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 12th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy hires ad group as it changes the image - Company taps Deutsch to shift its image and advertising. For the first time since 2005, Go Daddy has hired an outside ad agency to manage its advertising. The company will formally announce tomorrow that it hired the New York office of ad agency Deutsch Inc. Deutsch’s first public work for the company will be its ads during the Olympics on NBC. Go Daddy and Deutsch plan to shift the company’s ads away from just good looking woman and more to what the company ... read more ...
Mon 11th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN pays tighten to $1 million for CEO in 2011. Here’s remuneration for 18 other ICANN employees. - Rod Beckstrom’s total compensation and benefits nearly $1 million last fiscal year; many other highly paid employees at non-profit. ICANN has published its Form 990 tax return for the financial year ending June, 2011. Here’s what top employees earned (including non-taxable benefits): Rod Beckstrom, CEO $998,230 Akram Atallah, COO $133,812 Doug Brent, COO $348,628 John Jeffrey General Counsel Secretary $338,475 Kurt Pritz, SVP Services $399,747 Kevin Wilson, CFO ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media releases some-more sum about the gTLD skeleton and understanding with Donuts - Demand Media applies for 26 TLDs outright and has rights to up to 107 applied for by partner Donuts, Inc. Demand Media announced today that it has applied for 26 top level domains on its own, and also can obtain rights to 107 gTLDs being applied for by Donuts, Inc. In May it announced that it had invested $18 million in new top level domains, which led many to suspect that the company had applied for close to 100 new top level domains. (At $185,000 a piece for the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TLDH: Digital archery might have technical bugs - Big new top level domain applicant finds odd results with digital archery system. Digital archery, which creates a secondary timestamp for new TLD applications that will determine how they are batched, is run through ICANN’s TLD Application System (TAS). This is the same system that was taken offline for over a month due to a security glitch that allowed some competing applicants to see limited data from other applicants. So you don’t suppose there could be problems ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD updates: Neustar 358, Key-Systems 31 - Neustar signs up boatloads of new TLD applicants and news from Key-Systems. New top level domain news stories are coming fast and furious today. Here are a couple more updates: Nuestar (NYSE: NSR) said it has been selected as the backend registry services provider for 358 top level domain applications. The actual number the company will end up supporting will likely be smaller since some of the applicants will drop or or be contested. Key-Systems announced that 31 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here’s what Mike Mann thinks about new TLDs - He has an opinion on everything. Here’s what he thinks about new TLDs. Last week I published comments from a number of domain industry professionals about what they think new top level domains will mean for domainers. I think I forgot to tell Mike Mann to keep his comments to 100 words. So he came back with a smidge more, warranting this separate post. Mann founded BuyDomains, later selling it to NameMedia. His company built up one of the largest portfolios of .com’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo adjusts gain superintendence down, though there’s a china backing for domain parkers - Sedo paying out more to top domain parking clients. Sedo Holding has lowered its earnings forecast for the current year due to “confirming margin development in Domain Marketing in the second quarter 2012.” While this may seem like a bad thing, there’s a silver lining for some of Sedo’s larger domain parking clients. When asked for comment, Sedo.com CEO Tobias Flaitz told Domain Name Wire: Sedo Holding AG is the publicly traded parent company of Sedo and our ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames co-founder Ray King behind registry requesting for 10 tip turn domains - King’s latest venture applies for ten top level domains. Raymond King, the co-founder of SnapNames (later bought by Oversee.net and then KeyDrive) and founder of AboutUs, Inc., is applying for 10 top level domain names through his new company Top Level Design, LLC. King has partnered with early stage investor Peter Brual, who doesn’t appear to have a background in the domain industry but is an advisor at AboutUs. Top level Design has applied for .blog, .llc, .group, ... read more ...
Sun 10th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Quinstreet acquires OnlineEducation.com - Quinstreet picks up online education lead gen site. Lead generation company Quinstreet (NASDAQ: QNST) has acquired the web site and domain name OnlineEducation.com. I can’t find any mention — nor a price — for the acquisition in Quinstreet’s SEC filings. But the seller was BigLeads.com, which bought the domain name on eBay for $100,000 back in 2009. The whois record for OnlineEducation.com changed between May 19 and June 2, according to historical whois records ... read more ...
Fri 8th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 some-more experts import in: what do new TLDs meant for domainers? - What domainers should think about as the new TLD launch approaches. Yesterday I published the comments of seven domain experts on what they think new TLDs will mean for domainers. Today I’ve rounded up five more experts from various parts of the industry. Bob MountainSenior Vice President, Business Development at NameMedia The introduction of new TLDs is probably the biggest change to the domain name space since the browser. Over the next 2-3 years users will be ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Instrumentation Northwest should ask the counsel for the income back - It just wasted money filing a frivolous complaint over INW.com. The results are in on Instrumentation Northwest’s case against Nat Cohen’s Telepathy for the domain INW.com. No surprise here. With the help of domain attorney Ari Goldberger, Telepathy won the case. But the complainant should really ask its lawyer to give back whatever he or she charged to represent it. This case was dead from the beginning, and any good lawyer would have told their client this. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Economist on Digital Archery: “Frankly, anything is improved than this” - Thies Lindenthal finds fault with ICANN’s digital archery. Plenty of people have come out against ICANN’s digital archery plan for new top level domains. Digital archery will determine the batch in which a new TLD application is reviewed and ultimately will have correlation to when they come online. See: Fate of new TLD order determined by click of a button and location Some of those opposed want a different method for picking the order while others want to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
DataGenetics’ fascinating demeanour during domain name data - Slicing and dicing domain name data. This in-depth post from DataGenetics is a couple months old, but a reader just sent it to me today. It’s a fascinating look at domain names. Some of the findings help you draw conclusions about the domain market while others are purely interesting. Did you know… * Of the 102.8 million names in .com space, only 12.54% of these same names are also registered in .net namespace. Of the 15 million registered .net domains, 86% are ... read more ...
Thu 7th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple wins aplestore.com, a initial UDRP feat of a year - Apple wins its first domain arbitration case of the year. Apple has won a dispute over the domain name aplestore.com as a World Intellectual Property Organization panel ordered the domain name transferred to the iPhone maker. The typo of AppleStore.com was registered to a man in Poland and forwarded to a parked page full of ads. This is the first case Apple has won under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) this year. But several other cases were ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fate of new TLD sequence dynamic by click of a symbol and location - ICANN reveals more details about its digital archery game. The smart money would have set up their registry in Africa… ICANN has provided more details about its so-called digital archery solution that will determine in which batch a new TLD application will be evaluated. Digital archery involves setting a target time and then clicking a button as close to the target time as possible. With close to 2,000 applications, but many of them duplicates, we’re probably ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Experts import in: what do new TLDs meant for domainers? - What should domain investors think about as new TLDs come to market? Companies have submitted close to 2,000 applications to ICANN to run new top level domains covering everything from .app to .zippo. What will this mean for domainers as we watch a flood of top level domains hit the market in the coming years? I reached out to close to 20 industry experts with diverse backgrounds to get their opinion on this question: “New top level domains are on the horizon. What ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.XXX adult to 137k active registrations, 220k total, and new $630k reward sale - .XXX registry about to announce details of premium sale as registration count continues to grow. The .xxx domain name now has 137,000 active registrations, ICM Registry founder Stuart Lawley told Domain Name Wire today. The latest official ICANN numbers for the domain date to the end of February with 128,736 registrations. That means the TLD is adding a few thousand active registrations a month. Although it may not seem like a huge number, that’s roughly $7 million ... read more ...
Wed 6th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vint Cerf: we consider a usually a few new TLDs will be particularly successful - Cerf discusses new TLDs and Google’s involvement. Vint Cerf, former chairman of ICANN’s board and current Google Chief Internet Evangelist, has dished out a bit of opinion on new top level domains. CNET asked Cerf this question: Namespaces are a notorious problem in computer science. Is the GTLD expansion actually adding value, or is it just making things more complicated and adding new trademark headaches for brand owners? I know Google is getting involved, but ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Set your alarm clocks for a “big reveal” - Over 1,900 new TLD applications to be revealed June 13. ICANN today announced details about reveal day, when it reveals over 1,900 applied-for top level domain names. A reveal news conference is set for Kings Place in London at 1 p.m. local time (noon GMT). That’s 8 a.m. EDT. West coaster new TLD watchers will have to rise a little earlier for a 5 a.m. unveiling. The reveal will also be broadcast online at ICANN.org. Although some applicants have already unveiled ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
16 finish user domain sales from a past week - Here’s Domain Name Wire’s weekly wrap of end user domain name sales. From medical companies to a utility and o2, here’s a list of end user domain sales from the past week. Afternic RedRock Wealth Management of Las Vegas paid $1,188 for InvestmentPlan.net. Here’s an individual end user: Darren Sandford of California bought Sandford.net for $2,588. He already owns Sandford.tv. Secure Ticket Purchase, the owner of BoxOfficeTicketSales.com bought up TicketsNow.org ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Chicago.com relates for dotchicago trademark - …but didn’t apply for the top level domain. Chicago.com, Inc., has filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for the DotChicago mark. But Chicago.com founder Josh Metnick says his company did not apply for the top level domain .Chicago with ICANN. The application, filed May 31, states that the mark is for “Domain name registration services; Domain name registration services, namely, conducting domain name searches for the purpose ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An engaging UDRP preference opposite a critique site - Dar Al-Arkan gets a domain, but doesn’t solve its problem. So-called gripe sites, which are critical of a company or person, are handled differently by various UDRP panels. A recent case brought by Saudi Arabia’s Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company is a case in point. Dar Al-Arkan filed the complaint against the owner of daralarkan-crisis.com. The owner of the site makes a number of allegations against the company and publishes what Dar Al-Arkan says ... read more ...
Tue 5th June 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts raises $100 million, relates for 307 new TLDs - Flush with cash, new TLD applicant applies for 307 top level domains. Every week I check the SEC filings to see if Paul Stahura’s new TLD startup, Donuts, has raised more money. But every time I check there’s still just a filing about the $1 million it raised. And that number seemed just about right, since Stahura has gone on the record saying the company planned to apply for 10 top level domains. But today it dropped a shocker. The Wall Street Journal reports ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
A juicy review with Donuts, that only practical for 307 TLDs - Donuts rolls in a lot of dough, but you’ll have to wait another week to see which domains they applied for. This morning Donuts, a new TLD applicant founded by eNom founder Paul Stahura, announced the most ambitious public new TLD plans to date: a $100 investment and 307 applications. The company also hired Mason Cole as Vice President, Communications and Industry Relations. I had the chance to connect with him this morning to understand more about Donuts’ plans. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy sole 35,094 aftermarket domains final month - Go Daddy releases monthly stats about aftermarket domain sales. The Go Daddy Auctions Domain Market Report for May is out. Last month the company sold 35,094 domain names through its aftermarket platform. That’s down slightly from 36,103 in April. 54% of domains sold via auction while 45% were fixed price sales. 1% sold through negotiation. The top 10 reported sales were: businessreviews.com $58,000 looker.com $50,000 temi.com $30,000 smartcamera.com $29,200 mara.com $28,000 hugg.me $25,001 imena.com $19,000 wbl.com $18,000 instantly.net $16,995 allaboutdecks.com ... read more ...