Monthly Archives: February 2012

Wed 15th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICM Releases All Failed Sunrise Application Back Into The Pool Of Avaliable Domains - According to an email I just received from UnitedDomains.com a Registrar, ICM yesterday: “Yesterday all failed Sunrise applications were released to the public for registration. A”pplicants who did not have successful Sunrise applications can attempt to register active and blocked domain names.” “Members of the Sponsored Community who did not qualify for the Sunrise period also have a shot at registering these highly sought after domain names.” I contacted ICM who said there they haven’t ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Org Releases 6 Month Report “The Dashboard” Registrations Grow 10%: Renewals during Over 75% - .ORG operated by The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today released the results of its bi-annual domain name report, “The Dashboard,” for the second half of 2011 Overall, .ORG registrations grew by 9.9% in 2011, reaching 9.6 million total domains under management by the end of 2011, a net gain of 411,002 for the second half of the year. “The Dashboard” also revealed that: The renewal rate of existing .ORG websites for the second half of 2011 was 75.4%.  (its interesting to note that is over ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
The UK (SOCA) Seizes Music Blog & Warns If You Downloaded Music You Face 10 Years In Prison & Unlimited Fines - According to digital-digest.com, The UK Government’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) seized the music blog RnBXclusive.com, and put up a message on the site threatening anyone who downloaded music from the site that the face up to 10 years in prison and a “an unlimited fine”. Authorities have arrested the owners of the site for allegedly defrauding the music industry. As you know when ICE seizes a domain name it puts up its logo and warning on the site This site now says: “SOCA has ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Spam Alert: sandie.cao@gmail.com Is Spamming Offers - Overnight I got about 50 offers all from the same email address, sandie.cao@gmail.com. All of the offers had the identical language except for the domain name: “”Hi, I’m working on a startup and am interested in purchasing a domain name you own. I saw that you have ……..com, and wanted to reach out to see if you were interested in parting with the name. If you’re open to selling it, please let me know. Thanks, Sandie””   Obviously the only business they are “starting up” is trying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows on domain name aftermarket, SOPA, and new tip turn domains - Tucows has a banner year and discusses rising aftermarket domain sale prices. Today Tucows reported record quarterly revenue of $26.4 million for the last quarter. That’s the seventh record revenue quarter in a row for the company. The company posted $97 million in revenue for the year; a record. Here are some other interesting facts from its investor conference call: YummyNames, which monetizes and sells Tucows’ inventory of domain names, saw its revenue up 24% ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Australian council blocks entrance to .info - New TLD backers take note. Australian parliamentarians can’t access .info domain names, according to a story on ITNews.com.au today. A block was placed late last year on the advice of the Defence Signals Directorate because the domain “is generally considered to be a source of more than its fair share of attacks and malicious software”, according to the department’s acting secretary. This doesn’t affect many people, and it may be a stupid way to run internet ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
16 constrained finish user domain purchases - 16 companies buy the right domain in the domain aftermarket. Here’s Domain Name Wire’s weekly look at end user domain sales. All of these sales took place on Afternic unless otherwise noted. The owner of eClassie.com wised up to the radio test and bought eClassy.com for $3,500. Another domain registrant made a smart move by dropping a hyphen. The owner of Fifth-Axis.com bought FifthAxis.com for $2,149.70. Williams Chevrolet Honda Geo of Traverse, Michigan paid ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Hand regging domains to sell? Include a word “online” - Online is a commonly registered keyword — and most commonly sold. If you’re looking to hand register domain names and list them for sale, here’s some simple advice: take a popular term and add “online” to it. “Online” is consistently one of (if not the) most common words used in domain names. VeriSign’s updated DomainView tool shows the top 15 most registered keywords, and online is right at the top. Just about every time I view the tool’s tag cloud ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verizon complains about iPhone domains - Company goes after two alleged cybersquatters. [Update 4/13/12: Verizon won both cases.] Verizon has filed two separate cases with World Intellectual Property Organization concerning ten domain names that include the “Verizon” or “Vzw” and “iPhone” marks. The first case is for the domain name verizoniphone4s.com. Interestingly, this domain name loads the Verizon Wireless page for iPhones. But it’s merely loading it in a frame. The second case covers ... read more ...
Tue 14th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells $976,000 Led By Let.com For $100K - Afternic.com just released its sales report for the week and sold $976,000 in domain names. The reportable sales were led by the domain Let.com which sold for $100K The previous owner was Gerard Brady of Ireland the Buyer seems to be Lorne Pascal of France. In Europe the word Let is used in reference to renting Flats or apartments. Here is the list of reportable sales:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Update On Manwin Vs ICM on .XXX: Motions To Dismiss Off The Calendar: Settlement Talks Underway? - In the ongoing lawsuit that Manwin filed against ICM Registry and ICANN over the .XXX TLD,  the parties today entered into a joint stipulation that allows Manwin to file an amended complaint by January 17th and gives ICM 60 days to file a response to the complaint. You may remember that ICM filed motions to dismiss the case filed by Manwin, the  operator of adult sites such as YouPorn.com in January and the Court scheduled a hearing on the motions for April 2, 2012. Included in the documents filed ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo.com Sells $1.9 Million Dollars In Domain Names - Sedo just released its sale report for the week and in all sold  917 domain names through their marketplace, totaling over $1.9 million. 32% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales include: 7t.com at 17,000 EUR k.to at 40,000 USD  (We told you about this sale on February 8th) lotto.net at 32,500 EUR Here is a list of the reportable sales       Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MostWantedDomains.com Brokers a Sale Of Aili.com For $90,000 - A few days ago we referenced in a blog post that we have sold almost $400K in domain names in the first 40 days of the year. Today MostWantedDomains.com is announcing one of those sales, the domain name Aili.com for $90,000 We have owned the domain name for over 7 years and picked it up on a drop for registration fees. We turned down an offer of $40K last year and we received quite a lot of interest in the domain from Asia so its no surprise to the buyer is out of China. Sedo.com brokered the sale ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com $3.95 domain registration banking code - Register.com offers below cost registrations. I usually don’t post special domain registration offers and coupon codes, but one landed in my inbox this afternoon that’s worth promoting. (Actually, my spam box.) Register.com is offering one year new registrations for $3.95 each. It’s only good for the first year and there’s a limit of three domains. The offer terms also say “for new customers only”. To get the special price use coupon code Reg395ab. I’m ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
NeuStar readies new domain name slogan - Domain registry files trademark application for new slogan. NeuStar, Inc. has filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “WHERE BUSINESS LIVES. ONLINE.” The application was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last Thursday (serial number 85538584). NeuStar is the registry behind .biz and will be an active player in the new top level domain business. The filing is for Goods and Services including “computer services, namely maintaining a registry ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is induction an lapsed domain “swiping”? - Swiper, no swiping! I got a chuckle this morning from a “hard hitting” investigative story in Orange County. WFTV.com reports on Orange County sheriff’s candidate John Tegg. The TV station says that someone “swiped” the domain name for Tegg’s old campaign web site, johnteggforsheriff.com, and redirected it to a rival. Swiped, eh? Well, the domain expired in April 2011 and was picked up by a new registrant in November, according to historical whois records ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
TLD focus slots competence turn valuable - Latecomers may need to tag along with companies that have already registered for TLD application system. As of yesterday 100 people or entities had registered with ICANN’s TLD application system. Each registered user can apply for up to 50 TLDs, which means technically 5,000 top level domains could be applied for with just the existing users. That’s unlikely, as many of the registered users are probably targeting one or two TLDs. The deadline to register for the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why domain registrars personally like VeriSign’s cost hikes - They won’t tell you this, but domain registrars kinda like VeriSign’s annual price hikes. (Just about) every year VeriSign hikes the price of .com domain names 7%. The registrars publicly moan about the price hikes and send notices to their customers about how they have to pass the along the costs. But consumer domain registrars actually don’t mind. They kind of like these price hikes. First, they typically raise their prices more than the 7% VeriSign adds. ... read more ...
Mon 13th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Named by ICANN as Exclusive Provider of Dispute Resolution For Trademark Objections To New gTLD’s Strings - According to a press release out today WIPO  “has been appointed by ICANN as the exclusive provider of dispute resolution services for trademark based ‘pre-delegation’ Legal Rights Objections under ICANN’s New gTLD Program,” WIPO has a QA page on their site about this. “”The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has embarked on a program of allowing new generic top-level domains on the internet (like .com), an initiative that has worried trademark holders and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Largest Registrar In Russia Joins Afternic.com Premium Resellers Network - According to a Press release just out, RU-CENTER, “Russia’s first and largest domain registrar and hosting company”, has joined Afternic’s Premium Reseller Network. RU-CENTER has more than 500,000 customers and 3 million domain names under management “Through the partnership RU-CENTER will add Afternic’s premium domains to search results on nic.ru.” “RU-CENTER will also utilize Afternic’s Instant Transfer technology on these listings, giving buyers instant access to their purchased ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
People Maybe Learning: Stats On Whitney Houston Domain Registrations Are Just A Fraction Of Michael Jackson - Last night Elliotsblog.com,  reported a “huge surge in domain names at Godaddy.com” which contained the name of Whitney Houston. However the article goes on to state that “Hundreds of related domain names have been registered in fewer than 24 hours since news of her death hit the media.” While its pathetic to see anyone registering these type of domain names, I found the report of only a few hundred domain registrations as good news that maybe people have by in large learned the rules of ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Frank Schilling’s New Blog Post: “This Business Still Offers Opportunity Like No Other!” - Frank Schilling just posted a new article up on his blog, entitled  “There Are No Accidents” and while we don’t usually cover other domain blogs, Frank now posts just a few times a year and they are always well written in a way only Frank can do it. On the topic of not blogging very much, Frank said: “When I’m blogging, I’m not innovating.  Blogging is an opportunity to vent and reflect, but when you’re venting and reflecting you’re not growing.” On Domainfest: “It was terrific ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker auction has 29 bids with 3 days to go - Extended auction on SnapNames platform ends this Thursday. Moniker’s extended auction from this month’s DOMAINfest ends on Thursday afternoon. Already 29 of the 324 domains in the auction have received bids. This extended auction is a bit different from previous ones because it has reserves. In the past the extended auctions didn’t have reserves, which effectively meant the company disclosed the reserve price of domains that didn’t sell in the live auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hover’s beauty is in the simplicity - Tucows’ Hover makes registering domains simple. One of the most common questions I’m asked by non-domainer friends is which registrar I recommend they use. It’s a tough question to answer. I typically try to find out more about what they’re looking for. Will they register a bunch of domains? Are they tech savvy? I think I have a new recommendation for friends that want a simple way to register a handful of domain names: Hover. (Yes, I know the Hover brand ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Level Domain Holdings releases annual report - Report details last years results including director remuneration. Top Level Domain Holdings has released its annual report (pdf) for the year ending October 31, 2011. The company owns 100% of new TLD applicant and consultancy Minds and Machines LLC, 65% of a group going after the .nyc top level domain, 25% of a group going after .eco, as well as the web sites TutorialBlog and AppCraver. As would be expected of a company betting on new top level domains, it continues ... read more ...