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 21st May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Viacom association buys Film.com - NextMovie picks up Film.com. MTV Networks site NextMovie has acquired Film.com, the company announced last week. MTV Networks is part of publicly traded Viacom. This was not a domain name purchase; it was a full fledged web business. Film.com has a U.S. Quantcast rank of about 15,000. Still, it’s always noteworthy to see web sites built on fantastic domains like this change hands. I searched Viacom’s SEC filings and can’t find any information about the acquisition. ... read more ...
Sat 19th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain merger email misfire - Received yesterday… Subject: Website Purchase Inquiry Hi, I am interested in setting up a new blogging website on your domain name. My name is Adam and I located your contact information through a domain look up and I understand that you are the owner of DNW.com. I’ve been working in establishing a number of high quality websites for quite some time and think that your domain name fits in perfectly with the blog! In my current situation, I would like to set up ... read more ...
 
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Did Google only buy G.me? - G.me now registered to brand protection company. The whois record for the domain name G.me recently changed to DNStination Inc., which is the proxy service for brand protection company Mark Monitor: The change was just triggered on DomainTools yesterday, although the record shows it was altered on April 20. The domain name was previously a registry reserved domain name. Although nothing is definitive, there’s a good possibility that Google is the new owner. Google ... read more ...
Fri 18th May 2012
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My requisite Facebook IPO post - Every blog is supposed to write about the IPO I’ve got to write one, right? If religious blogs find a way to cover an IPO then a domain blog should, too. I actually have a bit of a domain angle. This morning I googled FacebookIPO.com because I recall seeing something about the domain previously. Here’s the first result: Facebook-IPO.com has no content whatsoever. Google still cares about exact match domain searches, even if it’s on a really esoteric search. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
From a counsel UDRP mistakes file… - Don’t forget to prove earlier rights if you claim them. Publisher Hidden Values has lost a dispute over the domain name TriangleKidsDirectory.com. Hidden Values publishes the Kids’ Directory. It also has a registered trademark for KID’S DIRECTORY. It’s an admittedly weak mark. It’s even a concurrent use registration that is limited in geographic scope. But, the registrant of the domain name was a former licensee of Kids Directory and published the directory ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BitTorrent files the possess egghead skill lawsuit - File sharing company files IP lawsuit over trademarks. BitTorrent (and especially its users) are familiar with intellectual property lawsuits. But usually they’re on the receiving end. Now the tables are turned. BitTorrent, Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit in California against BitTorrent Marketing GMBH for trademark infringement and cybersquatting. According to BitTorrent, Inc. founder Bram Cohen, he first became aware of the defendant when it contacted him in ... read more ...
Thu 17th May 2012
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14 funniest domain registrar names - From dessert names to rather unflattering names, here are 14 odd domain registrar names. People get creative when coming up with domain names. Even registrars sometimes get into the act when naming their registrars. Many registrar names are created by companies creating drop catching registrars. Since they aren’t public facing registrars, they get really creative. Here are some of the more amusing registrar names (both drop catching registrars and regular ones): Afterdark ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MLB buys Athletics.com domain name - Major League Baseball makes another big domain acquisition. Just a couple days ago I was revisiting a post I wrote in 2010 about Major League Baseball’s domain names. The only change to the list since I posted was MLB picking up Angels.com. But this week MLB picked up another one. Jamie Zoch of dotWeekly discovered that the league just bought Athletics.com. That leaves just five teams that MLB doesn’t own the “exact” domain name for. Of the remaining domains, ... read more ...
 
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Oversee.net hires GM for $40M+ transport vertical - Oversee.net hires GM from online travel industry to run its travel network. Oversee.net has hired Raj Beri as General Manager of its travel vertical, the company announced today. Beri was previously Director and COO of IgoUgo, a travel site owned by Travelocity. The travel vertical is part of Oversee.net’s “vertical markets” business that includes fully developed web sites. Oversee.net is best known to domainers for its DomainSponsor domain parking service. Oversee.net’s ... read more ...
 
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Dotster moves domains to Domain.com credentials - Company transfers domains between registrar accreditations. If you start to see domain name registrar Domain.com growing in registrar ranking reports, there’s a good explanation for that. Dotster, which owns Domain.com, has transferred the domain names from its Dotster accreditation to the Domain.com one. I was alerted to this change when I received a DomainTools whois change alert on a friend’s domain name that I helped her register. My first thought was that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A “monster” acquisition, iPhone 5, and Vanity.com - A look at a few stories I haven’t covered this week… There are a few notable stories in the domain name industry that I missed writing about over the past week, so here’s a quick run down. A “monster” of an acquisition – Mesh Digital, which owns domain name registrar DomainMonster, has been acquired by Host Europe Group for an undisclosed sum. DomainMonster isn’t a huge registrar, but it has proven quite adept at mastering domain registrations when new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Spring auction results - Moniker auction nets close to $20,000 in sales. The Moniker Premium Spring Auction at SnapNames just concluded. Here are the (unofficial) results: drivinggloves.com 6450 – this is a recently developed site. Auction included Facebook page (with 2,000+ likes) and Twitter handle. florists.info 3050 – good keyword, but not a bad price given how marketplace for secondary TLDs like this will change in coming years. loaninterestrates.com 2000 obese.net 1650 – 5 bidders ... read more ...
Wed 16th May 2012
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UK insurer initial to remove .xxx dispute - Request for .xxx domain name denied. United Kingdom insurance company BGL Group Limited, better known as CompareTheMarket.com, is the first complainant to lose a UDRP for a .xxx domain name. The company filed the complaint against UK resident Jon Watkins, who registered the domain back in December when .xxx became generally available. But as I’ve argued previously, it can be rather difficult to prove bad faith in the registration of a .xxx domain name. Most complainants ... read more ...
 
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Intuit buys Apps.net for 24,100 EUR among 25 finish user domain sales - Intuit picks up Apps.net domain name and other notable domain purchases. The biggest name on this week’s end user domain sales report is Intuit. The company (of Quicken and Quickbooks fame) bought Apps.net for EUR 21,400 at Sedo. It already owns Apps.com. It offers Intuit Apps for many of its products. Here are other domain name purchases by end users over the past week. Sedo Ad network Multi-View, Inc. made this week’s big $112,000 purchase of AHHA.com. Travel ... read more ...
Tue 15th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Like we said, TAS problems doom Digital Archery - IPC questions ICANN’s ability to execute digital archery. Digital archery is doomed. The clever way ICANN plans to “batch” applications for new top level domains will either be killed, or it will be subject to accusations and lawsuits. Shortly after the bug in ICANN’s new TLD application system was revealed I wrote about how this was going to cast a shadow of doubt on digital archery. Then, as the number of applications slowly trickled out and delays mounted, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Review: Twitter self use promotion tool - A great way to boost your social presence, but light on analytics. I have a confession to make: I’ve been buying Twitter followers. 87 of them to date. It all started when I saw a promotional tweet from American Express offering $100 in Twitter advertising credits to small business owners that wanted to try out Twitter’s new self-serve tool. Never one to turn down free advertising, I followed Amex and responded to the offer. Twitter’s self serve advertising ... read more ...
 
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Bari Meyerson latest to change jobs within domain industry - Meyerson lands at eNom. Once people discover the domain industry and all it has to offer, it’s hard to move to any other industry. The latest move comes courtesy of Bari Meyerson. Meyerson left her long-time post at Moniker as it was being sold to Key Drive. Today eNom announced that it has hired Meyerson to work with domainers. Here are some other people who have recently (some more recently than others) changed jobs within the industry: Jim Grace – from DomainSponsor ... read more ...
 
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Here’s what law coercion wants we to do before induction a domain… - Registering a domain name might become a lot more time intensive in the future. Negotiations between ICANN and registrars to amend the registrar accreditation agreement are ongoing, and law enforcement agencies are asking for some pretty big changes to how domains are registered today. Law enforcement proposals relate to verifying whois information and tracking more information about registrants. Law enforcement agencies that have been involved in consultations include: Australian ... read more ...
 
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Zimbabwe.com seller takes outrageous loss - Zimbabwe.com sells for a fraction of what it sold for in 2007. We always hear stories about people who bought domains and flipped them for many times their purchase price. But the opposite also happens. Take the case of Zimbabwe.com, which just sold for $42,500 at Sedo. The last time this domain (reported) sold was in 2007. Purchase price: $130,000. It’s possible the domain also changed hands in 2008. Regardless of if it has changed hands since 2007, the domain ... read more ...
Mon 14th May 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
I systematic a new permit plate… - What do you think? Texas now allows you to order a dot on personalized license plates. It only works on some of the designs, though. This is technically just a six character license plate since the dot doesn’t really count. But if you have a three letter .com to promote, why not? Here are some other Texas license plates designs for domain investors: Texas occasionally makes seven character domains available, so you could potentially snag “Domains” as well. Unfortunately, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
10,000 many renouned topics in domains - Cloud, tech, and tv are popular topics in domain names. LeanDomainSearch has just published a list of the 10,000 most popular topics found in .com domain names. The site used research from its list of top prefixes and suffixes for domain names to figure out which topics show up most often in domain names. Here’s how the site describes the methodology: So how do you do it? Several weeks ago I published a list of the 5,000 Most Frequently Used Domain Name Prefixes ... read more ...
 
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Now this is a artistic UDRP argument - You violated someone’s rights when you registered the domain, even if it wasn’t our rights. Think you’ve seen them all? Here’s a very creative argument from Stabilus GmbH, maker of electronic tailgate openers, on why a UDRP panel should give it the domain powerise.com. Stabilus started using the “Powerise” term in commerce back in 2008. But the domain was been registered in 2002. Under the guidelines of UDRP, the registrant couldn’t have registered the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The inside story of Mama.com - Mamma.com owner selling Mama.com. I was originally a bit surprised to see mama.com in Moniker’s Spring Auction ending this week. Then I realized the domain on auction is actually a typo of the once popular search engine Mamma.com — not the search engine itself. Well, sort of a typo, as I later found out. I reached out to the founder of Mama.com owner Empresario, Omar Solis. As it turns out, his company bought the Mamma.com search engine in a deal completed in ... read more ...
Fri 11th May 2012
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Overstock.com: We’d still unequivocally like O.com - Overstock.com pleads for single letter .com domains in VeriSign contract renewal. For many years Overstock.com has had an obsession. An obsession with getting the domain name O.com. As you may know, there are only three one letter .com domains ever registered: q.com, x.com, and z.com. These were registered (and grandfathered) prior to a restriction on one character .com domains being put in place. Since then, Overstock.com has done everything possible to angle itself ... read more ...
 
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Marchex successfully defends geo domain name in UDRP - Panel rules company can keep Norcross.com domain name. Marchex has successfully defended the domain name Norcross.com in a UDRP with the help of domain name attorney John Berryhill. Marchex acquired the domain when it bought Yun Ye’s Ultimate Search portfolio. Norcross is a suburb of Atlanta and the parked page at Norcross.com has shown links related to Georgia, hotels, etc. The complainant, Norcross Corporation, sells viscosity equipment. While I’ll applaud ... read more ...