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.

Mon 4th February 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames picks adult Host Europe lapsed domain stream - Deal gives company a strong partner in Europe. SnapNames has picked up a new partner to bolster its expired domain name inventory. The company has gone live with Host Europe, a top three domain registrar in Europe and the largest registrar based in the United Kingdom. Host Europe includes 123 Reg, DomainMonster, and Heart Internet. Host Europe acquired DomainMonster last year. The announcement comes as Webfest kicks off in Los Angeles. Domain companies typically ... read more ...
Fri 1st February 2013
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SnipesShop.de was $50,000 customer of Snipes.com - Company shrinks URL and gets a .com for its online store. In December Afternic reported that it had brokered the sale of Snipes.com for $50,000. I’ve patiently watched the domain as it sat in escrow for a loooong time. The whois record on the domain name just changed to reveal the buyer: Snipes GmbH. The company sells sportswear and skate clothing at SnipesShop.de. It already owned Snipes.de, which it forwarded to SnipesShop.de. Getting Snipes.com is even better ... read more ...
 
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If ICANN and WIPO can’t approve with WHOIS, who can? - Technically ICANN and WIPO’s whois records aren’t compliant. Since the meltdown of Registerfly.com several years ago, ICANN has continued to promise to better police compliance with the registrar accreditation agreement (RAA), including the WHOIS provisions of the RAA. I have recently heard that one of the clauses of the RAA which ICANN Compliance is looking at is this one: 3.7.7.1 The Registered Name Holder shall provide to Registrar accurate and reliable contact ... read more ...
 
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Wow: a Bar Refaeli Go Daddy Super Bowl commercial - People will be talking about this commercial Monday morning. Wow. I have a feeling this commercial will be more talked about than many of Go Daddy’s previous Super Bowl commercials. That’s despite this ad not having any nudity or suggestions that you can “see more” if you go to GoDaddy.com. It’s got enough of that “ewww” factor and chock value that people will react to the commercial. I’ve got to wonder how much they paid Bar Refaeli for this one. ... read more ...
Thu 31st January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
How would these domain companies have fared on a batch marketplace in 2012? - Rate these non-stocks for 2012 performance. There are a handful of publicly traded companies in the domain name industry: Tucows, Sedo, eNom/DemandMedia, Top Level Domain Holdings, etc. But most domain companies are private. Many of them are too small to trade publicly, others have no interest in being public, and some will probably be traded someday. With that in mind, how do you think the following companies’ stocks would have fared on the market in 2012? GoDaddy [poll ... read more ...
 
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McLaren wins McLaren.net, loses McLaren.biz domain disputes - Health care company files a bad case against someone named McLaren. McLaren Health Care Corporation has won a UDRP for McLaren.net while losing one for McLaren.biz. In the case of McLaren.net, the owner of the domain didn’t submit a formal response to the UDRP. He claimed his last name was McLaren, but without providing proof nor a formal response, the panel found against him. The respondent noted that he received the complaint over Christmas and did not have time ... read more ...
 
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American Automobile Association sues owners of AAAclubs.xxx and other domains - AAA sues to stop adult entertainment site from using AAA in its name. The American Automobile Association, commonly known as AAA or “Triple A”, has sued the owner of AAAclubs.xxx, AAAclubs.com, AAAclubs.net, and AAAclubs.us. According to the lawsuit (pdf), AAA became aware of the defendant in December 2011 when it filed a trademark application for “AAA Clubs of America” for use in conjunction with discount programs. AAA offers discount programs to its membership. AAA ... read more ...
 
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Makeup.com sole for $2 million, Rodeo.com and Karate.com for $500k total - L’Oreal paid $2 million for domain in 2010. I was digging through some SEC filings today when I came across some prices on domain name sales. The sales all involve what is now known as General Cannabis, Inc. (Correction: it changed its name again to SearchCore.) The three big domains were at one time part of the Communicate.com/LiveCurrent fiasco. First, I reported in 2010 that Makeup.com had sold for seven figures to L’Oreal. A March 2011 filing verifies that ... read more ...
 
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Kieren McCarthy to turn Executive Director of IFFOR - McCarthy takes bigger role in IFFOR and group offers policy making services. Former ICANN General Manager of Public Participation Kieren McCarthy will become Executive Director of IFFOR this April. McCarthy has been IFFOR’s manager of public participation since 2011. He will replace outgoing executive director Joan Irvine. IFFOR, which stands for International Foundation for Online Responsibility, was set up as part of the .xxx domain name launch. IFFOR gets $10 ... read more ...
Wed 30th January 2013
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This time Canada wants to bury Go Daddy Super Bowl commercial - Government unhappy with alcohol in commercial. We’re used to the U.S. government “censoring” GoDaddy Super Bowl commercials. And much of the time, the censoring is manufactured to get publicity. But this time it’s Canada that doesn’t like the GoDaddy.co commercial that will air this weekend. Seriously. According to The Globe and Mail, the YourBigIdea.co ad slated to run in the first half of Sunday’s Super Bowl runs afoul of Canadian advertising laws that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo finish user domain sales report - Lawyers, watch company, and a university buy domains on Sedo. This week’s Sedo end user sales report is a little light. There are a lot of domains still in escrow and a bunch of big sales that have whois privacy. Watch company UHR, which recently paid 990 EUR for UHR.biz, bought UHR.tv for 700 EUR. WISE International — that stands for World Institute of Scientology Enterprises — bought Prosperity.tv for $10,000. LibertyBell Law Group in Burbank bought AttorneysInLosAngeles.com ... read more ...
 
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DomainTools offers new Domain Reports for $49 - DomainTools releases new product with comprehensive data for a single domain. DomainTools has released a new one-off product called Domain Report. A Domain Report is a comprehensive, professional-looking PDF document that includes an entire profile of an individual domain name: -Every Historic Whois record DomainTools has -Our complete website screenshot history -Owner (registrant) name and email address -Current Whois record -Registration dates and status codes -Network ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
17 finish user domain sales during Afternic - Law firm’s $17,500 purchase of TrafficLaw.com among Afternic’s end user sales last week. Afternic had a relatively slow sales week by dollar volume last week. But it had some notable end user sales, including the sale of TrafficLaw.com. St. Louis area pharmacy Elliott Pharmacy bought ElliottPharmacy.com for $1,477. Construction company Skilled Trades bought SkilledStaffing.com for $2,088. Fashion designer John Varvatos picked up Varvatos.com for $1,000. Better ... read more ...
Tue 29th January 2013
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Which Webfest auction domains are best? - Webfest auction is small but packed with great domains. Last week I previewed some of the domains that were added to the Webfest auction taking place next week in Santa Monica. Now that the list is finalized, let’s take a look. The first piece of good news: there are only 55 domain names in the auction. That means no mammoth auction that takes five hours to complete. The other good news: there are some great domain names in this auction. Of course, that doesn’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 domain companies group adult to give divided 4,000 domains during Webfest - Giveaway includes ten domain names per person. Above.com, Rook Media and ParkingCrew are teaming up for a unique promotion during next week’s Webfest: they’re giving away 4,000 domain names. The promotion lets up to 400 people get an account with 10 domain names. The domains are randomly selected from expired domains that receive traffic and have been parked with Rook Media and/or ParkingCrew. I think this is a smart promotion. It allows these companies to get ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
YourBigIdea.co Super Bowl tie-in - Site shows you what your life might be like if you register your “big idea”. This weekend is a big one for .co as it runs its Super Bowl ad in conjunction with Go Daddy for the third year in a row. Dubbed YourBigIdea.co, it features a number of guys who don’t jump on the opportunity to register their domains and then one guy who does — and he’s flying on a private jet. .Co has a tie-in web site it’s promoting along with the ad at YourBigIdea.co. On YourBigIdea.co, ... read more ...
 
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Webfest Dine with an Expert registration now open - Registration now open to meet experts at Webfest. I’ve always thought that one of the more interesting perks of DomainFest/Webfest is “Dine with an Expert”. Dine with an Expert lets you reserve a spot at the breakfast or lunch table with an event speakers. Webfest just opened up the registration page for this year’s Dine with an Expert. You can sign up to chat with people like Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, SearchEngineLand.com, Jay Weintraub of the LeadsCon ... read more ...
Mon 28th January 2013
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When Chanel takes over a domain name, it sends a warning to others - Domains used to warn others that Chanel will pursue them. French fashion house Chanel has aggressively pursued counterfeiters and cybersquatters over the year. But what it does with many of the names it recovers is rather unique: it sends a warning to would-be counterfeiters and customers of counterfeit goods. Michele Neylon discovered one such example today. Here’s an example of one of the sites it took over: Chanel’s message warns counterfeiters that the company ... read more ...
 
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Now this is cool: LDS Domain Trends - See what’s hot in domain name registrations with this neat tool. Matt Mazur just released a killer tool on his Lean Domain Search: Domain Trends. The tool lets you type in any keyword and it will pull up domain registrations by date that include that keyword. Not only does it show a chart with the number of domains registered each day that include the term, but if you click on a chart point you can quickly see all of the domains registered on that specific day. Here’s ... read more ...
 
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Verisign’s patents: who will a association go after? - Company’s patent portfolio isn’t limited to domain name industry. Last week Verisign said it would consider ways to monetize its patent portfolio. The company’s patent portfolio is quite broad. In addition to covering domain names, it has patents and patent applications covering everything from digital cameras to online payments to databases to telecom. Who will it go after? Let’s take a look at some of the potential targets. Competing domain registries Verisign ... read more ...
Fri 25th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The intriguing GoDaddy .co Super Bowl blurb (with a Danica Patrick cameo) - GoDaddy.co Super Bowl commercial is very different from its predecessors. Last night .co tweeted a link to its Super Bowl commercial. I’ve watched it a few times (it’s embedded below) so I can fully grasp what’s going on. The basic idea makes sense: a lot of other people have your same idea for a web site. Go register it today. But from there I make these observations: 1. The ad doesn’t really promote .co that much. Sure, .co sits on the screen the whole time, ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy finally offers a CDN, though it’s singular right now - Website Accelerator makes putting your Go Daddy-hosted site on a CDN simple. People who host their web sites with Go Daddy will finally get access to an integrated content delivery network (CDN) to speed up their sites. Go Daddy this week announced its new CDN offering called Website Accelerator. True to Go Daddy fashion, the company built its own CDN rather than relying on an outside partner. At first, only U.S. Deluxe or Ultimate Linux Web hosting accounts that ... read more ...
 
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New TLD applicant that misspelled fibre finally fixes it - Kerry Trading Co. finally fixes a typo in its top level domain application. ICANN has posted 369 updated new top level domain applications, but most of the updates so far have been changes to directors, addresses, etc. But one of the recent changes is bigger. Kerry Trading Co. Limited has finally fixed a huge typo in one of its top level domain applications. The company meant to apply for .KerryLogistics, but accidentally typed kerrylogisitics. into the string field ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy.com .info auction ends today, Social.info over $7,000 - Auction of over 100 domain names is led by Social.info. An auction of 135 registry-held .info domain names ends today on GoDaddy.com. The top domain so far is social.info, which has 80 bids and is up to $7,305. (Social.com sold for $2.6 million in 2011.) Home.info, Computer.info, Fashion.info, and Test.info have all been bid up over $5,000. In a previous .info auction the top sales were cancer.info (which sold for $16,005 to an Arizona home care agency) and loans.info ... read more ...
 
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Heads up, competing registries: Verisign competence start reporting the patents - Verisign evaluating how to make money from its patent portfolio. Competing domain registries, watch out. Much of yesterday’s Verisign investor conference call was focus on patents and Verisign figuring out how to profit from them. While saying it was too early to talk specifics, Verisign CEO James Bidzos said the company has many options. We have a large number of patents — a portion of our patents read directly on registry operations so we think that there are ... read more ...