Monthly Archives: August 2011

Mon 22nd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Touts Unnamed $540,000 Domain Sale, Gets More Exclusives - Domain marketplace known for small ticket sales scores a big one. Afternic is known for selling lots of domain names for a couple thousand dollars each. Not only is its expertise in high volume sales, but it also rarely gets to disclose its six figure sales. That’s (sort of) the case with its latest big sale for $540,000 — the company can’t disclose the actual name. But the company says it sold within 3 weeks of being listed with Afternic and the seller’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
iPhone Jailbreak Site Files Lawsuit Over Domain Name - Company behind Cydia app directory files lawsuit. After losing a dispute under the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) in March, a jailbreak iPhone app store has filed a lawsuit in an effort to get the domain name Cydia.com. Saurikit, LLC has a directory of apps that work on jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches that it hosts at cydia.saurik.com. It also has a U.S. trademark for “Cydia”. Earlier this year it filed a UDRP to get Cydia.com. The UDRP ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Hires Researcher Behind IDNX - Pricing researcher to work for domain name marketplace. After working with researcher Thies Lindenthal to create domain pricing index IDNX, Sedo has decided to bring him on as its Product Manager for Domain Pricing. In a press release, Lindenthal said: I am thrilled to combine my passions for the domain market and real estate research at Sedo,” said Lindenthal. “I look forward to continuing work on IDNX, and to bringing my research to Sedo in order to develop ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Most Businesses Can Skip .XXX Sunrise - Risks of .xxx cybersquatting are minimal. Yesterday I met with a group of entrepreneur friends and I explained the upcoming .xxx Sunrise B to them. Sunrise B allows non-adult trademark holders to pay a one time fee to block their trademark from ever being registered in .xxx. After explaining the process an inevitable question came up: “So, Andrew, do you think we should participate in Sunrise B”. My answer was no. Unless you have a huge brand, I don’t see why ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN’s Peter Dengate Thrush Problem - Conflict of interest, whether real or imagined, looks bad for ICANN as it faces fresh criticism over its new TLD plans. ICANN has a problem. As criticism mounts against its approval of the new top level domain name program, some groups are pointing fingers at an inherent conflict of interest. The key example is former ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush. One month after pushing through a vote on the new TLD program in his last meeting as Chairman he ... read more ...
Sun 21st August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Quick Poll: Will You Protect Your Site or Brand From .XXX? - There have been hundreds of stories in the past few weeks talking about whether brands should protect their domain in the .XXX TLD. Basically there are two protections possibly available to TM Holders and Site owners, a blocking feature that will make sure your .XXX domain does not resolve for the next 10 years for a one time fee of a few hundreds or getting your .XXX domain and choosing whether to have it resolve now or in the future by paying the annual registration fee. No doubt with registrations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Groupon Goods: Merchandise or Charity? - Groupon registers domain names for “Groupon Goods”. Over the past several days Groupon has registered over a half dozen domain names for “Groupon Goods”, including GrouponGoods.com, GrouponGoods.fr (France), and GrouponGoods.org. I can’t find any announcements from Groupon about a new “brand” of Groupon Goods, so we’re left to speculate what the company is up to. Two obvious ideas: 1. “Goods” as in merchandise. Most of Groupon’s offers are for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are Bots Registering Twitter Handles Based on New Domain Registrations? - It would be and easy process to automate. When you finally find that perfect and available domain name, you’re not yet done securing your online identity. And someone might be lurking to “front run” your Twitter username. That’s what Ross Duggan thinks happened to him. He finally found the perfect unregistered domain name for his new project. He checked on Twitter and the same handle was still available. So he registered the domain name. When he returned ... read more ...
Sat 20th August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Circle ID: A New Quality gTLD Can Compete with .COM - Read an interesting take on the new gTLD’s in an article entitled A New Quality gTLD Can Compete With .Com on CircleID.com “If you choose a new generic top-level domain (gTLD), will it be able to compete with .com? A recent academic paper indicates that the answer is yes if your new is of outstanding quality. “”How Quality Drives the Rise and Fall of High-Tech Products” by professors Tellus, Yin, and Niraj in the Sloan Management Review provides evidence that new products can beat out established ... read more ...
Fri 19th August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
PhonePlans.com Dial Up A $27K Sale On NameJet.com & MoneyMarketAccount.com Gets A $35K Bid - The auction for the domain name PhonePlans.com just ended on NameJet.com with a winning bid of $26,600 There were 3 bidders at $25K or over so pretty surprised it only went that high. Another domain name MoneyMarketAccount.com got as high as a $35,100 bid but failed to make reserve. As a singular domain and with money markets paying fractions of a percent I think $35K would have been a fair price for a seller looking to move the domain In a couple of other auctions of note; WinterClothes.com sold ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Chairman Stephen Crocker To Be Featured Speaker At The INTA Trademark Group Meeting Next Month - The International Trademark Association (INTA) is meeting next month on September 21 22nd in Washington and the new Chairman of ICANN Stephen Crocker. Here are some of the topics up for discussion at this conference: At this advanced–level conference, learn from distinguished authorities everything that you need to know about developing and protecting your clients’ brands on the Internet, including: The latest developments from ICANN, including the now confirmed rollout of new gTLDs in 2012 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bnet.com: Demand Media’s Dodgy Accounting Decoded: It May Never Make a Profit - A blog post published on BNet.com, entitled “Demand Media’s Dodgy Accounting Decoded: It May Never Make a Profit”, caught my attention especially on a day that Demand Shares hit an all time low of $7.12. Basically the author says that “Demand amortizes its editorial budget rather than expensing it on a quarterly basis as the cash is spent , is not helping the company achieve profitability”. It’s a pretty long post full of graphs that the author uses to support his argument so you should ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
National A-1 Takes Down Escort.com & Escorts.com - We haven’t heard much since Federal and State law enforcement raided the offices of National A-1 in October 2010. At the time we noted that one of National A-1 sites, escorts.com might have been the subject of the probe and it now appears that both Escort.com and Escorts.com, both owned by National A1, are offline. Both Sites now return a white page with only these words appearing on top: “”This Domain is Not in Use“” Escorts.com has an Alexa ranking in the US of 75K and received according ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Gets XXX Domain Name* - Company gets a triple xxx domain name — but I’m not talking about the top level domain. Google has gotten its hands on GoogleXXX — but not Google.xxx (yet). The company was awarded GoogleXXX.com in a World Intellectual Property Forum ruling just handed down. This got me thinking: with the .xxx top level domain name coming out, will it lead to more xxx typos? One type of domain companies should consider registering is just like what Google just got — trademarkxxx.com. ... read more ...
Thu 18th August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic’s Domain Listing Service (DLS) Adds Registrars Key-Systems and DomainMonster.com - According to a Press Release today: Afternic’s Domain Listing Service (DLS)  signed up two new registrars: German-based Key-Systems and UK-based MeshDigital which owns DomainMonster.com Key-Systems is Europe’s second largest ICANN-accredited registrar, and a top twenty global registrar, with 1,700 worldwide resellers and more than 3,000,000 domains under management in the portals RRPproxy.net, domaindiscount24.com and brandshelter.com. Mesh Digital is one of the world’s fastest growing registrars ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
What Is The Domain Market Worth? Ex-ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush Says Its “Worth $12 Billion” - Peter Dengate Thrush  former Chairman of the Board of ICANN told reporters today that the “current domain name market is worth about $12 Billion Dollars”. “We think it will expand by some $3-4bn with the new gTLDs.” Mr. Thrush told a reporter for  cityam.com So what do you think of Mr. Thrushes estimate of the value of  the domain name market? High, low or just about right? Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tasers.com Sells For $12K On NameJet and WoodFloor.com Sells For $11K - The domain name Tasers.com sold on NameJet.com for $12,900 Its a interesting domain as Taser is trademarked many times over including by the manufacturer of the device. WoodFloor.com sold for $11,300. It’s certainly a nice product name well worth the money. Fenhong.com sold for $8,988 CarShowroom.com sold for $2K in what I think was a nice buy . Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Asia Plans to Release 1 and 2 Character Domain Names - Registry for .asia domain names wants to release short names. .Asia registry DotAsia Organisation Ltd is joining fellow top level domain name operators with plans to release one and two character domain names. The registry has filed a Registry Services Evaluation Process request with ICANN explaining how it plans to allocate the domain names. Like other registries, it plans a three-pronged release of domain names: 1. Request for Proposal – interested parties can ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
In-N-Out Sues Grab-N-Go - “They’re not from McDonalds, are they?” This trademark lawsuit doesn’t involve a domain name but is interesting nonetheless. Iconic hamburger chain In-N-Out Burgers has sued Maryland burger joint Grab-N-Go Burgers for trademark infringement. It’s not the name by itself that disturbs In-N-Out. It’s more like McDowell’s‎ instead of McDonald’s in Coming to America (the quote above). In-N-Out thinks Grab-N-Go has stolen just about everything from ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jason Davis Continues to Hit Paydirt with Jobs Domains - Davis sells two great jobs related domain names. When it comes to job and career related domain names, Jason Davis has one of the finest track records. I first talked to Davis in 2009 when he sold the domain name CEO Jobs to recruiter Harry Joiner. Since then he has continued to sell premium job domains, including another transaction with Joiner for StartupJobs.com. Over the past two weeks Davis has sold Hr.net and RecruitingTools.com at strong prices. Despite high ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Scammy Surveys Will Bring Renewed Attention to Cybersquatting - Expect a broad crack down thanks to cybersquatters pushing the edge. Domain parking of trademark domain names and typos pisses off trademark holders. Scammy, misleading surveys really piss them off. Google just filed a complaint with WIPO over the domain name YouTube.ph, and you can’t blame the company. If you go to this domain name you’ll be forwarded to VideoRewardCentral.com and a landing page that looks like this: Whereas a parked page merely includes links ... read more ...
Wed 17th August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
VC Fund Buys 5.3% Of Verisign or More Than $250 Million Worth - According to Theflyonthewall.com, a Venture Capital firm has taken a 5.3% equity interest in Verisign. The company is ValueAct and at the closing price of VeriSign of around $30 a share Verisign has a $5 Billion dollar market cap the investment is worth more than $250 Million. According to the company’s website, Value Act:   ValueAct Capital was initially formed in June 2000 to manage the capital of its three founders, along with the capital of a limited number of outside investors, in an investment ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Trafficz: Yahoo Limits Daily Revenue on .Tv, .Co, .Biz., Info and .US Domain Names - According to an email we received tonight from TrafficZ, Yahoo started to impose a “daily revenue cap” on certain extensions, .Tv, .Co. .Biz, .Info and .Us The notice makes it clear that this is a Yahoo decision not a TrafficZ decision. We have reached out to TrafficZ for further explanation and will let you know how they respond. We also reached out to the .Co registry and the .Tv registry as well as registry for .biz and .Us Its pretty strange since the notice only covers 6 extensions one of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Sells $681K In Domains Led By SelfEmployed.com For $58K - Sedo.com just released its sales list for the week ending Monday August 15th. All reportable domain sales totalled $680,734. The top sellers of the week were selfemployed.com at $58,000 followed by foodtruck.com, rome.net, and g.biz – each for $30,000. The complete sale list in US dollars is below: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Kills URL Forwarding as Yahoo Caps Some Non-.Com Domains - Domain parking ad providers make changes. There have been two announcements from the big domain parking ad providers over the past 24 hours that may affect your domain parking company. According to an email from NameDrive, Google is banning URL forwarding as of October 1. The parking company says clients need to switch to DNS parking, although it says it’s also working on other solutions. [Update: DomainSponsor just sent a notice to its customers as well.] Partners ... read more ...