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 20th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
30 finish user domain sales including Microsoft and America’s Cup - Domain Name Wire’s end user domain sales report. It’s difficult to compile the end user sales report while traveling. It requires bulk whois lookups, yet many registrars rate limit how many whois searches you can run within a time period. When I’m in the office I have a whitelisted IP for lookups at the largest registrar. But when I’m out of the office a lot of whois searches are blocked. Why does this matter to you? Well, I’ve been out of the office for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SportsRantz fixes the “z” problem - Online sports fan site acquires a key domain name for its branding. Now that I’m back from vacation I’m compiling the end user sales report for the past two weeks. As I was researching the purchase of SportsRants.com for $1,415 on Afternic by SportsRantz.com, I found that the buyer had posted a blog entry about why he bought the domain. Most domainers know why already: using a ‘z’ instead of ‘s’ in the domain name was sure to cause problems. It’s called ... read more ...
Sat 18th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 ways to solve new tip turn domain “metering” problem - Six examples of ways to meter top level domains, but many of them are basically the same things. ICANN plans to allow only 1,000 new top level domain names into the root per year, and as evenly as possible over a 12 months time span. Its initial idea for figuring out which domains go first — so called “digital archery” — was scrapped. Now the non-profit has come up with six new alternatives. It hopes to figure out a solution by December. Here are six examples ... read more ...
Fri 17th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain name observations from Australia - ccTLD pride and pricing dynamics. Here are some observations from my recent vacation to Australia: .com* rules! Nearly all of the domain names I saw advertised in Australia were .com domain names. But they weren’t just .com domain names, they were .com.au country code domain names. I’d say about 95% of the domains I saw were .com.au, maybe 3% were just .com, and a couple percent were other top level domains. Yep, Australians love their country code domain names. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DotMed applicant survives UDRP conflict on the .med code domain names - Panel sees through seemingly spurious claims by medical equipment seller. .Med applicant HEXAP SAS has staved off an attack on its promotional web sites aboutdotmed.com, supportdotmed.com and thedotmed.com in a UDRP. The company behind medical supplies company DotMed.com filed the complaint in June. DotMed.com has nothing to do with top level domain names, but it has applied for a trademark for “dotmed” as a top level domain. It has also been battling trademark ... read more ...
Thu 16th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
While we was out… - It’s hard to blog on while over the ocean. Here’s some stuff I missed. I just returned from an eleven day vacation in Australia (more on that later). It’s good to be back, especially after trying to blog from a time zone 15 hours from my usual. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s really hard to keep up with all the latest news while on the road. Especially when you’re on a 15 hour flight. Here are two particularly interesting news stories from the past ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Romney-Ryan domain names snapped adult in a hurry - Republican ticket follows patterns for domain name registration. Whenever there’s a big political announcement we tend to see people register related domain names. Mitt Romney’s announcement of Paul Ryan as his running mate is one example. Since June 2012, Go Daddy says more than 1,600 domain names were registered with the registrar containing Mitt Romney and or Paul Ryan. While many of these were surely registered in the past week when Ryan was named, someone ... read more ...
Wed 15th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The beauty of .llc, .inc, etc. - A steady stream of free leads makes corporate identifiers a compelling top level domain business. A number of companies want to sell domain names ending in company type indicators such as .llc and .inc. At first I wasn’t very warm to this idea. But there’s something unique about these corporate identifiers that may make them a good business for the registry: free lead lists. If you’ve ever set up a corporate entity, at least in United States, you probably got ... read more ...
Tue 14th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows sells $1.1 million in domains, credits improved classification for increasing sales - Categorization leads to strong aftermarket domain name sales. Last night Tucows reported earnings for the second quarter including $1.1 million in domain name sales from its own portfolio. Revenue from domain sales and parking totaled $1.6 million. Tucows CEO Elliot Noss credits two marketing initiatives for the strong aftermarket domain sales, but it can be summarized in one word: organization. Here’s how he explained it on the investor conference call last night: In ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo says domain parking stability to decline, writes off EUR 57.1 million - Company says intense competition and overall decline in domain parking are hurting its business. Sedo Holding, which runs Sedo and affiliate marketing company Affilinet, recently released first half financial results. Last month I wrote about how Sedo had lowered expectations for domain parking. Now the company says its domain parking business trajectory is worse than expected. The Sedo segment of Sedo Holding declined 17.9% in the first half of 2012 compared to 2011. ... read more ...
Mon 13th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Six months in, Tobias Flaitz on a domain name industry - Sedo’s new CEO opines on opportunity in the domain name industry. Editor’s note: Tobias Flaitz has been CEO of Sedo for about six months now. I recently reached out to him to get his thoughts on opportunities in the domain name industry, both for his company and the industry as a whole. Six months into my new role as CEO of Sedo, I’ve had the great opportunity to get to know my colleagues and many of our partners and to get diverse and big-picture insight into ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company turns to courts to save stolen EZQ.com domain name - Even after winning UDRP, company has to turn to courts to save stolen domain name. Last month I wrote about how EZQUEST, INC had won back control of its domain name EZQ.com through a UDRP decision. The company said the domain name had been stolen from its Go Daddy account. A Domain Name Wire reader sent me a link to an article showing that the battle is far from over. Apparently the alleged thief of the EZQ.com domain name filed some sort of lawsuit in China over ... read more ...
Fri 10th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
X Factor 2 spoiler? Show registers domain names of some contestants - Names of some X Factor 2 contestants are registered. A number of personal names were recently registered by brand protection company DNStinations/Mark Monitor. It took me a while to figure out what they were up to. But it appears all of the names are those of X Factor 2 contestants. I’ve never watched the show before, but it appears the second season (for the U.S.) is ready to kick off on TV this fall. I’m not sure why the show’s producers selected these particular ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Whitserv says it’s entrance after domain registrars for promulgation renovation notices - Company claims it has patents related to sending renewal notices. Whitserv, a company suing Go Daddy for alleged patent infringement related to sending renewal reminder notices, says it has put other domain registrars “on notice” as well. Last year Whitserv filed suit against Go Daddy for how it sends reminder notices to renew domain names. The company apparently got a victory related to the same patents against another company, so it just sent out a press release: [Whitserv ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wow: Craigslist loses Craigslists.com domain dispute - UDRP panel doesn’t understand that page is just an automated parked page. Online classifieds site Craigslist has lost a case against one Craig Solomon for the domain name CraigsLists.com (note the extra ‘s’ at the end). The National Arbitration Forum panel relied heavily on laches — Craigslist’s delay in filing the dispute — in coming to its determination. Although that’s great news for domain investors, at the end of the day I think the panel was duped. The ... read more ...
Thu 9th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interview: Kieren McCarthy on .Nxt conference - Kieren McCarthy discusses the upcoming .Nxt conference. The .Nxt conference on new top level domain names is August 29-31 in London. I reached out to show organizer Kieren McCarthy for details. 1. You postponed the London conference to August. Why? Quite simply, the ICANN TAS software “glitch”. The conference was planned with a seven-week lead time between the applicant information being published and opening the doors. We figured that would give everyone enough ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Escrow.com: domain and web site exchange adult 21% - Escrow.com sees transaction growth yet again. How’s the domain name market doing? Quite well, thank you very much. I reached out to Brandon Abbey, president of Escrow.com, to find out how business is this year. Abbey says that Escrow.com’s transaction volume for domain names and web sites was up 15% in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. The dollar volume for these transactions was up a whopping 21%. Keep in mind that 2011 was also a record ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazing! If we hunt for duck in a hunt box, you’ll get duck associated results - Lawyer manipulates parked page links in UDRP. Here’s a fun fact: if you search for “chicken” in the search box of a parked page, you’ll get search results related to chicken. And if you are a complainant basing your allegations of targeted infringement on said search results, you’re probably not going to win your case. That’s what just happened with a case brought by Raising Cane’s USA, LLC. The company owns chicken finger restaurants and apparently ... read more ...
Wed 8th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domains Princeton and others bought this week - Princeton and others make end user domain purchases. Before jumping in to the regular report, Jason Davis brought my attention to a sale that recently closed at GoDaddy. Jobing.com, which owns Recruiting.com, bought Onboarding.com for $20,000. The sale took place at GoDaddy. Afternic Concierge Auctions, LLC bought RanchAuctions.com for $2,088. K. Simon Construction, a roofing company, bought DallasRoofingContractors.com for $2,488. All Generations Home Care dropped ... read more ...
Tue 7th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why domain parking companies get named on “bad host” lists - Old data leads to parking companies landing on malware lists. Last October Oversee.net was named the “#1 Bad Host” by HostExploit, a group that compiles data about malware and other nefarious things on the web. It’s not the first time a domain parking company or registrar has been called out by HostExploit. So why is it that domain parking companies land on these bad lists? At a high level, it’s all about old data. “There’s a big misunderstanding about ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Living Social finally goes after LivingSocal.com, though owners has a good defense - LivingSocal.com — a typo of LivingSocial.com or short for Living SoCal? Last year Living Social started to go after a number of typo domain names through UDRP. I expressed concern about the domain name LivingSocal.com. Unfortunately, I called this one. LivingSocial just filed a UDRP against LivingSoCal.com. (The complainant’s identity hasn’t been unveiled, but it’s a good bet.) Is it a typo of LivingSocial.com? Sure, it’s off by one letter. But SoCal is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wednesday domain news roundup - I’m on vacation for a couple weeks. I’ve got posts queued up for each day, but WordPress often “misses schedule” on posts. Anyhow, I’ll be a little slow on approving comments that get caught in moderation. I’ll also miss a story here and there. Here are some interesting domain news stories from around the web the past couple days, in condensed form. Michael Blend has been promoted at Demand Media. Michael has a long history in the domain industry and is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy sells 32,766 domains led by JustWink.com during $65,000 - Go Daddy Auctions sales from July include a big end user sale. Last month Go Daddy sold 32,766 domain names through its Go Daddy Auctions platform. That’s about the same number as it sold in the previous month. The top sale was for JustWink.com at $65,000, and it had a big name buyer: it was purchased by American Greetings. Here are other top sales on the site in July: lasvegasbailbonds.com $22,005 naq.com $20,000 reducereadmissions.com $20,000 oversite.com $19,000 ... read more ...
Mon 6th August 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
NameMedia launches ignored domain marketplace DirectDomains.com - NameMedia tries segmenting the buyer market with new domain sales site. NameMedia has launched a new domain name marketplace dedicated solely to lower cost domains. The marketplace, DirectDomains.com, is targeted to domain name investors. Domain names on the marketplace are all under $3,000 and have been discounted between 35%-80% from their original price. Right now the inventory only includes NameMedia’s own domain name portfolio. If the site is successful then ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vikings’ Adrian Peterson fights for adrianpeterson.com - NFL running back chases domain name. [Update: Adrian Peterson lost, mostly because his lawyer screwed up.] A domain name arbitration case for adrianpeterson.com has been filed with National Arbitration Forum. Although National Arbitration Forum doesn’t publish the name of the complainant until a dispute is decided, you can bet the case was filed by Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson. Historical screenshots of the page show that it used to resolve to some ... read more ...