Monthly Archives: January 2011

Thu 27th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here is Go Daddy’s First 2011 Super Bowl Commercial - See what Go Daddy has cooked up for Jillian Michaels and Danica Patrick. Can’t wait until the Super Bowl to see what Go Daddy has in store for this year? You don’t have to; the company’s first commercial is available below. But this isn’t the one that has most people curious. In the first half Go Daddy will run a commercial featuring its new Go Daddy.CO girl. With the traditional shock tactic wearing a little thin after all these years, Go Daddy has cooked ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apparently WeWannaBuyYourCar.com is Confusingly Similar to “We Buy Any Car” - I need a crash course in confusing similarity. I don’t know, folks. Maybe it’s time for me to pack it up and go home. Why the frustration? After reading hundreds of UDRP cases apparently I still can’t figure out what “confusingly similar” is. Today’s case in point? WIPO panelist David Perkins has awarded the domain name WeWannaBuyYourCar.com to a company with trademarked logos for “We Buy Any Car.com”. OK, so ‘we’, ‘buy’, and ‘car’ ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Briefing Documents Still Full of Redactions - by Kevin Murphy ICANN continues to hide details of staff briefings to Board. ICANN is continuing to redact large portions of its board briefing documents, despite the recommendations of its Accountability and Transparency Review team. The organization has just published over 300 pages of documentation that was used to inform its board of directors before its meeting in Cartagena last month. But large chunks of text have been whited out. Many of the redacted portions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are You Going to DOMAINfest? - Biggest domain conference of the year starts next week. DOMAINfest officially kicks off next Tuesday, February 1 in Santa Monica. Organizers expect to meet or beat last year’s attendance of 650 people. So far attendees are from 28 countries. Registration is still open at a discount rate of $1,295 until Sunday. The conference has a record 37 sponsors (including BigJumbo, which I’ll be representing in addition to covering the event for Domain Name Wire). The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Use a VeriSign Trust Seal to Get More Search Traffic and Conversions - Hidden value of Trust Seal is in higher search click-throughs. When eNom announced last summer that it would start selling VeriSign’s Trust Seal I kind of chuckled to myself. Why would anyone pay $299 a year to display a VeriSign seal on their site? After all, you can get a full-blown SSL certificate from some providers for only $20 a year. But the benefits are more than meets the eye. Perhaps the biggest is increased search engine clicks. Many people who use ... read more ...
Wed 26th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Quick Poll: How Much Will Demand Media Stock Be One Year From Now? - Shares of Demand Media closed its first day of trading at $22.65. As you know by now, the company’s stock went public at $17 a share,  its first trade was at $23.50 and traded as high as $25. So the question now becomes at what price would will the stock of Demand Media be trading at the same time next year? Today is January 25th so lets call for the closing price as of Friday  Janauary 27, 2012. You can make your selection at the poll on the right and leave any comments below including any exact ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UDRP row Awards KENA.com & The Domain Name Owner Is Loses His $5K Purchase: “It Cannot Be Accounted For By Genericness” - In domain holder that paid over $5,000 for a LLLL.com today just lost it in a UDRP The case involved the domain name  kena.com There have been some nice sales of LLLL.com just at Afternic recently recently making this a pretty valuable domain the right hands. Here is what the one member panel had to say: “Complainant has registered several KENA-formative trademarks on the register of the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property These are a word and design mark KENA LATINA (and design), registration ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Envelopes.com Sold For $400,000 (In 2010) - According to the Domainnamestrategy.com blog, which cited an article in “Inc. Magazine“,  the category killer domain name Envelopes.com was purchased in January 2010 for $400,000. The Inc. article tells the story of Seth Newman president of company called Action Envelope who passed up a chance to buy the domain name for just $10,000 in 1997. The story goes on to talk about how Mr.Newman spent several years negotiating with the owners of the domain name “before finally buying the site last ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Adult.co.uk Hits The Sales Block - According to Metro.co.uk the domain name Adult.co.uk is up for sale. Although no asking price was given. Originally purchased back in 1996 for an undisclosed sum, a spokesperson for Adult.co.uk has stated on the upcoming sale: “Sex.com was such a huge success when it went on sale last year and this has shown just how powerful a premium domain name can be for a business and how high the demand can be.” “I believe that many businesses are realising how much a good domain name can help ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Demand Media Shares Jump Up A High As 47% As It Begins Trading - Shares in Demand Media which started trading today on the NYSE under the symbol DMD which were priced at $17 a share started trading at $23.50 In the first half our of trading the stock has already hit a high of $25 a share, which represents a 47% gain over the issue price. The shares are currently trading as of time of publication at $22.24 an increase of about 33% from its offer price. I do think regardless of your personal opinion of the company or the stock, a big demand for Demand stock can ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
SuperBowl To Generate $10 Billion In Spending But Domain Names Are Not Included - According to a new survey out from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, total consumer Super Bowl spending is expected to reach $10.1 billion, the highest in the survey’s eight-year history. Of the 83% saying they will purchase Super Bowl-related items, including food, beverages, TVs, furniture, team apparel and decorations, the average person will spend $71.51, up from $64 a year ago Unfortunately the survey was silent to how much will be spent on domain names because of SuperBowl ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Update: It’s Official: Demand Goes Public At $17 a Share Becoming The Largest Internet IPO Since Google - According to the Wall Street Journal Demand Media has raised $151 million by offering 8.9 million shares at $17, above its expected range of $14 to $16. The company originally filed to sell 7.5 million shares (of which 3 million were to be sold by insiders). Demand Media will begin trading on Wednesday on the NYSE under the symbol DMD. Demand of course own the 2nd largest domain registrar in the world, Enom,com as well as part of Namejet.com along with eHow.com which is ranked as the 23rd busiest ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
USPTO Grants Extension to Facebook in Fight with American Farm Bureau over FB - Facebook still embroiled in fight over ‘FB’ mark with non-profit that sold it FB.com domain name. So you bought a domain name from someone for $8 million plus and you still haven’t settled a trademark dispute with them? Makes no sense to me. But on Monday Facebook filed an extension request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to settle a trademark dispute with American Farm Bureau (AFB). The request said the parties are still engaged in settlement talks. AFB ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Demand Media Pops On Open, Great News for Domain Industry - Domain name company gets nice lift in initial public offering. Shares in Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) have popped 40% on open to just over $23 a share after pricing yesterday at $17, above the anticipated range of $14-$16. This is good news for the domain name industry. Demand Media owns domain name registrar eNom, parking company HotKeys, part of NameJet, and a large portfolio of domain names. It’s true that much of the company’s growth is coming from its content ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Battle of a Forums: Which Domain Forum is Best? - Provide your input on the best domain name forums. Are you one of the 1,000 people who have already taken the 6th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey? That’s how many people have participated in the survey already, and one of the questions they’re answering is “which domain forum is best?” Last year DNForum took home the most votes. The popular gathering spot for domainers has taken home the top prize 4 out of 5 years on the survey. NamePros came in second, ... read more ...
Tue 25th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Demand To Go Public Tomorrow - According to several reports Demand Media is going public tomorrow (another report here). With a target price of between $14-$16 a share, I got a call today from a broker who said they were oversubscribed and they expected trading to being north of $17 a share. There will be many people at Domainfest next week with restricted shares in their pockets and Demand becoming public will add some extra attention to the domain industry during its busiest show. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Search Revenue Down 27% & They Cut 1% Of WorkForce - Yahoo reported earnings after the market closed today. Yahoo  had net revenue of $1.21 billion, down 4% drop from the 4th quarter of 2009. 4th Q net income rose to $312 million, or 24 cents a share, from $153 million or 11 cents a share in the same period a year earlier. Yahoo said its search-advertising revenue fell 27% in the 4th quarter compared with the period in the prior year. Shares are trading at $15.52 down 3% in after market trading. “We just completed a very encouraging quarter ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Condo.com Acquires Houses.com - According to a press release today Condo.com bought houses.com in December 2010 for an undisclosed price. Here is the press release: “Condo.com, the world’s largest condo marketplace, today announced the launch of Houses.com” “The new site is a “category” or “generic” domain that combines the power and brandability of the generic domain name with the large volume of web searches for terms relating to houses. Similar in scope and design to Condo.com, the website utilizes the team, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Jeff Gabriel Named President Of DomainAdvisors.com - PPX International just announced that Jeffrey Gabriel is the new President of its domain consultancy service, DomainAdvisors.com Here is the Press Release: “Jeffrey will be responsible for overall business operations including building and maintaining strategic relationships, driving revenue and general management responsibilities. He joins the PPX team from a successful tenure at Sedo.com where he was personally responsible for orchestrating the sales of nearly $30 Million in domain names and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Google May Allow Users To Black List Domains - According to SearchEngineLand.com, “Google has discussed giving searchers the ability to remove domains from its search results.” They attribute that from a discussion held by Hacker News user “bradly” asks who “asked Matt Cutts if Google would consider letting searchers remove domains from search results themselves. Cutts replies, “we’ve definitely discussed this,” and seems to hint that some kind of announcement may be on the way:” Matt,Can you speak about the possibility for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Creates New GoDaddy.CO Logo, Files Trademark Application - World’s largest domain name registrar creates new logo with .co. Domain name registrar Go Daddy has been a big supporter of the .co relaunch. It has tested promoting .co as its default search, tried lowering prices to match .com, and is partnering up with .Co Internet for its Super Bowl ad. It’s even teasing the media with a new GoDaddy.co girl that will be unveiled on Super Bowl Sunday. It is also going to test changing its name to GoDaddy.co? Last week the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Perils of Working With ICANN - Business models dependent on ICANN are risky. If the new top level domain name process and .xxx are any indication, staking an entire business model on something that must work its way through the ICANN process requires unending patience and a strong appetite for risk. New top level domain names haven’t even been approved yet, but we’ve already seen layoffs in the new TLD business. Companies that sprung up to launch new TLDs have had to cut back to lower their ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Elliot Silver is Too Nice. Here’s What I’m Doing With Comments. - Please don’t spam and please stay on topic. This weekend Elliot Silver posted about commenting on his blog and restrictions on what “name” you can use in the comments. (Your name is optionally linked to a URL.) Elliot threatened to remove the URL of anyone who used a spammy keyword name to link to a web site. That’s a nice first step but doesn’t go far enough. I used to measure the success of my posts by the number of comments, but then I realized that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Auction Bulks Up By Slimming Down - Fewer domains, better quality on tap for next live domain auction. This headline may seem contradictory. But it aptly describes the change Moniker has made with its live auctions of late, and it’s very apparent with February’s DOMAINfest Auction. What’s the change? Fewer domains. Better quality. The Premium Live auction on February 3 will have no more than 100 domains and should take less than two hours to complete. (Only 90 minutes is scheduled, but you ... read more ...
Mon 24th January 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Zynga Owner of Cityville and Farmville is Now Trying to Enforce Ownership Of a “Ville” - Looks like the game developer Zynga who owns CityVille and FarmVille is going down the same path of Facebook which has attempted to claim that they have ownership of the word Face and/or Book. In November of 2010, Zynga sent a cease and desist letter to the developer of the game Blingville, claiming its use of the letter combination ‘ville’ entails trademark infringement. Last week, Blingville filed for a declaratory judgement stating that its game’s title constituted a “fair use” ... read more ...