Monthly Archives: April 2011

Thu 21st April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechCrunch.com: 6 Million Dollars Startup Power.com Goes Out & The Domain Is Hits The Auction Block - TechCrunch.com.  just published that the domain name  Power.com will be sold at an auction that ends on August 17, 2011. Interested parties can pre-register on the website in order to receive detailed instructions for the auction in May 2011. According to TechCrunch Power.com raised $6 million in funding before as a aggregatior of social networking sites but was promptly sued by Facebook and now it appears the site is done. The domain name is for sale and is being exclusively brokered by a company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Jobs Foes Question ICANN Commitment to Contract Compliance - Group questions if ICANN’s compliance operations are up to the task with new TLDs on the horizon. JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition, made up mostly of job board operators, is calling into question ICANN’s commitment to contract compliance after ICANN gave a short reprieve to .jobs operator Employ Media. ICANN sent a breach notice to Employ Media in February, giving it 30 days to cure two major breaches. The first was what ICANN calls lax rules for registering ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Righthaven Gets Punked By Invalid Whois - “Copyright Troll” domain name suspended due to invalid whois information. Copyright enforcer Righthaven LLC has been punked thanks to allegedly invalid whois information. The company’s web site Righthaven.com currently shows an invalid whois notice from Go Daddy. Anyone can make a complaint about invalid whois information. In Go Daddy’s case, the company sends a notice to the customer and gives them time to respond (assuming the email doesn’t bounce right ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Porsche Wins Rights to Cyrillic Script Internationalized Domain Name - Porsche wins dispute over IDN. Porsche has won a UDRP for the domain name порше.com, which is xn--e1arcf4b.com in punycode. The company claims that the internationalized domain name translates as “Porsche”. This case created some challenges for the panel. There have been numerous UDRP cases involving IDNs, but each panel needs to grapple with an arbitration system created before the use of IDNs. Facing this issue, the panel wrote: In this case, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
[Updated] ICANN Sends Breach Notice to EuroDNS Over Facebook UDRP - ICANN threatens EuroDNS if it fails to transfer domain name to Facebook. ICANN has sent a Notice of Breach (pdf) to popular European domain name registrar EuroDNS for its failure to transfer a client domain name after an adverse UDRP decision. In September 2010 a EuroDNS client lost a UDRP for Facebok.com (with one ‘o’), which is certainly a common typo for the popular social network. As of today the domain name is still in the client’s hands. It forwards ... read more ...
Wed 20th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Fallout From Poker Domain Seizures & Indictments; ESPN Pulls Plug On Poker Shows & Commercials - In the wake of last weeks federal indictments against three big Internet gambling companies, ESPN has temporarily removed all advertising and programming from its schedule, including the “The World Series of Poker.” ESPN said in a statement, “For the immediate future, we are making efforts to remove related advertising and programming pending further review.” BluffMagazine.com reports that PokerStars’ advertising deal with ESPN is worth $22M. The UFC also has  new sponsorship deal ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking News: US Government Allows FullTiltPoker.com & PokerStars.com To Use The Domains To Allow Poker Players To Get A Refund - According to a Press Release from the US Attorney General (pdf) For the Southern District Of New York, the Government has reached an Agreement which will Restore the Use of Domain Names PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com to Facilitate Return of U.S. Player Funds. “Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that the United States entered into domain-name use agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, two of three online poker companies ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Stupid Domainer Of The Year Award: Domain Holder Loses Geo Domain, NewportNews.com & Made To Pay 80K In Damages & Attorney Fees - The 4th Circuit of Appeals  has just upheld the ruling of a lower court against the domain holder of NewportNews.com awarding the domain to the trademark holder . (pdf) Virtual City Vision is  the owner of the domain  NewportNews.com Of course there is a city by the name of Newport News and its in Virginia. There are also cities named Newport around the world, for which the domain Newport News would be relevant and fair use. The problem is there is also a clothing chain with the same name, Newport ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GAC Publishes Remaining Points of Difference Between ICANN Board and a GAC On New gTLD Rights Protection - The Government Advisory Counsel (GAC)  issued a paper today of the “remaining Points of Difference Between The ICANN Board and the GAC on New gTLD Rights Protection” Rights protections= trademark holders rights to domains, so listen up. The GAC has been raising a lot of concerns with the new gTLD program mostly based on concerns of trademark holders. While the GAC has continued to demand additional and increasing protections for trademark holders, even trying to expand the “definition” of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Revenue Down 6%; Earnings Down 28%; Search Advertising Down 19%: Stock Up 3% - Yahoo reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, after the market closed today. “Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (“revenue ex-TAC”) was $1,064 million for the first quarter of 2011, a 6% decrease from the first quarter of 2010″ “GAAP revenue was $1,214 million for the first quarter of 2011, a 24% decrease from the first quarter of 2010″ Income from operations increased by 1% to $190 million in the first quarter of 2011, compared to $188 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
22 Pre-Release Domains to Backorder Now - Some domain names to add to your backorder list. It’s been a while since I’ve published a list of dropping domain names I think are worth backordering. So here’s a list of 22 domain names currently in pre-release at NameJet that I think you should consider. Please note that I haven’t reviewed any of these for trademarks, so you should do your own due diligence. Worshipped.com Marketingprofessionals.com readingclubs.com studentprograms.com AtlantaAgents.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars Web Sites Are Coming Back - Poker domain names to be restored and open for business. Internet users will soon be able to access and play poker at popular poker sites FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com soon. Last week the U.S. government had seized the domain names in response to alleged financial crimes by the companies to get around U.S. laws for receiving payments for gambling. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the deal today (pdf), and said it would ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Warner Bros Picks Up WizardofOzMovie.com Ahead of Remake - Movie studio gets key domain name for future Wizard of Oz remake. Turner Entertainment, owned by Warner Bros, has picked up the domain name WizardofOzMovie.com ahead of a planned remake of the 1939 classic Wizard of Oz. The domain name was owned by a Canadian man who had noted “this domain is for sale” in the whois record and listed it for $500 on Sedo. But Warner Bros didn’t end up paying the owner directly for the domain name name. It filed a UDRP at National ... read more ...
Tue 19th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells $635k In Domains Led By ringer.com For $40k - Afternic.com just released its sales for the week ending Sunday April 17th. All reportable domain sales $1k and over totaled $635,000. The top seller of the week was Ringer.com at $40,500 followed by videosonline.com at $18,000. I think Ringer.com is a nice brandable domain and a god deal at 1/3 of last weeks highest sale at Afternic.   Here is the full list:     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
MSNBC.com Covers National A-1 & PrimeTel: “Phone-Sex Company” Owns 20% Of All 800 Numbers - MSNBC.com just published a story on National A-1 a company known for owning buying and selling some of the best domain names on the planet. However this story was about a company associated with National A-1 known as Prime Tel Communications which has amassed some 1.7 Million  800 numbers, out of 7.87 million active 800 numbers, most of which are used for phone sex. So Prime Tel owns about 20% of all active 800 phone numbers in the US. Wow. “”Records obtained by The Associated Press show that ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
TechCrunch: Huge Gaming & Domain Buyer HallPass Media Bought By MindJolt.com Today - TechCrunch.com is reporting that HallPass Media was bought today by MindJolt. HallPass Media is a  gaming company that has purchased millions of dollars of  names over the years including cookinggames.com last year for $350,000 HallPass Media and its founder Bill Karamouzis (Bill Kara for short) was featured in DnJournal.com cover story just last year. In the DnJournal.com story, which was the Cover Story for March-April 2010, Mr. Karamouzis says he purchase $4 Million dollars in domains in the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Navidad.com (Spanish for Christmas) Sells for $100,000 - Domain broker completes six figure holiday domain sale. Sedo has brokered the sale of Navidad.com for $100,000 to an as-yet undisclosed buyer, capping off a week with about $1 million in sales. Sedo’s second place was approvals.com for $60,000. The company also handled a very strong .co domain name sale, selling Tequila.co for $14,500. Afternic’s top reportable sale for the week was Ringer.com at $40,500 on behalf of YummyNames. Here are other notable sales for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
I Still Question a $10 Million Fund.com Sale - It just doesn’t add up. I’ve always questioned the 2008 sale of Fund.com for $10 million. It’s mostly in my gut: why did a new company that went public by buying another company pay a ridiculous price for this domain through a broker I’ve never heard of? It just doesn’t make sense. Now someone has dug into it the company a bit more, and the whole thing stinks. BusinessInsider notes that the company has no real revenue since 2007, has seen its stock (now ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Comparing a Toll Free Phone Numbers to Domain Names - AP sheds light on using toll free numbers to capture business. The Associated Press published a story this morning about companies that reserve mass quantities of toll free phone numbers, either to capture callers or sell them to businesses that might want to use them. On the surface this is very similar to domain names. You register a domain name, capture visitors looking for something related to it, and then sell the domain name to a business that wants to use ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Decide, Which Bought Domain Decide.com for $175,000, Raises Series B - Decide banks $6 million in series B. Stealth start up Decide has closed on a $6 million series B round led by Maveron, Madrona Venture Group, Google founding board member Ram Shriram, and former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford, TechCrunch reports. The company bought Decide.com for $175,000 through domain broker Afternic last December. At the time it bought the domain, I wrote: The buyer appears to be someone associated with Seattle based PriceYeti. PriceYeti launched ... read more ...
Mon 18th April 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Connectv.com Sells For $45K on Sedo.com - The domain name Connectv.com just sold on Sedo for $45K. The domain is currently at Godaddy.com on privacy. Obviously an end user sale, with the mostly likely buyer being Connectv.ca In a couple other notable sales, Sedo.com also sold tequila.co for $14,500 and directory.net for $10K     Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Now To Keep Your Search History For 18 Months, Not Just 3 - In a blog post on Friday, Yahoo announced that is going to be keeping records of your searches for 18 months now,  up from the current policy of 3 months. Here are the relevant parts of the announcement “Today, Yahoo! is making an announcement of our intention to change our log file data retention policy to meet the needs of our consumers for personalization and relevance, while living up to their expectations of trust. “In late 2008, after a careful review of our data systems and needs ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Demand Media Issues Statement On Google’s Panda & It’s Effect on eHow - Demand Media has just issued a statement on the roll out of Google’s Panda algorithm and the effect it expects it will have on eHow.com “Demand Media, Inc. a leading content and social media company, announced today that it is reaffirming its financial outlook for fiscal year 2011 that it previously provided on February 22, 2011. “Certain third parties that have published reports attempting to estimate the effect of recent search engine algorithm changes made by Google on traffic to the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Poker Stars Issues Statement On Domain Seizure: US Market Is 50% - According to onlinepoker.net, Poker Stars has issued a statement, the first since the domain seizure  took place on Friday. PokerStars has already switched its online operation to pokerstars.eu. The article points out that the US market represented 50% of Poker Stars  customer base. Here is the statement: “As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the U.S. due to legal developments there.” “The developments are confined to the U.S. and do ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook Finally Sues Owner Of FaceBookofSex.com But Still Not XXXBook.com or XXXMatch.com - According to XBiz.com, Facebook filed suit against FriendFinder and its subsidiaries over it’s site FacebookOfSex.com, claiming it’s too similar to its own trademarked name. “In the suit filed Wednesday at U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Facebook says FacebookOfSex.com ” is a blatant attempt … to hijack Facebook’s fame for illicit financial gain.” “But FriendFinder, according to the suit, claims that it has problems with Facebook’s use of the term “friend finder,” ... read more ...