Monthly Archives: August 2011

Fri 5th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Goes After High Traffic iTunes Typo Domain Names - Apple asks arbitration panel to give it typo domain names. Apple has filed a dispute with World Intellectual Property Forum over two high traffic typos of iTunes.com. The complaint covers wwiTunes.com and wwwiTunes.com, both of which take advantage fat fingered web surfers who still insist on typing “www” before domain names. Compete.com shows that wwwiTunes.com gets thousands of unique typo visitors a month. Although the domains get traffic, Apple customers can’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Depositions Begin in Women.com Case with Sedo and NBC Universal - Representatives of domain broker and NBC to be questioned over failed transaction. Depositions will begin next week in a lawsuit over a failed transaction for Women.com and Women.net. The suit was originally brought by DONE! Ventures against NBC Universal after the latter allegedly failed to complete a sale agreement for the domain names for $1 million. Sedo was later added to the suit for failing to enforce the agreement. Next week in Boston Kathy Nielson, Jeremiah ... read more ...
Thu 4th August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TechCrunch: Just.Me Raises $600K in Seed Funding - According to TechCrunch.com, a startup playing in the social and mobile spaces, Just.me, has just raised $600,000 in seed funding LLC. “Just.me was founded by Keith Teare, a serial entrepreneur and a co-founder of TechCrunch” “Teare previously co-founded RealNames Corporation, and The EasyNet Group.” “When asked if just.me has any co-founders, Teare responded ‘it’s just me.’ Teare says that just.me will launch later this year.” Nice to see another .Me getting traction. Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic App Is Now on iTunes Store For iPhones & iPads & Its Free - NameMedia’s Afternic domain marketplace is now accessible to iPhone and iPad users through a free application available via Apple’s App Store. According to Name Media, AfternicDLS Mobile will offer the world’s estimated 120 million iPhone and 25 million iPad users one-click access to the world’s largest domain marketplace: the Domain Listing Service (DLS). “Afternic is the only domain marketplace offering a mobile application to support search and bidding activities.” “The application ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
EasySpace: 80% Of All .XXX Pre-Registrations So Far Are Defensive - Easyspace, one of registrar’s taking pre-reservations for .XXX domains said today that 8 out 10 businesses pre-registering their interest in the new .XXX domain name extension are not part of the adult industry. “Out of the hundreds of businesses that have rushed to pre-register with Easyspace ahead of the opening of the Sunrise phase for .XXX domains on 7 September 2011, only 20% of them are from the adult industry” said Sarah Haran, managing director of Easyspace. Ms. Haran went on to say: “As ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Our Nominations For TRAFFIC Award For Domainer Of The Year - Its that time again when TRAFFIC has opened up nomination for its annual awards to be presented at the TRAFFIC 2011 Ft. Lauderdale show to be held from October 16th-19th. You can now nominate people for several awards but as we have done in the past we have some of our own nominations. (Get your votes in because nominations close at Friday August 5th 2011 at 6PM ) Having said that, we understand that a lot of people fly under the radar, so in many ways we are somewhat restricted to those who make ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Patent Licensing Firm Gets Hands on “Domain Name Redirection” Patent - Company acquires patent to license or sue. Publicly traded Acacia, which some would call a patent troll, has acquired a patent “relating to domain name redirection technology”. I reached out to the company to find out the specific patent. But it turns out the company’s short, uninformative press release about the acquisition is all the company will disclose. When Acacia acquires patents it actually enters into a contingency agreement with the patent holder ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy Sold 109,000 Domains By Auction Last Quarter (and Other Good Stats) - Domain registrar offers more insight into its domain name auctions. We know GoDaddy is a powerhouse for new domain registrations, but until now we haven’t had great visibility into how many domain names it auctions off each month. That data and a lot more is now available on Go Daddy Auctions Domain Market Report. Here’s a solid stat: The company sold 109,000 domains by auction last quarter. The report includes a list of top sales by month, including June’s ... read more ...
 
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Tucows Integrating Afternic DLS, Hover Offers Domain Name “Trade In” Program - Hover and Tucows/OpenSRS to start offering premium domain names. Tucows is integrating Fabulous’ Domain Distribution Network as well as Afternic DLS into its Hover and OpenSRS platforms. As one of the top three domain name registrars by volume, this will significantly expand these programs’ reach. Additionally, Hover customers can “trade in” their old domain names for a better one through a unique marketing program. Basically, Hover customers who find and ... read more ...
 
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.Co Explains Its Expiring Domains - .Co domains will begin dropping soon… With the one year anniversary of the .co launch upon us, .Co has published details about expiring .co domain names and what happens to them: 1. When a domain expires, it will go into suspension status and registrars have 45 days to renew or delete the domain. Of course, some registrars will opt to auction off domains during this time if not renewed. 2. The registrar can delete the domain name any time during the 45 day suspension ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rock On! Queen Awarded Domain Name WeWillRockYou.com - Arbitration panel awards WeWillRockYou.com to rock band. Here’s a follow up to a story I first reported in June. The rock band Queen filed a domain name dispute over the name WeWillRockYou.com. We Will Rock You is one of Queen’s greatest hits. The song later became the name of a musical that still tours the globe to packed houses. A World Intellectual Property Forum has found in Queen’s favor, ordering the domain name transferred. The panel did question why ... read more ...
 
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Ari Goldberger Wins A Short But Sweet UDRP - A very short but spot on UDRP decision. I’m often critical of UDRP panelists for shirking their duties. But I’m not going to complain about the decision on a recent case defended by Ari Goldberger. Goldberger defended the domain name OrganizedPlay.com, which was registered by Blue Sandbox when it expired. The complainant, OrganizedPlay Corporation, said it owned the domain name before it accidentally let it expire. A three member National Arbitration Forum wrote ... read more ...
Wed 3rd August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Web.com Acquires Network Solutions For $560M - JACKSONVILLE, FL and HERNDON, VA – August 3, 2011 – Web.com (Nasdaq: WWWW), a leading provider of internet services and online marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and privately-held Network Solutions, a leading provider of website services, online marketing and global domain name registration focused on the needs of SMBs, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Web.com to acquire Network Solutions. The transaction will create a leading end-to-end ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Owner Of WorldTradeCenter.com Turned Down Over $14 Million For The Domain - I reached out to Carron Brown of Aftermarket.com who is brokering the sale of the domain name WorldTradeCenter.com and asked her for some history on the domain. Some pretty interesting facts are in here ·         The site was originally registered in 1996 (5 years before the tragedy) ·         The owner received hundreds of purchase offers on September 11th 2001, but denied them all ·         The site was used to disseminate information and provide links to help and rescue ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com Owner to Acquire Network Solutions - Register.com and Network Solutions to get married. Two of the highest priced and oldest domain name registrars are getting married. Web.com, which owns Register.com, will pay $405 million plus 18 million shares of Web.com stock as well as take on Network Solutions’ debt. The cash portion of the deal will be funded with new debt: $600 million of First Lien Credit Facilities and $150 million of Second Lien Credit Facilities, as well as a $50 million revolver. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Domains Bruce Clay and Others Bought This Past Week - End user sales for the past week. Afternic turned in another strong performance for end user domain name sales last week. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones. Popular SEO firm Bruce Clay, Inc. bought Localware.com for $2,088 for a new product it’s unveiling later this month. Health care data services company Core HDS bought HealthGate.com for $8,500 and MedSaving.com for $1,288. Wealth management company Bedouin Group bought Lighthouseloans.com ... read more ...
 
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Wikipedia Takes Down Web Hosting Site - Wikimedia wins dispute over web hosting comparison site. Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation Inc. has won a case against the owner of WebhostingWikipedia.com, which will be transferred to Wikimedia as a result. From reading the case decision, it’s fairly clear the owner of the web hosting comparison site at WebhostingWikipedia.com had no idea that Wikipedia was a trademark. So let’s be clear: the generic term is wiki. Wikipedia is a specific site. If you want ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is .NGO a First Defensive TLD Registration Announcement? - Registry behind .org wants .ngo. This week Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced it will apply for the .ngo top level domain name when ICANN opens up its application process next year. Could this be the first example of a “defensive” TLD registration? PIR runs the .org registry, and .ngo for non-governmental organizations is definitely competitive to .org. Others had expressed plans for .ngo as well, and PIR certainly doesn’t want another group running a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sony-Microsoft? How About Apple-MSN? - Microsoft has owned other brand name domain names before. There was quite a bit of buzz recently when Microsoft registered a couple domain names including the Sony brand name. A merger? A phone product? Video games? While certainly newsworthy, often times these types of registrations are just defensive registrations. The company wants to register a domain name before a cybersquatter does. In fact, both of the domains in question, sony-microsoft.com and microsoft-sony.com, ... read more ...
Tue 2nd August 2011
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Sells $924K In Domains Led By Grid.com For $275K - Sedo.com just released its sales list for the week ending Monday August 1st. All reportable domain sales totalled $923,725. The top seller of the week was Grid.com at $275,000 followed by Namibia.de at €30,000. Elliot’s Blog reported on the Grid.com sale yesterday, noting it was a domain registered in 1992 and resolving to a Godaddy landing page. In the past the domain had resolved to various “Under Constructions” pages. Namibia is a country in south west Africa which was originally colonized ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Sells $744K In Domains Led By The Domain Hack Famo.us For $25k - Afternic.com just released its sales for the week ending Sunday July 31st. All reportable domain sales $1k and over totaled $744,471. The top seller of the week was the domain name hack Famo.us at $25,000 followed by Imusica.com at $18,000. Famou.us follows the rising trend of ccTLDs being used with the first part of a domain to complete the word or phrase. While pronouncing the domain can be a challenge, we’ll see much more of this as new gTLDs roll out. Interestingly it was just a couple of weeks ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows Buys Domain Registrar EPAG Of Germany For $2.5 Million; Expands To Over 200 TLDs; & Picks Up 400K Domain Registrations - According to a Press Release, Tucows Inc. (NYSE AMEX: TCX), announced today that it has acquired all the shares of EPAG Domainservices GmbH from QSC AG for approximately US$2.5 Million (€1.5 Million to purchase the shares and the settlement of a working capital adjustment of €0.25 Million) through an all-cash transaction. EPAG, based in Bonn, Germany, is an ICANN-accredited registrar with over 400,000 domains under management and is notable for offering over 200 Top Level Domains (TLDs). Tucows ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Borders.com Maybe Auctioned Off As Soon As Sep 14th - According to PublishersWeekly.com, all the Intellectually property of Borders may be auctioned off as soon as September 14th including the domain name Borders.com “If the sales procedure is approved at the next hearing on August 10, a bid deadline will be set for September 8 at 5 p.m., followed by an auction on September 14 at 10 a.m. for all of Borders trade marks, trade names, logos, Internet domain names, and customer information, including e-mail addresses and purchasing history. “Borders’s ... read more ...
 
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ClickBank Cracks Down on Questionable Sales Practices - Payment processor and affiliate network changes guidelines for promoting products using its services. I’ve had a ClickBank account for over a decade. In college I used Clickbank to sell thousands of dollars worth of product a month. But over the past decade it seems there’s been a race to the bottom in info product pitches, especially in the “make money online” category. And ClickBank is home to a lot of them. Today ClickBank announced new promotional guidelines, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Speek Buys Speak.com Domain Name - Company upgrades its domain name to something users know how to spell. Web-based teleconferencing system Speek has purchased the domain name Speak.com from a familiar face in the domain name industry. According to whois records, the domain name was sold by Nat Cohen of Telepathy. The sales price was not disclosed. This is another example of a company launching a business on a “cute” domain name and then having to pay a price later. Speek.com is a bad domain ... read more ...