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.

Sun 13th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Microsoft’s Bing Gears Up for Black Friday - Microsoft registers domains for upcoming shopping days. Black Friday is less than two weeks away, and Microsoft is busy registering domain names for the big day. In recent days the company has registered a handful of domain names related to its Bing search engine and Black Friday and the following Cyber Monday. Among the domains it has registered: BingBlackFriday.com and .netBingCyberMonday.com and .net The domain names currently forward to the Bing search engine ... read more ...
Thu 10th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Companies Show Off Their Wares during Ad-Tech - Giant Ad-Tech conference continues today in New York City. There are 277 exhibitors at this year’s Ad-Tech conference in New York City, and that includes some domain name companies. The conference started Tuesday with the exhibit hall opening Wednesday morning. Afilias and its dotMobi brand will be showing off the mobile internet and .mobi domain names at booth 1950. Sedo will evangelize the power of a great domain name at booth 2115. Affiliate.com and its TheParkingPlace ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Updates: Domains Now on GoDaddy, No Acquisitions Planned - Tucows’ own domain names available for instant transfer on GoDaddy. During Tucows’ investor conference call yesterday, company CEO Elliot Noss announced that the company had completed its technical integration with GoDaddy to sell its owned and operated domain names in the registration path. The deal is similar to one struck by NameMedia to list its owned and operated portfolio of domains on GoDaddy. When someone searches for a domain that is available for sale, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Twitter Wins Twiter.com Domain Name Case - Twitter awarded Twiter.com domain name. Twitter has won a case with World Intellectual Property Forum over the domain name Twiter.com. The company filed the complaint back in June against the typo of its popular service. The owner of the domain forwarded it to a “survey” site where the owner was paid after visitors divulged their information and completed offers in the hopes of receiving prizes. Twitter then dropped and refiled the case in July, most likely because ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court Grants Oversee.net Motion to Dismiss in Monte Cahn Lawsuit - Court grants Oversee.net’s Motion to Dismiss several claims brought by former employee Monte Cahn. A U.S. District Court has granted Oversee.net’s latest motion to dismiss in a lawsuit brought by former employee and Moniker founder Monte Cahn (pdf). Oversee.net had requested the court to dimiss a number of claims in Cahn’s second ammended complaint against the company. Oversee.net says the claims were merely rehashes of previous claims the court dismissed. With ... read more ...
Wed 9th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Me and .TV Court Bloggers - .Me and .TV pitch their brands to bloggers and social media experts. Two commercialized ccTLDs tried to court bloggers at the BlogWorld Expo in Los Angeles November 3-5. .Me and .TV, country code domain names for Montenegro and Tuvalu respectively, each had a booth at the expo (pictures below). These domains make sense for bloggers. .Me is great for personal bloggers. .TV makes sense for video bloggers or maybe even podcasters (where was .fm?). The .me booth had a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Governments Shouldn’t Let Domains Expire - Bad things happen to former government owned domain names. I just finished reading a story form The Ottawa Citizen about how Canada’s 100th anniversary of flight web site expired and (at least briefly) showed ads for escorts. For the Canadian government it got the worst possible outcome. The domain name wasn’t just a parked domain; someone actively tried to take advantage of its prior use. The new owner apparently left a notice on the page: “To previous domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domains New York Life and Others Bought This Week - New York Life and art college make domain name purchases. It’s time for he weekly end user domain sales report. It’s a little short this week, which gives me the chance to discuss one crazy sale at Afternic this past week: dam.com. This domain sold for just $6,500. Is it just me, or is that crazy cheap for a good three letter dot com? OK, on with the end user sales at Afternic… Business broker BizMatch, Inc., which owns biz-match.com, bought BizMatch.net for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Feds Bust $14M Click Hijacking Scheme - Group hijacked computers to earn advertising revenue. Call it click fraud on steroids. The U.S. government has busted six Estonian nationals and one Russian national for what they call a massive click hijacking ring. The group allegedly used “rogue” Domain Name System servers and malware to alter the DNS server settings on infected computers. They infected over four million computers including 500,000 in the United States. By controlling the DNS the criminals ... read more ...
Tue 8th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
P&G and HP Say They Won’t Register Their Own TLDs - …but these companies have a good reason not to. Bloomberg BusinessWeek just published an article that says representatives from PG and HP have confirmed the companies don’t plan to apply for new top level domain names. A couple observations: 1. One of the reasons these companies are less likely to apply is because their natural extensions are ineligible. .PG and .HP are only two letters; they must be three. HP has already complained about this to ICANN. Oh, and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Demands Focus on Its Registrar Business - Stock investors need to pay less attention to Demand Media’s content business and more to its domain business. If you ask most stock watchers, they’ll tell you Demand Media is a content company. The company, they’ll say, relies on driving eyeballs to its ad laden pages. But underneath this is the truth: the “rock” of Demand Media is the domain name registrar and its huge portfolio of parked domain names. When it announced quarterly earnings yesterday, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registry Behind .Pro Says It Used .Law, .Med Back in 2004 - RegistryPro wants to trademark .med and .law domain names. There’s something sneaky going on with RegistryPro, the registry for the .pro top level domain name. First, the company filed trademark applications for the second level domains .med.pro and .law.pro. But it has taken it a step further, also applying for trademarks for .med, dotmed, .law, and dotlaw. Even more peculiar? It claims a first use in commerce date of 2004. It is relying on its offering of third ... read more ...
Mon 7th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hustler Finally Hears About .Co Domains - Company files complaint over Hustler.co domain name. The company behind the Hustler adult entertainment enterprise has finally heard about the .co domain name. LFP, IP, LLC has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) over the domain name Hustler.co. The domain is, of course, just one missing ‘m’ away from the company’s flagship web site. Hustler.co forwards to rival Vivid.com, although this may be through an affiliate relationship. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wireless Company Files UDRP Over AEE.com After Losing Domain - Wireless products company in China loses domain in suspicious circumstances; files UDRP to get it back. Wireless company Shenzhen AEE Technology Co., Ltd has filed a UDRP for the domain name AEE.com. But before you question this filing for a three letter domain name, there are some interesting circumstances surrounding this domain name. You can discover them with the help of DomainTools’ historical whois. Shenzhen AEE Technology Co., Ltd owned the domain name until ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Where to Find a Cheapest .XXX Landrush Pricing - Comparison of .xxx landrush pricing. Just like I did for sunrise, I’ve compiled pricing for the .xxx landrush. The landrush period runs November 8-November 25. During this period adult companies can apply for any .xxx domain they want that wasn’t reserved during sunrise or blocked by the registry. If more than one company or person applies for the same domain it will be sent to an auction. There’s no benefit to applying early on in the period; it’s not first-come-first-served. Finding ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Gap Sues TheGap.com - Apparel company wants control of TheGap.com. The Gap, Inc. has sued TheGap.com under U.S. anti-cybersquatting laws. This action should come as no surprise. Despite being registered way back in 1994, the domain recently started forwarding to affiliate offers including free Gap gift cards: The Gap says that TheGap.com forwards to one of two web sites offering gift cards if people submit their personal information and complete sponsor offers. If the user tries to leave ... read more ...
Sun 6th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Former Sedo attorney Frank Aiello Joins Domain Holdings - Domain Holdings adds another broker from Sedo. Domain Name Wire has learned that former Sedo domain name broker Frank Aiello has joined Domain Holdings. Aiello left Sedo at the end of September. His LinkedIn page still shows that he was at Sedo for 1 year and two months. Domain Holdings and PPX have hired a number of former Sedo brokers lately. Most recently, Domain Holdings hired former Sedo broker Ryan Colby as SVP of Product Management. Domain Holdings was co-founded ... read more ...
 
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StumbleUpon Buys Stumbled.com - Social sharing web site buys another variation of “stumble”. First StumbleUpon bought Stumblers.com, now it has picked up Stumbled.com. Stumbled.com currently has MarkMonitor company DNStinations as its owner in whois. This was the same company that helped the social sharing site purchase Stumblers.com for $6,000 back in September, so it’s highly likely that StumbleUpon is the buyer. The domain name is currently listed for sale on Sedo for $8,000, so I suspect ... read more ...
Fri 4th November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Australian Domain Market Sees Volume from Yield Media Sales - Some big ticket sales in .com.au. The Australian domain name market is seeing some sales volume lately thanks to a 1,500 domain portfolio being put on the market. The portfolio belonged to Yield Media, owned by the same company that owns domain name registrar Fabulous. It’s being brokered by Ned O’Meara of DNTrade.com.au. Thanks to marketing on his forum he’s managed to sell 384 of the domain names over the past few weeks. The top sale: MoneyBuddy.com.au at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
BlogWorld Expo Kicks Off in Los Angeles - Blogging and social media experts converge in Los Angeles. BlogWorld Expo kicked off in Los Angeles yesterday and runs through Saturday evening. I’m attending the conference but not as a blogger. We’re here promoting our Media.net advertising product to bloggers. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what sort of products are pitched to the blogger world. The term “BlogWorld” is somewhat of a misnomer; the conference has rolled with the times into more ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court Rules Pothead Can’t Change Name to a Domain Name - I won’t be changing my personal name to DomainNameWire.com anytime soon. Here’s an interesting court decision handed down by the Court of Appeal in California. Robert Edward Forchion, Jr., a self proclaimed “dedicated marijuana lover”, wanted to change his statutory name to NJWeedman.com. He has gone by the name NJWeedman for a while and operates a web site at NJWeedman.com. The appeal court affirmed that Forchion can’t change his name to NJWeedman.com. ... read more ...
Thu 3rd November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Amazon Registers Generic Black Friday Domains - Online retailer gets set for holidays with new domain names. Amazon.com makes a lot of domain name registrations to protect its brands such as Kindle, IMDB, MyHabit, and Zappos. But the company also registers generic domain names that don’t include any of its brands. And with the Black Friday holiday shopping frenzy just a couple weeks away, Amazon has registered a handful of Black Friday and other generic shopping domain names: blackfridaydealsclothing.com blackfridaydealsmovies.com blackfridaydealstools.com blackfridaydealswatches.com amazonholidaytoylist.com giftideasbooks.com giftideascameras.com giftideasgames.com giftideaskitchen.com giftideasmovies.com giftideasmusic.com giftideastoys.com holidaytoylistelectronics.com holidaytoylistgames.com holidaytoylistmovies.com holidaytoylistmusic.com holidaytoylistsports.com holidaytoylisttoys.com holidaytoylistvideos.com I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Fights for iPhone Porn Domain Names Including iphone4s.com - Company files complaint over seven domain names that forward to mobile porn site. If you really want to piss off a large company, just put some porn up on domain names that include its brands. Apple has just filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum over seven domain names that include the term “iPhone” and forward to a mobile porn service. The seven domains (NSFW): iphonecamforce.com iphonecam4s.com iphoneporn4s.com iphonesex4s.com iphonexxxforce.com iphone4s.com porn4iphones.com I ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BMC’s Former Domain Name Identify.com Is In Development - Owner of Identify.com files trademark applications. A recent trademark filing tipped me off to an unannounced sale of a great domain name: identify.com. Brand Enforcement Services Limited of Hong Kong just filed two “intent to use” trademarks for Identify and Identify.com with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark is for “Providing a website featuring information about the management of intellectual property; Advertising; Business management; Business ... read more ...
Wed 2nd November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Company Scores $3 Million Investment - Carnegie Fund invests $3 million in domain industry company. Winged Media, the company behind the Protrada domain name service, has received a $3 million investment from Carnegie Innovation Fund. The Carnegie Fund is supported by the Australian Government through the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program. Protrada is Winged Media’s latest product. I reviewed the product last week. It makes analyzing and buying domain names offered at major auction houses easy ... read more ...