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 17th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Inside Frank Schilling’s $1.65M .XXX Purchase - Schilling recounts a seven figure deal he made earlier this year. Within twenty minutes during this year’s DOMAINfest conference Frank Schilling agreed to pay $1.65 million for a collection of .xxx domain names — before .xxx was even approved. Schilling retold the tale today in a TRAFFIC session alongside ICM Registry CEO Stuart Lawley. During the DOMAINfest event in Santa Monica Schilling started discussing a purchase with Lawley. The next day the two met up ... read more ...
Sun 16th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Breaking: Afternic Domains to be Listed on Go Daddy Registration Path - Fixed price Afternic listings to be featured on Go Daddy registration path. Customers who sell domain names through Afternic are about to get a lot more exposure. Afternic has struck a deal with Go Daddy to start showing its fixed price listings in the Go Daddy registration path. The listings will show up whenever someone searches for the exact domain name that is offered for sale. The integration, which will go live later tonight or on Monday, will provide added ... read more ...
Fri 14th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN’s Assets Grow to $100 Million - ICANN releases audited financial statements for FY11. Today ICANN posted its audited financial statements (pdf) for Financial Year 2011 (which ended in June). Here are some highlights: Total assets grew to $100 million from $83 million the year prior. When accounting for liabilities ICANN has $80 million in “unrestricted net assets”. ICANN has $29 million in cash. It also had close to $52 million in investments (equities and fixed income) as of the end of June, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Got Milk Domains? - If so, you might be in trouble. If you have “Got Milk” domains, the milkman is a’coming. The California Milk Processor Board, which has a trademark on the slogan, just filed UDRP cases against the owners of GotMilk.me and GotMilk.biz. I’ve written before about the group’s frequent use of UDRP to get domain names including the “Got Milk” slogan. It recently won the domain GotMilkBand.com from a punk rock band that didn’t understand trademarks when ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 Questions To Be Answered during Next Week’s TRAFFIC Conference - The only TRAFFIC of the year is upon us. This year TRAFFIC will host just one conference, which kicks off Sunday in Fort Lauderdale. Last year there was a TRAFFIC conference just about every other month. Combined with other domain conferences it was simply too much. Having just one TRAFFIC this year means a greater concentration of domainers and a bigger focus on business. Here are five questions to be answered next week in Fort Lauderdale. 1. How will the auction ... read more ...
Thu 13th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN’s Reply Cycle Falling Flat - Circular-reference comment period not eliciting more comments. If you held a comment period about comment periods, then tested a new comment period idea called “reply cycle” on that same comment period about comment periods, would anybody come? Not yet. At the end of August ICANN opened a comment period for “Public Comments Process Enhancements”. In other words, a comment period about comment periods. The comment period closed September 30 with 8 comments. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Wants to Patent Way to Monetize URL Shorteners - A way to make money off of shortened URLs? There’s not a whole lot of money in shortening links. Go Daddy has devised a way to change that. The company filed a trio of patent applications (here’s one) for methods of monetizing shortened URLs. The applications were filed in April 2010 and just published today. The idea is to monetize each visitor to a shortened URL with some sort of advertising. The method parses the URL that was shortened to come up with relevant ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Withdraws Request for Domain Takedown - VeriSign cancels request to ICANN to allow it to offer new anti abuse service. Just two days after formally proposing a controversial mechanism to scan domain names and take down web sites used for certain malicious purposes, VeriSign has withdrawn the request. No information about the withdrawal is available on the company’s web site. The plan, dubbed Verisign Anti-Abuse Domain Use Policy, raised a lot of concern about government involvement on the internet. It ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.HIV Domain Name Initiative Turns to Crowd Funding - A charity top level domain wants you to be charitable to get it off the ground. A group hoping to launch the .HIV top level domain name is turning to crowdfunding to raise the six figures required to apply for the domain. The idea is that companies can use a .hiv domain in addition to .com to generate money for HIV/AIDS research. The group’s site says that money will be earned with each click to a .hiv web site, although it’s unclear if the owner of the second ... read more ...
Wed 12th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
End User Domain Sales for a Past Week - Small businesses buy relevant domains through Afternic. Afternic sold 406 domain names in the past week, including MagicMoments.com for a strong $50,000. Here’s a look at some of the end user purchases for the week. Built in Chicago, a group that promotes digital innovation in Chicago, bought Builtin.org for $1,200. It currently owns BuildinChicago.org. CRYSTAL Media Shops bought CristalMedia.com for $1,500 to complement CrystalMedia.com. Sandhills Publishing, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
I Am Not Ted Olson - Just to clarify… T.R.A.F.F.I.C. kicks off Sunday in Fort Lauderdale. In advance of the conference, I’d like to make something perfectly clear: I am not Ted Olson. For those that don’t know, Ted Olson works for NameMedia. He’s pictured on the right above. I’m on the left. Clearly we’re not the same people, but we are sometimes mistaken for each other. Who could make that mistake? Certainly not the other person in the picture (ahem). Now I do see the similarities. ... read more ...
Tue 11th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Proposes Takedown Procedures and Malware Scanning for .Com - New registry service seeks to eliminate sites knowingly spreading malware. VeriSign is asking ICANN to approve a new Verisign Anti-Abuse Domain Use Policy. The policy (pdf) would allow VeriSign to run malware scanning of .com, .net, and .name domain names, as well as create a suspension system for domain names that knowingly host malware. The malware scanning would occur quarterly. Domain name registrars would be able to opt out of the malware scans. The suspension ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ping Golf Considers .Ping Top Level Domain Name - Company behind Ping golf brand applies for .ping trademark, but it might be just a defensive play. Companies continue to file trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office despite ICANN saying it will give no weight to .TLD trademarks (and the USPTO not permitting such trademarks). One of the latest may be a .brand play, with Karsten Manufacturing Corp., otherwise known as PING Golf, filing an application for .ping and “ping” for “Domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Premium Listings Back Up to 30% - Temporary 20% commission now back up to 30%. Go Daddy’s experimentation with commission rates for Premium Listings is over (at least for now). The commission charge is back to the original 30% on any new Premium listings or if you edit existing ones. For the past couple months the commission was reduced to 20% on any new listings or if you made changes to existing ones. Although 30% is the highest commission in the industry, the reach of Premium Listings is hard ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells $2.18 Million in Domains - A whopper of a week for Sedo. Domain name marketplace Sedo had a banner week, completing $2.18 million worth of domain name sales. Over $1M of the sales amount is in undisclosed domain names. The top reported sale is Datastore.com at 50,000 EUR. A couple domains that play off their top level domain should also turn heads: watch.me for 20,000 EUR and Cable.tv for $20,000. I think Cable.tv is brilliant. It looks like marketing company Red Ventures bought it. The buyer ... read more ...
Mon 10th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Qwikster Typosquatters Lose Out As Netflix Drops Plans - Qwikster brand is already dead. Typosquatters of Netflix’s new Qwikster brand are about to lose out. The company announced today that it’s abandoning plans to split into two divisions with a separate Qwikster brand for DVD rental. I hated the name Qwikster, anyway. Typosquatters jumped on the news immediately after the new brand was announced. Consider wwwQwikster.com, which forwards to one of those phoney survey sites and shows a “movies” logo similar to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After Losing UDRP, Save The Children Federation Sues to Get Domain Name - Non-profit sues after losing UDRP. Save the Children Federation is suing the owner of MySaveTheChildren.org after failing to win the same domain name in a UDRP proceeding. The non-profit filed a UDRP case against the domain owner ProServices in April. ProServices forwards the MySaveTheChildren.org domain name to its zulufamily.net web site, which collects donations. Save the Children Federation lost the UDRP, apparently hinging on whether or not ProServices knew ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domains On Fire Finds Available Domains with Google Rankings - Service finds domains ranked in Google that you can register today. I received a pitch for a new domain search service today. Domains On Fire says it helps you find domain names ranked in Google that are either freely available or are dropping soon. It also helps you find high page rank domains, too (if anyone still pays attention to that). I took the system for a test drive. Indeed, I did find a few domains you could register today that are still ranked in Google. ... read more ...
Sat 8th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Box? Adds 3 More TLDs to Trademark List - Mystery company files trademarks for .wedding, .club, and .discount. California’s What Box? Holdings, LLC has applied for three more top level domain name trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The three applications are: .Wedding – filed September 27 .Club – filed October 3 .Discount – filed October 3 Little is know about the company other than its lawyer being Thomas A. Brackey, II. The company was formed September 1. My guess is this is not ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Customers Register 600 Steve Jobs Domains in 36 Hours - People try to make a quick buck off Steve Jobs’ death. When news happens, domains get registered. People registered 1,517 domain names related to Osama bin Laden being killed in the 15 hours after news of his death broke — at GoDaddy alone. Over a hundred hurricane domain names were registered in the wake of Hurricane Irene. And now comes Steve Jobs and the (mostly) tasteless registrations of 600 related domain names in the 36 hours after news of his death broke. ... read more ...
Fri 7th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Large Moniker Client Sues Over Expired Domains - Company says Moniker didn’t appropriately notify it of expiring domain names. [Update: see Moniker Oversee.net comment below] A large client of domain name registrar Moniker has sued the company and parent company Oversee.net over alleged shenanigans with expired domain names. Mainstream Advertising, Inc. filed the suit (pdf) claiming breach of contract, conversion, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition. The company started using Moniker in 2005 and claims that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Wholly Guacamole! - Maker of Wholly Guacamole goes after widow of domain registrant; loses. I love Wholly Guacamole. It’s the only guacamole I buy; I just picked some up at the grocery store over the weekend. Too bad it turns out some people at the company are assholes. I don’t think I’ve ever used that term on this site, but I think you’ll agree after reading the case the company (Avomex, Inc) filed to try to get WhollyGuacamole.com. (It lost.) The domain name was registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo to Auction Over 170 Premium .Me Domain Names - Marketplace to hold registry auction for .me domain names. Sedo will auction more than 170 .me domain names currently held by the .me registry. The auction will start October 27th and runs until Thursday, November 3rd. Looking over the list there are definitely a lot of good keywords. But missing are the catchy domains that take advantage of the .me extension, such as love.me or like.me. Some of the domains include: – Locations such as Sydney.me, London.me, and ... read more ...
Thu 6th October 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Marketplaces Still Grapple with Orphaned Listings - Lots of progress, but still an issue of orphaned domain name listings on marketplaces. If you’ve been buying domains on major domain name marketplaces for any number of years you’ve certainly come across a domain listed for sale that isn’t actually for sale. I still remember “buying” SugarCookies.com for something like $2500 many years ago only to find out the person who had listed it had sold it already. Afternic and Sedo have taken steps over the years ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donald Trump Gets Domain Name That Was Showing Gay Porn - The Donald gets name of his poker championship but still needs to change the nameservers. Donald Trump has gotten control of the domain name UnitedStatesPokerChampionship.com, which corresponds to the name of a poker championship he founded. The domain name had been showing explicit porn, which is certainly one of the reasons he wanted to get control of it. (Warning: the nameservers haven’t been changed and the porn site still resolves). Trump filed a complaint ... read more ...