Monthly Archives: April 2011

Tue 26th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Unlike Seized Cars & Jewelry, The Government Will NOT Sell Seized Domain Names - Its a questions that many have been asking ever since the first domain name seizures, what will happen to the seized domains? When the government seizes a drug dealer’s car, after legal means to challenge the seizure expire, it puts the car up for auction, same for Jewelry, Boats, and other seized property. I assumed that the Feds would eventually do the same with the domains it has seized but today according to Cnet.com, the “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said today that ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Sells $520k In Domains Led By Immerge.com For $9k - Afternic.com just released its sales for the week ending Sunday April 24th. All reportable domain sales $1k and over totalled $520k. The top seller of the week was Immerge.com at $9,000 followed by Nishinomiya.com at $7,588.   Here is the full list:     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking News: House IP Subcommittee To Hold Hearing On New gTLD’s Next Week - The House IP Internet Subcommittee is holding a hearing next week on the new gTLD program. It looks like the hearing has been requested by IP interests to be a forum for their complaints that the trademark and other IP protections in new Guidebook that was published on April 15th. Look for ICANN to be called on the carpet at the meeting. Hearing Information Hearing on: “ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing” Wednesday 5/4/2011 – 10:00 a.m. 2141 Rayburn House Office Building Subcommittee ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
IAC Reports Earnings: Match.com Up 22%: IAC Renews Search Deal With Google & Has $1.6 Billion In Cash - IAC the owner of Ask.com,. Match.com and Chemistry.com just to name a few properties, just reported earnings today before the market opened and here are some of the highlights:   Information Regarding the Results: Q1 revenue increased 22% reflecting double digit growth across each segment.  Operating Income Before Amortization grew 78% driven by strong profit growth at Search, Match and ServiceMagic. Q1 net income and Adjusted Net Income grew $36.8 million and $33.0 million, respectively, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.CO Looking To Expand The Number Of Registrars From 10 to 30 - According to a press release this morning the .CO registry is seeking 20 additional registrars to sell .Co domain names. Currently there are only 10 registrars that sell .Co domains. “”Today the CO Internet SAS (http://www.COinternet.co), the Registry operator of the .CO top level domain, announced the launch of a competitive Request for Proposal (“RFP”) process to help identify and select a limited number of additional Accredited Registrar partners to sell .CO domain names. “Due to governing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Data Collection Of Your Location On Apple’s iPhone & iPad: Big Deal Or No Deal? - There were a lot of stories last week about the data Apple is collecting from on your iPhone, iPad and/or iTouch’s products, which apparently track where you go, where you have been and then keeps a file with that information on your device for at least 10 months. The Wall Street Journal reported that the products collect and store location information even when location services are turned off. So even if you keep clicking”no” on the phone whenever it prompts you to use your location, the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
I’m Going To Call A Market Bottom (at slightest for now) On Demand Media - There is a lot of talk about Demand Media, Inc, and there consistently diminishing share price over the last two weeks of trading (you can click here too) Today shares of Demand Media hit an all time low at $13.99 before closing at $14.67. At $13.99 shares are trading at almost 50% of its high and almost 30% off its IPO price of $17. So I’m going to go against the grain and call a market bottom, at least for the near term of the shares at $14. Demand still owns Enom.com which is the world’s second ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Panabee Helps Brainstorm Domain Names – But User Beware - Panabee is a good domain name generator but users should beware that some suggestions are bad ideas. There are a lot of domain name and brand name generators on the web but most of them stink. So it was refreshing to come across Panabee.com today. Enter a couple words and it goes to work finding many alternatives, synonyms, and substitutions. I like how it pulls in searches from Twitter, Facebook, and Google as well. With close to 100 million .com domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did Fiverr.com Just Upgrade Its Domain Name to Fiver.com for $70k? - Domain broker sells Fiver.com for $70,000. Fiverr.com — a site where people offer to do a bunch of different things for $5 each — may have just upgraded its domain name for 14,000 $5 bills. The popular site has a cool idea but a bad domain name, Fiverr.com with two ‘r’s. But someone just bought Fiver.com with one ‘r’ through domain broker Sedo for $70,000. The new owner’s information is protected by whois proxy and the domain name is just pulling up ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Facebook Deals Launches Sans Domain Name - Facebook gets its deals on, but without FacebookDeals.com. Facebook formally launched its new deals offering today in five test cities (including my hometown of Austin, Texas.) Here’s what I see when I go to Facebook.com/deals: One thing the social networking behemoth doesn’t have is the domain name FacebookDeals.com. That domain was registered way back in 2006 and has been protected by a whois proxy ever since. Not having this domain isn’t a bit loss for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia Sued. It’s a Cost of Doing Business. - Company mad about having to pay for domain name. Files a lawsuit instead. NameMedia — the company behind BuyDomains and Afternic — has been sued by a small business that’s upset it needs to pay to get the domain name it wants. New World Solutions, Inc. filed suit (pdf) against NameMedia over the domain name NewWorldSolutions.com. The company claims to own a “copyright” for the “New World Solutions” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Live Current Media Shrinks to 143 Shareholders - Company files statement with SEC. I haven’t seen many SEC filings from Live Current Media in a while, so I went poking around yesterday to figure out what’s going on. That’s when I came across this SEC filing that shows that Live Current Media had only 143 holders of record as of March 21, 2011. Because it has less than 300 holders of record, the company is no longer required to file typical public company reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Congress Preparing to Beat adult ICANN Again - ICANN will be called to task over new top level domain names next week. Next week The U.S. House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold an “ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing”. You can be assured that someone from ICANN will be asked to attend. Hopefully it won’t be the train wreck the non-profit experienced in June 2009. In 2009 the same committee took then ICANN President/CEO Paul Twomey to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
It’s Time for a Goldilocks Rethink of a Mega Content Hub - Small sites and big sites both have drawbacks for search traffic. It’s been a rough couple months for web publishers with massive content libraries. Google’s “Panda” update put a huge dent in these sites’ traffic metrics. With lost traffic comes lost ad revenue. With that layoffs will follow. And it’s not just the “evil content farms” that got hit. I’ve spoken to many brand name publishers with solid, well-sourced, professionally-written articles ... read more ...
Mon 25th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Marchex Making The Most Of Its Parked Domain RoyalWedding.com - With the one of the biggest event just day away, Marchex is making the most of one of its domain names,  RoyalWedding.com The domain which is parked, has a countdown clock at the top to the start of the wedding, and has  a picture of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in the middle of the page. The site even has a picture of Princess Diana’s ring which The Prince gave to Ms. Middleton. The parked page is returning results for all things related to the royal wedding and to weddings in general ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Barcelona: Wine Tasting, FC Barcelona, and More - Morning wine tasting, tapas classes, and backstage tour where FC Barcelona plays are on the agenda for DOMAINfest Barcelona. I made the mistake of bringing my wife to DOMAINfest Prague last year. Why was it a mistake? Because the second day of the conference was just fun networking events such as target shooting and go-carting. Now she thinks all domain conferences are like this and she cuts me less slack when I have to “go network at a domain conference”. That ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Google Panda Estimates Are All Over a Board, and None Are Accurate - Reports of traffic changes aren’t very accurate. I’ve seen a number of reports estimating the damage to major content sites from Google’s so-called Panda updates. I’ve come to one conclusion: none of them are more than directionally accurate. Yes, we know that a lot of content sites have taken a beating, but by how much? Early reports focused on the number of search terms the sites ranked for. This doesn’t have as much correlation to actual traffic ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Morgan Stanley Sues Cybersquatters and Phishers - Bank sues alleged cybersquatters and phishers. Morgan Stanley already has the domain names — but it wants more than that. The bank has filed a lawsuit against the owners of five domain names that it says were used for cybersquatting and phishing. The company already has possession of four of the five domain names thanks to proceedings at National Arbitration Forum last year. Through UDRP it picked up ms-ae-fund.com, morganstanleyae.us, morganstanleyae.com, and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
For American Eagle, SeventySeven (.com) is an Unlucky Number - Popular clothing outlet finds Seventy-seven to be an unlucky number. A National Arbitration Forum panel has found that clothing retailer American Eagle is not entitled to the domain name SeventySeven.com, despite the domain owner showing clothing pay-per-click links on the domain name. Retail Royalty Company’s American Eagle stores have a clothing line with the 77 mark. The decision came down to whether or not the domain name owner should have known about American ... read more ...
Sun 24th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Absolut Vodka Can Now Get Into a Marijuana Business - New York photographer must give up domain name with spoof Absolut Vodka ad. A joint with your Absolut Vodka? VS Vin Sprit Aktiebolag, the company behind Absolut Vodka and its iconic advertising campaigns, has won the transfer of the domain name AbsolutCannabis.com from a New York photographer. Brantley Carroll registered the domain name and published a mock Absolut ad on the site for Absolut Cannabis. He apparently offered copies of the mock ad for sale through the ... read more ...
Fri 22nd April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Antigua & Barbuda Tells The US That Its Poker Crackdown Violates International Law - According to Reuters.com, Antigua and Barbuda officials accused the U.S. on Wednesday of violating international trade law with the indictment of the  alleged operators of three offshore-based Internet poker companies and the domain seizures. Both Antigua and Barbuda license Internet gambling companies. The Caribbean nation’s finance minister, Harold Lovell, issued a statement saying: “I am concerned that at this point in time United States authorities continue to prosecute nondomestic suppliers ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
UltimateElectronics.com that Operated 46 Stores To Auction Off Its Domains, Trademarks and IP - Streambank, LLC, the leader in providing intangible asset disposition services, will be conducting an auction of the Ultimate Electronics trademarks, domains, and related intellectual property on May 25th 2011 in New York. Ultimate Electronics Inc. has filed a motion with the Delaware Bankruptcy Court seeking approval of the sale of its intellectual property. The assets include the Ultimate Electronics trademarks, 11 related trademarks, 16 related domain names, and the company’s social media ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
World’s Shortest UDRP Decision? - This UDRP decision is missing a few details. I was curious about a recent National Arbitration Forum case for boston-opera-house.org and clicked over to read the opinion granting the domain name to Boston Opera House Ventures, L.L.C. The decision is exactly 185 words (about the size of my typical blog post) and seems to cut out everything between the parties to the last sentence or two of bad faith. A cut and paste job gone awry? Someone hit the delete key? I dunno, ... read more ...
Thu 21st April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
NeuStar Reports Record Revenue - Neustar, Inc. a members of our Domain Name Stock Index announced results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 today. Neustar runs the back end for many domain extensions including .biz and .co. Revenue increased 14% to $146.5 million Net income totaled $72.0 million.  Excluding a $41.9 million discrete income tax benefit, adjusted net income increased 19% to $30.0 million Earnings per diluted share of $0.96.  Excluding a $41.9 million discrete income tax benefit, adjusted earnings per diluted ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bit.ly Launches News.Me Today & AllThingsD.com Covers It - Bit.ly’s social news iPad app, Just launched today and is live for free download at the iTunes store. The name of the app and matching site is News.me The app and the site are already getting press as yesterday,  All Things Digital, covered the App pointing out that: News.me will cost $0.99 a week, or $34.99 a year. It will be available as an iPad app, using Apple’s subscription service, or as an e-mail newsletter. “News.me will provide users with curated Twitter streams that highlight “the ... read more ...