Monthly Archives: January 2012

Thu 19th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo offered Zimbabwe.com during a fragment of the former price - Domain priced at least 60% below its sale price in 2007. I was just reading Elliot’s post about the latest Sedo Great Domains auction, and one domain caught my eye. Zimbabwe.com is for sale with a reserve range of $25,000 to $50,000. Even at the top end of this range, the owner is taking a 60% haircut from when it sold for $130,000 back in 2007 (also on Sedo). The domain has been listed for sale in numerous auctions since then, often times for more than the $130,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
So long, MegaUpload.com - MegaUpload.com shut down by U.S. government, arrests made. The Feds have shut down online file sharing site MegaUpload.com and charged seven people with online piracy in connection with the site. The MegaUpload.com web site, along with associated sites MegaClick.com, MegaPorn.com, and MegaVideo.com, are no longer resolving. According to the recently unsealed indictment, the site generated $150 million in subscription fees and $25 million from advertising. TorrentFreak ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fortune names GoDaddy to 100 “Best Companies to Work for” list - Domain company on list of top companies to work for. The domain name industry is represented in Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work for” list with GoDaddy.com coming in at #93. GoDaddy was one of only 19 companies on the list to have never had layoffs. It was also cited for its benefits (one of 14 companies on the list that pay 100% of employee health premiums) and ranked #8 on the list for job growth (24.6%). The company has about 150 positions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Research paper could save brands $185,000 on a “defensive” new TLD - Why most brands don’t need to apply for a new TLD strictly for defensive reasons. One of the more perplexing commonly held beliefs about new TLDs is that brands need to apply for one merely to protect their brand. This false notion is due to both a lack of understanding about the new top level domain rules and registry providers/consultants’ desires to not turn away potential business. But explaining this to a brand owner in a clear and simple way is not easy. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SOPA and PIPA web site protests memorialized on Screenshots.com - Screenshots.com captures yesterday’s web site blackouts. Screenshots.com has forever captured many of the web site “blackouts” put in place yesterday in opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills. On one page you can see over 50 screenshots of protests. It includes sites you probably saw (Wikipedia) and ones you probably didn’t (PopCultureMadness.com). You can also click on each screenshot to see how the site looked before the protest. Screenshots.com is a standalone ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Association of Realtors goes after GayRealtor.com - Association files arbitration case targeting gay real estate referral site. The National Association of Realtors has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain name GayRealtor.com. [Update 3/8/12: The NAR won the case] The domain name is owned by gay real estate agent Jeff Hammerberg. Hammerberg runs the web site GayRealEstate.com, which helps connect home buyers and sellers with gay real estate agents. GayRealtor.com appears to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Monte Cahn and Oversee.net go to hearing subsequent week - Court to decide two aspects of dispute between Moniker founder Monte Cahn and his former employer. Monte Cahn and Oversee.net will square off in court on January 24, but it will be a limited non-jury trial over just a couple aspects of Cahn’s breach of contract claim. The trial will seek to address two issues: 1. Oversee’s treatment of the Oversee EBITDA performance goal under Cahn’s bonus plan 2. Who counts as “TrafficClub customers” for determining if ... read more ...
Wed 18th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN
While Thousands Of Sites Blackout To Fight SOPA, Marchex Owned Pirate.com Tries To Monetize Piracy - Today is of course the day that a lot of thousands of sites have blacked themselves out in protect of the SOPA bill, including mainstream sites like Wikipedia.org, WordPress.org, and some inside the domain industry like Tucows.com and NameCheap.com . However one site that looks alive and well is Pirate.com owned by Marchex. Not only is the site live, but its full of keywords to exactly the type of sites the SOPA bill and its supporters are trying to outlaw. Keywords on the parked page are all about ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Marchex & Berryhill Beat Back UDRP on Phones4u.com -  Marchex  represented by John Berryhill, Ph.d., Esq beat back a UDRP challage on the domain name phones4u.com. There were two Complainants Phones4U Limited and Mobileserv Limited of Staffordshire UK. Here are the relevant fact and findings by the three member panel: “”Each of the Complainants is an English company within the Phones4U group of companies (“Group”), trading in the UK under the “Phones4U” name since May 1995, whereby Mobileserv Limited is the immediate parent company (“Parent”) ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Meebo Founder: Apps Will Be Dead In 3-5 Years - There are many who think that Apps will kill domain names. Stories have been written on the topic,  Sessions at domain name conferences have been dedicated to the subject and we have written about it on TheDomains.com as well. According to  Adweek.com , Seth Sternberg, CEO and founder of Meebo had a completely different point of view saying that: “I think apps are dead in three to five years,” “”Don’t get too used to the app for everything era. In just a few years it could be over.” He ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells $1.2 Million In Domains - Afternic.com sold $1.2 Million in domain names this week. The reportable sales for the week were led by Local360.com for $51K.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SOPA.com goes adult for sale for $50,000 - SOPA.com domain name getting its 15 minutes of fame. The domain name SOPA.com has been listed for sale at Latonas.com for $50,000. There’s no hotter topic on the internet right now than the Stop Only Piracy Act (SOPA). In fact, earlier today I emailed the owner of the domain to ask him how much traffic he was getting. I heard back from the owner but not with traffic data. I’m sure interested parties can get the data from the sales venue. [Update: the owner showed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Switch a word sequence in a domain, compensate 17x - Company pays 17 times as much for “opposite” domain compared to its company name domain. This week’s end user sales report has an interesting pair of domain sales. The purchases come courtesy of a Delaware company called 360 Local, Inc. The company bought bought 360local.com and local360.com. You might think the former name is most important for the company given it exactly matches the company name. But it managed to buy 360local.com for only $2,995 while paying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameJet bought the domain for only $600 - Popular expired domain service paid a measly 600 bucks for its brand. Even domain marketplaces have to buy their own domain names. A notable case was when thought Convergence’s Aftermarket.com paid $125,000 to pick up its name at auction. Drop catching service NameJet paid decidedly less: just $600. The company bought the domain name in September 2007 on Afternic. YummyName’s Bill Sweetman stumbled on this sale when doing some research. You can see historical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy blacks out partial of the web site to conflict SOPA - From bill supporter to blackout. Did you know that GoDaddy is participating in today’s web blackout to oppose SOPA and PIPA? OK, so it’s only a 500×90 pixel block below the fold on its home page: Still, this is noteworthy given that GoDaddy’s prior support for the anti-piracy legislation made waves on the internet last month, leading to a spike in domain transfers to competitors. GoDaddy reversed its opinion on the bill and now opposes it. Ironically, some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
JoePaterno.xxx adult for sale on eBay - Joe Paterno triple x domain name among those for sale on eBay. I guess it could be more tasteless. A Florida man has placed JoePaterno.xxx up for sale on eBay for $3,400. But thankfully the seller doesn’t have a description referring to the child sex scandal at Penn State. So it could be more tasteless. The Joe Paterno name is just one of the interesting .xxx domains I found for sale on eBay today. Earlier this week I discovered someone selling FoxStudios.xxx (which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$85k of your $185k new gTLD app goes to haunt costs - What should happen to the extra $85,000? When you write that check for $185,000 for your new top level domain application, $85,000 of it is going to rather interesting uses. $60,000 of it will go to a reserve fund for “risk costs”. In other words, lawsuits. $25,000 of it goes to cover historical costs of the new gTLD program. In other words, money that has already been spent. This brings up some interesting questions. First, what happens if the risk costs don’t ... read more ...
Tue 17th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Founder Of Yahoo Jerry Yang Resigns from Yahoo Board & Stock is Up - Jerry Yang one of the co-founders of Yahoo has resigned from its board of directors and the share of Yahoo are up 3.5% in after hours trading Here is the press release: “”Yahoo! Inc., the premier digital media company, today announced that Jerry Yang has resigned from its Board of Directors and all other positions with the company, effective today. In addition, Yang resigned from the Boards of Yahoo Japan Corporation and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, effective today. In a letter to the Yahoo! ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com Sells $1.5 Million in Domains Led By ICN.com For $60K - Sedo.com just released it weekly report and they sold 880 domain names for a total of $1.5 Million dollars. ICN.com led the way selling at $60K then one of our domains newyorkapartmentsforsale.com for $42K Here are the reportable sales: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Baseball Wives Star Anna Benson: “Domain Squatting is a Best Revenge” - FoxNews.com has a story today on one of the “stars” of the new reality show “Baseball Wives” Anna Benson, which is on VH1. Benson seems to have a pretty colorful past which you can read about in the story. As far as domain names go this certainly caught our eye: “‘Recently, she bought the domain names cheriknoblauch.com and jordanalenz.com, two of her “Baseball Wives” costars. “Now, they redirect to my web site, annabenson.net,” laughs Benson. “They didn’t think to get ‘em ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Insurance association claims rights to AutoOwner.com and others - Insurance company says it should get AutoOwner.com. Is it generic? Auto-Owners Insurance has filed UDRP cases against the owners of four domain names that it thinks infringe its intellectual property rights, including AutoOwner.com. The insurance company’s web site is www.auto-owners.com. The other domains in dispute are autoownersinsurance.com autoownersinsurance.org autoowners-insurance.com Although “auto owner” is certainly a generic term, I’m sure the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Justin.tv wins evidence over Twitch.tv copycat - Arbitration panel find in favor of Justin.tv over video game site. The creators of Justin.tv launched Twitch.tv last June as a topic-specific video site about video games. The site quickly ballooned, snagging 8 million unique users by July. It didn’t take long for someone to capitalize on a typo of the domain name. Twich.tv (omitting the second ‘t’) was registered in July. Twich.tv copies Twitch.tv’s content. Making matters worse, when someone visits the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DirectNIC and United Domains now entirely integrated with SedoMLS Premium - Customers can list their domains on SedoMLS at Premium level. Sedo has announced that domain name registrars DirectNIC and United Domains are now fully integrated with SedoMLS at the Premium level. This means that customers of these domain registrars can add their domains to SedoMLS’ instant transfer system and also purchase domains directly through the registrar. Both registrars were previously integrated with SedoMLS but only on the purchasing end; customers could ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afilias buys .Pro registry (and some tentative TLD trademarks) - Afilias acquires RegistryPRO. Afilias has purchased Registry Services Corporation (d.b.a. RegistryPRO), which operates the .pro top level domain, from Hostway Corporation. .Pro has an interesting history. When .pro first launched the only way you could register a domain was at the third level. You were required to show credentials for each second level your domain was under, such as .law. In 2005 domain registrar Encirca started offering a controversial service ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2012 Domain Name Wire Survey now open - Take part in the seventh annual domain industry survey. The Domain Name Wire Survey returns for its seventh year… This is your chance to give your opinion on the state of the domain name industry and its service providers. You’ll answer questions such as: Which domain registrar is best? What’s the biggest issue facing the domain industry in 2012? What has happened to your domain parking revenue over the past year? Which domain forum is best? As always, I’ll ... read more ...