Monthly Archives: May 2011

Fri 13th May 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Nooooooooooooooo.com, a Domain You’d Never Type In - A really long domain name but lots of traffic. My wife sent me a link to a funny single use site today, nooooooooooooooo.com. She included the accompanying note: “That’s clearly a domain name you link to. You’d never be able to type that in.” Yep, I’d say that’s a domain name that fails the radio test, spelling test, and just about every other cardinal rule of domain name selection. But the site gets tens of thousands of visits a month according to Compete.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Olympics and Red Cross Push for Special Rights with New TLDs - GAC backs move by groups to get names added to reserved names lists for new TLDs. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) continues to pester ICANN about giving it special privileges for new top level domain names, and now the American Red Cross is adding its name to the hat as well. IOC’s outside counsel for intellectual property met with ICANN representatives during the ICANN meeting in San Francisco earlier this year, a letter just published on ICANN’s web ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Avoid Go Daddy’s 60 Day Lock for Whois Changes - An explanation of exactly when Go Daddy puts a transfer lock on domains for making a whois change. It seems that every month someone emails me about how GoDaddy places a 60 day lock when you make certain changes to your whois information. The lock prevents you from transferring the domain name to another registrar. I also get a lot of search visitors searching for information about this lock based on previous stories I’ve written. Yesterday I caught up with ... read more ...
Thu 12th May 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Government Domain Seizures Are Out of Protect IP Bill, But Search Engines, ISP’s & Payment Processors Are On The Clock - The PROTECT IP 2011 bill is out in draft form, which is this year version of last year’s Leahy Bill entitled Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) This proposed bill is different than the COICA in that it no longer includes the ability to go to domain registries and registrars and require them to remove domains or hand them over to the government but replaces it with a private cause of action remedy against website holders who violate copyright laws (of course the government ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What The Settlement Of The CFIT Case Means To The Cost Of Your .Com Registrations & Renewals - Now that VeriSign settled the CFIT case, I thought we should take a look at what that means in dollars and cents to domain holders. Verisign contract to run the .Com registry (.Net too) calls for presumptive renewals  and the ability to increase the wholesale cost of domain name registrations and renewals, 7% in 4 of every 6 years. Currently the wholesale price of domain name registrations and renewals sits $7.85 (there is also an ICANN fee of $.18 but we are going to exclude that for now). Lets ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
VeriSign Shares Should Pop At Open After CFIT Case Is Settled To Double What It Traded For After The Appeals Court Ruling - Shares of VeriSign are poised to pop this morning after VeriSign announced they Settled the CFIT case which could have resulted in a large price reductions of .com registration and renewal prices. Yesterday after the Market closed shares of Verisign were trading up over 5% on the news to Around $37.50 Back In June 2009, when the Federal Appellate Court ruled that the suit by CFIT could continue and move back to the trial court, shares of VeriSign plunged from $21 to $19 a share. With today’s rise ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Starts Featuring Auctions in Registration Path - More exposure for domains listed on Go Daddy Auctions. Go Daddy has started to show domain names that are listed on its auction platform to users searching for available domain names. For example, if you try to register Branson365.com, you’ll see this: This will drastically increase the exposure domain names on the Go Daddy Auctions platform receive. Not all of the domains I checked that are on Go Daddy Auctions showed up when I searched for the exact domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Handicaps a Chances of New TLDs Kicking Off In Singapore - Will the new TLD application process finally get approved next month? For a while it looked assured that the new top level domain name applicant guidebook would get the green light at ICANN’s meeting in Singapore this June. But then Lawrence Strickling, head of the NTIA, said he didn’t think this was possible unless ICANN got on board with government demands. So what does Tucows CEO Elliot Noss think the chances are? BMO Capital Markets analyst Thanos Moschopoulos ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Job Boards Launch Another Attack on .Jobs Registry - Monster, CareerBuilder, and others write open letter to ICANN. The .Jobs Charter Compliance Coalition, whose membership consists of online job boards, has sent an “open letter” to ICANN regarding Employ Media’s request for arbitration over .jobs. The Coalition says that its letter is to “address the Request’s numerous inconsistencies, omissions and mischaracterizations” in Employ Media’s request for arbitration. The letter states: The Coalition believes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Priced Domains Can Sell in Go Daddy Auctions, Too - Premium Listings can also sell within Go Daddy Auctions — and at a lower commission. I recently received a sale notice for one of the domains I listed at Go Daddy as a Premium Listing. I assumed it was a standard sale through Go Daddy’s registration path. But a couple days later I got another email and realized the sale was actually on the Go Daddy Auctions site. It was still a fixed price sale based on my Premium Listing price, but occurred through the auction ... read more ...
Wed 11th May 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows Reports: 2 Million Domain Registrations In 1st Quarter & YummyNames.com Sells $1.4M In Domains - Here is transcript of the conference call Operator Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Tucows First Quarter Fiscal 2011 Conference Call. Earlier this afternoon, Tucows has issued a news release reporting its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2011. The news release and financial statements are available on the company’s website at tucowsinc.com under the investor’s heading. Please note that today’s call is being broadcast live over the Internet and will be ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com 1Q Report: “Strong and Steady Growth Domain Sales, While .Co Becomes a Rising Star” - “Strong and Steady Growth in Internet Domain Sales in Q1 2011 with Continued Strength in .com Sales while .co Becomes the Rising Star in the Online Domain Marketplace” During the first quarter of 2011, 10,608 domains changed hands via Sedo’s marketplace, accounting for $21 million in sales. “Average sales prices across all Top Level Domains (TLDs) held strong in comparison to previous quarters and for the first time, the .co extension entered the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Goes With ChromeBook For Its Laptop Without Owning The Domain Name? - Google today announced its long anticipated laptop which it named Chromebook. “”A little less than two years ago we set out to make computers much better. Today, we’re announcing the first Chromebooks from our partners, Samsung and Acer. “These are not typical notebooks. With a Chromebook you won’t wait minutes for your computer to boot and browser to start. You’ll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FriendFinder Network Goes Public & Shares Tank At Open - A couple of weeks ago we told you that FriendFinder Networks, was going to go public today and it has started trading under the Symbol FFN. Shares of the company were sold at the low range of the range set for the IPO at $10 a share and in the 1st hour of trading, shares are already down 17% at $8.30 as of time of publication. We will update this story later when its first day of trading ends. FriendFinders Network owns Penthouse, AdultFriendFinder.com, Cams.com, and FacebookOfSex.com to name a few.   Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Monopoly Case Fizzles, No Break for Domainers - CFIT settles with VeriSign for $0. Hopes by domainers that .com prices would fall thanks to an antitrust lawsuit have officially been dashed. VeriSign just released a press release stating that Coalition for ICANN Transparency has agreed to drop a case against it. The lawsuit attacked both VeriSign’s no-bid contract with ICANN that allowed it to raise prices 7% a year as well as its planned domain waitlisting service. Although ultimately CFIT lost, I suspect their ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Domain Revenue Falls Thanks to Domain Parking - Revenue down as domain parking continues to slide. Sedo Holding’s revenue from its domain name segment fell 6.3% in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter in 2010, the company disclosed in a financial report (pdf) today. As with results reported in its annual report for last year, the company blames falling domain name parking revenues for the decline. At the end of the first quarter the company was monetizing 6.3 million domain names, down from ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Teen Domainer Wins $10,000 Go Daddy Scholarship - Domain blogger wins $10,000 scholarship from Go Daddy. Brian Diener, who writes the domain blog TeenDomainer.com, has been selected as one of the winners of the Go Daddy .Me Scholarship Program. Go Daddy will pay $10,000 toward Diener’s education at Emory University next fall. On his blog today Diener wrote: I was on godaddy one day buying a domain name when I saw the ad for the scholarship on the bottom of the page, and thought that it was a perfect scholarship ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Prominent UDRP Defense Attorneys Also Opposed to UDRP Reform - If it ain’t completely broke, don’t risk breaking it. Yesterday I wrote about how World Intellectual Property Forum and National Arbitration Forum are opposed to initiating a UDRP reform effort at WIPO. They aren’t the only ones in this camp. Prominent UDRP defense attorneys John Berryhill and Ari Goldberger also spoke on yesterday’s “State of the UDRP” webinar. And both of them are opposed to an overhaul of UDRP. This is an interesting dynamic. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HootSuite Adds .Li Shorteners But Defends Use of .Ly - Service adds back up URLs but says people need not worry about .ly. That’s wrong. Social networking platform HootSuite has added alternatives to shorteners that use Libya’s country code domain name .ly after users expressed concerns about relying on the Libyan .ly domain name. In addition to Ow.ly and Ht.ly, users can now use Owl.li and Htl.li. .Li is the country code domain name for Liechtenstein. At the same time the company defended the stability of .ly, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Reports Strong Sales Including Closing of Gambling.com for $2.5 Million - A big week with a seven figure sale. Sedo had a strong sales week, headlined by officially closing Gambling.com for $2.5 million. But this sale wasn’t the only one the company had to cheer about as the week included many good five figure sales. One highlight is POW.com, which was sold to Internext Media Corp. for $75,000. Internext Media Corp. is a major search engine advertising company that owns Advertise.com. Here are other notable sales for the week: .com tiempo.com 41900 USD isu.com 23000 USD personalica.com 20000 USD playaresorts.com 12500 USD prfirm.com 12111 EUR absbelt.com 10000 USD svenska.com 10000 EUR cloudstack.com 10000 USD weico.com 10000 USD asztalos.com 9500 EUR inmold.com 7000 USD mutou.com 7000 USD mobile360.com 7000 EUR gamutnews.com 7000 USD kuza.com 6300 USD technosat.com 6000 USD teamtop.com 6000 USD artpix.com 5940 USD renewableelectricity.com 5500 USD safeoffsite.com 5250 USD machiavelli.com 5226 USD aism.com 5000 USD interracialpicture.com 5000 USD cieloazul.com 5000 USD brica.com 5000 USD ccTLDs t.ag 60000 USD want.it 26500 USD poker.org.uk 25000 GBP walk.co.uk 9999 GBP properties.co.nz 8000 USD apostas.pt 6000 EUR gowrings.co.uk 6000 GBP anz.kr 6000 USD recipes.co 5600 USD af.ro 5000 USD employment.de 4750 EUR melrose.co.uk 4450 GBP haier.nl 4425 EUR Other sanfrancisco.net 20000 USD cloudstack.org 7500 USD snakes.net 4999 USD diabetes.pro 4500 USD kfz-versicherungen.net 4500 EUR ... read more ...
Tue 10th May 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows Comes Out Swinging Against Applying a URS To .Net’s - Bill Sweetman, General Manager, has just filed comments on behalf of Tucows against applying the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS)  to .Net domains. Its a very good comment and though worth a read especially for those who still have to submit their comments which are due by midnight tonight. “As an ICANN-accredited registrar with nearly 1 million .Net domain names under management, Tucows is deeply concerned to learn that ICANN is being urged to impose the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and Trademark ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Puzzle.com Sells For $500K Leading Afternic’s $1.1 Million Dollar Week In Sales - After a couple of slow weeks, Afternic.com came roaring back with a huge week reporting over $1.1 million in reportable sales. The big sale of the week was Puzzle.com which sold for $500,000. The new owner of Puzzle.com appears to be Rules Holding of Amsterdam which is listed as a Financial holding company It marks yet another big sale of a gaming related domain name. The 2nd highest sale of the week was a three letter .com, EJU.com which sold for a whopping $96,000. This is the 3rd nice LLL.com ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The ICA Files Its Comment To The .Net Contract, As IP Groups Push For URS To Be Included - The Internet Commerce Association has just filed its comments to ICANN on the renewal of the .Net registry contract with VeriSign. Yesterday the Business Constituency of ICANN came out in support of placing the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) proposal into the .Net contract. Earlier today we told you that though the hard work of Phil Corwin of the ICA, the BC dropped its request. However some other Intellectual Property (IP) interests have now filed comments with ICANN asking that the URS be placed ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
YouPorn.com One Of The 100 Most Visited Site On The Net Is Sold - According to Xbiz.com, One of the most visited sites in the world has just been sold. YouPorn.com has an Alexa rank of 81, being the 81st most visited site on the net. Compete.com shows the site as receiving  almost 10,000,000 monthly visitors. “The buyer of the site is Montreal-based Manwin, which owns Brazzers among many other blue-chip brands in adult entertainment, also said it purchased YouPornGay.com and YouPornCocks.com in the deal with Curacao-based Midstream Media International N.V.” “Manwin ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking: ICA Gets Proposal To Apply The Uniform Rapid Suspension To .Net Dropped - Yesterday we wrote about the Business Constituency (BC) group of ICANN that proposed including the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) into the renewal of the Verisign contract to operate the .Net registry. Today word comes from Phil Corwin of the Internet Commerce Association that the BC has dropped this proposal in its new comments to ICANN. In his letter to the BC today Mr. Corwin Wrote: “The ICA supports this new draft.” “We greatly appreciate the response of other BC members to our concerns ... read more ...