Monthly Archives: March 2011

Thu 31st March 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Registrars Jump On Bob Parsons Video To Offer Special Discounts For Those Wanting To Transfer Domains Out Of GoDaddy.com - Two domain registrars, NameCheap.com and Domainit.com just jumped on the Bob Parsons hunting controversy by offering special discounts for domain name transfers including contributions for each domain transferred to a wildlife charity. In response to the masses of users looking for a new provider, two companies, DomainIt and NameCheap have both stepped up to offer deals to any clients looking for a quick alternative. DomainIt.com is offering a 50% discount on all 1 and 2 year hosting plans PLUS $10 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Hits Keep Coming For Sedo As Another $80K In Sales Led By CurioCity.com At $25K - Wow Sedo.com is on fire as the sales just keep coming. Just hours after writing about some nice .Org sales on Sedo, here comes another batch of .Com sales from today: CurioCity.com  $25K Seo.in $18,500 Naruko.com $15K SharkCapital.com$14K Nanchong.com  $10K If you want to know what Nuruko is check out the wikipedia.org entry for it or Google Images Nanchong.com is a geo domain. SharkCapital.com is going to the evaluegroup.com. CurioCity.com is owned by Marchex and is pending escrow transfer.   Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
IndianOil.com Beats Back A WIPO Challenge from Indian Oil Corporation Who Won A UDRP On IndianOil.Org In January - Back In January we wrote and criticized a WIPO decision handing the generic domain name IndianOil.Org to the Indian Oil Corporation Limited of New Delhi, India Back at the time we asked, knowing that the same company filed a UDRP against the com version , whether IndianOil.com would be next? Today we got an answer. No. In a three member panel WIPO decision entered today, the domain holder represented by Ari Goldberger, beat back a challenge by Indian Oil Corporation  on the domain name IndianOil.com On ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Org Sales Are Hot On Sedo.com: As Names.org Just Sold For $18K After Failing To Sell On NameJet.com - Names.org a domain name I’m pretty sure I have seen recently for sale on NameJet.com just sold on Sedo.com for $18,000. On Namejet.com I saw an auction for this domain end on March 13th, at around $12K with NameJet Reserve as the high bidder, meaning that the domain did not reach the undisclosed NameJet reserve. Other .Org domains found buyers on Sedo.com The domain Amira.org sold yesterday for $20K and the domain Rally.Org sold for 10,000 Euros which is about $14K. Congrats to all Sellers and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Microsoft Files Anti-Trust Complaint With The EU On Google Where They Have a 95% Market Share - According to Microsoft’s blog, by Brad Smith, Senior Vice President General Counsel, of Microsoft, the  Company filed “a formal complaint with the European Commission as part of the Commission’s ongoing investigation into whether Google has violated European competition law.” “We thought it important to be transparent and provide some information on what we’re doing and why.” “By the European Commission’s own reckoning, Google has about 95 percent of the search market in Europe. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
PETA Names Godaddy.com Bob Parsons With “First-Ever Scummiest CEO of a Year Award” - According to TMZ.com, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has just named the CEO of Godaddy.com with the First-Ever “Scummiest CEO of the Year Award”. Bob Parsons triggered the controversy after posting an Internet video chronicling his elephant slaying during a trip to Zimbabwe“. In a copy of a letter that TMZ obtained from PETA sent to Parsons, they “presenting him with its “first-ever Scummiest CEO of the Year Award (Your certificate is on the way)” PETA “Will be ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PETA Moves Domains from Go Daddy to Register.com - Animal rights group moves domain names to competitor. Making good on its promise, PETA has moved its domains (well at least peta.org) away from Go Daddy. The domain name is now registered at Register.com. This whole elephant shooting video is obviously a hotly debated subject. Some are arguing this is a different type of controversy than Go Daddy’s commercials. I’m not so sure, and we’ll see how this plays out. But I’m reminded of Bob Parsons’ keynote ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is Cybersquatting Up or Just Enforcement of Cybersquatting? - WIPO’s headline is misleading. Today World Intellectual Property Forum (WIPO) did its annual release of how many UDRP cases it handled last year. It was a record 2,696 cases. That’s a lot of cases, and National Arbitration Forum also saw an increase in cases this year. But I take issue with WIPO’s headline: Cybersquatting Hits Record Level A more accurate headline would be Cybersquatting Enforcement Hits Record Level. It reminds me of when the border patrol ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registries Blast ICANN Over .Jobs Breach Notice - Registries ask for prior communications prior to sending a breach or termination notice. Last month ICANN sent a breach notice to .jobs registry Employ Media. This came as a surprise to Employ Media (for good reason) and probably freaked out some .jobs registrants as well. Employ Media complained that ICANN “publicly defamed” it. Now the Registries Stakeholder Group is asking ICANN to take a different approach going forward. The group sent a statement (pdf) ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
PETA Plays Into Bob Parson’s Hands Over Elephant Hunting - PETA is closing its Go Daddy account over elephant hunting incident. Poor Bob Parsons. The Go Daddy founder is about to lose a few hundred domain name registrations from its client People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). I’m sure he’s just shaking in his boots. The group is enraged about an elephant hunting video he took in Zimbabwe. The video caught attention after being posted at online petition site Change.org. Nevermind that Parsons posted a similar ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Short and Number-Only .Tel Domain Landrush Timeline Announced - Short and numeric .tel domain names coming this summer. Starting June 1 you’ll be able to get your hands on two character and all number .tel domain names. The domain names will be available on a first-come first-served basis, but at premium pricing during the “landrush” period from June 1 to June 14. .Tel registry Telnic says this is an opportunity for four types of registrants: 1. Companies with 2-letter or all-numeric brands or trademarks 2. Vanity number ... read more ...
Wed 30th March 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
More Than 50% Of American (Over 12) Are Now On Facebook - According to an upcoming  report by EdisonResearch.com, entitled, The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms, more than 50% of all Americans ages 12 and older are on Facebook. The study, fielded in January of 2011, indicates that 51% of all adults 12+ have profiles on Facebook. “We have been tracking the growth of Facebook since 2008, and have watched it go from 8% usage just three years ago, to 51% today. In our presentation on April 5th you will also see the remarkable year-over-year ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Ucuzbilet.com Draws a Bid Of $172,000 On SnapNames.com - Ucuzbilet.com has just gotten a bid of $172,000 at Snapnames.com The bid has already meet reserve and therefore will sell. Another domain, Ucakbileti.com has a $157,000 bid but has not met reserve. Both domains are part of the SnapNames.com its “Turkish Travel Domains” auction, which ends on April 12th at 3:15PM. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
MahjongGames.com Sells On Sedo.com For $46,000 - Another gaming domain just sold on Sedo.com. Frank Aiello just brokered the domain name mahjonggames.com for $46,000 for Sedo Mahjong is a popular game and you can learn more about it.     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Launches Flash No Reserve Auction - Sedo.com yesterday afternoon just put up a flash No Reserve auction of some nice domain names, many of which have already attracted bids. It’s called a flash auction since it was unscheduled and previous unannounced The highest bid belongs as of time of publication is ISU.com which currently is at $5K. Several Geo .net’s are going for cheap so far: KansasCity.net is sitting at $800 nuremberg.net is at $160 Destin.net is at $113 Many of the domains haven’t received a bid, including: DayTraders.net HeavyWeightBoxer.com thephilippines.net You ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MediaOptions.com Sells HomeBasedBusiness.com For $100,000 - The brokerage firm of MediaOptions.com just announced they sold 3 domain names for a total of $135,000, including HomeBasedBusiness.com for $100,000. To be fair, Homebasedbusiness.com is more than just a domain from the looks of it, but rather a a site that according to Compete gets over 15,000 visitors a month, has an Alexa Rank of 30,000, there Facebook page has over 3,700 likes and they have over 13,000 Twitter followers. The other two reportable domains sold by MediaOptions.com this week were: StartABusiness.com  ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
30 Rock Makes Fun of Slurls Domain Names - Show makes fun of domains that sound different than they really are. We’ve all seen domain names that have double meanings. Some people call them Slurls, and there are enough to fill a book. Think TherapistFinder.com and FredsHatBlocks.com. I was catching up on 30 Rock tonight and was amused that the sitcom made fun of this. The March 17 episode is a spoof of a reality show for Tracy Jordan’s wife. Jenna Maroney takes advantage of the cameras to try to promote ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AutoInsurance.org Web Site Sells for $440,000 - Auto insurance web site and domain name sells for $440,000. 360 Quote LLC has purchased AutoInsurance.org (the domain name and web site) for $440,000. 360 Quote LLC is run by Joel Ohman, who also runs the DomainSuperstar site. The company has a number of lead generation web sites. The deal was brokered by Media Options‘ Andrew Rosener. AutoInsurance.org has an interesting traffic history according to Compete.com. Unique visitors in recent months have been ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top10.co Explains Its Choice of .Co for New Web Site - Company that made a big .com domain purchase in 2010 launches a new product on .co in 2011. Top10.com Media Ltd is no stranger to domain names. Last year the company forked over $1 million in cash and equity for the domain name Top10.com, which it uses for his communications service comparison engine. When the company decided to launch a list creation and sharing site it chose the domain name Top10.co. I reached out to co-founder Tom Leathes to find out more about ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
From A.com to Z.com, Single Letter .Com Domains Have Been Gamed during a Trademark Office - The incredible game of duping the USPTO to get single letter .com trademarks. Did you know Amazon.com has a registered trademark for A.com? It’s true. A company filed for a trademark on A.com back in 2005, and submitted evidence of its use in commerce by showing a screenshot of a-dotcom.com. The company later assigned the trademark to Amazon.com. This got me thinking — how many other companies have registered for single letter .com with the U.S. Patent and Trademark ... read more ...
Tue 29th March 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Sells Over $800K In Domains Led By LiveSource.com For $20K - Afternic.com just released all reportable sales for the week ending Sunday March 27th 2011 and sold a total of $825,000 in domain names. Leading the pack this week was Live Source.com at $20K, followed by wmart.com which would seem a nice shortener for Walmart.com if your Walmart otherwise a UDRP in the making. Here is how the site wmart.com reads right now: Wmart.com “Wmart.com will be an excellent and reliable website offering our customers an unparalleled range of thousands of well-known ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Amazon Goes With “Cloud Player” & No They Don’t Own That Domain Either - Amazon’s just announced its  new media player product and its called Amazon Cloud Player. Last night some reports called the product a MediaLocker. The domain name CloudPlayer.com has been registered since 2003. You can read more about Amazon’s cloud player here   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Limos.com Raises Another $10 Million In VC Funding Proving Why The Value Of A Bang On Domain Cannot be Underestimated -  According to Bizjournals.com,   Limos.com, a Dan Francisco-based provider of online booking for luxury automobile travel, has raised $10 million in financing from Austin Ventures as the company is set to release a limo-management service. Austin Ventures partners Mike Dodd and John Thornton will join Limos.com’s board of directors as part of the deal. Limos.com previously raised $5 million in funding from Canal Partners. The San Francisco-based company offers an online marketplace ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Downside Of Pricing Your Domains: Owner Of MediaLocker.com Gets It Snagged Overnight For $18,500 After Amazon Announcement - Last night I wrote about Amazon’s announcement that it was launching a service they referred to as a  Media Locker. Less than a few hours later a reader noticed the domain name MediaLocker.com, which was listed on Afternic.com for $18,500 was purchased. This illustrates the danger of pricing your domains and having them sitting out there when there is breaking news or new products announced they are certain to get grabbed before you have a chance to pull them off the system or increase the price ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
WSJ Blog Rips Buyer Of Color.com: “We Expect That Domain Names Will Be Taken. We Just Don’t Care About Them Anymore” - In a blog post today the on WSJ.com, they rip into the buyer of color.com and colour.com who spent $500K to obtain both domains: “The founding team, regardless of their previous successes are showing a general lack of creativity and a misunderstanding of the marketplace in which we currently live.” “This is evident most clearly in the fact that they paid $350,000 for the domain name color.com and another $150,000 for the domain name colour.com. That’s right, half a million dollars for ... read more ...