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.

Wed 2nd November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Releases “Sell Now Assurance” Feature - Feature verifies ownership before allowing fixed price sale. [Update: read comments from Sedo for clarification of domains this covers.] Sedo has announced a new feature called “Sell Now Assurance” for domain names on its site listed with fixed prices. The feature will verify that the seller still owns the domain name before a buyer can complete a “buy now” purchase. If Sedo is unable to verify ownership then then only a “make offer” sale will be possible. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LinkedIn Goes After Survey Typosquatters - Professional network upset about typos leading to fake surveys. LinkedIn has filed a dispute against the owner of several domain names that forward to a “survey” with a logo mimicking the company’s trademark. The dispute filed with National Arbitration Forum asks for control of the domain names linedin.com, linnkedin.com, and lonkedin.com. The domain names forward to this page on SurveyRewardPanel.com: If users take the “survey” they can then select a prize ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo: Sales Fall But Fixed Price Sales Strong - Sedo sees decline in domain sales revenue but continued strong performance of fixed price domain sales. Sedo just released its Q3 Domain Market Study (pdf), showing a drop in sales compared to the same quarter last year but strong sales of “buy now” transactions. Sales for the quarter of 9,778 domain names totaled $19.3 million compared to $20.5 million for the same quarter in 2010. Q3 saw the lowest total sales for Sedo for the year. Buy now sales accounted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Offers.com Owner Jumps in to Crowded Market with DailyDeals.com - Vertive may have a solution to a crowded market: a great domain name. It’s hard to get attention in the daily deals business these days. You need a killer domain name to have a chance. Enter Vertive and Steve Schaffer, which already operates discount site Offers.com (and owns Offer.com). The company just launched DailyDeals.com. The site will offer discounts to online stores, which is a natural extension from the company’s background on Offers.com. Schaffer, who ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
122 .Me Domains Have Bids in Sedo Auction - Sedo auction for .me domain names is seeing a lot of action. Sedo’s latest .me domain name auction ends tomorrow and is seeing a lot of action. 122 domain names have bids as of right now. I count 23 that have met their reserve with about 24 hours to go. The most active domains are VIP.me and Job.me, each with 16 bids. VIP.me is at $2,450 and Job.me is $1,499. Both domains have met their reserve prices. Detox.me leads with a $2,500 bid but has not met its reserve. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Sells $2.5 Million in Domains in Q3 - Company continues to sell non-strategic domain names. Marchex reported earnings after the bell today, including the sale of $2.5 million of “non-strategic” domain names during the third quarter. Revenue was $39.9 million for the third quarter of 2011, compared to $24.2 million for the same quarter in 2010. Marchex credits its burgeoning pay-per-call business for driving its growth. GAAP net income was $1.2 million for Q3 2011 compared to a loss of $547,000 in ... read more ...
Tue 1st November 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories of Oct 2011 - A look back at October in the domain industry. Boo! I hope you had a great Halloween. Here’s a look back at the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month. You’ll notice that the conversation was dominated by .xxx. 1. Inside Frank Schilling’s $1.65M .XXX Purchase – Frank Schilling and Stuart Lawley disclose the price tag of Schilling’s .xxx purchases. 2. Final Chance to Protect Against .XXX Domain Names – ICM Registry ended up extending the “final ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Has Lego’s $500k Spent on URDP Been a Waste? - It’s hard to see rhyme or reason in Lego’s heavy use of UDRP. Lego is a prolific filer of UDRP cases. I count 309 to date, with 100 already in the second half of 2011. Recently all of the cases have been filed with the assistance of Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services. At roughly $1,500 a pop not including legal fees (and assuming WIPO isn’t cutting them a deal) that comes out to nearly a half million dollars spent on UDRP. Lego sends cease and desist letters ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Latona Launches “Last Piece of a Domain Development Puzzle” - Latona launches a new site to find web designers to build out premium domain names. Rick Latona has launched ResearchLabs.com, which is billed as “The Last Piece of the Domain Development Puzzle”. The site pairs web designers and SEO experts with premium domain names. The Designers are paid a nominal base salary while the domain is developed and grows and then share in the profits in the long run. Latona explains the need for the site on his blog: Over the years ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Will a U.S. Government Do With Escorts.com? - Plea deal gives Escorts.com domain to government. I just finished reading the plea bargain (pdf) between National A-1 and associated defendants and the U.S. government. The defendants have agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines and forfeit $4.9 million as well as the Escorts.com domain name. Which begs the question…what will the U.S. Government do with the Escorts.com domain name? Here are some of my guesses: 1. Congressmen create ode to Pamela Martin and Associates ... read more ...
Mon 31st October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
IBM, Match.com Make Domain Purchases - Special edition of the end user domain sales report. Here’s a special Monday morning edition of the end user domain sales post. This will cover some recent Sedo sales as well as non-reported sales. On the non-reported side, I have a big company to report: IBM has purchased SmarterCity.com and SmarterCities.com from Justin Godfrey of Domain Investment Services for $15,000. Godfrey also sold MallPlaza.com sold to MallPlaza.cl for $10,000 through Afternic. Here are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Names and a World Series - This is one of those posts where I write about something that has nothing to do with domain names but make a lame effort at tying it to the industry… I grew up in St. Louis and am a lifelong Cardinals fan. So last Friday I could hardly work. My hands were still shaking from the night before and what was perhaps the most exciting World Series game ever played, as well as excitement for Friday’s game 7. But rewind a couple months. This year I gave up on the Cardinals. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
What’s The Worst Idea for a New TLD? - Some bad and ugly top level domain name ideas. I’ve written about a number of company’s and city’s plans to apply for new top level domain names. There are also lists of proposed domains out there. Some of these potential top level domain names have some hope, but others just seem doomed from the start. I was reminded of this today when I saw a trademark application for .url. So now I ask you, dear readers, to weigh in on what you think the worst proposed new ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.XXX Domain Nets $13 Million from Sunrise - A big haul for .xxx domain names. ICM Registry, backer of the new .xxx top level domain name, has pulled in about $13 million from its trademark/existing domain sunrise period. The company received nearly 80,000 applications during the sunrise period that ended today. The wholesale cost was $162 per application, which equals about $13 million. Oh, and that’s without considering that multiple applications for the same domain will result in an auction. The typical ... read more ...
Sat 29th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Warner Bros Registers Sherlock Holmes 3 Domain Names - Warner Bros registers domain names for third Sherlock Holmes movie. Even before Sherlock Holmes 2 hits the theaters Warner Bros is already gearing up for the third installment. The company just registered the domain names SherlockHolmesThree.com and SherlockHolmesPart3.com. Multiple online sources say that Warner Bros has hired Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce to write the movie. Unfortunately for Warner Bros one key domain name has already been registered by another ... read more ...
Fri 28th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Gets Baidu Domain Name - GoogleBaidu.com: no merger, just an interesting domain dispute. Baidu might beat Google in China, but Google just got a hold of a little bit of Baidu. Google was just awarded the domain name GoogleBaidu.com in an arbitration case before National Arbitration Forum. You can understand why Google was irked by the domain name. It resolves to a page that looks like Google’s home page but is in Chinese and has a combination logo of Google and Baidu: The GoogleBaidu.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bret Fausett Starts New TLD Consultancy, Sets Up Shop Down Street from ICANN - Admiralty Way has a new domain name resident. An attorney with a long history in the domain name world has started a consulting firm to help new top level domain name applicants. Bret Fausett, who was most recently Of Counsel at Alvarado Smith, has started Internet Pro APC (www.Internet.pro). The firm’s address is on Admiralty Way in Marina del Ray, California. If that address looks familiar it’s because it’s the same street as ICANN’s headquarters. Although ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Final Chance to Protect Against .XXX Domain Names [Updated] - Opportunity to block .xxx domain name registrations ends today. Update: ICM Registry has extended sunrise period to Monday, October 31, 2011 at 16:00 UTC (Noon ET). Companies that don’t want their trademark attached to a .xxx domain name have until the end of the day to take action. The sunrise period for the .xxx domain name concludes today. The sunrise period offers an opportunity to two groups: adult entertainment firms that wish to register domains related ... read more ...
Thu 27th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Goes After More Survey Sites - Google continues assault on domain names monetized through survey sites. Google has filed a UDRP case against the owner of three Gmail typos that forward to “survey” sites. The three domains — gmaill.com, gmal.com, and gmiail.com — all lead to a page on VideoRewardsNow.com that have a logo oddly similar to Gmail’s logo: Once users complete the three question “survey” they are invited to select a prize such as an iPad. But in order to get that prize ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Some Groups Simply Shouldn’t Apply for New TLDs - New TLDs aren’t for everyone. Get over it. I hear a lot of gripes about new top level domain names and the cost of applying for and running them. Frankly, $185,000 in application fees may seem ridiculous. Especially when a third of that is going to be earmarked for legal issues. What if your TLD doesn’t create any legal issues. Add to that the cost of running the registry and marketing domains and any serious applicant (other than .brand) needs to earmark millions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Switches to Estimated Earnings for Domain parking - Sedo to start showing estimated parking revenue; audited numbers displayed in about 48 hours. On November 1 Sedo will change its domain parking statistics to an estimated earnings system. This means they will display estimate earnings at first and then actual earnings from Google in 2 business days. This means your reported earnings might change. Here’s a message Sedo just sent out: 1) Adjusted earnings: This change means that the “Earnings” statistic shown ... read more ...
Wed 26th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
AfternicDLS and SedoMLS Automate Removal of Sold Domains - Distributed listing systems avoid duplicate sales. One of the fears people have of listing domains at buy now prices is that they’ll accidentally sell it after they no longer own it. I don’t know about you, but when I sell a domain on one marketplace I don’t immediately go remove it from other marketplaces. This presents the real possibility that, should I have listed it with a buy now price on two marketplaces, it could sell twice. That would put me in a bind. To ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did You Know? No Policy Against Registry-Registrar Cross-Ownership - ICANN has never had a formal policy against registry-registrar cross-ownership. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom has responded to European Commission Commissioner Neelie Kroes on the issue of cross ownership between domain name registrars and registries, also know as vertical integration. Kroes sent a letter to Beckstrom in June expressing concern over vertical integration and potential competition concerns. Beckstrom explains (pdf) that ICANN has never had a strict policy ... read more ...
 
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Universal Studios Buys Movie Domain, McDonald’s and Louisville Slugger Also Make Domain Buys - Movie studio buys probable film name and other big names make domain name purchases. It was a great week for end user domain sales at Afternic. Starting things off, Universal Studios bought PrepareforBattle.com for $1,688. I can’t find information about a movie it plans to release by this name, but you can bet your money on it. Another notable sale was McDonald’s purchase of MCIN.com for $3,373. I didn’t realize the company also owns MCD.com. It apparently only ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Registrars Work to Amend ICANN Agreement to Address Security Concerns - Accredited domain name registrars and ICANN work to amend RAA. During the ICANN meeting in Dakar, ICANN and registrars will announce that they’re working to amend the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) to address security concerns and provided “increased protections for registrants”. Apparently this has been in the works for a while and is not a snap reaction to increased pressure by law enforcement agencies during the meeting. ICANN accredited ... read more ...