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 8th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You May Have Missed Some Big Domain Name News Last Week - If you missed these stories, take a look. There were a couple big domain name stories last week that you may have missed, especially since some of it came out Friday afternoon. And the news all comes out of Canada. First, on Thursday I wrote about how domain name registrar Tucows (OpenSRS, Hover) is integrating Afternic DLS’ premium network. The company will list domain names in Afternic’s inventory for sale on its network and customers can instantly purchase ... read more ...
Sun 7th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Names Are a Great Alternative Asset in Financial Uncertainty - Domain names aren’t denominated in a single currency and are easily transferable around the world. With SP’s downgrade of U.S. long term debt, financial markets around the world are trying to make sense of it. It’s not like the U.S. economy and outlook has actually changed since the announcement was made. And few people trust SP, the same company that rated a number of worthless mortgage securities AAA. But of course this means turbulent times are ahead for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
HubPages Switches to Subdomains to Optimize for Google - Google Panda update forces HubPages to transition user content to subdomains. Web community HubPages is making a drastic change to its URL structure in an effort to recover from Google’s Panda update. The site’s content is created by members who share in advertising revenue. Like many similar sites, it was hit hard by Google’s update targeted at so-called “content farms”. The site will now provide a subdomain (third level domain) to each member, such as ... read more ...
Sat 6th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Jobs Foes Get Cold Shoulder From ICANN - Response to disclosure request mostly redacted. The .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition, a group of companies opposed to the expansion of who can register .jobs domain names, has gotten the cold shoulder from ICANN in a recent request. The group made a request through ICANN’s Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP) for information on how and why the IANA database entry about the “purpose” of .jobs was changed. ICANN responded by releasing the support ... read more ...
Fri 5th August 2011
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Depositions Begin in Women.com Case with Sedo and NBC Universal - Representatives of domain broker and NBC to be questioned over failed transaction. Depositions will begin next week in a lawsuit over a failed transaction for Women.com and Women.net. The suit was originally brought by DONE! Ventures against NBC Universal after the latter allegedly failed to complete a sale agreement for the domain names for $1 million. Sedo was later added to the suit for failing to enforce the agreement. Next week in Boston Kathy Nielson, Jeremiah ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Goes After High Traffic iTunes Typo Domain Names - Apple asks arbitration panel to give it typo domain names. Apple has filed a dispute with World Intellectual Property Forum over two high traffic typos of iTunes.com. The complaint covers wwiTunes.com and wwwiTunes.com, both of which take advantage fat fingered web surfers who still insist on typing “www” before domain names. Compete.com shows that wwwiTunes.com gets thousands of unique typo visitors a month. Although the domains get traffic, Apple customers can’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Canadian Court Rules Domain Names Are Property - Ruling on appeal gives victory to Tucows, expands scope of domain names as property. The Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled in favor of Tucows on its appeal over a domain name dispute, setting a precedent for domain name registrants that their domain names are property. In 2009, Brazilian company Lojas Renner S.A. (a subsidiary of JC Penney) filed a UDRP against Tucows for the domain name Renner.com. Tucows acquired the domain name when it bought MailBank. Tucows ... read more ...
Thu 4th August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Ari Goldberger Wins A Short But Sweet UDRP - A very short but spot on UDRP decision. I’m often critical of UDRP panelists for shirking their duties. But I’m not going to complain about the decision on a recent case defended by Ari Goldberger. Goldberger defended the domain name OrganizedPlay.com, which was registered by Blue Sandbox when it expired. The complainant, OrganizedPlay Corporation, said it owned the domain name before it accidentally let it expire. A three member National Arbitration Forum wrote ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rock On! Queen Awarded Domain Name WeWillRockYou.com - Arbitration panel awards WeWillRockYou.com to rock band. Here’s a follow up to a story I first reported in June. The rock band Queen filed a domain name dispute over the name WeWillRockYou.com. We Will Rock You is one of Queen’s greatest hits. The song later became the name of a musical that still tours the globe to packed houses. A World Intellectual Property Forum has found in Queen’s favor, ordering the domain name transferred. The panel did question why ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Co Explains Its Expiring Domains - .Co domains will begin dropping soon… With the one year anniversary of the .co launch upon us, .Co has published details about expiring .co domain names and what happens to them: 1. When a domain expires, it will go into suspension status and registrars have 45 days to renew or delete the domain. Of course, some registrars will opt to auction off domains during this time if not renewed. 2. The registrar can delete the domain name any time during the 45 day suspension ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Integrating Afternic DLS, Hover Offers Domain Name “Trade In” Program - Hover and Tucows/OpenSRS to start offering premium domain names. Tucows is integrating Fabulous’ Domain Distribution Network as well as Afternic DLS into its Hover and OpenSRS platforms. As one of the top three domain name registrars by volume, this will significantly expand these programs’ reach. Additionally, Hover customers can “trade in” their old domain names for a better one through a unique marketing program. Basically, Hover customers who find and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Sold 109,000 Domains By Auction Last Quarter (and Other Good Stats) - Domain registrar offers more insight into its domain name auctions. We know GoDaddy is a powerhouse for new domain registrations, but until now we haven’t had great visibility into how many domain names it auctions off each month. That data and a lot more is now available on Go Daddy Auctions Domain Market Report. Here’s a solid stat: The company sold 109,000 domains by auction last quarter. The report includes a list of top sales by month, including June’s ... read more ...
 
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Patent Licensing Firm Gets Hands on “Domain Name Redirection” Patent - Company acquires patent to license or sue. Publicly traded Acacia, which some would call a patent troll, has acquired a patent “relating to domain name redirection technology”. I reached out to the company to find out the specific patent. But it turns out the company’s short, uninformative press release about the acquisition is all the company will disclose. When Acacia acquires patents it actually enters into a contingency agreement with the patent holder ... read more ...
Wed 3rd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sony-Microsoft? How About Apple-MSN? - Microsoft has owned other brand name domain names before. There was quite a bit of buzz recently when Microsoft registered a couple domain names including the Sony brand name. A merger? A phone product? Video games? While certainly newsworthy, often times these types of registrations are just defensive registrations. The company wants to register a domain name before a cybersquatter does. In fact, both of the domains in question, sony-microsoft.com and microsoft-sony.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is .NGO a First Defensive TLD Registration Announcement? - Registry behind .org wants .ngo. This week Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced it will apply for the .ngo top level domain name when ICANN opens up its application process next year. Could this be the first example of a “defensive” TLD registration? PIR runs the .org registry, and .ngo for non-governmental organizations is definitely competitive to .org. Others had expressed plans for .ngo as well, and PIR certainly doesn’t want another group running a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wikipedia Takes Down Web Hosting Site - Wikimedia wins dispute over web hosting comparison site. Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation Inc. has won a case against the owner of WebhostingWikipedia.com, which will be transferred to Wikimedia as a result. From reading the case decision, it’s fairly clear the owner of the web hosting comparison site at WebhostingWikipedia.com had no idea that Wikipedia was a trademark. So let’s be clear: the generic term is wiki. Wikipedia is a specific site. If you want ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What Domains Bruce Clay and Others Bought This Past Week - End user sales for the past week. Afternic turned in another strong performance for end user domain name sales last week. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones. Popular SEO firm Bruce Clay, Inc. bought Localware.com for $2,088 for a new product it’s unveiling later this month. Health care data services company Core HDS bought HealthGate.com for $8,500 and MedSaving.com for $1,288. Wealth management company Bedouin Group bought Lighthouseloans.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com Owner to Acquire Network Solutions - Register.com and Network Solutions to get married. Two of the highest priced and oldest domain name registrars are getting married. Web.com, which owns Register.com, will pay $405 million plus 18 million shares of Web.com stock as well as take on Network Solutions’ debt. The cash portion of the deal will be funded with new debt: $600 million of First Lien Credit Facilities and $150 million of Second Lien Credit Facilities, as well as a $50 million revolver. The ... read more ...
Tue 2nd August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
9 Reasons Your New TLD Will Fail - Not all TLDs will fail. But here’s why yours will. Are you thinking about applying for a new top level domain name when the application window opens in January? Here are some things to consider — reasons your new TLD might be doomed to fail. 1. You pick a TLD that’s too broad. Here I’m thinking mostly about something like .sport. Yes, there’s a sporting community. But they tend to identify with particular sports or types of sports. .Sport is just too broad. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Ryan Moran on Buying and Selling Developed Web Sites - Good guidance for people looking to buy undervalued web sites. I recently attended an internet marketing event in Austin where Ryan Moran gave a talk about buying and selling established web sites. Since I know this is a hot topic amongst many domain name owners, I reached out to Ryan with a few questions. Ryan’s web site is eTycoon.net. Domain Name Wire: What types of sites do you look to buy? The best websites to buy are the ones that have some sort of obvious ... read more ...
 
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Speek Buys Speak.com Domain Name - Company upgrades its domain name to something users know how to spell. Web-based teleconferencing system Speek has purchased the domain name Speak.com from a familiar face in the domain name industry. According to whois records, the domain name was sold by Nat Cohen of Telepathy. The sales price was not disclosed. This is another example of a company launching a business on a “cute” domain name and then having to pay a price later. Speek.com is a bad domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ClickBank Cracks Down on Questionable Sales Practices - Payment processor and affiliate network changes guidelines for promoting products using its services. I’ve had a ClickBank account for over a decade. In college I used Clickbank to sell thousands of dollars worth of product a month. But over the past decade it seems there’s been a race to the bottom in info product pitches, especially in the “make money online” category. And ClickBank is home to a lot of them. Today ClickBank announced new promotional guidelines, ... read more ...
Mon 1st August 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Smart Whois Verification Feature on Sedo - Many “sales” of domains people don’t own are by accident. When domainers let domain names expire or sell them, their first trip usually isn’t to update online sales listings for the domain names. As a result, most of us have had the experience where we receive an offer on a domain we no longer own or try to buy a domain name through a marketplace only to find that the seller doesn’t own it any more. Which is why I think this feature from Sedo is smart: I’m ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Its-A-Ten.com Sued for Trademark Infringement, But Lawyers Forgot Something - A reasonable lawsuit but someone forgot to do a domain lookup. Hair care products company It’s a 10, Inc. has sued the owners of Its-a-ten.com and Its-a-10.com for trademark infringement. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allegedly used the domain names to sell It’s a 10 haircare products and then threatened to divert customers if the site’s distributor could no longer sell It’s a 10 products to it. OK, pretty straightforward. But that’s not the interesting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Wire Stories of Jul 2011 - A sizzling July in domain name news. Here are the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month ranked by page views. 1. Bob Parsons Explains Go Daddy – KKR Deal to Domain Name Wire – Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons explains what the investment is all about and his new role at the company. 2. VeriSign Releases Domain Traffic Treasure Trove to the Public – The .com registry releases a beta NXD traffic tool to the public. 3. Demand Media Loses Another UDRP – ... read more ...