Monthly Archives: January 2012

Thu 12th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
FoxBusiness: “Web Addresses to Get Major Update, Custom Names To Replace .com” - FoxBusiness.com published a story today entitled “Web Addresses To Get A Major Update As Custom Names To Replace .Com” The article of course is talking about the new gTLD’s and is just one of a hundred stories written about the new gTLD’s this week by non-domain publications. Its certainly the most aggressive headline of any story on the new gTLD’s to date but again just one of many that are being written on the subject. The Huffingtonpost.com story on the subject is entitled: “”Domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wow: Judge orders UDRP transfers, including Apple typo, to be reversed - We do things differently in Texas. District Judge Royal Furgeson has ordered (pdf) that World Intellectual Property Organization cases from as early as 2010 be overturned and ordered a number of domain names now owned by Apple and Public storage be transferred back to the typosquatter that previously owned them. Yes, you read that correctly. The case involves domain names that belonged to a company tied up in the courts when UDRP cases were filed against the obvious ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest brings behind “Dine With an Expert” - A great opportunity for an hour of quality time with an expert. One of the more successful features of DOMAINfest is “Dine With an Expert”. It’s an opportunity to have breakfast or lunch with one of the conference speakers. A lot of the speakers at this year’s event aren’t from the domain industry, including SEO experts and lead gen pros. That means this is a great opportunity to basically get a free hour with these experts to pick their brains. You can ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 things that could go horribly wrong with new TLDs - If any of these things happen the new TLD program will have some serious headaches. ICANN officially opens its application window for top level domain names today, giving companies, organizations, and individuals 90 days to submit their plans for a .whatever. The plan has many notable flaws, but six of them seem to me like the biggest break points in the program — things that could delay individual applications or lead to lawsuits against ICANN. 1. Community gaming This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN to critics: we’ve already finished commander TLD rounds - ICANN says it’s done three pilot rounds of top level domain expansion. A frequent complaint about ICANN’s new top level domain plans in recent months is the scale, with numerous groups asking ICANN to run a pilot program. But in response to an FTC query, ICANN has faced this issue head on by pointing out something obvious: it has already run “pilot” rounds. 1. 2000 proof of concept round which approved seven new TLDs 2. 2004 sponsored top level domain program 3. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Octane360 founders start amicable media agency - After cashing out to Local.com, Octane360 founders return to agency roots. The founders of geo domain monetization platform Octane360 have returned to their agency roots with a new social media agency Next Step Social. Adam Rioux and Mark Roah founded Octane360 back in 2006 and sold it to publicly traded Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM) in 2010. They left Local.com at the beginning of last summer and just recently hatched Next Step Social. The agency helps brands, athletes, ... read more ...
Wed 11th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN
If Your Planning On Going To ICANN Costa Rica You Better Get Planning: Here Are Some Tips - In 60 days the ICANN Costa Rica conference is being held in the capital city of San Jose on March 11th. If your planning on going you better get a planning as the host venue and most of the nearby hotels to the venue are now sold out. I know it’s not politically correct to bad mouth a venue or host city so I’ll just say that San Jose is probably not going to be the nicest, cleanest nor safest city you’re going to visit in your life. If you don’t have a reservation for a hotel yet, you might ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainHack.er in HU and tagged
Kezdődik a doménforradalom - Holnap megnyílik a lehetőség a szabadon választható – ráadásul nem csak latin betűs – felsőszintű domének (gTLD) regisztrálására. Az internetes címeket felügyelő ICANN a végződések tavaly elhatározott felszabadítását az internet történetének egyik legjelentősebb változásának tartja, kritikusai szerint azonban az új rendszer megtöbbszörözi a visszaélésekre kínálkozó lehetőséget. De miről is van szó? Felsőszintű doménnek azokat a végződéseket ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN relaxes heading order in needy TLD applicant plan - NGOs and communities can apply for reduced fees for TLD even if the string represents a trademark. ICANN has relaxed a restriction on trademark top level domain names qualifying for its applicant support program for needy applicants. An updated guidebook for the program was released today. In the first public iteration of the plan, TLDs that were trademarks for organizations would not be eligible for a reduced application rate of $42,000. The latest version of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Richard Branson wants his .XXX - Virgin Group founder challenges registration of .xxx domain name. When ICM Registry released .xxx domain names to the public last month, Richard Branson must have been busy yachting. Australian Sean Truman beat him to the domain name, registering RichardBranson.xxx on December 10. That was four days after .xxx was opened up to registration. Now Branson of Virgin Group fame wants his name back. He filed a complaint with National Arbitration Forum today. It looks like ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My favorite Mexican grill only bought Tex-Mex.com - Lupe Tortilla buys Tex-Mex.com and other end user domain purchases. So I was putting together this week’s summary of end user domain purchases when I noticed a familiar name: Lupe Tortilla. This Mexican restaurant serves the world’s best beef fajitas. And it apparently has some domain smarts, too. The company bought Tex-Mex.com $4,300 from Afternic this week. (It’s not TexMex.com, but still a good domain.) The downside to Lupe Tortilla is that I can only visit ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainIncite launches subscription service - DomainIncite Pro offers in-depth research on the domain name industry. DomainIncite has launched a subscription service called DomainIncite Pro. The service provides in-depth domain industry analysis and research. For example, current reports on the site include analysis of how .co was relaunched, Five thousand strings that could get your gTLD application rejected, and a domain name sales database. I think this is a smart move from DomainIncite’s founder, Kevin ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
TrueCar: Don’t get f’d by a dealer - TrueCar registers domains about getting f@%ed by the car dealer. If there’s one site that has made waves in the retail auto business over the past few years it has to be TrueCar. Before TrueCar if you wanted to get negotiating leverage at the car dealer you had to just try to figure out how much the dealer paid for the car. But with TrueCar you find out what other people actually paid based on tax and loan records. It’s a slam dunk for negotiating a car purchase. Of ... read more ...
Tue 10th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN On Threat Of Litigation On New gTLD’s To Applicants: You Take The Risk - It appears ICANN is NOT willing to give any assurance to applicants who put down their $185,000 application fee that any special refund would be available in the event a court orders ICANN to stopped or delay the new gTLD program. When asked about the refund policy of ICANN in the event that some court orders ICANN to stop or delay the new gTLD program, ICANN was quite clear. “We will only offer refunds that are laid out in the Applicant Guide Book.” “The Guidebook does not specifically talk ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells $1.3 Million In Domains NOT including Dudu.com - Sedo just release its sales report for the week and wound up with $1.3 Million dollars in sales NOT including Dudu.com which they said actually sold in December and I guess therefore should be on 2011 report. In all 762 domains sold with 35% sold through buy it now. Here are the reported sales:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Sells $1.15MM In Domains Led By mcommerce.com For $50K - Afternic.com reported $1,152,248 in domain sales for the week ending January 8th. The publicly reportable sales included in the total above came to $528,656 led by mcommerce.com at $50,000 followed by bigbags.com at $11,050. Below is the entire list of publicly reportable sales: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Federal Court Throws Out Class Action Against Google Over Parked Domains & AdWords - On January 5th A federal judge tossed out a class action case against Google involving AdWords (Parked Domains). The case is In RE Google Adwords Litigation Case No.: 5: 08-CV-3369 EJD Here are the relevant facts and findings are quoted from the court’s 25 page opinion: In July 2008, Plaintiffs initiated this lawsuit, alleging that Google engaged in deceptive advertising and unfair, deceptive and unlawful business practices regarding Google AdWords.” The named Plaintiffs seek to represent a class ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Co Enters Into 2 Year Exclusive Deal To Broker Select Registry Owned Domains: Priced $10K -$150K - According to a press release today, Sedo, entered into a a two-year exclusive partnership with .CO Internet S.A.S. to provide brokerage of a select set of previously unreleased .CO domain names, including: clothes.co profit.co software.co onlinemusic.co hardware.co internetmarketing.co body.co onlinedating.co france.co jobsonline.co In all there are 726 domain names currently listed all pre-priced with prices ranging from $10K-$150K Domain names like france.co and italy.co are priced at $150,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NameJet.com Sales: US Politics.com; DrivingTest.com; idq.com; tqr.com + More - Noktadomains went on a small shopping spree today at Namejet.com picking up the domain name iqd.com for $6,299 and MusicHits.com for $4,900. The owner of CapitolHill.com added to his collection by picking up UsPolitics.com for $6K. A few other sales for the past couple of days: DrivingTest.com sold for $5,655 TQR.com sold for $5,299 Showerchairs.com sold for $3,900 Cosmonauts.com sold for $2,599 Organicyogurt.com sold for $1,999 Freeexchange.com sold for $1,900 Moonlight.net sold for $1,500 CrowdService.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Rod Beckstrom would do differently with a new TLD program… - Had Rod Beckstrom been involved with the new TLD program earlier… This afternoon Rod Beckstrom held a briefing call with bloggers about the new top level domain name program. He’s been on a world tour explaining the program for months, answering a number of repeated questions. Rather than beat a dead horse, I asked him what he would do differently had he been involved with the new TLD process from the beginning. (Remember, he inherited this program when he became ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Paul Stahura’s Donuts Inc to request for 10 TLDs - eNom founder’s company will apply for ten top level domains. Update 6/5/12: Or maybe 307… eNom founder Paul Stahura plans to apply for ten new top level domain names through his new company Donuts Inc., Bloomberg reports. Donuts raised $1 million in outside capital beginning in April of 2011. Based on the directors involved with the company, it looks like TL Ventures and Austin Ventures are backers. It was fairly clear to me from the SEC filing that the company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Receiver asks for typo domains to be confiscated from Apple and others - Receiver wants ICANN to reverse domain transfers. Remember that court case where the receiver, in charge of a number of domain names, said ICANN had the power to stay a UDRP decision? It’s getting a little wonkier. Now the receiver is asking ICANN to “undo” a handful of transfers that were completed under UDRP. Those transfers include typo domain names now controlled by companies such as Apple and Public Storage. The receiver asked the court to force ICANN ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Wild West Domains is a TLD frontrunner’s favorite tool - Easy “proof” of using a .tld for domain registration services. A lot of companies have tried to “frontrun” the new top level domain name process by filing trademark applications for .whatever. Many of these applications start out as “intent to use”, but ultimately the applicant comes back saying it’s using the term in commerce. Their proof? Usually a screenshot of a Wild West Domains reseller account using .whatever. Wild West Domains is GoDaddy’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Blackstone Group says it “sucks” - Blackstone group registers “sucks” domains for its name and its chairman. Private equity giant Blackstone Group thinks it sucks. That’s the only plausible explanation for seven recent domain name registrations by the company. (OK, so they were actually defensive domain registrations.) blackstonesucks.com blackstonegroupsucks.com theblackstonegroupsucks.com schwarzmansucks.com stephenschwarzmansucks.com stevenschwarzmansucks.com steveschwarzmansucks.com Stephen ... read more ...
Mon 9th January 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
House Committe Chariman Issa Calls For Hearing On DNS & Search Engine Blocking On Jan 18th - The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Darrell Issa (R-CA) today announced that the Full Committee will hold a hearing on January 18 to examine the potential impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking system like that proposed in SOPA will have on American cyber-security, jobs and the Internet community. In light of policy proposals affecting the way taxpayers access the Internet, the hearing will also explore federal government strategies to protect ... read more ...