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.

Thu 24th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Should domain marketplaces boost smallest bid requirements? - Is $60 or $250 too low for a minimum offer? Should you be forced to set something higher? It seems that Go Daddy’s inclusion of non-priced domains from Sedo set off the latest round of discussions about minimum offer prices, but it’s a discussion that’s been going on for years. Sedo has a minimum offer price of $60. The minimum commission is $50, but may be waived if you park your domain with them. Afternic has a minimum offer price of $250. Its minimum commission ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy revamps Executive Accounts, splits into 2 tiers - Registrar renames Executive Accounts as Premier Services and makes program more exclusive. Go Daddy’s Executive Accounts program is getting a makeover. The department will be renamed Premier Services while setting new minimum guidelines and managing customers on a tiered system. Previously, customers with about 300 domain names were part of the Executive Accounts program. These customers were assigned a dedicated account manager and given other benefits, such as ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ally Financial sues cybersquatter who forked domains to Chase.com - Bank files anti-cybersquatting lawsuit after domain owner refused to hand over domain names. Ally Financial (GMAC) has filed a lawsuit against a Scottsdale man who allegedly registered domains including the Ally brand and forwarded the to its rival Chase.com. According to the suit (pdf), Donald Jones registered a handful of domain names including AllyBankLoans.com, AllyBancShares.com, and AllyNationalBank.com. Ally alleges that he then forwarded these domain names ... read more ...
Wed 23rd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A protected approach to offload your infringing domain names? - Lawyer lets you offload your trademark-infringing domain names. About five years ago I was talking to a domainer who had some trademark-infringing domains in his portfolio. He didn’t want them. He just wanted to get rid of them. “What if there was a service where you could push your infringing domains to and they’d take care of it?” he asked. “You just transfer your domains and they put up a notice on the domain that the trademark owner can claim their domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guy files UDRP opposite his brother - Something tells me these guys didn’t get together for Christmas this year. You know familial relations have hit a new low when you filed a UDRP against your brother. That’s what happened in a recent case filed with National Arbitration Forum. Reed Bousada owns an interior design company. According to his complaint for the domain name Bousada.com, it looks like his brother Jay registered Bousada.com and let him use it for his business for a while. Something happened ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo finish user sales: SocialismSucks.com, Torrents.com, and more - Sedo’s end user sales include Torrents.com at 84,700 EUR. This week I’m trying something a little different with my end user sales lists: I’m breaking Sedo and Afternic into two separate posts. Keep in mind that these end user reports have only a subset of the end user sales for the week, even a subset of what each marketplace sold that is public. In order to be included it has to be an obvious end user sale. Many sales are still in escrow or protected by whois ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains Target, CareerBuilder, and others bought on Afternic this week - Target, CareerBuilder, and the franchisor for TCBY stores make domain purchases. As promised, here’s the Afternic sales report for the past week. Some big name buyers picked up domains through the Afternic network. Retail giant Target bought TargetScholarships.com and TargetScholarship.com for $1,477 each. Nationwide Structured Cabling bought NationwideSupport.com for $1,500. Sales consulting company Cohen Brown Management Group bought the killer domain CrossSelling.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kim Kardashian, a domainer - Webfest goes celeb for this year’s keynote. [Update: read about her keynote here.] Oversee.net announced this evening that Kim Kardashian will keynote next months’ Webfest conference in Santa Monica. The first question on many domainers’ minds: what the heck does Kardashian have to do with the domain name industry? Let’s take a step back. Webfest, formerly known as DOMAINfest, doesn’t always select keynoters that have a direct connection to the domain industry. ... read more ...
Tue 22nd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Estibot launches new lapsed domain finder Dropping.com - A new expired domain service from the creators of Estibot. Estibot has launched a new expired domain search service called Dropping.com. Dropping.com aggregates expiring domain data from backorder services, marketplaces, and registrars and then provides 100 data points on them. It has over 7.5 million domains in its active inventory. Data points on domains include search counts, CPC, backlinks, etc. A couple nice features include historical whois information on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bali.com, JF.com, and Message.com combined to Webfest live auction - Big names added to live Moniker domain name auction. The list of domains for next month’s live auction during Webfest is growing. Bali.com has been added with a reserve range of $750,000 to $1,000,000. The site is owned by a Bali travel company. According to it’s about page, it has been operating as Bali.com since 2000. There are two 2 letter .com domains in the auction: xu.com and jf.com. The former has a reserve of $100,000-$250,000 and the latter has a reserve ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 and domain parking: who’s best? - Will newcomers or long time parking favorites top this year’s list? The domain name parking industry has seen incredible upheaval over the past five years. 2012 was no different, with a surprising number of recently-launched parking companies making a big name for themselves. So which domain parking company is best? Answer that question in Domain Name Wire’s eighth annual Domain Name Wire Survey. You’ll also be asked these other questions about domain parking: – ... read more ...
Mon 21st January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Two cases uncover a craziness of RDNH - Two cases, three different view of reverse domain name hijacking. Two recent UDRP cases show the inconsistency of how reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH) is applied. In the first case, Intelligentsia Coffee Tea, Inc. v. Ashantiplc Ltd, the panel found against the complainant in a dispute over Intelligentsia.com. In this decision, two of the three panelists said it is the Respondent’s job to prove RDNH. The majority write: A majority of the Panel notes that Complainant ... read more ...
Thu 17th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Trailers.net gets $15k bid and Great Domain Auction starts - Plenty of action at Sedo this month and a wide range of TLDs in Great Domains auction. Sedo’s monthly Great Domains auction has started and will run through January 24. The auction includes 199 domain names and all but 8 have reserves under $/EUR/GBP 10,000. This month’s auction includes a number of country code domain names and .nets — a lot more than I’m used to seeing. Some of the ccTLDs are crisis.co.uk, wireless.co.uk, gay.es, and the ironic Russia.it. While ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sign.com owners threatens Signs.com - Company sends cease desist letter, claiming Signs.com violates Sign.com service mark. This one is so crazy it’s almost funny — although I’m sure it’s not funny for the owner of Signs.com. SA International, the owner of Sign.com, has sent a cease and desist letter (pdf) to the owner of Signs.com, claiming that Signs.com infringes its service mark for Sign.com. The cease and desist claims that SA International has been using the domain and service mark Sign.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain registrar powers Kim Dotcom’s new Mega - Instra has partnered with Kim Dotcom to power the new Mega. Last February I stumbled into the lobby of the Fairmont Santa Monica after a DomainFest party. It was about 3 in the morning and it had been a long night. I ran into Tony Lentino, founder of domain name registrar Instra. We chatted for a few minutes and the conversation turned to Kim Dotcom and Megaupload, the file sharing service that was shut down by U.S. and New Zealand authorities a few months later. ... read more ...
Wed 16th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook registers some Graph Search domains, though a accurate domain doesn’t matter - Company gets FacebookGraphSearch.com; GraphSearch.com is for sale. Yesterday Facebook registered domain names for its new Graph Search. Specifically, it picked up FacebookGraphSearch.com and other extensions of the same domain. It did not, however, buy GraphSearch.com. That domain was registered in 2001 and belongs to Visicom Media Inc. It’s listed for sale on Sedo. And people are definitely paying attention. As of right now, the domain shows 32 offers, 132 visitors ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Santorum lets his domestic destiny (of domain names) expire - Santorum lets a number of domain names expire. [Update: the domain names were renewed shortly after this article was published. To whomever was in charge of renewing this domain: you’re welcome.] Is one time presidential hopeful Rick Santorum letting his political ambitions expire? Santorum is letting a number of future-oriented political domain names expire. The domains appear to have been managed by New Media Communications, Inc., a political marketing company. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
3 questions and 3 things I’m looking brazen to during Webfest - Will Webfest deliver under its new name? After so many years of calling it DOMAINfest, it’s kind of strange to type Webfest. But that’s the new name of DomainSponsor’s annual conference. I don’t mind, especially since there’s no more funky capitalization. (I always had double check if it was DOMAINfest or DomainFEST.) This year’s conference takes place February 5-7 at the usual location: the beautiful Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. The focus is shifting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rachael Ray buys her husband’s name and 28 some-more engaging domain purchases - 29 end user domain sales including some big names. Memo to Rachael Ray’s husband: she owns you. This week’s end user domain sales report includes Rachael Ray buying her husband’s (domain) name, Hubspot, Taser, and more. Afternic Better Bathrooms UK Limited paid $3,388 for BetterLights.com. Animal Finders, a new service designed to help connect lost animals with their owners, bought PetsReunited.com for $1,600. It operates in the UK at AnimalFinders.co.uk; I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: a initial loyal laches UDRP decision - National Arbitration Forum panel finds case should be barred based on laches. The doctrine of laches bars bringing a claim after an unreasonable delay in a way that unduly hurts the opposing party. Laches started creeping into UDRP cases over the past couple years. But panels usually mention it as part of what led them to their conclusion. Now a three person panel has decided a case based entirely on laches. This is a big deal as there is now a big precedent to point ... read more ...
Tue 15th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tracy Morgan goes after TracyMorgan.com domain name - Comedian Tracy Morgan wants control of his domain name. Comedian and 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan has filed a complaint to get the domain name TracyMorgan.com. The UDRP complaint was filed with World Intellectual Property Forum. The case notice was published today. Although the parked page at TracyMorgan.com changes, I’m currently seeing sponsored links for “Tracy Morgan Comedian”, “Alex Baldwin Actor” (Baldwin starred with Morgan on 30 Rock), and “Saturday ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Using live discuss to sell domain names - Live support chat can help sell domain names if executed well. Have you ever been on an e-commerce site when a window pops up asking you if you need help? Live chat on e-commerce sites is a critical component of pushing sales and reducing cart abandonment. So I was delighted this morning to see Sedo doing this on their domain listing pages. I had a domain listing on Sedo.com open in my browser for a while. Next thing I know I see a friendly young lady asking if I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets another obvious for ccTLD registration - Patent covers bulk checking and registration of country code top level domains. Verisign has been granted U.S. patent number 8,356,081 for “Automated Domain Name Registration”. This patent, applied for in 2005, is a divisional patent of 7,000,028, which was filed back in 2000. Which will take you down memory lane… The genesis of this patent is actually idNames, a company founded by Pinky Brand and Marc Ostrofsky. Network Solutions bought the company in 1998. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Frito-Lay forwards Doritos.com to the Facebook page - Is forwarding your brand’s .com domain to Facebook a good idea? A reader just notified me that Doritos.com is no longer a standalone web site. Frito-Lay has simply forwarded it to its Facebook page. This appears to have happened a few months ago, so it’s not “news”. But it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I’m not a fan of companies turning over their web presences to Facebook. Or even advertising their Facebook page in a commercial instead of their own ... read more ...
Mon 14th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The best time (and way) to get press for your domain business - I get a lot of pitches to write about domain name companies and their launch, latest products, new features, etc. I have six tips on the best and worst times to get press, and the best way to pitch. 1. Friday is the worst day to put out news about your company (unless you want to bury it). Friday is the slowest weekday for traffic to Domain Name Wire. Once the afternoon comes around it seems that every domain investor is already out relaxing on the beach. 2. Monday ... read more ...