Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Wed 26th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH and Famous Four strike understanding to solve 3 new TLD row sets - Deal resolves contention sets for .fit, .review, and .science. Top Level Domain Holdings (AIM: TLDH) and Famous Four Media (and associated companies) have made a deal to resolve three contention sets. Under the terms of the deal, Famous Four has withdrawn its application for .fit, leaving TLDH as the only applicant for the string. In return, TLDH has withdrawn its applications for .review and .science. Famous Four will pay a royalty to TLDH on .review revenue. This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames gets Japan Registry, Afternic and NameJet get .buzz business - Domain marketplaces get a couple notable client wins. There were a couple unrelated “client win” announcements this morning coming from major domain name marketplaces. First, SnapNames announced that it has inked Japan Registry to an expired domain deal. Japan Registry, part of GMO Internet Group, will send its expired domain stream to SnapNames in an exclusive deal. GMO holds a 90% share of the gTLD market in Japan. Second, Afternic and NameJet announced a deal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
24 finish user domain name sales adult to $28,000 - Raw materials company paid $28,000 for shorter domain name. Afternic had another good sales week. Here are 24 end user domain sales the company facilitated. Emeraude International, a plastics raw materials company, shortened its domain name to merely Emeraude.com for $28,000. Luxury retailer Paris Gallery (which is actually located in the Middle East) bought LuxuryClub.com for $25,000. Pharma company Pro Medico bought Promedico.net for $1,188. It uses Promedico.at, ... read more ...
Tue 25th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What a provocative WHOIS news means for domain investors - Sweeping changes to registrant data could have major impact on domain name investors. ICANN’s working group on gTLD Directory Services released its initial report overnight. If I were to use one word to describe the report, it would be “provocative”. I just finished reading the 49 page report that describes a way to upend WHOIS as we know it and replace it with an Aggregated Registration Data Service (ARDS). Calling it something completely different than the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DENIC doesn’t see most hazard from new TLDs - DENIC downplays threat of new TLDs against .de, citing latest eco survey. eco – the Association of the German Internet Industry released its third Registrar Atlas this week. The Registrar Atlas is a survey of businesses that offer domain names. The non-scientific survey targets mostly Germany, but includes respondents from eight countries primarily in Europe. .De registry DENIC sponsors the survey, along with a number of other registries such as Verisign. DENIC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ZeroPark revs adult zero-click monetization for domainers - ZeroPark formally unveiled itself in a big way to the domain community during Webfest in February. Although the zero-click domain monetization company is relatively new, it has some familiar faces. You may recognize ZeroPark Director of Business Development Mateusz Drela from previous domain conferences, when he worked for Elephant Traffic. Elephant Traffic’s customer base was later acquired by Team Internet AG, which rolled it into its DNTX platform. Drela then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The genuine .ninja business devise is exposed - Laugh at .ninja no more…it will be a big business. One of the top level domain applications that had a lot of people scratching their heads was United TLD’s application for .ninja. And while the company’s .ninja web site suggests that you might register a .ninja domain to show you’re an seo.ninja or html5.ninja, the true business plan is slowly coming out. Take a look at the .ninja mousepad. As Name.com’s Caroline Temple mused on Facebook today: Well, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Web developer systematic to give domain name behind to client - Web developer trying to hold domain name as lien against unpaid bills. It’s something we see time and time again…a business lets a web developer register their domain name, and then refuses to give it back. In the case of a UDRP between Alaska Health Fair, Inc. and Chris Jacobson, there was an added twist: Alaska Health Fair transferred its existing domain name alaskahealthfair.org to Jacobson, apparently thinking this was required for him to perform services. According ... read more ...
Mon 24th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another domain scam, and this one is sent around fax - Official looking notice warns you about UDRP and urges you to register a .us domain name. There are a number of scams that try to trick unsuspecting domain name owners into paying hefty prices to renew their domains or register new domains. Here’s one that just came across my desk from a reader this week. It’s sent directly to the fax number on whois records, so if you don’t include a fax in whois, you may not have seen this before (although it appears to have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLD field representation new web addresses during HostingCon - Applicants prepare web hosts and resellers for the coming namespace expansion. The annual HostingCon conference took place in Austin last week, drawing a large contingent of domain name companies to the city. There was a lot of talk about new top level domains and some exhibitors were at the show primarily to pitch the new domain extensions. .Host had a large booth where it tried to get web hosting companies to pre-register .host domain names. Top Level Domain Holdings, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo updates remoteness process due to Google changes - Privacy policy explains that it may release your personal information to Google. Sedo sent a notice to its parking customers today to inform them that it has updated its privacy policy. The company has added a line to its policy that states: It may be necessary to disclose your stored information, such as first and last name, company name, address, email and/or phone number, to relevant domain monetization advertising partners for the purpose of providing you such ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO row (grudgingly) denies UDRP for YahClick.com and YahLive.com - Both complainant and respondent have registered trademarks, so panelist determines UDRP not appropriate mechanism to decide case. WIPO panelist Torsten Bettinger has denied (pdf) a complaint filed against the domain names YahClick.com/.net and YahLive.com/.net. In doing so, Bettinger appreciated the limits of UDRP cases while noting that the respondent’s story was “highly improbable”. The case was field by Al Yah Satellite Communications Company and affiliated ... read more ...
Sat 22nd June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
TheFancy buys Fancy.com domain name, rebrands - TheFancy gets a fancier domain name. Red hot social shopping platform TheFancy has purchased the Fancy.com domain name and rebranded itself as simply Fancy. The company was using the domain name TheFancy.com. Even with the inferior domain, it has attracted a lot of attention from users and investor alike. Fancy is essentially a crowdsourced catalog curated by 7 million users. Investors in Fancy, which raised $26 million last fall and $44 million to date, include ... read more ...
Fri 21st June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
31 finish user domain domain sales during Afternic - Afternic sells $1.2 million in domains including a number to end users. What do a natural gas fracking company, an asphalt layer, and a company that cleans portable tanks all have in common? They bought domain names on Afternic last week. Here’s the list. The site Auctionet.com bought AuctionNet.com (two n’s) for $6,000. Building materials company CRH paid $3,000 for CRH.net to go along with its CRH.com domain name. Asphalt company Lakeside Industries Inc bought ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
People who paid a lot for one minute .uk domains could remove out underneath new plan - If priority is given to first registration, many .me.uk registrants will be big winners. Registrants paid big bucks for one and two character .co.uk and .org.uk domain names when .uk registry Nominet auctioned them off a couple years ago. Bidders paid £3m in total. Under the proposed plan for allocating second level .uk domain names, they could get screwed. Nominet’s latest plan to release domains such as example.co.uk instead of example.uk would give a first right ... read more ...
Thu 20th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo ID recycling should put domain registrars on edge - Making Yahoo IDs available for registration again could lead to domain theft. If you have access to a domain account holder’s email, it’s fairly easy to steal a domain from them. Which is why domain name registrars should be on high alert about Yahoo’s plan to recycle dormant user IDs. The company plans to re-offer dormant user IDs to the public in an effort to make better IDs available. Although only a small amount of the IDs are apparently connected to Yahoo ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN explains because it didn’t tell Verisign’s letters - Group it doesn’t usually publish counsel-to-counsel letters. Verisign sent several letters to ICANN earlier this year highlighting concerns about the new registry agreement. ICANN never posted those letters, and they only came to light when Verisign posted a message in a comment period. Verisign said there was lack of transparency in ICANN’s correspondence posting policies, and that “we are left to conclude that ICANN posts only those letters it believes will ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After questionable activity yesterday, Moniker asks users to reset passwords - Company says it has no evidence that domain names were stolen. Domain name registrar Moniker discovered suspicious activity on its network, and as a precaution is asking all account holders to reset their passwords today. The suspicious activity occurred yesterday. There’s no notice on the site about the password change requirement, and if you try to log in you’ll just get a message that your password is invalid. However, the company sent an email to all account ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy uses discerning consult to shred customers - GoDaddy segments its customers using quick survey. When I logged in to my GoDaddy account this morning I was greeted by a friendly blonde asking me what I was up to. “We’re working on new ways to give you a more personalized experience,” a pop-up survey proclaimed. Indeed, GoDaddy is working to customize what you see — and surely what the company tries to sell you — based on the type of business you run. The first question reads “Which best describes you?”, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains Hallmark, Swarovski, and Sapient bought final week - Sedo has big sales week for large end user buyers. This week’s end user report for Sedo sales it full of big name companies. In addition to those in the headline, you’ll see purchased by Philips, Genentech, Intel, and Fujifilm Australia. Chocolate seller 5th Avenue Chocolatiere bought ChocolateWorks.com for $19,000. Analytics company Blue Yonder bought Blue-Yonder.co.uk for 3,000 GBP. The non-hyphenated version belongs to Virgin Media. Geotraccking company GeoTrack ... read more ...
Wed 19th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You’re going to see a lot some-more domain name selling like this… - New TLD backers will be headed to a lot of tradeshows. One of the larger booths at this year’s HostingCon conference is the .host booth, pictured below: I’ve written about a number of domain name companies exhibiting at HostingCon this year, but there’s a big difference between .host and the others. .Host isn’t at the conference trying to get web hosts to sell its services. It’s there because the people it wants to register its domains are the web hosts ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Man turns to courts to overturn terrible UDRP decision - The Alexander family asks court to overturn decision to transfer JustinAlexander.com. In 1999 Gary Alexander did something that was rather forward looking for the time: he registered his family members’ names as .com addresses. He registered his own name, GaryAlexander.com, domains for his sons, JustinAlexander.com and JaredAlexander.com, as well as one for his wife, DianeAlexander.com. Two years later a wedding dress designer called Justin Alexander started up. 14 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP panelist uses common clarity for acronym domain names - Unfortunately her peers didn’t. It’s quite common for UDRPs to be filed against short domain names that can be acronyms for various businesses and organizations. These UDRP frequently target three and four letter domain names, which are often times valuable domains. A WIPO panel has just handed down a decision in the case of adac.net, finding that the domain should be transferred to the German company ADAC e.V.. The first thing you’ll notice is that ADAC e.V. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
33 good finish user domain name sales - From Hubspot to Target to Newsmax, here are more end user domain sales. I’m behind on end user sales reports due to HostingCon and some travel. This is the Afternic list I would have published last week, so the sale occurred a couple weeks ago. There are big names on this list, including Hubspot and Target. Melvynlux Co. Ltd bought the abbreviated name Melvyn.com for $26,000. Hershewe Law Firm bought KnowYourLegalRights.com for $17,500. Ironwood Capital Management ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RDNH alert: Duplicitous exchange doom Digilove domain dispute - Electronic dance website guilty of reverse domain name hijacking after engaging in “duplicitous dealings”. I have to admit, I don’t expect much business or legal sense from a company that uses the domain name digi10ve.com for a site it calls “Digilove”… Ryan P. Boggs of the site Digi10ve.com filed a seven-sentence UDRP pleading with WIPO to try to wrestle the domain name Digilove.com away from Frank Schilling. The case was filed with the help of attorney ... read more ...