Monthly Archives: July 2012

Thu 19th July 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Global 2013: Yep, it’s still happening - 7th DOMAINfest Global to return in 2013. In my discussions in recent days about the sudden lack of domain conferences, a common question has been, “Is Oversee.net still doing DOMAINfest next year?”. It’s a fair question given that Oversee.net is a much smaller company than it was a year ago having since divested Moniker and SnapNames. Sure, the conference has always technically been sponsored by DomainSponsor (which is now Oversee.net’s bread and butter when ... read more ...
Wed 18th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Social.org Auction Hits $150K On NameJet.com - Social.org is back up for auction at NameJet.com and has hit a high bid of $149,099. The auction ends on Friday around 3pm EST. There are 435 bidders in the auction. The NameJet.com reserve has been meet, at $130K so the domain will sell. You may recall that Social.org sold on NameJet.com in March for $228,600 but the winning bidder didn’t pay Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
BuyDomains Launches BuyDomainsCentral.com Powered By Enom To Take New gTLD Domain Pre-orders - Buydomains.com, which is owned by Name Media, is teaming up with Enom.com, which is owned by Demand Media, to start to take pre-orders or a create a watch list for new gTLD’s domain name registration when they become available. The new site set up by BuyDomains.com for the new gTLD program is BuyDomainsCentral.com, which is powered by Enom. Its an interesting move by two company’s that are expected to compete with each other for a share of the premium domain name aftermarket for new gTLD’s. These ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Trademark Holder Of CompareTheMarket Loses A Second UDRP On CompareTheMarket.XXX - Strike two In a pretty rare situation, a trademark holder that filed and lost a UDRP, filed for a second time and lost again. The domain at issues is CompareTheMarket.xxx You can read the case summary below but you got to love the trademark holders opinion of the UDRP system, one which I don’t think I have ever heard before: “”With regard to the decision of the Panel in Administrative Proceeding No. 100421 the Complainant presents further observations, concluding that the effect of the Panel’s ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
New gTLD’s All Explained in an 8 Minute Video Which You Will .LOL At - For those still confused by the new gTLD’s and all the possibilities they bring to the domain space, video should explain it all to you. The new gTLD’s naysayers will have a blast. For the believers you got to still have a sense of humor. I have no idea who is responsible for the video but hats off to someone who has a a lot of time on their hands and created a worse case scenario for the new gTLD’s. On the other hand, as I have mentioned before a wise man once told me out of great confusion ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy creates the initial “business” acquisition - Go Daddy acquires Outright. More to come? Go Daddy today announced the acquisition of Outright, a provider of online financial software for small businesses. This is only the company’s third acquisition in its history, and the first one that involves bringing over people from the acquired business. (It’s previous acquisitions were a technology acquisition for a root certificate and taking over the RegisterFly customer database when that registrar lost its accreditation.) Go ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Zynga acquires Chefville.com domain name - Zynga pockets key domain name for new game. Last month social gaming company Chefville announced its newest games including Chefville. But it didn’t have the Chefville.com domain name — until now. Chefville.com was registered back in January 2006. Its current owner, an individual in California, appears to have owned it that whole time. (The oldest whois record recorded at DomainTools for the domain is in 2007 but shows the same owner.) The registrant parked the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker auction ends tomorrow and Sedo gets AT.com exclusive - Auction has numerous bids but most are under reserve while Sedo lands a whale with AT.com brokerage deal. Moniker’s International Premium ccTLD Auction ends tomorrow, and so far the names getting attention are neither ccTLDs or international domains. The top bid is for MovieGuide.com, although the $71,000 bid is below the $100k-$250k reserve range. Other domains with bids above $10,000 but below reserve are PartyLine.com and Trash.com. So far one domain, Smokers.co.uk, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are there fewer domain conferences or only opposite domain conferences? - There are only two big domainer conferences this year, but domainers still find opportunities to get together. Two years ago you could have gone to a domain name conference every other month. This year there are just two big domain conferences: DOMAINfest (which already took place) and the upcoming TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale. Here at HostingCon I’ve had conversations with several people about this sudden lack of opportunities to get together. But is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Missed domain news roundup - Five domain name stories you may have missed this week. Sometimes it’s difficult to be at a conference and blog at the same time. So quite a few stories I wanted to write about this week are still in my “to do” box. Instead, here’s a summary of stories with links to other bloggers who’ve already covered them. Go Daddy released its latest commercial. To my untrained eye it sure looks like it has just as much sex appeal as its previous ones. The only difference ... read more ...
Tue 17th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Afternic.com Sells Just $817,414 In Domains - Afternic.com just reported $817,414 in weekly sales. Like Sedo.com this well might be the lowest weekly total for Afternic.com this year. Sales were led by etrol.com which sold for $9,500. Not sure how long its been since the highest domain sale was under $xx,xxx. Here are the reportable sales:   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Reports Flat Revenue - After the market closed today Yahoo.com (YHOO) reported its results for the quarter ending June 30, 2012 and in one word the results were “flat” Even shares of the company are trading after hours basically Flat. Q2 revenue missed consensus estimates slightly, but earnings per share that topped expectations. Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (“Revenue ex-TAC”) was $1,081 million for the second quarter of 2012, flat compared to the second quarter of 2011. GAAP revenue was $1,218 million ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells $1.2 Million In Domains Led By SSM.com during $25K - In what maybe the lowest weekly total for Sedo.com this year, they just reported just $1.2 Million in sales. 44% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. As we know BIN listings tend to be lower priced so the combination of only $1.2 Million in sales with what I think maybe a new high for 2012 of 44% BIN priced domains give support to my Domaining 6.0 post of a week ago. Highlights of public sales include: ·         Top .com: ssm.com at 25,000 USD ·         Top ccTLD: ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
1st UDRP Finding Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking for Turkey? The Case Of tatil.com Vs. etatil.com - According to the domain holder who fought back a UDRP on his domain name etatil , a three member UDRP panel just handed down the first Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) for a domain holder located in Turkey. We don’t have any independent knowledge if this is truly the 1st finding of RDNH for a Turkish owned domain but the domain owner is quite sure. The domain at issues was etatil.com. The Complainants were ÖZALTUN OTELCİLİK TURİZM VE TİCARET LTD. ŞTİ. of Istanbul, Turkey, Allstar Hotels ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Afternic.com Adds Chinese Registrar Dnbiz & Their 100K Members - Afternic, announced today that Chinese registrar Dnbiz will join the Afternic network as a Premium Reseller. “Dnbiz is a leading Chinese leading marketplace for buying and selling domain names, with over 100,000 members.” “Dnbiz offers the largest selection of premium domains in China with more than 5 million available for sale.” Dnbiz offers services including: domains acquisition, domain strategy, domain appraisal, domain escrow, brokerage services, domain auction, domain dispute arbitration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DoorKings.com: this is because we sinecure a domain profession for UDRP - A complainant’s UDRP filing should be pretty simple, if it knows what it’s doing. John Berryhill was ready. His client, United Marketing Group, Inc, had to prove to a WIPO panel that its domain names DoorKings.com and DKSOpeners.com were registered in good faith after DoorKing, Inc. filed a UDRP complaint. So he dutifully explained that, as a reseller meeting certain conditions, United Marketing Group had rights or legitimate interests in the domain names. Then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Boston: a core of a domain name aftermarket - Two companies in Boston handle the bulk of the domain name aftermarket. I’m up in Boston for HostingCon, and spent my Monday visiting two of the largest and longest running domain name aftermarkets: NameMedia (Afternic) and Sedo. The two are separated by just a fifteen minute drive, so it’s fair to call Boston the center of the domain name aftermarket. My first stop was NameMedia’s office in Waltham. Signage outside NameMedia’s office in Waltham, MA. NameMedia’s ... read more ...
Mon 16th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Hires Google Exec Marissa Mayer As CEO - “I am honored and delighted to lead Yahoo, one of the internet’s premier destinations for more than 700 million users,” Ms. Mayer said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the Company’s dedicated employees to bring innovative products, content, and personalized experiences to users and advertisers all around the world.” ! Co-Founder David Filo said, “Marissa is a well-known, visionary leader in user experience and product design and one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Facebook Wins UDRP On Facebook.Info: “Problem Is That The Panel Does Not Believe The Domain Holder’s Story” - Facebook, Inc. just won a UDRP on the domain name Facebook.info The domain name was registered in September 2004. Most recently the domain was going to a page which stated on the top: “not in any way affiliated with the social network available at Facebook.com” The domain was not a “parked page” and did not contain any advertising, but news feeds of stories for Facebook, TechCrunch and other media outlets. It’s a very interesting decision and much more detailed and complicated than you ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
MSNBC.com Becomes NBCNews.com, But Why Are They Paying For Their Own Ads On MSNBC.TV? - NBC News has acquired full control of MSNBC.com from Microsoft Corp. and is immediately rebranding the site as NBCNews.com. According to MSNBC.com, the site will “become part of NBC News Digital, a new division led by Vivian Schiller, the former president and chief executive of National Public Radio. Schiller joined NBC News as chief digital officer last year.” “In the short term, msnbc.com will reflect the homepage of NBCNews.com.” “Eventually, it will become the address of MSNBC TV, giving ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainsBot Launches Domain Suggestion Developer API - DomainsBot, is just released its Domain Suggestion Developer API.”DomainsBot domain suggestion is now available as a REST API with client code available in C#, PHP or Java and via a simple-to-implement copy and paste widget (JQuery plugin). The copy-and-paste widget can be easily integrated into the html of any website; look feel can be customized using CSS. “We designed the widget to allow anyone with a basic understanding of html to implement our domain suggestion within minutes” said Francesco ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Internet hits 233 million domain names - Second level domain space continues to grow. Verisign released and announced its latest quarterly domain name report at an odd time this quarter — 4 pm on a Friday. That’s usually the time you release bad news you don’t want people to hear about, so it’s kind of odd for a marketing piece. So here’s my Monday morning coverage of highlights: – Q1 closed with 233 second level domain registrations, and increase of 7.5 million over the previous quarter. – ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dyson sells bladeless fans, though doesn’t possess a term - UDRP is was not creative for taking down site selling knock-offs. You may be familiar with Dyson, the company that makes mundane things (like vacuum cleaners) cool. One of its latest creations it the bladeless fan, which cools you off without the need for a spinning blade (and for about 10x the cost of an equivalent traditional fan). Enter bladelessfanonline.com, a site that Dyson claims is selling knock-off Dyson fans. The company filed a UDRP against it. It may ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
That’s some (un)intellectual property - Attorney starts blog covering overzealous intellectual property enforcers. I write a lot about companies that seem to think they have universal rights to generic terms. Whether it’s a UDRP or a trademark lawsuit, some companies seem to think they control terms such as entrepreneur, elk, and (ironically) “legal advice“. That’s why I think I’m going to like a new blog from Brian Hall, an attorney with Traverse Legal. UnIntellectualProperty.com covers cases ... read more ...
Sun 15th July 2012
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Verisign Report: 233 Million Domains Registered; 7.5 Million Added; 116.7 .Com/.Net Registrations - Verisign Published its State of the Domain Report for the quarter ending March 31, 2012. (pdf) The first quarter of 2012 closed with a base of more than 233 million domain name registrations across all Top-Level Domains (TLDs), an increase of 7.5 million domain names, or 3.3 percent, over the fourth quarter of 2011. Registrations have grown by 23 million, or 11 percent, since the first quarter of 2011. The base of Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) was 94.9 million domain names, a 4.8 percent ... read more ...