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 6th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wow: Sedo sole 100 4 minute .com's final week - Four letter domain names are the new three letter domain names. Now that all of the three letter .com bargains have been picked over, it seems investors are on the hunt for the next best thing…four letter domain names. Sedo sold a whopping 100 four character domain names last week. Prices ranged from $749 for bzbs.com and ysyg.com to $25,000 for hips.com. Many of the domain names that were clearly sold to investors sold for several thousand dollars, which might start being a floor for four character ... read more ...
 
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Google bolsters Google Domains, switching to Domains.Google? - Registrar is revving up with simple email connection, more domain options. Google announced today that it’s adding features to its domain name registrar Google Domains, plus expanding the number of domain names it offers. I suspect Google is also getting ready to change the domain name the service is hosted on. The company is making it easier for people to set up email addresses with their new domain names. The registrar also now allows for transfers to other Google accounts, which is known as ... read more ...
 
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Amazon.com foreshadows AWS re:Invent news with domain name registrations - What will Amazon reveal at AWS re:Invent this week? Here are some clues. Amazon.com registered 21 domain names yesterday that likely foreshadow product announcements at this week’s AWS re:Invent conference. The company registered 5 internet of things domain names as it prepares to launch a cloud-based service for IOT this week: amazoninternetofthings.com, amazoniotplatform.com, awsinternetofthings.com, awsiotplatform.com, awsiotservice.com. Here are some other domain name registrations that likely ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Thoughts on a latest domain name "scandal" - A comment from Lanny B below… I debated adding to these comments with my own story, I have no desire or intent to destroy Adam, but I do want to protect people in the future from what I and apparently others had to go through. While reading this post there were a few things I was surprised at, but most of it I was not shocked to hear based on my own experience working with Adam for 8 months. Looking back on everything, I should have paid much more attention to all the red flags, and I was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Sex domain name enters "matching" period - Companies have 30 days to buy matching domain names. The .Sex top level domain name has exited sunrise and is now available to more registrants. From now until October 30, anyone who owns a .xxx domain name can register a .sex domain name. Also, if you paid to block your .xxx name during the .xxx Sunrise B program, you can now register the matching .sex domain name. ICM Registry, which operates .xxx, .adult, .porn and now .sex, originally planned to hold back any domain name matching an existing ... read more ...
Mon 5th October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week: .Film tip turn domain name launches - It’s more restricted than the already-available .movie. array of registrars. In order to register .film domain names, you must be a member of one of these organizations. You also have to have a close tie to the name(s) you register at the second level. In other words, no speculating in .Film. .Film will compete with Donuts’ .Movie, which has about 650 registrations so far without registration restrictions (but at a hefty $300 retail price). ... read more ...
 
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Richard Lau's Journey, Resume.com and NamesCon – DNW Podcast #53 - Richard Lau tells his story and what to look forward to at NamesCon 2016. Richard Lau’s life hit bottom in 2000. His business was essentially wiped out in one week. Worse, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since then he has perservered in both business and in health. On today’s show, he discusses his journey. He also talks about his Resume.com business and why he started the NamesCon conference, which returns to Las Vegas in January. Also: ICANN heads to Panama, Taco Bell goes with ta.co, .NYC ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Com Winners Update: Google Domains is Growing - Here’s how registrars fared with .com in June. ICANN has published Verisign’s registrar data for .com from June. As always, GoDaddy dominated the charts in terms of new registrations. And, for the second month in a row, it avoided the top 5 when it comes to net transfer losses. But the bigger story to me is Google, which is growing its new registrar at a rapid clip. Google continues to get lots of inbound transfers, and also generated 18,675 new .com registrations in June. It ended the month ... read more ...
Sat 3rd October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What track is National Car Rental shopping fixing rights to? - A new stadium for the St. Louis Rams? In 2013 I scooped that Levi’s was buying naming rights to a stadium based on domain name registrations. It turned out to be for the NFL 49ers stadium. Recent domain name registrations suggest its National Car Rental’s turn. The company just registered: nationalcararena.com nationalcardome.com nationalcarentalfield.com nationalcarfield.com nationalcarrentalarena.com nationalcarrentaldome.com nationalcarrentalfield.com nationalcarrentalpark.com nationalcarrentalstadium.com nationalcarstadium.com nationalrentalarena.com nationalrentaldome.com nationalrentalfield.com nationalrentalpark.com nationalrentalstadium.com ncrarena.com ncrdome.com ncrfield.com ncrpark.com ncrstadium.com National ... read more ...
Fri 2nd October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
September's Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories - A look back at last month’s top domain name news. Ashley Madison, domain name liquidity and a domain parking lawsuit were popular topics last month. 1. Ashley Madison takes down WasHeOnAshleyMadison.com – the company got it by filing a UDRP. 2. How can we bring liquidity to the domain name business? – with nearly 100 comments, there was lots of debate on this issue. 3. Expired Domain Report: What are 6 digit domains worth? – a couple sold for over $7,000! 4. Huge victory for Domain Registrars ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Miami domain names go on sale today - Miami gets its own domain name today. I didn’t get around to my usual weekly roundup of domain name launches, but there’s a big one happening today at noon ET: .Miami. .Miami joins .NYC and .Vegas as the only .city domain names in the United States. Unlike many of the other geo domain name launches, it’s also quite cheap. 11 is offering first year registrations for $11.99 ($22.99 renewal) and GoDaddy has a first year price of $14.99 ($24.99 renewal). 101Domain has an everyday price of $18.99. All ... read more ...
Thu 1st October 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HaoZhan.com for $27.3k and other lapsed domain name sales - A weekly wrap of expired domain name sales. One reading of HaoZhan.com ($27.3k) is “warlike” (好战 / hào zhàn). China fortunately isn’t – not compared to the USA – but its domain buyers sure are aggressive lately! At least 3 of the top 4 expired domain auctions at NameJet last week fit the profile: Pinyin, LLLL, numeric. Whether or not Chinese bidders won the auctions, they would have contributed to those final prices. .COM, of course. What about hyphens, though? That’s the million ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Kurt Pritz resigns from Domain Name Association - Executive Director steps down from role. Kurt Pritz has stepped down from his role as Executive Director of Domain Name Association, and advocacy group for the domain name industry. In a letter sent to DNA members this afternoon, Chairman Adrian Kinderis did not identify a successor. Kinderis wrote: Fellow members may have concerns about the current and future management of the DNA and its many activities. Please be advised that the board and I have no serious concerns. The DNA partners with Virtual ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BMW wins B.MW domain name cybersquatting case - Domain name owner had a plausible defense, but didn’t bother to respond to the allegations. Car company BMW has won rights to the domain name B.MW through a cybersquatting arbitration proceeding through World Intellectual Property Organization. .Mw domain names are country code domain name for Malawi. .Mw domain names use the same UDRP rules applicable to other domains, such as .com. BMW argued that the domain name registrant surely knew of the company, and that offering the domain name for sale ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name registrars no longer have to lift ubiquitous guilt insurance - ICANN waives insurance requirement for accredited registrars. ICANN’s board approved a resolution this week to waive an insurance requirement for domain name registrars. The registrar accreditation agreement requires registrars to carry general liability insurance of at least $500,000, but ICANN will no longer require this. ICANN has decided to waive the requirement for a couple reasons. First, the reason for requiring the insurance was to protect registrants. But most general liability insurance ... read more ...
 
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Don't be like a Tesla apologist - Some criticisms are valid, and this extends to the domain name industry. I stayed up to watch the Tesla Model X launch event online Tuesday night. It was supposed to start at 8 PM PST. Nearly an hour later, Elon Musk shuffled onto the stage unapologetically and proceeded to give a lackluster introduction to a car his company is depending on for its future. It has been amusing to see how people reacted to this. Most amusing are the Tesla apologists who make excuses for the company whenever someone ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN selects Panama for Jun 2016 meeting - Panama City selected for next summer’s meeting. ICANN’s summer meeting next year will take place in Panama City, Panama. The decision was made during a board meeting earlier this week. I think this meeting will draw a lot of domain name investors. Many already live in Panama (such as Andrew Rosener of Media Options) and many more run their businesses out of the country. There are two ICANN meetings between now and the Panama meeting. The first takes place later this month in Dublin, Ireland, ... read more ...
Wed 30th September 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
20 finish user domain name sales adult to $20,000 - A firefighting equipment manufacturer, event crew provider and celebrity news site bought domain names last week. Sedo handled 697 domain name transactions this past week, for about $1 million in sales. This includes a number of solid end user domain name sales in the five figure range, such as YouConnect.com and Cardx.com for $20,000 each. Here’s a look at end user domain name sales from the past week on Sedo: (You can view previous lists like this here. If you’d like to learn how to sell your ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Even before Ta.co, people suspicion Taco.com was owned by Taco Bell - Sure, some people will type taco.com instead of ta.co. But that confusion isn’t new. Yesterday I wrote about how I think Ta.co is a great shortcut web address for Taco Bell, and perhaps better than Taco.com. Many people disagree, and one commenter (on the first post about ta.co) asked how much traffic will end up at Taco.com by mistake. First things first, I don’t think people landing at Taco.com instead of ta.co will hurt Taco Bell. The domain name is owned by an IT company, so it’s not like ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NBC rising SeeSo streaming service? - Company registers domain names for what appears to be a streaming TV service. Judging from recent domain name registrations, NBC Universal is getting ready to launch an over-the-top streaming service called Seeso. [Update: Yes, that’s what it is.] The company registered dozens of domain names related to the service yesterday. I can’t track down any related trademark applications, and Google searches come back without any clues. Perhaps we can piece it together with some clues. First of all, ... read more ...
Tue 29th September 2015
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16,000+ .NYC domains will be expelled subsequent week - Some good .nyc domain names will be released next week. .NYC will release 16,674 previously blocked .NYC domain names on October 8. The domain names were all blocked as name collisions. Not all name collision names will be released, however. Names like Broadway.nyc, Brooklyn.nyc, Bike.nyc and Brewery.nyc are still being held back, presumably as premium domain names or for the city. You can see a list of the names that will become available on Hexonet’s website. Here are some I found interesting: ATMs.nyc Bartender.nyc Bistro.nyc Chow.nyc Democrats.nyc Forecast.nyc GrassRoots.nyc Lobster.nyc Park.nyc Showcase.nyc Showtimes.nyc Smoke.nyc Remember, ... read more ...
 
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Lawsuit filed to redeem stolen OnlineMBA.com domain name - Company files lawsuit after losing UDRP. After failing to recover the allegedly stolen domain name OnlineMBA.com through a UDRP, the previous owner of the domain name has turned to the courts. CMN.com, LLC, which generates leads for education companies, filed a lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court in Virignia late last week to recover the domain name. It says that an unknown person gained access to its email address, and used this to hijack the domain name. Plaintiff CMN.com says the domain thief ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why Ta.co is improved than Taco.com - For Taco Bell, using Ta.co is better than Taco.com. Yesterday Taco Bell began promoting the domain hack Ta.co for its updated website, which gives people the ability to order customized Taco Bell menu items online. (Finally! I can add bacon to my Doritos Locos Tacos!) Will from OmarAndWill.com posted this comment on Domain Name Wire: I give props to Taco Bell for taking the unique creative approach with Ta.Co not only is it sure and catchy but it will make people aware of the .Co. With any of the ... read more ...
 
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New TLD foe news is worthless - Getting answers to the wrong questions… ICANN released a report yesterday called “Phase I Assessment of the Competitive Effects Associated with the New gTLD Program”, undertaken by an outside research firm. I found the report mostly worthless. This is partly because the new TLD program’s focus on increasing choice and competition is based on the wrong premise. That premise is that there is a lack of good available second level domain names to register. The reality is there are plenty of good ... read more ...
Mon 28th September 2015
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Blackjack.com: A singular RDNH in an "outside a scope" UDRP - Panel rules reverse domain name hijacking in Blackjack.com dispute. A three person National Arbitration Forum panel has found the complainants in a UDRP over Blackjack.com to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking. You’re probably not surprised about an RDNH in a case for a million dollar generic like Blackjack.com. What is unique is that the panel also found the entire case outside the scope of the UDRP. Most of the time, when a panel comes to this determination, it doesn’t consider RDNH. ... read more ...