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 4th December 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN asks justice to boot Name.Space lawsuit over tip turn domains - ICANN claims Name.Space released ICANN from claims when it applied for top level domains in 2000. ICANN has (not surprisingly) filed a Motion to Dismiss the lawsuit brought by Name.Space against ICANN for its new top level domain program. Name.Space runs an alternative root with a number of its own top level domains, such as .art and .book. Back in 2000 Name.Space applied to ICANN to run 118 of these top level domains in the main root. ICANN’s starting defense: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 domain name stories of November - From karaoke to Marchex, here are the top 5stories on Domain Name Wire last month. I typically send an advance version of my top 5 stories list to newsletter subscribers toward the end of the month. I always include the caveat that the results, which are ranked by article views, are subject to change in the last couple days of the month. Usually a change has to do with a big domain name story that comes out on the last day. But this past month it was a story from ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
An open minute to contractors - Get some sort of online presence. And return phone calls. I’ll be first to admit, I have no idea what the life of a contractor is like. By contractor, I mean people who build and repair stuff. Like fences, landscapes, and windows. I’m in the final stages of building my new house, and there are a number of things I need to take care of. Like getting a fence installed. Yet it’s harder than it needs to be. So I’m writing this letter to give you, dear contractor, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New API allows registrars to bond to Google Apps most some-more easily - Updated API now available to all domain name registrars. Google has long partnered with GoDaddy and eNom to make registering a domain and connecting it to Google Apps easy. Google is working to expand the number of registrars with this functionality and is introducing a new API to make it much easier. The API is available to all registrars. It has reduced the number of steps required to verify and transfer email from 10 down to 3 steps and users are no longer required ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
When it creates clarity to sell a domain name we indeed use - You might want more money, but there’s usually a price at which it makes sense. Domainers typically sell domain names they aren’t using. They’re parked or have a minisite, but no real business. But sometimes domain name owners are approached about selling a domain name they’re already using. I’m not talking about someone wanting to buy a web site you’ve created; instead someone wants to buy a domain name you’re using but the buyer wants to use it for ... read more ...
Mon 3rd December 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marc Randazza wins UDRP opposite lady he sued final week - Lawyer wins UDRP over his personal names, but battle still looms over family domain names. Last week I wrote about how first amendment attorney Marc J. Randazza had filed a lawsuit against detractor Crystal Cox over a number of domain names she registered. In addition to registering domain names including Marc Randazza’s name, she also registered domain names referring to Randazza’s wife and three-year-old child. Randazza alleges that Cox registered the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sony sells Connect.com to businessman Ryan Allis for new venture - Domain name was used for Sony’s now shuttered online music store. Sony has sold the domain name Connect.com to entrepreneur Ryan Allis for his new venture Connect. Sony used the domain name for its Connect Music Store. The entertainment company closed down the online music store in 2008. Allis was co-founder of email marketing company iContact.com, which was acquired by Vocus earlier this year. On his LinkedIn profile, Allis describes Connect as “Mobile technology ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Auctions sells 32,151 domains in November - MyModa.com and Funlife.com lead the way. Go Daddy has updated its Auctions Domain Market Report with results from last month. Last month Go Daddy auctions sold sold 32,151 domain names, which is down just slightly from the month before. Monthly domain sales in the low 30,000 range seems to be the new norm on the site. The top 10 sales last month were: MyModa.com $50,000 Funlife.com $50,000 – currently in escrow with Afternic Brilliant.org $25,000 LowRates.com ... read more ...
Fri 30th November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign shares dump 15% on agreement change - Verisign stock nosedives on news of new contract without price increases. Shares of Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) are down 15% in early trading after the company announced that its contract to run .com had been renewed without price increases. Verisign’s contract renewal with ICANN allowed it to raise prices 7% in four of the six years of the contract. That would have allowed the company to raise the price from $7.85 today to $10.29 after four years. But then the U.S. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
U.S. goverment only gave .com domain owners a $10.78 taxation break - Cost of holding domain for six years decreases by as much as $10.78. Hey, don’t say the U.S. government never did anything for you. They just gave domain name owners a $10.78 price reduction over the term of the next .com contract by eliminating price increases. Assuming that Verisign would have increased prices in the first four years of its contract (it had the right to do it in 4 of 6), that equals a $10.78 savings per domain that you would have held for the ... read more ...
Thu 29th November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools updates Reverse Whois, creation it (potentially) cheaper - Updated functionality lets users request details on a subset of domains owned by a business or person. DomainTools has released new reverse whois searching functionality, allowing users to hone in on exactly the records they’re looking for. By reducing the number of domain records in a search, it can also make it cheaper. The updated functionality allows you to add multiple ‘and’ and ‘or’ operators for the email address, registrant record, whois record, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will .website domains give .ws a boost? - Contrary to government’s opinion, .website domains will give a boost to .ws. The government of the State of Samoa submitted early warnings on top level domain applications for the .website string. So what’s Samoa upset about? The country of 200,000 people has the .ws country code. Over the years it has tried to market this as being short for “web site”. That has mostly been a failure. Still, it claims .website is confusingly similar to .ws. We are writing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain registry failures forward (and Verisign would like a obvious on recuperating them) - Largest domain registry applies for patent on recovering failed registries. With hundreds of new top level domains coming online in the next couple years, we’re going to see a lot of failed top level domains. Many of these TLDs will be backed by large registry providers that will takeover in the case of insolvency. But that doesn’t mean a registry (or even one of those large registry service providers) won’t suddenly go dark. But .com registry Verisign has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lawyer Marc Randazza sues derogator Crystal Cox in weird case - Lawyer involved in domain disputes files his own cybersquatting lawsuit to protect his family’s names. Now this is a bizarre case. You may have heard of first amendment lawyer Marc Randazza before. He’s by all accounts a colorful character, and he was the one who represented the owner of glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com against Glenn Beck in a UDRP. It sounds like at some point he caught the attention of “investigative blogger” Crystal Cox. In ... read more ...
Wed 28th November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Noss: use new TLD auction deduction to move some-more internet to Africa - Elliot Noss argues that auction proceeds should be used to fun wireless internet in Africa. Tucows CEO Elliot Noss, along with “internet in a suitcase” advocate Sascha Meinrath, have penned an op-ed for Slate arguing that new TLD auction proceeds should be used to grow internet access in Africa. In ICANN, Make a Difference, the pair suggests that the auction process for new top level domains might bring in $100 million to ICANN. Since the new TLD program is already ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
27 finish user domain sales, including a buy from a Data.com seller - A report on 27 end user domain name sales made last week. This week’s end user domain sales report includes a small purchase by the company that sold Data.com from Salesforce.com for $4.5 million. Afternic New York City bakery City Cakes shortened its domain from CityCakesNY.com to CityCakes.com for $2,500. Solid Industries Machine Shop Ltd. in Alberta, Canada bought SolidIndustries.com for $1,788. It already owns the net version. Harry Caray’s Restaurant in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy to auction .info “sunrise tentative reallocation” domains - Auction features domains originally reserved during 2001 sunrise. Domain name registry Afilias is working with Go daddy to auction off over 100 domain names claimed in the .info sunrise that were later deemed ineligible. The 106 domain auction runs December 4 through December 14. The domains were originally requested during the .info sunrise in 2001. This was one of the first ever “sunrise” periods for a top level domain launch that gave trademark holders first ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN extends protections to Red Cross, Olympics, and IGOs - New gTLD Program Committee approves two measures designed to protect big non-profit brands. ICANN Board’s New gTLD Program Committee has approved two resolutions granting added domain name protections at the second level to special interests the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and the International Olympic Committee, and lays the framework for protecting IGO names and acronyms. The resolutions come after the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council gave a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Announcement on daub about that new TLDs will get priority diagnosis in ICANN’s Powerball - Which new TLDs will get to skip to the front of the queue? We’ll find out soon. Fortunately for new top level domain applicants, the chances of getting a top spot in December’s top level domain “prioritization draw” are much better than winning tonight’s $550 million Powerball lottery. Unfortunately, tickets to the draw cost quite a bit more (and I’m not talking about the $100 ticket fee.) But many applicants still have questions about whether certain ... read more ...
Tue 27th November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Book review: Domain Names Rewired - New book discusses the potential of more top level domain names. Before reading Domain Names Rewired, a new book by Jennifer Wolfe and Anne Chasser, I knew I was going to have two challenges with the book. First, I knew I’d disagree with many of the supposed benefits of new top level domains that the authors would espouse. Second, since the new TLD program is such a moving target, I couldn’t imagine how a book on the topic could remain relevant through the publishing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Lean Domain Search integrates Sedo domain listings - Aftermarket domains debut on Lean Domain Search. I’m a fan of Lean Domain Search, which I think is one of the best domain name generators out there. Until now I’ve had one main beef with the site, and that is that it focused solely on available domain names and didn’t promote that often times the ideal domain name can be purchased for $1,000 or so. So I’m happy to report that the site has now integrated Sedo domain name listings into its search results. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Have we enabled two-factor authentication on GoDaddy.com yet? - Two-factor authentication reduces changes of being phished. Last week a “small number” of Go Daddy customers were affected by a DNS attack. The company suspects the affected accounts were subject to phishing accounts or the users’ computers were infected. The simple solution to avoiding this from happening in the future is to use Go Daddy’s two-factor authentication. With two-factor authentication, when you sign in to your account you’ll get a temporary ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
800.com “sells” again - The domain name 800.com has changed hands…sort of. The world of penny stocks has always been a bit odd to me. Such is the case with Quamtel, Inc., which recently sold the domain name 800.com to its former sole shareholder, Steven Ivester. George Kirikos spotted this in one of the company’s SEC filings from June: Effective June 21, 2012, the Company sold the 800.com domain and all of its assets to Steven Ivester, the Company’s former sole shareholder, who is ... read more ...
Mon 26th November 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Best of a Web Cyber Monday deal: 50% off - A good Cyber Monday deal for web site publishers. I’m sure there’s a lot of debate in SEO circles these days about the benefits of submitting your web sites to paid directories. Two that I’ve always considered for my new sites are Yahoo! Directory and Best of the Web. Both charge submission fees. The theory is that, in the eyes of search engines, these submission fees indicate that sites in these directories are “real”. After all, you’re not going to spend ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name Cyber Monday deals - A collection of Cyber Monday deals for domainers. Earlier today I wrote about a 50% off deal at Best of the Web. Here are some of the more domainer-specific deals out there today. Feel free to comment with additional ones and I’ll add them to the list. Flippa – half price listings today. Listing must go live before 10 PM PST. Go Daddy – 32% off your order (affiliate link). Also a number of half off deals for services such as web site builder and hosted exchange. Name.com ... read more ...