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 14th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why we substantially don’t need to worry about cybersquatting on new tip turn domains - The amount of cybersquatting won’t increase much with new top level domains coming to market. One of the biggest worries trademark owners have about new top level domain names is that they’ll have to fight more cybersquatting battles as a result. But this one simple graph from WIPO shows that history tells us not to worry so much about it: This graph shows the breakdown of gTLD UDRP filings at WIPO last year. As you can see, almost all the action is in .com. Now, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
6 engaging domain news stories from a weekend - Breach notices, expiring domains, Groupons, and more. I’ll admit it. I don’t like to blog over the weekend. Thankfully, others are here to keep on top of things. Here are six interesting stories from the weekend that you should check out. ICANN Compliance Sends Breach Notices To 10 Registrars – ICANN sends nastygrams to ten registrars that are ignoring ICANN’s audit program. Real Estate Agents Discuss Why They Own RealEstate.com Domain Names – an interesting ... read more ...
Fri 11th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why $1.2 million for Rockies.com didn’t pass my spot test - Major League Baseball is denying that it paid $1.2 million when it bought Rockies.com. That doesn’t surprise me. This week you may have wondered why I didn’t cover the purchase of Rockies.com by Major League Baseball. After all, I’ve chronicled MLB’s quest to acquire the domain names of each of its 30 teams. I believe I was also the first to write about Rockies.com going up for sale. Here’s why I didn’t cover it: I didn’t believe it. Well, I believed ... read more ...
Thu 10th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Org indiscriminate cost to boost to $8.25 - .Org gets pricier. .Com prices may be fixed for the next six years, but that’s not stopping other registries from increasing prices. Public Interest Registry has informed ICANN that it will increase the wholesale cost of a .org domain name to $8.25 on July 1, 2013. It sent a letter to ICANN on Christmas Eve that was just published yesterday. Apparently I (and ICANN) are a bit late on this news, but that’s what happens when you slip a notice in over the holidays. A ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2 collection we use to lane my domain portfolio - Watch My Domains Pro and DomainTools Domain Monitor work in tandem to keep a watchful eye on my portfolio. Yesterday I reiterated my appreciation for Watch My Domains Pro, a tool I’ve been praising since 2007. Rob Sequin seconded my approval for the software in the comments. Watch My Domains Pro is one of two tools I use to monitor my domain portfolio. Watch My Domains Pro I use this to track the master list of domains I own. You basically add your domains and then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
8 companies that altered their domain names…but it isn’t easy - It’s possible to change your domain name, but it’s easier to start with the right one. Silicon India has a slideshow (God, I hate those things)Mashable has a recent post titled “8 Successful Companies Who Changed Domain Names“. It covers: Ask Jeeves Facebook PayPal Twitter NBC News Google Perez Hilton Overstock It makes for fun reading, but it brings up a serious dilemma faced by many businesses. I’m starting a business, but I can’t afford the domain name ... read more ...
Wed 9th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Which domain name registrar is best? - Take the 8th annual Domain Name Wire Survey and give your opinion. Domainers are nothing if not opinionated, especially when it comes to domain name registrars. This year’s Domain Name Wire Survey once again lets you share your opinion on which domain name registrar is best. The question has been dominated by Go Daddy over the years, although newcomers are frequently attracting attention. In addition to sharing your opinion on which domain name registrar is best, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains Reader’s Digest and 23 others bought final week - Reader’s Digest buys a .net and other end user domain sales. This week’s end user sales report includes big names like Reader’s Digest and the UAW. Also note the handful of companies that bought the .net equivalent of one of their .com domain names. Afternic The owner of Audioteka.pl bought Audioteka.com for $12,000. Vancouver Laptop, a laptop repair shop, paid $1,499 for ReplacementScreen.com. It already owns VancouverLaptop.com and VacouverLaptops.com. Sign ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Have we finished a domain parking review lately? - Make sure your domains are pointing to places where they create value for you. I consider myself a fairly organized person. But when it comes to making sure my domains are parked correctly, apparently I’m a little lax. I just audited a few hundred of my domain names to check their nameservers. I was surprised at what I found: 1. Some of my domains were pointing to Go Daddy “coming soon” pages. 2. Others pointed to web site generator systems that long ago stopped ... read more ...
Tue 8th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy starts display smallest offer cost alongside unpriced Afternic listings - Andrew, I had 40 offers via Godaddy/Sedo $60 special, closed 0 (ZERO). I followed up on a few of the domains, and saw some recent reg’s in lessor extensions, found out these were the people making the offers. They were clueless about the aftermarket process, and thought they could pay a premium of $60 instead of $10 to get the domain. I managed to close 3 deals on my own, each in the 4 figure range. If I had not followed up, most likely those inquiries may have sat idle for years, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afilias and Go Daddy to reason second .info auction - Second “sunrise” auction features 135 .info domain names. Afilias and Go Daddy are teaming up for a second .info auction consisting of domain names originally reserved in the .info sunrise period in 2001. The auction includes 135 .info domain names that were claimed as trademarks in the sunrise period, but the sunrise applications were later deemed invalid. The previous auction of over 100 domain names included cancer.info (which sold for $16,005 to an Arizona ... read more ...
Mon 7th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media acquires Name.com as registrar converging continues - Name.com the latest domain name registrar to be snapped up. Domain name registrar consolidations continues as Demand Media, parent company of eNom, has acquired Name.com. The Denver based domain name registrar is known for its good social media presence and humorous videos featuring its employees. It frequently positions itself as an alternative to Go Daddy whenever Go Daddy runs into technical problems or controversy. Name.com has also had its fair share of controversy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Texas to auction some-more personalized permit plates - Record price paid for Texas vanity plate is $15,000, a far cry from the UAE. I know several domainers were interested in license plate auctions in the United Arab Emirates. Who wouldn’t be shocked to see license plates sell for millions of dollars? It turns out the state of Texas has been doing the same thing — although it’s not nearly as lucrative. The record sale to date is “Ferrari”, which sold for $15,000. This month’s vanity license plate auction ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Introducing a 2013 Domain Name Wire Survey - The Domain Name Wire Survey returns for its 8th year. It’s that time of year again. Time for the annual Domain Name Wire Survey. This is the eighth year Domain Name Wire has run this survey, which gives a good databank of data to compare trends in domaining over the years. The survey answers questions such as: 1. Why do people choose a particular domain name registrar? 2. What’s the best domain parking company? 3. How much are people making from domain parking? 4. ... read more ...
Fri 4th January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Model and .me user Bar Refaeli to star in Go Daddy commercial - Israeli model is also a .me fan. Israeli model Bar Refaeli will star alongside Danica Patrick in one of Go Daddy’s Super Bowl Commercials this year, the company announced today. A press release from the company doesn’t mention a connection Refaeli has to Go Daddy: she’s a .me user. Go Daddy is a partner in the registry that runs .me. In 2011 Refaeli teamed up with former model Dudi Balsar to launch under.me, a line of underwear sold online. (That’s where ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
First demeanour during Webfest auction, and Mike Mann auction on SnapNames - First dozen domains from Webfest auction released and Mike Mann’s DomainMarket.com teams up with SnapNames. Pre-bidding has opened for the Webfest Live Auction taking place next month at Webfest Global (formerly DOMAINfest). Only a dozen of the domains have been listed so far, but that list will grow between now and February. Thin.com, Twin.com, and Wrestlers.com are among the domains on auction. One domain – briskets.com – already has a bidder. In other SnapNames ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Over 50 finish user domain sales including Paramount Pictures’ $65k purchase - End users close deals before the new year. A lot of small businesses buy domain names toward the end of the year. One reason is they want to get the purchase on this year’s books. That’s what one buyer told me the last week of December — “I’ll do it for this price if you can complete the sale by the end of the year for tax reasons”. That’s great for domainers but bad for my fingers. They’re about to fall off after doing this end user sales report for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD startup Donuts one of a tip 15 try collateral deals of 2012 - Company lands on list of top fundings for 2012. After the holiday VentureBeat posted a story with the 15 biggest venture capital funding rounds of 2012. Coming in at #10 is new top level domain startup Donuts with its $100 million raise: Sweetly named startup Donuts has a lofty goal of being a new registry for generic top-level domains that go beyond staples like .com, .net, and .org. Since it will be bidding on new — and most likely expensive — domains, it needs ... read more ...
Thu 3rd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2012 Domain Dunce: new TLD applicants - Many companies made big screw-ups on their $185k TLD applications. New top level domain applications are long. They are tedious. They are (mostly) boring. Still, some applicants made some huge errors on their applications. Consider VeriSign, which messed up its transliteration of .com in Hebrew. According to IDN experts, the string VeriSign submitted would take 7 keystrokes instead of the intended 3. For one of the characters, you’d have to type a character, then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo holiday finish user sales report - A slow couple weeks but some good end user domain purchases. Domain sales typically slow during the holidays, and that’s evident in Sedo’s year end sales report. The company turned in $1.38 million in sales over two weeks. It typically sells that much in one week. I’m still waiting on Afternic’s year end sales. For now here are the end user sales I found on Sedo’s report, including a sale to Warner Music. Everest Reinsurance Company bought SpecialtyInsuranceGroup.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO perceived record series of cybersquatting cases in 2012 - UDRP cases hit record at WIPO in 2012. World Intellectual Property Organization received a record number of UDRP cases in 2012. The organization’s web site reports 2,879 cases were filed in 2012, compared to 2,764 in 2011. The cases covered a total of 5,081 domain names. That shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Filings in the first half of the year at both WIPO and rival National Arbitration Forum were up compared to 2011. It’s worth noting that total filings ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FTC manners hunt disposition is OK, settles on Google scraping - FTC says it’s OK that Google promotes its own vertical search properties over rivals since it is designed to improve overall search experience. The FTC has closed its investigation of Google and the search giant has agreed to make certain changes to its business practices. One key issue was “search bias”, or Google promoting its own vertical search products over rivals. This was particularly the case with vertical search engines, such as product comparison sites. Some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You’ve got to review this one: Marchex wins Reverse Domain Hijacking charge - UDRP panel finds pet transportation company guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. Marchex, with the help of domain name attorney John Berryhill, has won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking. The case was brought by Airpet Animal Transport, Inc for the domain name PetExpress.com. What makes this case particularly interesting to the public is the volume of the two parties’ pleadings that are included in the decision. The complainant clearly left out important ... read more ...
Wed 2nd January 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2012 in review: Top 10 Domain Name Wire stories - From airline mergers to politics to new TLDs, 2012 was an eventful year. There are two types of stories that catch fire on Domain Name Wire: ones relevant to domain investing and those relevant to the world at large. All of my posts have to do with domain names, but sometimes they’re merely a tip off of something going on in politics or business. Consider this year’s top story on Domain Name Wire: it was about the airline industry. Here are this year’s top stories ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HSC.com domain name stolen - Technology company lost its domain name in the middle of December. Someone at communication technology company Hughes Systique Corporation must have had a rough holiday. The company, which is part of satellite company Hughes Communications, says its HSC.com domain name was stolen from its Go Daddy account around December 14. It has so far been unsuccessful in getting the domain name returned. Hughes filed an in rem lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name on December ... read more ...