Monthly Archives: July 2011

Tue 19th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bill Kara Of HallPass Media To Be The KeyNote Speaker At TRAFFIC - Rich Schwartz has just tweeted that Bill Kara will be the keynote speaker at TRAFFIC. Bill Kara (Bill Karamouzis) is someone who should be known to everyone in the domain industry. Bill is head of HallPass Media, Inc.,  and was featured in a DNJournal.com cover story back in 2010 shortly after he purchased CookingGames.com for $350,000 In the DNJournal Story,  Bill said he had spent over $4 million acquiring domain names in the then past two years. In April of this year, Bill’s company HallPass ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
How Valuable Is The Info VeriSign Is Providing On “Domain Score”? Our Test Says Not: 80%+ of All Drop Domains Scored - There seemed to be a lot of excitement in the domain industry a couple of weeks ago when VeriSign Announced it’s Domain Score product and made it available to the public. One blogger even wrote about it calling it:  “VeriSign Releases Domain Traffic Treasure Trove to the Public”. We had a chance to play with some of this data on a registrar only provided basis in the past and were never though the Score’s were an accurate and consistent reflection of traffic. But when VeriSign put it out ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Those Zuccarini Domains on NameJet? They Sold for $302k in April. - Buyer in April auction turns to NameJet to sell domain names. So why are these John Zuccarini domain names suddenly showing up on NameJet? Whomever picked them up at auction in April is trying to make a quick flip. The auction on April 8 attracted three bidders. After 45 minutes, one bidder walked away with the entire lot of domain names for a grand total of $302,000 according to court records. One of the bidders was DS Holdings, LLC (which bought the a cybersquatting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Up Next, Trademark Applications for .Auto, .Tax, and .Food - More trademarks filed for new top level domain names. ICANN won’t consider top level domain-specific trademarks when new TLD applications are evaluated. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office won’t even grant them. But that’s not stopping people from paying a few hundred dollars per class to file trademark applications. The latest three come courtesy of the same guys who filed three applications for .store earlier this month. The applications are for .auto, .tax, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Samsung Buys Chaton.com and Other End User Sales This Week - Samsung among biggest names buying domain names on the secondary market this week. Afternic tallied over $650,000 in “announceable” domain sales over the past week. Here are some of the more interesting end user purchases: Samsung bought Chaton.com for $17,000. I’m a bit confused as to what this is for, but Google unveils some possibilities. EuroBuilding Hotels Group bought HotelEuro.com for $9,388. Online survey panelist company uSamp bought TheWhiteBoard.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Adds More Domains to Sedo - Company adds typo, .co, and other domains up for sale. Microsoft has added more domain names for sale on domain name brokerage site Sedo. Abdu Tarabichi, who spotted the initial batch of Microsoft domains listed for sale, noticed that Microsoft added 18 domain names to its list of domains. These are only the domains it lists on its sales landing pages; it’s possible the company has more listed in its account. Newly added domains include the generic typo HighDefintitionVideo.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Holdings Grabs $2.9 Million Investment, Releases Improved Domain Builder - Domain name company lands outside investment and releases upgraded domain development platform. Domain name development company Domain Holdings has raised $2.9 million in funding. The company was founded by domainer Chad Folkening, who was later joined by Advertising.com co-founder John Ferber. The company also released a complete rewrite of its Rapid Domain Builder, now called DomainPower. It helps domain name owners create SEO friendly web sites. The $2.9 million ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Peter Dengate Thrush Discusses His New Role with Top Level Domain Holdings - Peter Dengate Thrush and Antony Van Couvering discuss future of TLDH. Yesterday former ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush announced he was joining Top Level Domain Holdings (parent company of Minds + Machines) as Executive Chairman. I just got off the phone with Dengate Thrush, who explained why he chose Top Level Domain Holdings. “It was a no brainer for me,” said Dengate Thrush about choosing to work with TLDH. He thinks TLDH is most equipped to face the next ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Latest Moniker Auction Tops $7.2 Million in Sales, Data.com Sales Price Around $4.5 Million - Although auction was boring, sales results are positive. Many people called Moniker’s Barcelona domain name auction a failure. It’s easy to see why. After all, the auction didn’t end up taking place in Barcelona thanks to technical problems. Then when the auction took place online, only 5 domains sold. But for Oversee.net, this was anything but a failure. As I pointed out a month ago, the total sales from this auction could be Moniker’s best auction since ... read more ...
Mon 18th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
VirtualPrivateServer.com Sells For $20K On NameJet; Muisc.com For $11K & Polygamy.com For $9K - A bunch of other domain name sold at auction today at NameJet.com in addition to GoCarts.com which I though deserved it own post. The domain VirtualPrivateServer.com sold for $20,550. If you don’t know what this is, you can check out the quite long Wikipedia entry on it. Basically its related to hosting and is going to have a high PPC rate in addition to being a bang on term for a hosting company. On the other hand another typo, muisc.com sold for $10,800. This is another one of John Zuccarinis ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoCarts.com Sells For $60K On NameJet.com, $30K Less Than 2 Years Ago - Looks like someone just lost $30,000 on its purchase of GoCarts.com The domain name GoCarts.com sold just over two years ago on NameJet.com for $91,600 In a domain auction just concluded on NameJet.com today GoCarts.com just sold for $60,100 That’s $30,500 lower than July 2009 the last time it sold on NameJet.com Ouch. Oh yeah there is that 15% commission NameJet.com charges, meaning the seller will only net out about $51K or $40K less Double Ouch The only good news is for the 6 people that correctly ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking: Google Acquires G.CO - Google has become the latest Internet company to acquire a one letter .Co domain. In a Press Release just issued by the .Co Registry, Google has acquired G.CO for an undisclosed amount (The full PR appears below). According to Google’s blog; Gary Briggs, Google’s VP of Consumer Marketing, announced that G.CO would soon be the “official URL shortcut for Google websites.” “Only Google will be able to create G.CO shortcuts, says Briggs; that means “you can visit a G.CO shortcut confident ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
According To Hosterstats 33% of All .Co Domains Are Hosted On Godaddy Servers: Here Are The Top 50 Servers - According to HosterStats.com, Godaddy.com is hosting 33% of all tracked .Co registrations. According to the service they are tracking just 616K domains even though there are over 1M .Co registrations, so it doesn’t claim account for every .co registration, still none the less its an interesting look at the extension. In second place is Sedoparking which hosts just over 5% of the tracked .Co domain registrations: “”The following are the top 50 Hosters in .co ccTLD for 01 July 2011. The domain ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
O.co Starts Selling Insurance On Its Way To Becoming “The Online Savings Engine” - According to A Press Release today “O.co (also known as Overstock.com, Inc., NASDAQ: OSTK), today announced that it will offer auto and home insurance quotes on the newest tab of its site: Insurance. ” “The online retailer has partnered with Answer Financial, one of the largest auto and home insurance agencies in the United States. The new tab allows consumers in all 50 states to submit insurance information and immediately receive free, side-by-side quotes from as many as 20 leading insurance ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Domainsville.com Launches Today “As The City For Everything Domains” - A new domain blog and news aggregator launched today called Domainsville.com. The site enters into the same space dominated by Domaining.com and to a much lesser extent Namebee.com. I had an email interview with Abdu Tarabichi one of the co-founders and CEO of Domainsville, Inc. and asked him to tell me the difference between Domainsville.com and other domain feed aggregators like Domaining.com and I got the following answer: “When compared to other sites, we aggregate 74% more feeds.” As we ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
OnlineDegree.com Sold For $120,000 - According to a blog post by Michael Jackness, his company Terran Marketingjust closed on the purchase of the domain name OnlineDegree.com for $120,000. The domain was brokered by Sedo.com and should according to Mr. Jackness be hitting Sedo’s wire sales wire this week and will become a top 25 domain sale for 2011 on DN Journal’s Year to date chart once reported. According to Mr. Jackness: “”The numbers in this sector are quite impressive especially when you consider the CPCs are in the $30.00 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Outgoing ICANN Chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush, Joining Minds + Machines as Executive Chairman - According to the Independent.co.uk, the outgoing chairman of ICANN Peter Dengate Thrush  is joining Minds + Machines as its executive chairman. The article quotes Antony Van Couvering, CEO of publicly traded Top Level Domain Holdings, otherwise known as Minds+Machines as saying: “Peter is a superstar in our field. We are delighted to have him at the helm” Peter Dengate Thrush was chairman of ICANN  from 2007 through the last the ICANN meeting in Singapore at which ICANN voted to approve the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
900,000 .XXX Domain Names? You Make The Call. - How many .xxx domain names will be registered in the first year? ICM Registry says it has received nearly 900,000 “expressions of interest” for its .xxx top level domain name. It has also extended the sunrise period for trademark holders, apparently due to demand. Anyone could submit an expression of interest in a .xxx domain name and some of them are for the same domain name, so no one has paid the $70+ per domain for these yet. But that will soon change. It’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Owner Can Keep ChrisFarley.com (For Now) - Company that says it has rights to the Chris Farley name loses domain name dispute. A company claiming to own the intellectual property rights to the late comedian Chris Farley’s likeness has bombed in an effort to get the domain name ChrisFarley.com. Make Him Smile, Inc., claims that Chris Farley’s family granted it intellectual property rights to Chris Farley’s name upon his death. It filed a complaint with Nation Arbitration Forum to get the corresponding ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Google Buys G.Co - Google gets in on the one letter .co craze. .Co Internet has found a home for another one letter .co domain name: Google. The internet giant has purchased rights to g.co, joining an all-star cast of companies picking up one letter .co domains: Twitter: t.co Overstock: o.co Go Daddy: x.co Amazon.com: A.Co, Z.Co and K.Co Google plans to use g.co as a URL shortener. .Co Internet has received a lot of press around the big companies that have registered its one letter ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
With Lock Up Period Ending, Demand Media Shares Hover during $11 - With one week to go, Demand Media shares hit fresh lows. Next week ends a 180 day lock up period in which many Demand Media option holders can finally sell their shares in the company. Unfortunately for them, shares are now trading at only $11. That’s well below its $17 opening price for its debut in January, when the share price promptly shot up to $23.50. The stock peaked at $27.38 before beginning its precipitous fall. That doesn’t mean you need to feel ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Baby Battle: Babies411.com Beats Baby411.com - Say that three times fast. The publishers of the Baby 411, Toddler 411, and Expecting 411 series of books have tried and failed to get the domain name Babies411.com through arbitration. Alan and Denise Fields d/b/a Windsor Peak Press have sold over 300,000 copies of their popular Baby 411 book and maintain a web site at Baby411.com. The book was originally published in 2003. In 2009 an Austin woman started a site at Babies411.com. Naturally, it was about baby ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court: Above.com May Be Responsible for Customers’ Domain Names - Judge sides with Verizon, settlement in doubt. A federal district judge has dealt a blow to Above.com in a lawsuit brought against it by Verizon. Chief United States District Judge Audrey Collins has denied Above.com’s motion to dismiss charges of contributory cybersquatting. Above.com and the other defendants have accepted responsibility for registering and monetizing typos of Verizon’s brand names, but argued they shouldn’t be responsible for domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Former ICANN Chairman Joins Minds + Machines - Peter Dengate Thrush joins publicly traded company poised to profit from new top level domain names. That was quick. Less than a month after pushing through a vote approving the new top level domain name program at his last meeting as ICANN Chairman, Peter Dengate Thrush has joined a company applying for new top level domain names. Dengate Thrush will join Top Level Domain Holdings (parent company of Minds + Machines) as Executive Chairman. His compensation package ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Buying “Off Market” Real Estate Like Buying Domain Names - Prospecting for off-market real estate is similar to prospecting for domain names. I’ve been looking to buy our build a new house and have noticed striking similarities to the process of buying domain names. The areas of town I’m interested in buying a lot have very little inventory. There are a few lot listings in the MLS, but most are “off market”. The process of inquiring about these off market lots is similar to buying a domain name: 1. The owner of the ... read more ...