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 4th November 2015
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.Com's latest winners and losers - Registrar results with .com are in for July ICANN has published Verisign’s registrar data for .com from July. Here’s Domain Name Wire’s monthly look at how registrars performed with .com. Keep in mind that these reports are published after a three month delay. So this post is about July’s results. Let’s start by reviewing which registrars added the most new .com domain name registrations: 1. GoDaddy* 893,043 2. eNom** 218,457 3. HiChina 152,135 4. PublicDomainRegistry 117,568 5. Tucows ... read more ...
 
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End user domain name sales adult to $100,000 including AOL - AOL was among the companies buying domain names in the aftermarket last week. Sedo had a great sales week last week, handling $1.7 million of domain name sales on 688 transactions. End users were a big reason for this solid sales week. An Austin company led the public charts with its $100,000 purchase of Material.com. AOL also bought a domain name…for only $700. Even a .taxi domain name was among the 29 end user domain name sales I uncovered. Here’s a look at end user domain name sales from ... read more ...
Tue 3rd November 2015
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Sony uses .Sony domain name instead of .Com for microsite - Company puts .brand to work. Last week I wrote about the .Brand challenge to .Com, and how it doesn’t come in the form of big companies giving up their .com domains. For example, Sony is never going to let Sony.com expire. Instead, challenge is the thousands of additional domain names companies register to promote contest, microsites, etc. Which is why a site recently launched by Sony is noteworthy. To promote some of its technology in the new Bond film Spectre, the company set up a site at AssistMoneyPenny.sony. This ... read more ...
 
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.Club is batting 1.000 on 2 minute domain name auctions - .Club is setting a new standard for two letter domain name values in new TLDs. .Club’s two letter domain name auctions are off to a good start, with all 15 of the domain names that have closed so far reaching their reserves. The 15 domain names each had reserves of at least $5,000. Two of the five domain names ending tonight have also met their $5,000 reserves. These are impressive prices for two letter domains in new extensions. There’s a huge supply of two letter domain names available now, ... read more ...
 
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October's Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories - Here’s what was hot in October. 1. The Adam Dicker Saga – One of the bigger personalities in the domain name industry had his comeuppance last month. Many of Adam Dicker’s revenue and prowess claims were called into question, people said they were ripped off by him, and apparently he was running low on money. A lawyer acting on behalf of Dicker sent a letter to people who posted things on a massive NamePros thread, asking them to remove the comments. This one isn’t over yet. 2. A Massive ... read more ...
 
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Here's because a MySchool.com lawsuit was discharged (Transcript) - Transcript reveals Judge’s reasoning for granting summary judgment to MySchool.com owner. Last week, Judge John F. Anderson granted Original Web Ventures’ motion for summary judgment in a fight over the domain name MySchool.com. In doing so, he dismissed claims by Joseph Carpenter, who owns MySchool411.com, that Original was cybersquatting by owning MySchool.com. I’ve just obtained the transcript (pdf) of the hearing on October 26 at which Anderson made his ruling. Anderson is a judge in Verisign’s ... read more ...
Mon 2nd November 2015
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This week's new domain name: Let's speak about .Sex - .Sex domain names become available on Wednesday. There’s only one new domain name entering general availability this week according to Calzone.org, but it’s a big one: .Sex. ICM Registry launches the domain name on Wednesday, November 4. You will be able to register .Sex domain names at registrars for about $75 per year. The domain name option will join ICM Registry’s existing line of similarly-themed domain names, including .XXX, .Adult and .Porn. Already, the .sex zone file has nearly 4,000 ... read more ...
 
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.Com default disappears in iOS 9 on iPad - Keyboard loses its .com shortcut. Something weird happened when I updated our iPads to iOS 9.1. I’m not sure if it is an intentional change or a bug. Here’s the deal: When you press and hold the period “.” key on the iOS keyboard on an iPad, it no longer automatically inserts .com. Oddly, this behavior is different on the iPhone. For a long time, if you pressed and held the period key for a second in a field that might contain a domain, iOS would pop up a selection of five top level domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Congo.io, miffed during cost of Congo.Com, is rebranding to a opposite .Com - Company crowdsources an aftermarket domain name purchase. A Domain Name Wire reader sent me an amusing press release issued on Friday. Boulder, Colorado startup Congo is upset that Digimedia, owners of Congo.com, want an “egregiously overinflated valuation of $750,000” for Congo.com. You see, Congo uses the domain name Congo.io for its site that connects people to attorneys. Apparently it realized that the .io domain name wasn’t working, and now they want a .com domain. But Congo is the name ... read more ...
 
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4 Letter .Com Domains with Giuseppe Graziano – DNW Podcast #57 - How can you cash in on 4 letter domain names? 3 and 4 letter domain names are in high demand, and few people know more about the market than Giuseppe Graziano. His domain brokerage firm GGRG.com works exclusively on these domains. On today’s show he’ll tell you how to find and buy the best 4 letter domain names, and what to avoid. Also: Verisign gets .XYZ on its face, MySchool lawsuit dismissed, a major phishing attack. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone ... read more ...
 
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Freelancer.com completes $7.5 million squeeze of Escrow.com - Deal was announced in April. Online freelancing marketplace Freelancer.com has completed its purchase of internet escrow service Escrow.com. Freelancer.com announced in April that it agreed to purchase the company for $7.5 million. Escrow.com generated $5 million in revenue and $1.2 million EBITDA last year on $220 million of transactions. Freelancer.com has a market cap of AUS $800 million. It owns a number of online freelancer marketplaces, in addition to online marketing forum Warrior Forum. Escrow.com ... read more ...
 
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Endurance International acquires Constant Contact for $1.1 billion - The acquisition machine continues. Endurance International Group (NASDAQ: EIGI) has acquired email marketing company Constant Contact for $1.1 billion in an all-cash deal. Shares in Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT) closed Friday at $26.10, for a market cap of about $840 million. Endurance is paying $32.00 per share, and shares in Constant Contact have jumped in pre-market trading. Endurance is paying for the acquisition with debt financing of up to $1.085 billion from Credit Suisse AG and an affiliate ... read more ...
Fri 30th October 2015
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One Robocaller badmouthing another… - Pot calling kettle black. The robocalls to my cell phone continue, and occasionally I play along. This morning I received a robocall from my “local Google specialist” informing me it had a first page location available for me. I wondered if it was Local Lighthouse, the company being sued by Google for misleading customers. I pressed 1 to speak with a representative. As he started talking, I told him I was already talking to a company about a front page position, and wanted to know if he was with ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The Economist on a state of association naming - Do you agree with The Economist’s viewpoint? There’s only one print publication that still makes its way to my mailbox, at that’s The Economist. Last week’s Schumpeter column talks about the state of company naming, and paints a rather bleak picture. You should read the entire article, but here are a few interesting parts: Copyright law is a pain: companies have to go to great lengths to make sure that nobody has staked a claim to their favourite names. C’mon, Economist. I expect better ... read more ...
 
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Web.com: New TLDs are not relocating a needle - Contribution from new top level domain names isn’t significant, CEO says. Web.com CEO David Brown was asked about new top level domain names on yesterday’s investor conference call. Brown said the company isn’t doing “back flips” over the results, and says it’s not moving the needle for the firm. He suspects new domains aren’t moving the needle for competitors, as well. Here’s what he said: So in the gTLD space, that continues to be positive, but we’re not doing back flips here. ... read more ...
 
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Zajo.com: A good 4 minute UDRP decision - Owners of four letter domain names should take note. The owner of Zajo.com, who bought it for its value as a four letter domain name, has successfully defended the domain name in a UDRP. Domain owner Jay Dove of Deep Frontier represented himself. Sporting goods company Juraj Králik-ZAJO of Slovakia threw everything it could at the case, citing the common cases and issues that complainants use when they are trying to bend the purpose of UDRP: Telstra Corporation Limited v. Nuclear Marshmallows, the ... read more ...
Thu 29th October 2015
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Expired Domain Report: Three Cheers for China! - Once again, China dominates expired domain name buying. And the Chinese feeding frenzy continues. Those who hype have cranked their hype knobs up to 11 in order to take advantage of the moment. Strike while the iron is hot! Oh, but this market demand is real nevertheless. Domains will probably never be more liquid than these China-favored categories are today; and prices (for now at least) are consistently high … possibly still climbing. 12 of the top 20 expired domain auctions at NameJet and ... read more ...
 
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IEC.com saved in UDRP - NGO loses attempt to get valuable domain name. International Electrotechnical Commission, a non-governmental organization, has lost a UDRP it filed against the owner of IEC.com. Although the respondent is listed as IEC Communications Ltd., it appears it’s really a domain name investor. The respondent said it acquired the domain name because of the value of rare 2 and 3 letter domain names, not to target International Electrotechnical Commission. This is most likely the case, and the three person ... read more ...
 
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Verisign gets obvious for Domain Name Exchange - Company proposes service in 2010 but abandoned idea. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has granted patent number 9,172,673 (pdf) to Verisign for “Systems and methods for domain name exchange”. The system would allow someone to trade in their existing domain name for another, perhaps on an unlimited basis. Verisign asked ICANN to allow it to offer such a service in April 2010, noting that it would be helpful to webhosts who offer trials and monthly subscriptions to customers. If the customer ... read more ...
 
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What domains Birchbox and 22 other companies bought final week - Makeup sample subscription service buys a domain name. Birchbox, one of the most successful subscription services, bought a domain name through Sedo this past week. It was just one of many companies buying existing domain names last week, including an SMS company that bought SMS.me, a negotiation coach that dropped the hyphen from its name, and a company with a .CH domain name buying the matching .com. Overall, Sedo handled 672 transactions last week for a total of $1.2M. Here’s a look at end ... read more ...
Wed 28th October 2015
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Verisign: new TLDs are inspiring .Com growth - Company makes admission for first time in latest SEC filing. Verisign made a subtle, but important, change in its risk language in its third quarter 10-Q report filed with the SEC. I picked up on this change using the Intelligize SEC document comparison tool. Here’s the relevant content from the Q2 report: We do not yet know the impact, if any, that these new gTLDs may have on our business, including if or how the introduction of these new gTLDs will affect registrations for .com and .net and therefore ... read more ...
 
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Twitter and opposition Tencent competence have to quarrel over "Moments" - Tencent files trademark applications, presumably in response to Twitter launching new “Moments” feature. On October 6, Twitter launched “Moments” in an effort to attract more users to trending topics. It’s a pretty cool feature, but Twitter might run up against Chinese social networking giant Tencent over the name. Tencent has a number of services including microblogging. On October 16, Tencent filed two trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “Moments”. ... read more ...
Tue 27th October 2015
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SnapNames is compelling an auction during NameJet for LTD.com - Co-branded auction is likely the first of many. NameJet is currently hosting an auction for LTD.com. This is obviously a good domain name. Not only is it three characters, but it’s also a common company ending for “Limited”. With a reserve under $50,000, it’s a no-brainer. But the real news here is that the auction is co-branded with SnapNames and NameJet, and SnapNames is helping to promote the auction even though it is taking place at NameJet. Why would one of the biggest expired domain ... read more ...
 
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Domain phishing: Why it's function & How to strengthen yourself - Use these tips to avoid being the next victim. Yesterday an unknown perpetrator started a massive spamming campaign against owner of domain names, which is continuing today. The emails told recipients that a specific domain name they owned had been suspended, and asked them to click a link to download the complaint(s) against their domain names. Clicking the link downloaded a file, most likely packed with malware. The perpetrator sent the emails to clients of numerous registrars, including eNom, ... read more ...
 
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Paessler AG guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Company didn’t disclose partnership in cybersquatting complaint. An Australian software company has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking after withholding key information in a cybersquatting dispute. Paessler AG of Nürnberg, Germany, represented by IP Service International Pty Ltd, filed a case under the .au Dispute Resolution Policy over the domain names paessler.com.au and prtg.com.au. Paessler uses the domain name Paessler.com for its website. The panel found that the ... read more ...