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.

Thu 19th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Research paper could save brands $185,000 on a “defensive” new TLD - Why most brands don’t need to apply for a new TLD strictly for defensive reasons. One of the more perplexing commonly held beliefs about new TLDs is that brands need to apply for one merely to protect their brand. This false notion is due to both a lack of understanding about the new top level domain rules and registry providers/consultants’ desires to not turn away potential business. But explaining this to a brand owner in a clear and simple way is not easy. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fortune names GoDaddy to 100 “Best Companies to Work for” list - Domain company on list of top companies to work for. The domain name industry is represented in Fortune magazine’s annual “Best Companies to Work for” list with GoDaddy.com coming in at #93. GoDaddy was one of only 19 companies on the list to have never had layoffs. It was also cited for its benefits (one of 14 companies on the list that pay 100% of employee health premiums) and ranked #8 on the list for job growth (24.6%). The company has about 150 positions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
So long, MegaUpload.com - MegaUpload.com shut down by U.S. government, arrests made. The Feds have shut down online file sharing site MegaUpload.com and charged seven people with online piracy in connection with the site. The MegaUpload.com web site, along with associated sites MegaClick.com, MegaPorn.com, and MegaVideo.com, are no longer resolving. According to the recently unsealed indictment, the site generated $150 million in subscription fees and $25 million from advertising. TorrentFreak ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo offered Zimbabwe.com during a fragment of the former price - Domain priced at least 60% below its sale price in 2007. I was just reading Elliot’s post about the latest Sedo Great Domains auction, and one domain caught my eye. Zimbabwe.com is for sale with a reserve range of $25,000 to $50,000. Even at the top end of this range, the owner is taking a 60% haircut from when it sold for $130,000 back in 2007 (also on Sedo). The domain has been listed for sale in numerous auctions since then, often times for more than the $130,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IAC sells Sendori for $3 million - IAC’s sponsored listing/traffic monetization unit sold. IAC has sold its Sendori unit for a total consideration of $3 million, nearly three years after buying the company, according to a recent SEC filing. When Sendori launched, it provided a way for domain name owners to monetize their domain names without requiring domain visitor to click on ads. Instead, domain visitors are automatically forwarded to relevant advertisers’ sites. Sendori’s consumer facing ... read more ...
Wed 18th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$85k of your $185k new gTLD app goes to haunt costs - What should happen to the extra $85,000? When you write that check for $185,000 for your new top level domain application, $85,000 of it is going to rather interesting uses. $60,000 of it will go to a reserve fund for “risk costs”. In other words, lawsuits. $25,000 of it goes to cover historical costs of the new gTLD program. In other words, money that has already been spent. This brings up some interesting questions. First, what happens if the risk costs don’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
JoePaterno.xxx adult for sale on eBay - Joe Paterno triple x domain name among those for sale on eBay. I guess it could be more tasteless. A Florida man has placed JoePaterno.xxx up for sale on eBay for $3,400. But thankfully the seller doesn’t have a description referring to the child sex scandal at Penn State. So it could be more tasteless. The Joe Paterno name is just one of the interesting .xxx domains I found for sale on eBay today. Earlier this week I discovered someone selling FoxStudios.xxx (which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy blacks out partial of the web site to conflict SOPA - From bill supporter to blackout. Did you know that GoDaddy is participating in today’s web blackout to oppose SOPA and PIPA? OK, so it’s only a 500×90 pixel block below the fold on its home page: Still, this is noteworthy given that GoDaddy’s prior support for the anti-piracy legislation made waves on the internet last month, leading to a spike in domain transfers to competitors. GoDaddy reversed its opinion on the bill and now opposes it. Ironically, some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameJet bought the domain for only $600 - Popular expired domain service paid a measly 600 bucks for its brand. Even domain marketplaces have to buy their own domain names. A notable case was when thought Convergence’s Aftermarket.com paid $125,000 to pick up its name at auction. Drop catching service NameJet paid decidedly less: just $600. The company bought the domain name in September 2007 on Afternic. YummyName’s Bill Sweetman stumbled on this sale when doing some research. You can see historical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Switch a word sequence in a domain, compensate 17x - Company pays 17 times as much for “opposite” domain compared to its company name domain. This week’s end user sales report has an interesting pair of domain sales. The purchases come courtesy of a Delaware company called 360 Local, Inc. The company bought bought 360local.com and local360.com. You might think the former name is most important for the company given it exactly matches the company name. But it managed to buy 360local.com for only $2,995 while paying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SOPA.com goes adult for sale for $50,000 - SOPA.com domain name getting its 15 minutes of fame. The domain name SOPA.com has been listed for sale at Latonas.com for $50,000. There’s no hotter topic on the internet right now than the Stop Only Piracy Act (SOPA). In fact, earlier today I emailed the owner of the domain to ask him how much traffic he was getting. I heard back from the owner but not with traffic data. I’m sure interested parties can get the data from the sales venue. [Update: the owner showed ... read more ...
Tue 17th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2012 Domain Name Wire Survey now open - Take part in the seventh annual domain industry survey. The Domain Name Wire Survey returns for its seventh year… This is your chance to give your opinion on the state of the domain name industry and its service providers. You’ll answer questions such as: Which domain registrar is best? What’s the biggest issue facing the domain industry in 2012? What has happened to your domain parking revenue over the past year? Which domain forum is best? As always, I’ll ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afilias buys .Pro registry (and some tentative TLD trademarks) - Afilias acquires RegistryPRO. Afilias has purchased Registry Services Corporation (d.b.a. RegistryPRO), which operates the .pro top level domain, from Hostway Corporation. .Pro has an interesting history. When .pro first launched the only way you could register a domain was at the third level. You were required to show credentials for each second level your domain was under, such as .law. In 2005 domain registrar Encirca started offering a controversial service ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DirectNIC and United Domains now entirely integrated with SedoMLS Premium - Customers can list their domains on SedoMLS at Premium level. Sedo has announced that domain name registrars DirectNIC and United Domains are now fully integrated with SedoMLS at the Premium level. This means that customers of these domain registrars can add their domains to SedoMLS’ instant transfer system and also purchase domains directly through the registrar. Both registrars were previously integrated with SedoMLS but only on the purchasing end; customers could ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Justin.tv wins evidence over Twitch.tv copycat - Arbitration panel find in favor of Justin.tv over video game site. The creators of Justin.tv launched Twitch.tv last June as a topic-specific video site about video games. The site quickly ballooned, snagging 8 million unique users by July. It didn’t take long for someone to capitalize on a typo of the domain name. Twich.tv (omitting the second ‘t’) was registered in July. Twich.tv copies Twitch.tv’s content. Making matters worse, when someone visits the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Insurance association claims rights to AutoOwner.com and others - Insurance company says it should get AutoOwner.com. Is it generic? Auto-Owners Insurance has filed UDRP cases against the owners of four domain names that it thinks infringe its intellectual property rights, including AutoOwner.com. The insurance company’s web site is www.auto-owners.com. The other domains in dispute are autoownersinsurance.com autoownersinsurance.org autoowners-insurance.com Although “auto owner” is certainly a generic term, I’m sure the ... read more ...
Mon 16th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyVault.com: Inside a UDRP - MyVault.com owner fights back against UDRP complainant. [Update: the complainant withdrew the case.] Over the holidays I noticed a UDRP was filed against MyVault.com at National Arbitration Forum. I was immediately curious as to the backstory on this given how this domain seems generic (and a good domain at that). Since National Arbitration Forum doesn’t publish the name of the complainant until a case is decided, I was left to guessing who filed the case. But I’ve ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
jp.net: another instance because brands might need to change their domain name strategy - Brand owners may need to rethink why and when to defensively register domain names. Last week I wrote an article suggesting that trademark holders many need to change the way they defensively register domains for their brands in light of the new top level domain launch. One of the issues I discussed was third level domains and how brands can’t do much about them, except for certain country code top level domains. But an example of an exception to this rule — which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After UDRP and lawsuit, FirstQuote.com given to word company - VeriSign transferred domain last week as result of court order. In June 2010 a UDRP panel found in favor of the respondent for the domain name FirstQuote.com. The owner, who lives in China, paid thousands of dollars for the domain and thousands to defend it in the UDRP. But then in December 2010, the complainant decided to take the matter to court. Because the owner was in China, Aspen Holdings, Inc decided to file an en rem case against the domain name itself. Aspen ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger wins Libertad.com domain case - Nat Cohen’s Telepathy can keep Libertad.com domain name. Ari Goldberger’s ESQwire.com law firm has successfully defended Nat Cohen’s libertad.com domain name in a UDRP case. “Libertad” means freedom or liberty in Spanish. The case was brought by Libertad Servicios Financieros, S.A., a Mexican financial services company. Playing in Cohen’s favor was the generic nature of the domain name, and that he registered 29 other generic Spanish language domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
For sale on eBay: list of 25M companies that haven’t purebred .xxx - A good way to waste a lot of money and get sued. eBay seller priccut88 wants to help you land in legal hot water — all for a one time payment of just $2,000. The user is selling a list that apparently has 25 million companies that haven’t yet registered their domain in .xxx. Here’s the seller’s description: This is your opportunity to cash in on billion dollar companies that are scrambling to register their domain names that end in .xxx. A recent court ruling ... read more ...
Fri 13th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to import your Parked comment into DomainApps - Manage your old Parked.com and WhyPark accounts in one interface. Earlier this month WhyPark announced it was changing its name to DomainApps. The name change made since, especially since the company had been acquired by Parked.com a couple years ago. WhyPark is kind of a derogatory term to parking companies, after all. But Parked.com clients were surprised to see Parked.com basically disappear yesterday. Sure, the face of the company — Donny Simonton — had left. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Windows Phone site forced to give domain to Salesforce.com - Salesforce.com awarded hyphenated version of popular AppExchange.com web site. A service that helps app creators submit their wares to the Windows Phone marketplace must give its domain name to Salesforce.com, an arbitration panel has ruled. Singapore based App Port LLP hosts its web site at App-Exchange.com. The problem? Salesforce.com owns the popular AppExchange.com and has international trademarks for the term “AppExchange”, including in Singapore. While App ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Search spend to grow 15%-20% in 2012 though CPC down - Rise of mobile has big affect on CPCs. I just reviewed Efficient Frontier’s Q4 report for online advertising, which includes predictions for 2012. The good news? The company predicts search spend will increase 15%-20% in 2012. On the downside for domain parkers, CPC will decrease 4% on top of 5% Quarter-over-quarter that they reported in Q4. To be fair, this isn’t an across the board drop in CPC. A lot of it is attributed to an increase in mobile ad clicks, which ... read more ...
Thu 12th January 2012
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Octane360 founders start amicable media agency - After cashing out to Local.com, Octane360 founders return to agency roots. The founders of geo domain monetization platform Octane360 have returned to their agency roots with a new social media agency Next Step Social. Adam Rioux and Mark Roah founded Octane360 back in 2006 and sold it to publicly traded Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM) in 2010. They left Local.com at the beginning of last summer and just recently hatched Next Step Social. The agency helps brands, athletes, ... read more ...