Monthly Archives: July 2011

Tue 5th July 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Names End Users Bought This Week - 8 examples of end users buying generic domains for their businesses. As I did with last week’s sales report, I’m taking a look at some of Afternic’s sales to end users for the week. Laser Spine Institute bought GoodbyeBackPain.com for $2,880. Goodbye back pain, but also a “good buy”. JS Tour and Travel, which specializes in tours to the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico bought cancunfishing.com for $2,588. Andover, Massachusetts jewelry and watch store Royal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
More TLD Trademarks: .Law, .Kom, .Tom, .Construction, .Hub - The “ticking time bomb” in new TLDs continues with no work from ICANN. New top level domain name trademark “frontrunning” continues as 9 more trademarks have been filed related to new TLDs. USM CHINA/HONG KONG LTD filed applications for .Hub, .Tom, Kom, and .Kom. The Kom trademark applications are troubling given VeriSign’s plans to apply for transliterations of .com. And .Tom? Sounds a lot like .com. Thomas A Brackey of Beverly Hills filed three separate ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lead Gen Company Reply! Sued for Trademark Infringement - Air conditioning company sues over Adwords search terms and logo use. Online lead generation company Reply! Inc has been sued by air conditioning company Carrier for alleged trademark infringement (pdf). Reply generates and sells leads to various businesses, including air conditioning contractors. It buys ads on Google and other search engines, including for the term “Carrier”: When users click on the Adwords ad, they land at a page with the Carrier logo offering ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Nominet Considers 1 Year .UK Registrations - Registry for UK domain names considering variable registration periods. Nominet is considering offering .uk domain names for periods other than two years, including shorter one year registrations. According to the registry, around 90% of domain name registrations in major top level domain names are for only one year. The group proposes several options, including one that would not offer one year registrations but would add five and ten year options to the mix. In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Wire News Stories of Jun 2011 - Top stories from the domain name world last month. I’m running a little behind with the holiday weekend. Here’s a look back at the past month in the domain industry. These were the top 5 stories on Domain Name Wire based on views. Go Daddy To Sell .XXX Domain Names – ICM Registry got a big win when GoDaddy agreed to sell its .xxx domain names. Warner Bros Registers Hangover 3 Domain Names – because you can never have enough bachelor parties. Breaking: Salesforce.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
In Case You Missed It, Friday Was Not a Slow News Day in a Domain Industry - Biggest domain name company transaction ever announced just before the U.S. holiday. The Friday before a holiday weekend is usually a slow news day. But I heard some whispers Friday that Go Daddy was going to make a big announcement, hence my tweet around noon. Indeed, a few hours later Go Daddy announced that it took an investment from KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures. I talked with GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons Friday evening. Since most of my ... read more ...
Mon 4th July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICE Now Seeking To Extradite Foreign Operators Of .Com & .Net Sites Which Violate US Law To Face Trial In US - “British website owners (for example) could face extradition to the US on piracy charges even if their operation has no connection to America and does something which is most probably legal in the UK.” “By definition, almost all copyright infringement and trademark violation is transnational. There’s very little purely domestic intellectual property theft” “The jurisdiction we have over these sites right now really is the use of the domain name registry system in the United States.” That’s ... read more ...
Sun 3rd July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Domain Investing Isn’t Playing The Lottery, It’s Investing - A comments to another post on Minus.com selling for $115K inspired this post which is about the business of domain investing. Here is the comment that sparked the idea for this post: “”yeah like you can pick and predict the next lotto numbers” “these forums and threads need to have stories of people losing money.” “I want to see stories here headlined, “Another 300 people lose over $10,000 this month” “I guarantee you for every lotto winner there are 1000s of people losing money; ... read more ...
Sat 2nd July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
StatCounter: Chrome Now Has More Than 20% of Market Share As Explorer Falls Under 50% - According to Internet statistics firm StatCounter as for the month of June 2011, Google Chrome Web browser has more than 20% of global market share, while Internet Explorer is under 50% market share. Google’s Chrome browser has 20.7% of the global market in June. Internet Explorer fell to 44% in June from 59%  share a year ago. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Fri 1st July 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com Raises Commission to 15% From 10% on Marketplace Sales & To 20% On MLS Fixed Price Sales - Sedo.com announced today that it is raising the commission rate of sale made through the it’s Marketplace (without broker assistance) to 15% from 10%. Also for those customers who fix price domains to sell in the Sedo MLS service, the commission rate will rise from 15% to 20%. The MLS service is where fixed price domains are show in various registrar channels as a suggestion alternative when a customer attempts to register a domain name that is already owned. The changes are effective August 1st, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bob Parsons Explains Go Daddy – KKR Deal to Domain Name Wire - Investment makes 36 millionaires, will help company expand overseas and acquire complementary businesses. I just got off the phone with GoDaddy.com founder Bob Parsons, who explained the deal his company just struck with KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures. Contrary to reports in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, this was not an outright acquisition. Parsons remains the single largest shareholder in the company in what he terms a “partnership”. Before ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: Go Daddy Takes Investment from KKR, Silver Lake, and TCV - Go Daddy takes investment but doesn’t sell out. Read my interview with Bob Parsons about the sale here. Bob Parsons didn’t end up selling the company after all. But Go Daddy just announced it has entered into a partnership with KKR, Silver Lake, and Technology Crossover Ventures in which the three will make an investment in the company. There had been rumors that KKR and Silver Lake were in talks to acquire the company for over $2 billion. It’s interesting that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DirecTV Wins First Ever .So Domain Arbitration - DirecTV wins Directv.so. .So what? DirecTV has won what may be the first ever .so domain name arbitration case. The case over DirecTV.so was filed with World Intellectual Property Forum by Fairwinds Partners, the group behind Coalition for Domain Name Abuse. I’m not sure winning this domain name was worth the filing fee. .So “commercialized” itself earlier this year to little fanfare. TheDomains reported that traditionally great keyword domains like books.so ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Ups Commission Rates - Typical sales will see a 5% fee increase. Sedo has increased its commission rate on most transactions occurring directly on its site. The typical sale on Sedo.com will now carry a 15% commission, up from 10%. The commission is still 10% if the domain is parked at Sedo and it is sells through a fixed price. Sales on Sedo’s MLS system carry a 20% fee. These commissions seem directly in line with Sedo’s biggest competitor, Afternic, with a couple differences. Afternic’s ... read more ...