Monthly Archives: February 2012

Tue 7th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells $1.06 Million In Domain Names Led By FaceValue.com For $20K - Afternic.com just released their weekly report of domain sales and sold $1,066.41 in domain names. FaceValue.com led the way in reportable sales at $20K. Here is the complete list of reportable sales over $1K. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells $1.73 Million In Domain Names - Sedo.com just published its weekly sales report and in all “894 sales through our marketplace, totaling over $1.73 million” The reportable sales were led by: geb.com at 40,000 EUR Top ccTLD: football-betting.co.uk at 11,800 GBP Top “other” TLD: lotto.info at 19,500 USD 34% of all sales where “Buy it Now” Here is a list of all the reportable sales:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Despite $100M Dollar Budget, ICANN Calls For Volunteers - In an announcement just issued by ICANN (pdf) they are calling for volunteers to “assist in the evaluation of those organizations seeking financial support to apply for a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD).” Hum ICANN has budgeted some $100 Million dollars from incoming application fees from the new gTLD program and they are asking people to volunteer their time to evaluate applicants seeking financial support. Throughout the new gTLD process and various Guidebooks and meetings ICANN has stated ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Opens Comment Period To Hear About Defensive New gTLD Extensions - ICANN has just opened a comment period to hear from people and companies concerned about defensive applications for new gTLD’s. “”Public comment is requested as to why there may be a perceived need for defensive new gTLD applications and steps that could be considered to help alleviate this concern.”” The comment period closes  on February 27th. In announcing the opening of the comment period ICANN said: “”The New gTLD Program was designed to increase competition and choice by introducing ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Bob Parsons & Richard Rosenblatt Makes The Reuters/Klout Top 50 “Most Influential Execs on a Web” List - Two CEO from the domain name industry space have been named by Klout.com/Reuters as one of the top 50 “Most Influential Execs on the Web” Richard Rosenblatt, the CEO of Demand Media, Inc. is listed as number 34 on the list with a Klout Score of 56. Bob Parsons, the Executive Chairman of Godaddy.com is listed as number 40 on the list with a Klout Score of 53. (It should be noted that Klout incorrectly still has Parsons listed as the CEO of Godaddy). Both Richard and Bob’s Klout score are higher ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hey NAF, this is a classical instance of retreat domain hijacking - Respondent wins but should have gotten more than that. National Arbitration Forum panelist Beatrice Onica Jarka got the “answer” correct in a recent UDRP case. But she really should have considered reverse domain name hijacking. The case was brought by deals site Shopzooey, Inc. Shopzooey, Inc was founded in 2011. Upon finding the domain name Shopzooey.com already registered, the company registered MyShopZooey.com in July 2011. ShopZooey.com was registered in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Kyoto tip turn domain in a works - .Kyoto may join .Tokyo as top level domain. It appears that .kyoto may be one of the location specific top level domains that will hit the web in coming years. The announcement is in Japanese and all translations I’ve seen are rather jumbled, but it appears that GMO Registry is behind the effort. [Update: I’ve heard that DOTKYOTO COMPANY LIMITED is behind the effort and has government approval. It is seeking a registry back end provider, and GMO is one of the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Key-Systems CEO discusses Moniker and SnapNames acquisition - No dramatic changes on tap but more ccTLDs and other improvements on the way. KeyDrive’s acquisition of Moniker and SnapNames last week has shaken up the domain name investor ecosystem. I just talked to Key-Systems CEO Alexander Siffrin to better understand what this means for customers. (KeyDrive includes Key-Systems Group and NameDrive Group, as well as the recently acquired companies.) If you’re worried about dramatic changes to how you do business with Moniker ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Ping heading in jeopardy, though Ping sailing through - PING golf manufacturer still has a TLD trademark going through the system. Last month I wrote about how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had caught on to an trademark application for .Ping. It was filed by Karsten Manufacturing, which owns the PING line of golf products. Although the USPTO has a policy of not allowing trademarks for top level domain names, .Ping had proceeded to publication until it was caught by an examiner. But I just noticed another application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 questions about DOMAINfest answered - A look back at last week’s DOMAINfest conference. Before heading to DOMAINfest I posed six questions that would be answered by the end of the week. Here are the answers. 1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself? Just before the conference began, Oversee.net announced that co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow had been promoted to co-CEOs. I haven’t seen many “co-CEO” type situations end favorably, but they seem to be handling it well ... read more ...
Mon 6th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo! Tells Tsavo Media Its Owes Them $4.8 million For Sending Low Quality Traffic to Yahoo Advertisers - According to a Press Release today Cyberplex Inc. (TSX:CX),  subsidiary, Tsavo Media  will have to repay  Yahoo! approximately $4.8 million over a reasonable time period” for sending low quality traffic to Yahoo advertisers. “Yahoo! is retroactively charging Tsavo for what Yahoo! is now saying was actually low quality traffic, ranging back over many months during 2011.” “While the Company and Yahoo! remain in discussions on this issue, the Company now expects that Yahoo! will enforce its ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
USA Today: Super Bowl Commercials: Dogs Win!!! - According to the USA Today Ad Meter, the race for the Super Bowl Ad race was won by the Dogs. The top three rated ads all featured dogs. The Doritos commercial where the big Dog bribes the cat owner was the top rated rate. The Volkswagen ad where the overweight Dog gets fit took second and the Sketchers ad where the Boston Terrier in Dog in sneakers wins the greyhound race finished third. The rescue dog in the Bud Light that worked tirelessly to supply a thirsty crowd with beer finished 6th. In 4th ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Godaddy Set Sales Record For Super Bowl Sunday - According to a press release this morning, “Go Daddy also broke its own records for sales on a Super Bowl Sunday” It also claimed its commercial featuring a QR code produced the “best mobile website traffic … ever.” Godaddy also says that .Co “enjoyed a significant surge in .CO domain name registrations over the weekend and throughout the live broadcast”. Godaddy admits in the PR that “Critics Panned their Super Bowl Ads,  but Go Daddy Sees RECORD RESULTS anyway”. Here is some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains American Airlines and others bought final week - American Airlines, The Nature Conservancy, New York Life, and other end user domain buys. I tried to do last week’s end user domain sales report during DOMAINfest, but some whois servers didn’t like my mobile connection. So it’s a bit late, but hopefully just as useful. Let’s start off with sales from Afternic. American Airlines bought the name of its Chairman, TomHorton.com, for $1,000. This was a smart move given that the company is about to battle its ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy’s BYOB: Build Your Online Business - Company plans to start promoting a different kind of BYOB. It looks like GoDaddy.com will start promoting BYOB, but it has nothing to do with beer. The company filed two trademark applications at the end of last month. The company filed application 85527616 for BYOB and application 85527612 for BYOB Build Your Online Business. Here’s what the applications have to say about the intended use: C 035. US 100 101 102. G S: Providing on-line information, namely, help-articles ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Best Buy promotes “phone freedom” in Super Bowl, though not new domain name - Company protected brand with domain purchase but doesn’t use it yet. Best Buy’s Super Bowl commercial yesterday promotes what Best Buy calls “Phone Freedom”, although it doesn’t call it that by name in the ad. But it helps explain why the company paid $2,588 to buy PhoneFreedom.com last month. I received an email promotion from the company today that touts phone freedom: At the bottom of the email is a link to BestBuy.com/phonefreedom. Paying such a small ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy says it saw record Super Bowl Sunday sales - Two GoDaddy.com Super Bowl commercials drive new sales record. The results are in… Regardless of what you thought of GoDaddy.com’s two Super Bowl commercials yesterday, they appear to have had the intended result for the world’s largest domain registrar. According to the company, yesterday saw its highest sales ever for a Super Bowl Sunday. This is the company’s eight consecutive year advertising in the Super Bowl. The company also says that .co saw a tenfold ... read more ...
Sun 5th February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN
Vote For Your Favorite Super Bowl Commercial Using The Shazam App - The wildly popular Shazam App, which normally tells you what song you just heard on the radio or TV or at a bar or disco. Today however with the Super Bowl it goes a lot further. I used Shazam last night during the 1st NFL Honors Award show broadcast on NBC last night and instead of getting the name and artist of one of the songs played on the broadcast, I got somthing that looks very much like an App called: Super Bowl XLVI: From Indianapolis. One of the many things you can do with the “app” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy and .Co take core theatre with Super Bowl Commercials - Over 100 million will watch GoDaddy Super Bowl commercials tonight. The world’s largest registrar along with the .co top level domain will get a lot of attention today. That’s because GoDaddy will air two Super Bowl ads today, including one about the .co domain name. The first half commercial stars lingerie model Natalia Velez getting the body paint treatment from Jillian Michaels and Danica Patrick to promote .co. Velez was unveiled in person at DOMAINfest last ... read more ...
Fri 3rd February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
HuntingMoon.com Brokers The Sale Of Pornstar.com For $1.5 Million - HuntingMoon.com announced that they have successfully brokered the sale of the website Pornstar.com for $1.5 Million dollars. This sale follows HuntingMoon sale of Eric Borgos’ adult domain portfolio for $1.3 Million. Lets point out right away that PornStar.com is an operating site not just a domain and the sale included all content, affiliates and members. The sale transaction started in 2010 and after a year and a half of payments, the buyer is now taking possession of all of the assets and plan ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
BuyDomains.com Beats Back UDRP on Solanum.com - Buydomains.com, just beat back a UDRP on the domain name solanum.com Here are the relevant facts and finding from the three member panel: “The Complainant is a Mexican individual who founded a business named Solanum Laboratories in Mexico in 2003.” “The Complainant is the owner of a variety of Mexican registered trademarks for the word mark SOLANUM, the earliest registered of which is trademark number 901,941 registered on September 28, 2005″ “At the date of this Decision, the website associated ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Today We Call Out Sedo For Including Escrow Only Transactions In It’s Sales Figures - Sedo.com has been including domain names it acts only as escrow agent for in its weekly and annual reports of domain sales. This information came to light this week when Sedo inadvertently reported a sale that was supposed to be confidential and Francois from Domaining left a comment on TheDomains.com telling us that not only should have the sale been confidential but that Sedo.com only acted as Escrow agent for the transaction. We reached out to Sedo which confirmed that its served solely as the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domainfest Global Domain Name Auction Nets $717,000 - The live domain name auction from Domainfest Global just ended resulting in $717,450 in sales. QR.com led the way selling for $325,000. Empire.com sold for $135,000 and another two letter .com QE.com sold for $85,00 Marriages.com sold before the auction started for $36,000 Catfood.com sold for $62,000 after selling just a little more than 2 years ago at the TRAFFIC auction in Las Vegas in January 2010 for $41K, a 50% return. Here are all the domain names that sold:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Thu 2nd February 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Hawaii Proposes Bill To Force State To Apply For New gTLD’s; 1 Of Which Isn’t Even Allowed - A bill just proposed in the Hawaii state legislature seeks to require the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to make application for the new gTLD’s of .hawaii, .hi, and .aloha. One of  the TLD the legislature is requiring the state to apply for .Hi isn’t even available to be applied for under the Guidebook  so if they make application for it, they will basically be throwing their $185K  away. Here is the bill in part: “SECTION 1. The legislature finds that ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Beckstrom Tells USA TODAY On New gTLD’s: “We’re improving Internet Domain Space” - In an OpEd piece published by USA Today, the CEO of ICANN Rod Beckstrom says of the new gTLD program that “It will create space on the Internet that is more secure than what exists today.” “Applicants will undergo criminal background checks, financial evaluations and challenging technical assessments. More than 300 pages of rules govern the application process.” “Tough standards will be a major deterrent to cyber criminals looking to take advantage of consumers. Most of these schemers and ... read more ...