Monthly Archives: April 2011

Sat 30th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Another Great Domain Snapped Up By End User: Refi.com - According to a press  release, another good short .com just got gobbled up by an end User. The domain name Refi.com was just acquired by Semper Home Loans, an Inc. 5000 company,  for an undisclosed sum . “The Refi.com website will be a customer-focused site, where potential homebuyers can learn more about mortgages, real estate market trends, new legislation affecting real estate finance, and web-based mortgaging, according to a spokesperson at Semper. Integrated social media, including ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Buys Plus.me - Google bolsters +1 domain name coverage with .me purchases. Google has purchased the domain name Plus.me, updated whois records show. The domain name was apparently purchased in November of last year, but remained under whois privacy protection until today. The purchase appears to be related to Google’s +1 tool (pronounced “plus one”), as the company also purchase plusone.me at the same time. Plus.me now has Google nameservers but does not yet resolve. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Commentary on Commentary.com, Which Just Survived a UDRP - Domain owner wins case but panelist’s rationale is troublesome. The owner of the generic domain name Commentary.com has successfully defended his domain name from The American Jewish Committee (AJC) in a UDRP. AJC has operated Commentary Magazine since 1945, thus its interest in the domain name. The owner of Commentary.com registered it all the way back in 1997. He immediately started using the site to publish executive summaries of Chinese commentaries in English. ... read more ...
Fri 29th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FriendFinder Pulls Down FacebookofSex.com - FriendFinder Networks, Inc., has pulled down the site FacebookofSex.com over which Facebook filed suit over two weeks ago. The domain name now goes to a page saying the “site has been deactivated and if you are an existing member you can log in”. I’m not sure where the log in will take you because I’m not a member,  but maybe someone out there can let us know. FacebookofSex.com is ranked as the 648th business site on the net according to Alexa and Compete shows the site getting over 4,000,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com To Hold 1 Character .CM Domain Name Auction Starting May 12th - Sedo is going to hold a domain auction of 1 character .CM domains from May 12th to May 19th. All the domains have a reserve range of $1-$499. Here is the list: L.cm 1.cm W.cm B.cm Q.cm 5.cm J.cm X.cm C.cm R.cm 6.cm K.cm D.cm S.cm Y.cm 7.cm F.cm T.cm Z.cm 8.cm M.cm 2.cm G.cm U.cm 9.cm N.cm 3.cm H.cm V.cm A.cm P.cm 4.cm i.cm I know that .cm domains have not taken off, but a one character domains in any extension have value and I see them selling on a pretty regular basis on Sedo.com in off extensions Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DogTag.com Sells For $28K on Sedo.com - The domain DogTag.com has just sold on Sedo for $28,000 This seems to be a pretty big topic with many retail sites selling customized dog tags. Mydogtag.com gets over 4,000 visitors a month according to Compete, DogTagsonline.com which gets over 13,00o visitors a month, custommilitarydogtags.com get over 3K visitors a month, armydogtags.com which gets over 1K visits a month. Interestingly DogTags.com the best domain of them all, is the only domain of the ones mentioned herein which does not sell ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
AlthingsD.com: Apple Buying iCloud.com, The Story is True - AllthingsD.com has confirmed with the Seller of the domain name, the Sweden-based computing company Xcerion has sold the domain iCloud.com to Apple. This confirms the story reported by  GigaOm first reported Thursday, “though the Seller declined to say whether its rumored $4.5 million price tag was accurate.” Apple has not always bought the matching domain for its products and still does not own ipad.com a domains which gets over 50,000 visitors a month according to Compete.com nor iTouch.com. So ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Soon You Can Register Your Own .Life - Company files trademark application. Add .life to the potential pool of new top level domain names that may come online next year. Fresnel Web Services, LLC filed a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for “.life” earlier this week. The company is based in Newburyport, Massachusetts, but I was unable to find any information about it online. The application covers “Registration and management of sponsored domain names on globabl ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Full Tilt Poker Has Its Name Back, Now Gets Typos Too - Full Tilt Poker wins more typo domains through arbitration. Wouldn’t it have been ironic had Full Tilt Poker not been in possession of FullTiltPoker.com when it won rights to several typos? Pocket Kings Limited, which owns Full Tilt Poker, picked up 3 domain names through UDRP this week. That makes a dozen total typo domain names it has won in April. The latest three were fulltiltepoker.com, fulltiltpokar.net, and fultiltpocker.net. Most of the typos are of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Should We Expect .Com Price Increases, Too? - Yes. The question is how much. VeriSign is in the process of trying to renew its contract with ICANN to run .net. It includes significant price increases similar to its current contract. Should we expect VeriSign to ask for continuing .com price increases as well? Of course. On the company’s recent investor conference call, analyst Todd Raker of Deutsche Bank AG asked: And can you talk about — as you went through the .net renewal process, are there any takeaways ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN Investigates United Domains’ Pre-Registration of New TLDs - Domain registrar upsets group about its plans for .lac TLD. There are a number of web sites accepting “pre-registrations” for new top level domain names. Since no one can apply for these new TLDs yet, it’s all speculative on the part of the services. But domain name registrar United Domains recently launched a program that drew the ire of one possible new gTLD applicant. The company’s pre-registration system offered .LAC and said it was being supported ... read more ...
Thu 28th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Co Registry: Not At A Million Registrations Yet - I have confirmed with the .Co registry that they have not hit One Million registrations. An article published by Elespectador.com, a couple of days ago, stated that the .Co registry had hit the One million domain registration mark. However that article is in error. The .Co registry just put out a statement: “Holy smokes!  In the last couple of hours I have been swamped with emails asking if .CO really hit 1 million domain names registered today. As much as I love the sound of it, I regret to inform ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Verisign Reports: Domain Name Registrations (.com & .net) 108 Million Up 9%; Revenue Up 12% - After the market closed today VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011. VeriSign, Inc. reported revenue of $182 million for the first quarter of 2011, up 2% from the prior quarter and up 12% from the same quarter in 2010. Verisign reported net income attributable to Verisign stockholders of $41 million and earnings per share attributable to Verisign stockholders of $0.24 on a diluted basis for the first quarter of 2011, compared to net income ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Did a .Co Owner Just Upgrade? Jexy.com Sells for $40,000 On Sedo.com - Jexy.com a nice LLLL.com just sold on Sedo.com for $40,000. Of course I’m trying to figure out what Jexy is I see a coming soon site under Jexy.co There is also a Facebook page by the same company Jexy which seems to be a Software company in San Francisco. The domain is still in the transfer process so we will have to wait to see who winds up with it. Its another nice sale. Congrats to the Seller and Buyer.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ePayments.com Sells For $52K On Sedo.com - The auction for the domain name ePayments.com just closed on Sedo.com with the domain selling for $52,000. The Seller of the domain was David Clements It was a heated auction which went  almost 45 minutes  over its scheduled closing time of noon, with 3 bidders slugging it out from  $30K on. A great domain. Congrats to David and the Buyer.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
DomainSponsor Opens Up Its Network To Advertisers - According to a Press release, DomainSponsor has opened up its network of parked domains, to outside advertisers: “DomainSponsor’s® Precision Targeting EngineTM, (PTE), which made its beta debut at DOMAINfest Global, is officially launching and opening its service to qualified advertisers.” “The service provides publishers with direct access to advertisers and offers advertisers high-conversion direct navigation traffic from the DomainSponsor network” .”As you well know, publishers are ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Gambling.com For Just $2.5 Million After Generating $13.2 Million Over Last Six Years & Paying $20 Million - According to a Press Release by the UK Seller of the domain name Gambling.com, Media Corp,  the domain was sold for just $2.5 Million. When the domain was placed under exclusive contract at Sedo.com, reports at the time said the asking price was $9 million. I wrote a post also at the time noting the Seller of the Gambling.com had paid $20 Million for it meaning that this sales price is only about 10% of what the Seller paid. Not often do you see a domain selling for just a fraction of what it previously ... read more ...
Wed 27th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
China’s Leading Search Engine Baidu.com: Earnings Up 88%, Profit adult 125% & $1.3 Billion in The Bank - After the market closed today, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011. Baidu is one of the companies we track in the domain stock index First Quarter 2011 Highlights Total revenues in the first quarter of 2011 were RMB2.436 billion ($372.0 million), an 88.3% increase from the corresponding period in 2010. Operating profit in the first quarter of 2011 was RMB1.195 billion ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FriendFinder Networks, Owner’s Of AdultFriendFinder.com, Cams.com Plans To Go Public On May 11 - According to Bloomberg.com, FriendFinder Networks Inc.,plans to go public on May 11 on the Nasdaq under the symbol FFN FriendFinder in addition to being the publisher of Penthouse magazine, owns many websites including, AdultFriendFinder.com and Cams.com. Facebook filed suit last week against FriendFinder Networks, Inc., and one of its subsidiaries over another site ,FacebookofSex.com. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company will seek to raise as much as ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Overstock.com Acquires Naming Rights To Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum: Will It Soon Change to O.Co Coliseum? - In a Press release, Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK, short cut: O.co) today announced it has acquired the naming rights to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Effective immediately, the Coliseum will be known as Overstock.com Coliseum. The facility will host its first game under the Overstock name Friday, April 29, when the A’s host defending American League champion Texas at 7:05 p.m. The six-year deal covers the stadium facility that is home to both the NFL Oakland Raiders and the MLB ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Calling All 3D Domain Owners & Fans: Future Trend Domain Auction Set For SnapNames ShowCase Auction For June - Stephen Douglas, President of SuccessClick.com will beholding the 1st ever  Future Trend Domain Auction™, on June 21 – June 28, 2011. The auction will be a  Moniker Showcase, powered by Snapnames.com We wrote a blog post almost a year ago on 3D domain names.  The post which has now received over 2,650 comments has turned into an excellent source of links to stories about 3D products and 3D domains as well as other new technology such as Holographic and Hologram or Holo for short as well ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com Sells Xout.com for $55K, TotalMovie.com for $40K & EKKO.com For $20K - Sedo.com has posted a few nice sales today Xout.com has sold for $55,000 So what is Xout? Seems to be a odor eliminator product sold in Australia so it can well be seen as a upgrade from a com.au domain to a .com TotalMovie.com sold for $40K TotalFilm.com is a frequently visited site with over 65,000 visitor a month according to Compete.com EKKO.com sold for $20K a couple of days ago,  A nice LLLL.com Congrats to all buyers and sellers. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Doh! Miami Blog Confused by Moniker Privacy Services, Connects it to Child Porn - Blogger doesn’t understand what Moniker Privacy Services is — and suggests the company is profiting off of child porn. I’ve said many times that offering whois privacy or proxy services isn’t free. Here’s another example. A blog post on Miami New Times says that Moniker Privacy Services: has registered at least five porn sites still featuring the video and X-rated screenshots — seven months after a family member left comments on the sites warning: “This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First Tequila.co, Now Vodka.co Sells for Five Figures - Second premium liquor keyword in .co sells in as many weeks. Sedo has brokered the sale of Vodka.com for $10,000 to the same person who bought Tequila.co for $14,500 just a week ago. Of course Vodka.com was one of the most expensive domain names ever sold. Legendary domainer Roy Messer sold it to a Russian vodka company for $3 million. So who’s the mystery buyer snapping up these liquor domains? No, it’s not a liquor company. It’s someone in the Czech ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Real Story Behind a $700,000 RunningShoes.com Sale - The ups, downs, and persistence of acquiring RunningShoes.com. Some domain name purchases are easy. Others are a series of ups and downs and lengthy negotiations. The latter describes Chesterfield, Mo-based Cat5 Commerce’s purchase of RunningShoes.com for $700,000. The company went head to head with a major sports equipment retailer and negotiated for six months before finally completing the deal. The story starts in August 2010. Cat5 Commerce had a number of ... read more ...