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.

Tue 18th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Customize a Sedo parked page with your possess sales channel - Sedo lets some clients send sales leads to different channels than Sedo’s marketplace. An alert reader came across a parked page using Sedo that caught his attention. Rather than Sedo’s standard message “The domain example.com may be for sale by its owner!” with a link to the listing on Sedo, the message looked like this: Essentially, the owner of the domain is using Sedo parking but collecting sales leads itself. I reached out to Sedo, which confirmed that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Nominet reconsiders second turn .uk domains (and it might be good for domainers) - New plan gives rights to existing domain registrants and offers lower pricing. Nominet, the registry behind the .uk namespace for the United Kingdom, has put forth a new plan to offer second level domains to the public. Currently, registrations are only available at the third level. The group’s previous proposal to offer domains such as example.uk instead of example.co.uk was shelved in February after a number of stakeholders lodged complaints about the program. ... read more ...
Mon 17th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A giveaway apparatus to find targeted buyers for your domains - Video explains a little-known tool for finding relevant buyers for domain names. Over the years a number of tools have been developed to help domain owners find buyers for their domain names. These tools typically search for similar domains as well as online advertisers bidding for the terms found in the domain. But the best tool for finding highly targeted buyers for your domains is often overlooked. Perhaps it’s because the tool wasn’t designed for this purpose, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
True Value exhibits bad values in domain name dispute - Hardware cooperative makes shaky claims in UDRP against webhosting company. I think the best way to start this UDRP analysis is with a couple screenshots. First, here’s a shot of hardware cooperative True Value’s web site: Now, here’s a screenshot for TrueValueWeb.com, which offers webhosting and internet technology services: True Value filed a UDRP against TrueValueWeb.com and made some head-scratching assertions. First, it claims that TrueValueWeb.com might ... read more ...
Fri 14th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Target, IBM, and other large names buy domain names on a aftermarket - Big companies turn to Sedo to buy domain names. This week’s list of Sedo end user sales includes some big names including Target, IBM, Verifone, and iRobot. There were also a couple three letter .com sales. Here’s the list: As I wrote earlier, Kim Dotcom bought k.im for $20,000. The owner of compusurge.net bought compusurge.com for $900. Designer bathroom company Roca Sanitario S. A. bought Roca.it for 3,500 EUR. iRobot Corporation, maker of the Roomba vacuum, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainers have personal lives, too… - They don’t sit behind a computer all day. (Just most of it.) I’m going to end this Friday with a post that has nothing to do with domains, except that the people it’s about are in the domain industry. First, domain attorney and domain investor Ari Goldberger is holding a Bar Mitzvah Saturday for his son Josh. In typical Goldberger style, it will be over the top. Way over the top. If you want to see all of the action yourself, you can watch the live webcast at ... read more ...
Thu 13th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Co is not only for tech startups - A lawn care company uses a great .co domain name. It seems like every day TechCrunch is covering a startup using a .co domain. But it’s not just tech companies that have taken an eye to the domain. On the way to work yesterday I passed a lawn company truck with the domain name Mow.co on the back. I reached out to Cutting Edge Lawn Care to ask about the domain, and they sent me a picture of one of their trailers with the Mow.co web address on it. Jerry Tindel, business ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft registers domains to frustrate botnets - Microsoft registers domains previously used by Citadel malware. Microsoft has registered a number of domain names to thwart a cybercrime ring credited with over a half billion dollars in financial fraud. The action aims to thwart Citadel malware, which installs keyloggers on users’ machines. The malware and crime ring had over 1,000 botnets. Although Microsoft’s press release about its actions against Citadel doesn’t mention domains, an attachment to the lawsuit ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kim Dotcom buys K.im domain name for $20,000 - Mega Upload founder buys short (and expensive) domain name. Last month I wrote about how k.im had received a $20,000 bid at Sedo, and suggested that Mega Upload founder Kim Dotcom might be the buyer. I was right. The Sedo auction closed for $20,000 and Kim Dotcom is now the owner listed in whois. The domain is registered at Instra, which is one of his key partners for the new Mega. With a name like Kim Dotcom, you’d think he’d be a .com only kind of guy. He does, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Donuts explains auction formula to date - Andrew you have done a great job of reporting on the new TLDs and private auction status. As you have reported, apparently revealing open auction details has been important to some of the participants in the last round of auctions. However, complete confidentiality and privacy is also as or more important to the majority of the applicants in contention sets yet to commit to an auction provider. So far we have heard a lot of open details about this first auction set – such as total ... read more ...
Wed 12th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wanna lawsuit? WannaDo battles WannaDo in court, claims cybersquatting - App creator sues event ticketing site over Wannado name and domain name. Two businesses offer relatively similar services at a about the same time and use the same name: WannaDo. One secures the best domain name for the service. Wanna bet that results in a lawsuit? Yep. Wannado, Inc. has sued The Active Network, Inc over its use of the Wannado name and Wannado.com. The plaintiff is a Tennessee corporation that offers an app on the iTunes store. The Wannado app provides ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex releases some-more sum about Archeo spinoff - SEC filing details plans for spin-off of domain business. Later this year, Marchex hopes to spin off its pay-per-click and domain name business into a new publicly traded business called Archeo. It will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker ACHX. It released more information about Archeo in a June 7 SEC filing. On the domain name side of the business, Archeo will work to sell domains from its portfolio of 200,000+ domains, “opportunistically” acquire new domains, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yu have one engaging UDRP… - The case for Yu.com was much more complicated than it should have been. All the facts of the UDRP for Yu.com point to an slam dunk, open-and-shut victory for the respondent. Yet getting to that determination – a win for the respondent – was apparently anything but simple. Michael has opined a bit on the case, and I’m going to share my analysis. First, let’s discuss how this was a dead-on-arrival case. The complainant, Two Way NV/SA, stated that it had plans ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company systematic to compensate $5,000 after retreat domain name hijacking charge - Panel believe complainant was trying to use arbitration as a “short cut” to acquire domain. Domain name attorney Zak Muscovitch has helped the owner of ClevelandCyclewerks.ca save his domain name in a cybersquatting arbitration case. Not only that, but the arbitration panel found the complainant guilty of reverse domain name hijacking and ordered it to pay $5,000. .ca disputes are subject to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority Domain Name Dispute Resolution ... read more ...
Tue 11th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain attention heads to Austin for HostingCon - Ten Eleven Twelve domain name companies are exhibiting at HostingCon 2013, and many of them will be pitching new TLDs. Next week a number of domain name companies are headed to Austin for HostinCon. Whereas in previous years most of the companies were reseller registrars and the like, there’s a bit of a shift this year as new top level domains creep toward reality. Exhibit A: Minds + Machines, a pureplay top level domain applicant, has a booth. Web hosting companies ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to fast arrange by crappy domains on domain name forums - New site extracts domain listings from forums. Back in the good ole days, domain sales threads on domain forums were full of great domains and big transactions got done. Business still gets done on domain forums, but you have to weed through a lot of crap to find anything worthwhile. Enter dnDigger, a site that collates domain listings from forums and lets you quickly sort through them: It’s an automated system, and it’s not perfect. A number of the domains currently ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrar might remove accreditation for unwell to yield send authorisation code - PacNames didn’t provide AuthInfo code within 5 days, according to breach notice. ICANN is threatening to cancel accreditation of New Zealand domain name registrar PacNames Ltd for the registrar’s failure to provide a domain transfer out code. In a breach notice dated June 10 (pdf), ICANN says PacNames has repeatedly failed to provide copies of written communications between the registrar and the registrant of AnimeInfo.net. It appears that the domain registrant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
86 polite liberties organisation and internet companies launch StopWatching.US in arise of NSA revelations - Group chooses .us domain name to launch campaign against government surveillance. 86 civil liberties organizations and internet companies today launched a campaign to demand congress to act in light of recent National Security Administration spying program revelations. The coalition decided to launch its campaign on the web on a .us domain, StopWatching.us. Although .us can have catchy uses like .me domain names, I don’t see them often used this way. StopWatching.us ... read more ...
Mon 10th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
10 Simple Tips to Protect Your Domain Names from Bogus Legal Threats (Part 2) - 5 more tips to protect your domain names. [In the first part of this article, Bill Sweetman gave five tips for protecting your domain names from bogus legal threats. Here are five more. 6. Insist that all complaints be put in writing This is really a follow-on to point #5 from my first post. If someone has a beef about one of your domain names, make them put it in writing. You’d be amazed at how many bogus complaints simply disappear forever when you do this. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7 reasons we should repel your .brand application - If you’re rethinking your .brand top level domain strategy, here are some things to think about. A relatively small number of .brand new TLD applicants have abandoned the process so far. Some of them are big, such as GM, which withdrew all of its applications. Others have only dropped one or two of their applications. As a .brand applicant yourself, you may be reconsidering your new TLD plans. If you withdraw your application before it passes initial evaluation, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kevin Murphy discovers type-in traffic - Murphy registers domain name related to PRISM scandal. It gets traffic. Domain Incite author Kevin Murphy is a lot of things. He’s a great writer, an expert in all things ICANN… What he’s not is a domainer. But he “dabbled” in it yesterday with his registration of TurnkeyTyranny.com. The term was uttered by Edward Snowden, who leaked the NSA Prism documents. Murphy tweeted this afternoon that the domain has received 130 hit in the past 12 hours. But, in ... read more ...
Sat 8th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
XYZ.com wins .college tip turn domain auction - Donuts withdraws application after XYZ.com wins private domain auction. Domain name investor Daniel Negari, through his company XYZ.com, has won the private top level domain name auction for .college. Negari tells Domain Name Wire “I look forward to truly innovating the namespace with one of the best gTLD’s out there.” The string was in contention with Donuts, which has officially withdrawn its application following the auction. XYZ.com applied for three top ... read more ...
Fri 7th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 new TLD auctions move in normal of $1.5 million each - How much do new TLD applicants think their strings are worth? We now have a rough idea on a half dozen. The first six private top level domain name auctions held by Innovative Auctions have closed, bringing in a total of $9.01 million in winning bids. The six domain names no longer in contention are .club, .college, .luxury, .photography, .red, and .vote. There’s one common participant amongst all of these domains: Donuts. Donuts, which applied for 307 top level ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts wins .photography auction - Donuts won the private auction for the .photography top level domain name. Of the six new top level domain name auctions Donuts participated in this past week, the company walked away with at least one top bid. Domain Name Wire has confirmed that Donuts won the auction for .photography. It was in contention with Top Level Design, a company that applied for ten top level domains. Top Level Design is lead by Ray King, who co-founded drop catching service SnapNames. There’s ... read more ...
Thu 6th June 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Wire stories of May 2013 - Ron Paul, GoDaddy, and a video game domain name took top billing last month. May was a busy month at Domain Name Wire thanks in part to a former politician losing a battle to claim his name on the web. Here are the top five stories: 1. Breaking: Ron Paul found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking – Ron Paul not only lost his UDRPs for RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org, but the panel in the .org case said he was guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. The cases were ... read more ...