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 31st August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week: .Amsterdam, .Fans, .FYI and .MBA - New domain names become available Tuesday and Wednesday this week. A handful of new domain names are hitting domain registrars’ shelves this week. On Tuesday, .Amsterdam enters general availability. There is a fairly limited list of domain name registrars on nic.amsterdam, but 101Domain is offering them for $41.99. On Wednesday, you can start showing you’re a fan with .Fans. It’s an expensive domain priced at $70-$100 retail. Also, be careful with trademarked terms. Also on Wednesday, two of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pheenix to offer $13.99 domain name backorders - Already inexpensive drop catching service to offer cut rate pricing as it boosts number of registrars. Expired domain name backordering service Pheenix is offering a new tier of expired domain backorders at just $13.99 per domain. The new “Super Saver” backorders be usurped by any standard Gold backorders. The Gold backorders cost a little bit more: currently they are $18.95 for .com/.net/.org, but they will rise to $21.99 on September 15. Pheenix also announced that it has increased the number ... read more ...
Fri 28th August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week's Expired Domain Name Report - Joseph Peterson reviews the past week in expired domain name sales. Turns out this is my 100th article for DomainNameWire.com. Saying “Domain.TLD sold for $$$ because ???, implying Blah” – that’s the easy part. What’s tricky, as a writer, is finding ways to vary that sentence 50 times in a row without going nuts. Harder still: inventing transitions to move through the sentences. After all, looking at a list of prices in descending order, there really are no segues. “Flow” ... read more ...
Thu 27th August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy introduces dual cause authentication outward U.S. - Security tool expanded to 185 countries. Non-U.S. customers of GoDaddy can now activate two-factor authentication to add security to their accounts. The service has been available in the U.S. for several years, and international customers have been asking for it. The SMS-based system sends a text message to customers after they enter their standard login credentials. They must enter a code from the text message before gaining access to their account. In theory, this means someone would have to obtain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Online domain name registrations by a numbers - A look inside .Online’s strong debut. By all accounts, .Online had a great first day yesterday. It got over 30,000 registrations. Its overnight zone file now sits at about 35,000 names. I dug through the zone file to look for patterns. Here’s what I found… Here are three companies that registered a lot of domains. There might be others, but these companies pointed the names to their corporate nameservers: Microsoft – 40 domains including msn.online, skype.online and windows10.online Bank ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Progressive Specialty Glass Company nailed for RDNH - Company fails to even make a prima facie of lack of rights or legitimate interest. Specialty drinkware company Progressive Specialty Glass Company has engaged in reverse domain name hijacking. National Arbitration Forum panelist Darryl C. Wilson came to this determination after the glass company filed a UDRP against Progressive Specialty Co Inc, a swag maker. Both companies have been in a business for decades, and Progressive Specialty Co Inc. registered the domain name back in 1999. It seems that, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cha-ching: Minds + Machines picks adult another $3.5 million from losing auctions - New TLD company reaps millions from losing .art and .data auctions. New top level domain name company Minds + Machines has padded its bank account with another $3.5 million as a result of losing two more top level domain auctions. The company got the money from losing private auctions for .art and .data. Minds + Machines still has an interest in 7 contested strings, so it might pick up even more cash from losing auctions in the future. With about $50 million in its bank account, the company is considering ... read more ...
Wed 26th August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Online gets 28,000 registrations in initial 30 minutes - New domain name likely sets launch record for new domain names. The new .online top level domain name received over 28,000 registrations in the first 30 minutes of general availability today. It now has over 30,000 registrations, including 1,130 high priced registrations during the early access period. In addition to being a very popular word tacked onto the end of existing registrations in .com, .Online registry has been heavily promoting the domain name. I received two promotional emails yesterday ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Above.com hires Aaron Kvitek to lead marketing - Former Oversee.net VP will lead marketing for domain investing tools provider. Former Oversee.net VP of Marketing and Communications Aaron Kvitek has joined Above.com, which is best known for its domain name parking optimization service. Kvitek was most visible in the domain name business for his work on Oversee.net’s DomainFEST conferences. He is now tasked with improving Above.com’s messaging to the domain name community. The company found that many people didn’t understand that it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
18 finish user domain name sales including a .Science domain name - End user domain name sales from the past week. You are getting sleepy…very sleepy…you will visit Domain Name Wire several times a day and visit the advertisers’ sites… Oh, excuse me. I’ve gotten carried away after writing about Hypnosis.science selling for $3,000 to an end user this past week. Sedo had a great week, selling $1.7 million worth of domain names. That total must include a big one that isn’t disclosed. As for what’s disclosed and was purchased by an end user, here’s a ... read more ...
Tue 25th August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainers competence wish to check unclaimed income databases - I found some money waiting for me from a domain name company. You’ve probably seen promotions from your state for its unclaimed funds databases. States maintain a database where you can claim money owed to you, such as a utility deposit refund, forgotten bank accounts, insurance premiums, etc. I saw an ad for Texas’ unclaimed money database the other day and decided to search my name. I was surprised to find that I had $33.96 waiting for me from Endurance International Group (EIGI). EIGI is a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Amazon wins: .Shop and .通販 not confusingly identical after all - Duh. Are the top level domain names .shop and .通販 likely to confuse a reasonable internet user? Certainly not visually. Nor aurally. They also don’t mean the same thing. According to fluent Japanese speakers, 通販 used to be the term for catalog/mail order shopping, and later encompassed online shopping. Yet panelist Robert Nau found them too similar in a string confusion objection filed by Commercial Connect against Amazon.com, applicant for the Japanese string. It was perhaps the most ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club's proceed to lapsed domain names - An example of how one new top level domain registry is releasing its expired domain names. Last week, .Club domain names that were registered at the beginning of general availability over a year ago started dropping. The company reported a 75% day one renewal rate. It hasn’t published rates post day one, but that’s certainly a good start. .Club CEO Colin Campbell told Domain Name Wire that he told investors to expect a 60% renewal rate. He doesn’t think it will stick at 75% in the long run ... read more ...
Mon 24th August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Questionable investment: RetailMeNot spends $4.3 million for new domain names - Company has common investor with new top level domain company Donuts. Struggling Austin internet company RetailMeNot spent $4.3 million to acquire second level domain names under a new top level domain name, an SEC filing revealed. The purchase was first reported by George Kirikos, and OnlineDomain wrote about it earlier today. While the SEC filing doesn’t disclose the top level domain or registry, it almost certainly is Donuts. The common denominator is Austin Ventures, which backed both RetailMeNot ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Khloe Kardashian gets her (domain) name - Khloe will get domain name registered shortly after her first TV appearance. TV celebrity Khloe Kardashian has won a cybersquatting dispute, and will soon by the proud owner of the KhloeKardashian.com domain name. Kardashian and her agents filed the case against the domain name with World Intellectual Property Organization nearly two months ago. The domain name did not resolve to a web page at the time, but it was parked prior to that. It was also listed for sale on GoDaddy, but the listing has been ... read more ...
 
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Domain Development Legal Mistakes with Enrico Schaefer – DNW Podcast #47 - Don’t make these mistakes when developing a domain name into a full website. Are you developing some of your domain names? You’ll want to listen to this week’s interview with Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal. Enrico discusses 5 things you need to do when developing a website to keep yourself out of legal hot water. Don’t make a mistake that can cost you more than you’ll earn from your developed website. Also: Web.com credit card theft, eNom and Sedo link up, Verisign v. XYZ trial date ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
One domain name batch is indeed adult today - Endurance manages to eek out small gain so far today. The DOW opened down 1,000 points today. It has since recovered a bit, but it’s a safe bet that your stock portfolio took a hit today. One domain name stock is actually bucking the trend. Shares of Endurance International Group (NASDAQ: EIGI) are up $.12 at the time of writing, to $15.30. Sure, it’s less than a 1% jump, but every other domain name stock I track (GoDaddy, Rightside, Web.com, Verisign, CentralNic, Minds + Machines, Neustar) is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Get .online this week… - Radix releases a big new top level domain name this week. One of the most anticipated top level domain names of the entire new top level domain name program is releasing in general availability on Wednesday. Radix’s .online will exit Early Access and revert to regular pricing on Wednesday. On day 5 of early access, the company processed over 500 registrations within the first hour. Its sunrise garnered 775 registrations. Radix had teamed up with Tucows and NameCheap in a partnership for the domain ... read more ...
Fri 21st August 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GJQ.com snags $36k bid during Sedo - Lots of three letter domain names on auction at Sedo. Three letter .com domain names continue to command top dollar. The domain name GJQ.com has a $36,000 bid at Sedo. It’s in an auction that ends around 1 am EDT tomorrow morning. With just one bidder, this was likely an offer that was pushed to auction. Sedo’s current Great Domains auction also has a lot of three character domains on offer, including dke.com, utt.com, hvz.com and sgj.com. The first three have reserves under 25,000 euros. The ... read more ...
Thu 20th August 2015
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Philip Morris takes down dispute sites in messy cybersquatting decision - Tobacco company convinces arbitration panelist to hand over domain names used to criticize it. One of the gripe sites Philip Morris just took down.Philip Morris has won another cybersquatting complaint against a long time nemesis. The company convinced a single member National Arbitration Forum panelist that David Delman should hand over six domain names he used as gripe sites about smoking: philipmorris.website, philipmorrisviolations.website, philipmorriscigarettediseases.org, philipmorriscigaretteskill.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Roundup: Analyzing 100+ lapsed domain name sales - Joseph Peterson analyzes the past week of expired domain name sales. Among expired domain auctions, NameJet’s top seller last week was GreenBusiness.com ($8.6k), a name formed from 2 keywords that are each nTLDs in their own right: .GREEN and .BUSINESS. The name can be read as “environmentally friendly”; but “green” also suggests U.S. dollars (as in the GreenBacks.com sale last month). That’s a welcome association if people can be persuaded that going green makes them some green. 89890.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here are a Exhibit and Witness lists for a Verisign v. XYZ trial - Lists will hit home in the domain name industry. Verisign’s lawsuit against XYZ.com, LLC and Daniel Negari continues to move forward at full speed, thanks to the “rocket docket” in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia. Both parties have submitted their proposed exhibit lists and witnesses for the trial. Reviewing the exhibit lists, it’s clear that if you emailed Daniel Negari about .xyz, there’s a good chance Verisign has reviewed that email. If you wrote or commented about ... read more ...
Wed 19th August 2015
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Verisign presses Network Solutions for sum on .XYZ registrations - Company files motion to compel Network Solutions’ parent company to provide a witness. Verisign has filed a motion (pdf) in a Florida court to compel Web.com, parent company of Network Solutions, to provide a witness to testify about how the registrar accounted for free .xyz domain names. Network Solutions gave away perhaps hundreds of thousands of .xyz domain names last year. They weren’t just offered for free; They were placed in customer accounts on an opt-out basis. Verisign is suing .XYZ ... read more ...
 
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Web.com shares dump 12% on information crack news - Shares plummet after credit card information is stolen. It’s a down start to the day for stock markets in general, but domain name and hosting company Web.com (NASDAQ: WWWW) is having a particularly bad day. Shares are trading down about $3.00 to $20.81 at the time of writing. That’s about a 12% drop. The move appears to be in response to the company’s announcement yesterday of a data breach. The company says credit card details on up to 93,000 cards might have been stolen last week. There’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
End User domain name sales including .XYZ - Company buys two .xyz domain names after Google increases awareness of the domain. Want an example of how awareness can propel new top level domain aftermarket sales? An enterprise software company bought Customer.xyz and Customers.xyz, presumably after hearing that Google chose abc.xyz for its new holding company domain name. These domains were two of the 461 transactions on Sedo’s domain name sales platform for the past week. Other buyers include a satellite company, a staffing company and a ... read more ...