brief (pdf), the company says June ended with a total of 196.3 million domains registered across gTLDs and ccTLDs. That’s up about 3 million from the first quarter. The second quarter is generally a little slow for domain registrations, so we might see the increase more ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN To Review .Jobs Decision - .Jobs expansion plans hit a snag, but it’s probably minor. Following an outcry from the online job board industry, ICANN’s Board Governance Committee (BGC) agreed to reconsider opening up the .jobs space carte blanche. I doubt anything will come of this reconsideration request, even if the BGC recommends to the Board that it reverse its decision. We all know what happened after ICANN’s board reversed its original decision on .xxx. That issue is still carrying ... read more ...
Mon 20th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Group M: Get Ready For Higher PPC Prices: Binghoo To Increase Prices Up To 78% - According to a new report by Group M entitled the Financial Implications of The Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance“,  says that prices of PPC advertising are going to go up. Way up, thanks to the Bing-Yahoo deal. Who is Group M? GroupM, is the search marketing specialist division of WPP “which is responsible for more than 1/3 of the world’s media buying”. In the short term, GroupM thinks cost-per-clicks for branded keywords could go 78% higher than current Bing pricing, and unbranded could ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Good News: The Recession Ended Over A Year Ago, How’s That Working Out For You? - News comes today from the National Bureau of Economic Research,  that the recession that “officially” began in December 2007 “officially” ended over a year ago, in June 2009, “In determining that a trough occurred in June 2009, the committee did not conclude that economic conditions since that month have been favorable or that the economy has returned to operating at normal capacity. Rather, the committee determined only that the recession ended and a recovery began in that month,” “The ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Geld.info Is Going To Go For A Lot Of It On Sedo - The domain name Geld.info which looks like it has a mini site built on it has attracted a bid of 21,500 Euro’s on Sedo.com, which is around $28,000. Geld means money in German and the mini site is in German. Still quite a bit of money for a .info and with over 17 hours to go the price could go higher. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Autos.com, Loan.com, Gardens.com, DoItYourself.com, Vasectomy.com Among 100+ Sites Sold For $640 Million - TechCrunch is reporting that Internet Brands is being sold for $640 Million dollars. Internet Brands is publicly traded and the price comes to $13.35 a share a premium of 46% off of Friday’s closing price. The company owns some great generic domains like those listed above but owns over plenty of domains which have “trademarked” terms in the domain, but they have all been built into sites. According to TechCrunch.com the sites generate 62 million visitors a month and made $4.6 Million in the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
The Internet Goes Hollywood As Facebook Stars In “The Social Network” & Circle K Goes Regional - A couple of Ad campaigns caught my eye over the weekend. The first is for something you will be hearing a lot about over the next few weeks, a new movie about the founders of Facebook entitled “The Social Network” which opens October 1. This movie is going to increase exposure for  Facebook and for the net. Yes “everyone” seems to be on Facebook and the net but they are not, yet. For all of ways the Internet has changed the world there has hardly been a whisper out of Hollywood. Think about ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Bill Could Allow U.S. Government to Shut Down Domain Names - Good intentions and a couple big problems. Kevin Murphy spotted a new bill that, if passed in its current form, would give the U.S. government more powers to shut down domain names used for piracy and counterfeiting. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act would make it easier for the government to shut down sites with pirated movies and music or selling counterfeit goods. On the surface that doesn’t sound too bad. But there are a couple things ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Importers.com Sells for $165,000 - Company offloads key web site and domain name. Live Current Media has concluded the sale of Importers.com for $165,000, Domain Name Wire has learned. In the company’s most recent 10-Q filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, the company alluded to a domain sale that included 3 payments: On April 6, 2010, the Company entered into an agreement to lease one of its domain names to an unrelated third party for $165,000 less $15,000 in commission. The terms of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Blackberry SurfBoard or SurfBook? One Domain Changed Hands. - The guessing game continues about RIM’s tablet name. Last week someone sent me a tip that Research in Motion filed trademark applications that might be related to its upcoming tablet. It looks like some of the tech press has picked up on the name “Surfbook” today due to RIM’s trademark filing. But the company recently filed a couple different trademarks, including for Blackberry Surfboard and Blackberry Surfbook. It’s really difficult to tell if either ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Austin Man Sues Entrepreneur Media, Claims Reverse Domain Hijacking - Entrepreneur Magazine came after small business owner over trademarks. An Austin businessman has sued Entrepreneur Media, publisher of Entrepreneur Magazine, after the publication sent a cease and desist to him for registering EntrepreneurOlogy.com. Daniel Castro is an author, speaker, trainer, and small business owner in Austin, Texas. In January 2009 he says he coined the term “EntrepreNeurology”, followed shortly thereafter by “EntrepreneurOlogy”. He ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Proxy Battle Launched to Replace Live Current Media Board - Battle begins to replace board at Live Current Media. The former CEO of what is now Live Current Media has launched a proxy battle to regain control of the company’s Board of Directors. David Jeffs was CEO of the company from 2002 to 2007 when he hired Geoffrey Hampson to replace him. According to the proxy solicitation: In March 2010, Mr. Jeffs received from a shareholder of the Company a news release issued by Corelink Data Centers LLC, a Delaware company that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aftermarket.com Gears Up For Launch - New ideas come to online domain sales. Aftermarket.com is getting closer to its relaunch as an online marketplace for buying and selling domain names. In general the marketplace will be similar to what you have come to expect from Sedo and Afternic, but with some twists: Private auctions – you can hold your own private auction with up to 100 guests Domain data – pull DomainTools data directly into your listing Escrow – escrow will be handled through Escrow.com Aftermarket ... read more ...
Fri 17th September 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GetPersonalWith.Me Lists Avaliable FirstName.Me For €4.99 - Blacknight Solutions, has launched a site that features available first name .me domains that are available for registration and priced at only €4.99 for a year of registration. The site, GetPersonalwith.Me, list thousands of available first names all available at time of publication. You can search for your first name and last name and the site will check to see if they’re available or and if it is not the system will suggest a few alternatives. I still think .Me domains are valuable especially ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Court Finds “6 Hour Power” Does Not Infringe on “5 Hour Energy” Trademark - A Federal Court turned down the complaint of “5 hour Energy” against another energy drink called “6 Hour Power” for trademark infringement. The court engages in an interesting discussion of trademark law outside of the normal realm of UDRP that we have gotten used to and as we see in Federal Court decisions they use a whole different line of reasoning that UDRP. “The Lanham Act prohibits the use of any word, term, or name which “is likely to cause confusion . . . as to the origin, sponsorship, ... read more ...