Verisign Domain Report: Over 205 Million Domain Name Registrations & .Org is Catching up - Verisign just published its quarterly Domain Report for the quarter ending December 31, 2010 (pdf)
According to the report as of December 31, 2010 there are over 205 Million domains registered an increase of 1.7% from the 3rd quarter and 6.3% from a year ago.
.org moved up the chart from 5th most registrations to 4th most displacing .co.uk
Of the more than 205 Million domains, 80 million were ccTLD’s.
Renewal rates of .com stayed steady at almost 73%.
“”The fourth quarter of 2010 closed with ... read more ...
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Mon 28th February 2011
Obama não terá poder de veto sobre extensões de domínios -
O superpoderoso presidente dos Estados Unidos perdeu uma importante votação entre os países conselheiros do ICANN, a autoridade global em endereços de internet. Obama propôs que as nações pudessem vetar os TLDs (as extensões em domínios de internet, como o .com e o .net) que estão para ser criados nos próximos meses.
Essa proposta, no entanto, não durou muito depois que as nações se uniram para votá-la. Obama queria que governos locais pudessem proibir certas extensões de domínios, ... read more ...
IP Lawyer: “A Domainer Is Someone Who Registers Zillions Of Domains” - In an article written by John B. Farmer an IP attorney in the Richmond Times Dispatch defines Domainers as:
“A domainer is someone who registers zillions of domain names to put up automated pay-per-click websites.”
“These folks deal in high volumes of domain names and big money. They demand premium prices. They usually mask their identities with domain name proxy registration services.”
Really a Zillion domains to make a domainer?
Obviously Mr .Farmer doesn’t consider anyone with less ... read more ...
HopeForHaitiNow.org Sells On NameJet.com For $7K & Sounds Like Trouble: Vertis.com Sells For $10K - In a real head scratcher, the domain name hopeforhaitinow.org sold for $7,100 on NameJet.com today.
There were 7 different bidders at $2K or over.
Hopeforhaiti.com is the site of a non-profit group that says it has been raising money for Haiti for over 20 years and they are showing a TM on their site.
“, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the Haitian people through education, nutrition and healthcare.”
I don’t see any value to this domain other than ... read more ...
EzineArticles.com Cracks Down After Google Algorithm Changes -
Site forces quality changes for submitted articles.
One of the sites frequently mentioned as being targeted in Google’s recent quality crackdown is EzineArticles.com.
It should come as no surprise that today the site instituted new rules and checks for quality.
The site lets people submit articles that are free to reprint. The author gets a number of benefits, but backlinks are one of the biggest. As a result, many authors submit quick articles with little substance ... read more ...
Pre-Bidding Opens for Aftermarket.com Live Domain Auction -
Live auction kicks off with pre-bidding.
Aftermarket.com is back in the live domain name auction game this week.
The company will host a live domain name auction in The Bahamas and will simulcast it through its new Aftermarket.com site.
The actual auction will be Thursday, March 3 at 2PM EST. But pre-bidding has already open at Aftermarket.com and will run until 15 minutes before the live auction starts.
You must register for a Premium account into order to bid. ... read more ...
ICANN “Satisfaction Rate” Rebounds -
Not as bad as last year. But not great.
The percentage of people who rate their satisfaction with ICANN as “Good” has rebounded a bit from the past two years. But it still sits at a dismal 21%.
That’s according to over 1,500 people who took the non-scientific 6th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey at the beginning of the year.
25% rate their satisfaction “poor”, down from 40% in 2010.
Although a nice reversal from the past couple years, the results still ... read more ...
Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories of Feb 2011 -
A look back at the month in domaining.
The shortest month of the year is coming to a close. Here’s a look back at the top five stories of the month on Domain Name Wire, ranked by number of views.
1. Is Bit.ly Toast if Libya Shuts Down the Internet? – despite what bit.ly tells you, the company runs a real risk by using Libya’s ccTLD.
2. Joan Rivers Body Double is No Stranger to Go Daddy Commercials – the skinny on Joan Rivers’ body double in Super Bowl ad.
3. ... read more ...
ICANN May Shut Down .Jobs Registry -
ICANN threatens to shut down .jobs, even after approving its “registry service”.
ICANN has notified .jobs registry Employ Media LLC that it is in breach of its contract at ICANN, and the contract is subject to cancellation if the breach isn’t corrected within 30 days.
That this breach letter (pdf) is going out now shows a massive failure on the part of ICANN. (More on that in a bit.)
In a letter dated February 27, ICANN informs Employ Media that it has failed ... read more ...
How To Determine if Google’s Algorithm Changes are Aimed during You -
A handy guide to determine if Google is gunning for you.
Last week Google announced some changes to its algorithm that affect a whopping 12% of search results.
The target?
“low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful”
While some say this is aimed at so-called “content farms”, here are the warning signs that this change is aimed at your web site(s):
– You created ... read more ...
Sat 26th February 2011
In Rejecting Offers I’ve Been Called Every Name In The Book But Today Apparently we Also Have A Small Penis - Over the years in rejecting offers I have been called every name in the book, cybersquatter of cause or just squatter are the most popular but yesterday was one for the record books.
The domain in question was motorcyclehelmets.com, a domain I bought in January 2010 at the TRAFFIC Las Vegas Auction.
The domain was actually listed with a $50K reserve but immediately after it didn’t meet reserve I asked Rick Latona (the auction company) to reach out to the Seller, and he agreed to put it back up ... read more ...
March Domain & Internet Calendar - March looks like another busy month in the domain world.
The Month once again starts off with a conference and this time it’s the Domain Roundtable which runs March 1th-4th at Atlantis in Paradise Island.
On Site registration will run you $995 and you can get more information here.
I will be speaking on a panel with Greg McNair entitled “Tactics for Successful Branding on Wednesday.
A live domain name auction will be held by Aftermarket.com on Thursday from 2pm-6pm EST and remote bidding will ... read more ...
You Can Become a Cybersquatter for Only $192,500 -
Some Saturday afternoon cybersquatting humor for you.
It takes guts to sell a trademarked domain name on such a public venue as eBay.
So what do you call it if you try to sell an eBay trademark on eBay?
One of my readers just sent a link to me for just such an auction.
Yep, that’s right. Someone is trying to sell eBay.net.in on eBay. For only $192,500.
I’ve pasted some of the auction description below with my own commentary in italics.
************
Today is ... read more ...
Fri 25th February 2011
ICA Tells ICANN: Don’t Fold Under Government Pressure - In a letter addressed to the US Department of Commerce, but also sent to Rod Beckstrom and other ICANN execs, Phil Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association told ICANN not to cede the new gTLD process to governments represented by the GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee).
I think the letter is nothing short of brilliant and makes me proud to be a member of the ICA:
“”I am writing on behalf of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) in regard to the upcoming discussions that will take place ... read more ...
Google Changes Algorithm “In Last Day Or 2″ To Drop Content Farms - A few weeks ago, Google promised that they were gunning for content farms and today it looks that they fired the first shot.
According to a post on Google’s blog:
“In the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on.”
“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other ... read more ...
As Predicted ICANN Moves Jun Meeting To Singapore - We heard a rumor a weeks ago that ICANN was going to cancel the June Meeting scheduled for Jordan to Singapore and wrote about it back on Feburary 17th
ICANN has just made it official that the June ICANN meeting where the new gTLD’s my finally be approved will be held in Singapore.
The meeting will be June 19th-24th 2011.
As I have wanted to fly on Singapore Air for quite a long time as it is pretty consistently rated the top airline in the world, I’m extremely happy to see the change (besides ... read more ...
Sedo Heats Up As They Sell 100K Of Domains In A Day But Just Misses On $125k More - The domain name Service.net just sold for $19,000 on Sedo tonight.
In a few other auctions that just closed, the domain Oxi.com sold for 8,000 Euro’s or around 12K
The domain Allspice.com sold for $7,657, yes its trademarked but just since 2006.
Watchlive.com sold on one bid for $15,670.
Rh.net sold for an even $10K.
With about 3 hours to go (as of time of publication) the domain OnlinePay.com has a bid of $32K and has met reserve.
Pms.com got up to a bid of $40K but did not reach reserve.
COLOUR.com ... read more ...
Thu 24th February 2011
DomainSherpa.Com: From A $60 Purchase To A $7,500 Sale: “I Want To Bring More People Into The Industry” - I have noticed over the past few days some consistent traffic coming to TheDomains.com from a new site DomainSherpa.com.
DomainSherpa.com which bills its self as “The Domain Name Authority”, is the brand child of Michael Cyger.
The site launched in January.
Mr. Cyger background in publishing.
He sold his company CTQMedia.com, in 2008 when it was getting 750,000 unique monthly visitors.
Fast forward a couple of years latter and Mr. Cyger decided to focus on the domain industry.
“More and more ... read more ...
In A Ruling That Will Certain Please My Wife Betty Boop Is Fair Game - According to the Wall Street Journal Betty Boop is now fair game.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that animator Max Fleischer doesn’t hold a valid copyright or trademark for cartoon character Betty Boop, as he was unable to prove the chain of how the rights to the character was transferred over the years.
“If we ruled that Avela’s depictions of Betty Boop infringed Fleischer’s trademarks, the Betty Boop character would essentially never enter the ... read more ...
ICANN Slashes Meeting Sponsorship Prices Up to 50% -
Non-profit reverses course and lowers price to sponsor meetings.
Currying favor with the ICANN crowd just got a lot cheaper.
Well, at least compared to last week.
In advance of its meeting in San Francisco next month, ICANN doubled the cost of many of its sponsorship packages. It also added a new level at $500,000.
But now it’s pulling a Wal-Mart and rolling back prices.
The non-profit announced tonight that it is reducing the costs on lower level packages ... read more ...
June ICANN Meeting Moves to Singapore -
ICANN announces new location for June meeting.
The rumor mill was correct.
ICANN just announced that its June meeting will be moved to Singapore.
The meeting was supposed to be held in Jordan. But security concerns and unrest in the region prompted ICANN to change the location.
ICANN has a penchant for selecting meeting locations with security issues.
This culminated in a number of high profile participants sitting out last year’s meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. ... read more ...
Demand Media Reports Q4 Results -
Demand Media results shed light on revenue sharing, eNom results.
Earlier this week Demand Media reported fourth quarter results. The company eked out a small profit in the quarter, but expects to return to losses going forward.
You can read the complete details here, but here are some interesting numbers:
Revenue Sharing: In Q4 its network of customer web sites (which would include parked pages) generated 3.866 million billion page views with an RPM of $3.11. ... read more ...
Never Start a Mainstream Web Site on a .Net Domain Name -
This is what happens when you create a popular web site on something other than .com.
You should never start a mainstream web site on a .net domain. Or .org, .biz, .info, etc.
Unless you own the .com of the same name. Especially if the domain name you choose is generic. Unless you don’t care about losing traffic to the .com.
OK, so why the rant?
I just finished reading a UDRP case brought by First Showing, LLC, which owns FirstShowing.net.
FirstShowing.net ... read more ...
China’s .CN Domain Name Keeps Dropping -
Size of .cn registration base falls 75% from peak.
Thanks mostly to tighter controls and rules on registration, China’s .cn domain name count keeps falling.
According to data collected by HosterStats.com, there were about 3.5 million .cn domain names registered at the end of January.
That’s a far cry from the over 14 million .cn domain names that were registered at its peak in February 2009. At that point .cn had more registrations than any other country code ... read more ...
Wed 23rd February 2011
7S.com Survives a UDRP Challenge But Dissenting Opinion Is An Eye Opener - A UDRP decision released today held in favor of the domain holder on the domain name 7S.com, despite that the fact that the domain holder did not even respond to the UDRP.
The complainant, a German company, holds trademarks on the term “7S”
A majority of the three member panel held in favor of the domain holder based substantially by the fact that he domain name was registered 2 years prior to the trademark.
However one panelist Andrew Frederick Christie filed a dissenting opinion arguing that ... read more ...