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 25th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Overstock.com To Get Into Daily Deals or Flash Sales with SwarmShop.com? - Company goes to domain aftermarket to buy domain name SwarmShop.com. Overstock.com (or should I call it O.co?) is aggressive about entering new ecommerce markets. A recent domain purchase may be a clue to what’s next for the company: The company just bought the domain name SwarmShop.com from domain investor Mike Mann for $1,500 at Sedo. Mann appears to have registered the domain name earlier this year when it expired. What could it use SwarmShop.com for? There ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge Dismisses Verizon Lawsuit Against DirectNIC - Judge grants Motion to Dismiss against large domain name registrar and its parent company. The judge presiding over Verizon’s cybersquatting lawsuit has granted a Motion to Dismiss (pdf) filed by Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., directNIC, LLC and Domain Contender, LLC for lack of personal jurisdiction. Domain Contender is a subsidiary of directNIC and directNIC is a subsidiary of Intercosmos. Verizon argued that the entities had operations in Florida. The court found ... read more ...
Wed 24th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Left of a Dot Media Partners with Importers.com - Clients can now get subdomains on Importers.com. Left of the Dot Media Inc., which works with generic domain owners to offer subdomains, has launched its services on Importers.com. Live Current Media sold Importers.com for $165,000 last year. The new owner planned to merely park the page, according to Left of the Dot. Instead, the buyer and company partnered to keep the site and 400,000 members running. Among the options available thanks to the deal is for companies ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The World Bank Buys 2 Domain Names Through Afternic, Plus Telemundo - Big names buy domain names in the aftermarket. The World Bank is one of the most notable groups to buy domain names on the aftermarket this week. The group bought two domain names through Afternic: GlobalPartnership.com for $4,588 and EducationPartners.org for $1,088. It already owns GlobalPartnership.org but hasn’t developed it yet. It doesn’t own EducationPartners.com. Television network Telemundo bought yPunto.com for $2,510. Another notable buyer is FriendFinder ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Kindle Wave? Amazon Registers Domain Name. - Kindle adds KindleWave.com to its stable of domain names. Amazon recently registered the domain name KindleScribe.com, sparking speculation that it could be the name of a future Amazon Kindle device. But there’s another domain name Amazon picked up at the same time: KindleWave.com. Could Amazon release a Kindle Wave? To be fair, both the Kindle Scribe domain names and Kindle Wave domain names could be merely defensive registrations by the company. KindleScribe.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
United Domains Integrates SedoMLS Premium for Aftermarket Sales - United Domains pitches existing domain names to registration customers. United Domains has added SedoMLS Premium to its offerings, which means it now offers fixed price, instant transfer domain names to its customers. Here’s an example of what users see when they search for a domain that’s for sale: Sedo has two levels of SedoMLS that closely mirror a similar offering from Afternic. SedoMLS Premium includes syndication to more sites than regular MLS as well as ... read more ...
Tue 23rd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook Close to Settling Long Running Dispute Over “FB” - Facebook and American Farm Bureau may be close to settling FB trademark dispute. Facebook is getting close to settling a trademark dispute with American Farm Bureau over the mark “FB”. It all comes down to one sentence. The intriguing dispute started when Facebook filed a trademark application for “FB”. American Farm Bureau, a lobbying group for the agriculture industry, initiating proceedings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reject the trademark. During ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Hover’s Implementation of Afternic Domains is Well Done - Simple and effective integration of domains for sale. A lot of large domain name registrars offer Afternic’s “Premium” inventory to customers. Each registrar integrates it differently and some do it better than others. I just checked out Hover.com’s integration and I really like it. Hover is owned by Tucows, which is Afternic’s latest top 10 domain registrar partner. Hover is known for its simplicity and this carries through to premium domains. It manages ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Wants to Take Down Goggle.com Web Site - Google goes after another “survey” site. Google has filed a complaint with National Arbitration forum to get a hold of Goggle.com, Goggle.net, and Goggle.org. While the domain names could be considered “generic” for the term Google, it’s the use of the domain names that has the company up in arms. Similar to another recent complaint over YouTube.ph, these domains forward to a survey page that then entices users to complete a number of offers. The current ... read more ...
Mon 22nd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN’s Peter Dengate Thrush Problem - Conflict of interest, whether real or imagined, looks bad for ICANN as it faces fresh criticism over its new TLD plans. ICANN has a problem. As criticism mounts against its approval of the new top level domain name program, some groups are pointing fingers at an inherent conflict of interest. The key example is former ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush. One month after pushing through a vote on the new TLD program in his last meeting as Chairman he ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Most Businesses Can Skip .XXX Sunrise - Risks of .xxx cybersquatting are minimal. Yesterday I met with a group of entrepreneur friends and I explained the upcoming .xxx Sunrise B to them. Sunrise B allows non-adult trademark holders to pay a one time fee to block their trademark from ever being registered in .xxx. After explaining the process an inevitable question came up: “So, Andrew, do you think we should participate in Sunrise B”. My answer was no. Unless you have a huge brand, I don’t see why ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Hires Researcher Behind IDNX - Pricing researcher to work for domain name marketplace. After working with researcher Thies Lindenthal to create domain pricing index IDNX, Sedo has decided to bring him on as its Product Manager for Domain Pricing. In a press release, Lindenthal said: I am thrilled to combine my passions for the domain market and real estate research at Sedo,” said Lindenthal. “I look forward to continuing work on IDNX, and to bringing my research to Sedo in order to develop ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
iPhone Jailbreak Site Files Lawsuit Over Domain Name - Company behind Cydia app directory files lawsuit. After losing a dispute under the uniform domain name dispute resolution policy (UDRP) in March, a jailbreak iPhone app store has filed a lawsuit in an effort to get the domain name Cydia.com. Saurikit, LLC has a directory of apps that work on jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches that it hosts at cydia.saurik.com. It also has a U.S. trademark for “Cydia”. Earlier this year it filed a UDRP to get Cydia.com. The UDRP ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Touts Unnamed $540,000 Domain Sale, Gets More Exclusives - Domain marketplace known for small ticket sales scores a big one. Afternic is known for selling lots of domain names for a couple thousand dollars each. Not only is its expertise in high volume sales, but it also rarely gets to disclose its six figure sales. That’s (sort of) the case with its latest big sale for $540,000 — the company can’t disclose the actual name. But the company says it sold within 3 weeks of being listed with Afternic and the seller’s ... read more ...
Sun 21st August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are Bots Registering Twitter Handles Based on New Domain Registrations? - It would be and easy process to automate. When you finally find that perfect and available domain name, you’re not yet done securing your online identity. And someone might be lurking to “front run” your Twitter username. That’s what Ross Duggan thinks happened to him. He finally found the perfect unregistered domain name for his new project. He checked on Twitter and the same handle was still available. So he registered the domain name. When he returned ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Groupon Goods: Merchandise or Charity? - Groupon registers domain names for “Groupon Goods”. Over the past several days Groupon has registered over a half dozen domain names for “Groupon Goods”, including GrouponGoods.com, GrouponGoods.fr (France), and GrouponGoods.org. I can’t find any announcements from Groupon about a new “brand” of Groupon Goods, so we’re left to speculate what the company is up to. Two obvious ideas: 1. “Goods” as in merchandise. Most of Groupon’s offers are for ... read more ...
Fri 19th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Gets XXX Domain Name* - Company gets a triple xxx domain name — but I’m not talking about the top level domain. Google has gotten its hands on GoogleXXX — but not Google.xxx (yet). The company was awarded GoogleXXX.com in a World Intellectual Property Forum ruling just handed down. This got me thinking: with the .xxx top level domain name coming out, will it lead to more xxx typos? One type of domain companies should consider registering is just like what Google just got — trademarkxxx.com. ... read more ...
Thu 18th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Scammy Surveys Will Bring Renewed Attention to Cybersquatting - Expect a broad crack down thanks to cybersquatters pushing the edge. Domain parking of trademark domain names and typos pisses off trademark holders. Scammy, misleading surveys really piss them off. Google just filed a complaint with WIPO over the domain name YouTube.ph, and you can’t blame the company. If you go to this domain name you’ll be forwarded to VideoRewardCentral.com and a landing page that looks like this: Whereas a parked page merely includes links ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jason Davis Continues to Hit Paydirt with Jobs Domains - Davis sells two great jobs related domain names. When it comes to job and career related domain names, Jason Davis has one of the finest track records. I first talked to Davis in 2009 when he sold the domain name CEO Jobs to recruiter Harry Joiner. Since then he has continued to sell premium job domains, including another transaction with Joiner for StartupJobs.com. Over the past two weeks Davis has sold Hr.net and RecruitingTools.com at strong prices. Despite high ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
In-N-Out Sues Grab-N-Go - “They’re not from McDonalds, are they?” This trademark lawsuit doesn’t involve a domain name but is interesting nonetheless. Iconic hamburger chain In-N-Out Burgers has sued Maryland burger joint Grab-N-Go Burgers for trademark infringement. It’s not the name by itself that disturbs In-N-Out. It’s more like McDowell’s‎ instead of McDonald’s in Coming to America (the quote above). In-N-Out thinks Grab-N-Go has stolen just about everything from ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Asia Plans to Release 1 and 2 Character Domain Names - Registry for .asia domain names wants to release short names. .Asia registry DotAsia Organisation Ltd is joining fellow top level domain name operators with plans to release one and two character domain names. The registry has filed a Registry Services Evaluation Process request with ICANN explaining how it plans to allocate the domain names. Like other registries, it plans a three-pronged release of domain names: 1. Request for Proposal – interested parties can ... read more ...
Wed 17th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gets Mobile with MobileView - New service makes mobile-friendly web sites obtainable by small businesses. Last week at HostingCon I caught up with Patti Kelly, director of product management at Verisign, to discuss the launch of a new product that makes it easy for small businesses to create a mobile friendly version of their web site. VeriSign MobileView uses mobile detection and redirection to render mobile friendly web sites while keeping the same domain name that customers already use. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TheKnot.com and Ask.com Make Domain Purchases - End users line up to find the perfect domain name. There were a lot of great end user domain purchases at Afternic this week. Here’s a look at some of the ones that caught my eye. Franklin Debt Relief, LLC of Chicago picked up Chapter7Bankruptcy.com for $18,000 and Chapter13Bankruptcy.com for $13,000. Smart move. Las Vegas based iPrepaid, which had been using the domain name iPrepaids.com, bought iPrepaid.com for $8,000. Cooper Safety Ltd, maker of Cooper Fire ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Kills URL Forwarding as Yahoo Caps Some Non-.Com Domains - Domain parking ad providers make changes. There have been two announcements from the big domain parking ad providers over the past 24 hours that may affect your domain parking company. According to an email from NameDrive, Google is banning URL forwarding as of October 1. The parking company says clients need to switch to DNS parking, although it says it’s also working on other solutions. [Update: DomainSponsor just sent a notice to its customers as well.] Partners ... read more ...
Tue 16th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Perry’s dot.com Problem - Republican presidential candidate could have easily gotten his .com domain name. Over the weekend Texas governor Rick Perry confirmed what a lot of us already knew: he’s running for president in 2012. Perry’s official web site is RickPerry.org, which makes sense. But unfortunately for Perry, he doesn’t own RickPerry.com. Even more unfortunate is that he could have easily acquired the domain name last year. As I wrote in May of 2010, the domain name RickPerry.com ... read more ...