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.

Tue 19th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Comparing a Toll Free Phone Numbers to Domain Names - AP sheds light on using toll free numbers to capture business. The Associated Press published a story this morning about companies that reserve mass quantities of toll free phone numbers, either to capture callers or sell them to businesses that might want to use them. On the surface this is very similar to domain names. You register a domain name, capture visitors looking for something related to it, and then sell the domain name to a business that wants to use ... read more ...
 
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I Still Question a $10 Million Fund.com Sale - It just doesn’t add up. I’ve always questioned the 2008 sale of Fund.com for $10 million. It’s mostly in my gut: why did a new company that went public by buying another company pay a ridiculous price for this domain through a broker I’ve never heard of? It just doesn’t make sense. Now someone has dug into it the company a bit more, and the whole thing stinks. BusinessInsider notes that the company has no real revenue since 2007, has seen its stock (now ... read more ...
 
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Navidad.com (Spanish for Christmas) Sells for $100,000 - Domain broker completes six figure holiday domain sale. Sedo has brokered the sale of Navidad.com for $100,000 to an as-yet undisclosed buyer, capping off a week with about $1 million in sales. Sedo’s second place was approvals.com for $60,000. The company also handled a very strong .co domain name sale, selling Tequila.co for $14,500. Afternic’s top reportable sale for the week was Ringer.com at $40,500 on behalf of YummyNames. Here are other notable sales for ... read more ...
Mon 18th April 2011
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TailWords.com Helps You Find Unregistered Keyword Domain Names - Tool searches for domain names with keywords that match your parameters. Here’s an interesting tool to help you find unregistered domain names with competitive advertisers. TailWords.com lets you search keywords based on a number of factors, from AdWords bid prices to keyword search volume. But it also has a handy tool for domainers: the ability to show only keywords that have the corresponding .com domain name available (or .net/.org). Just plugin a keyword and ... read more ...
 
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UDRP Panel Questions Oversee.net’s Automated Domain Registration Processes - WIPO panel questions Oversee.net defense of “automated systems” for registering domain names. A UDRP panel has found against Oversee.net in a UDRP dispute over CarrollHouse.com and has posed significant questions about the company’s domain name registration practices. Complainant Carol House Furniture has used its name since 1965 and it incorporated in 1970. The dispute says that Oversee.net registered the domain on September 4, 2010. But the domain was actually ... read more ...
 
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TelChina and China Mobile to Build Mobile Payments System on .Tel - Mobile payments system coming to .tel. .Tel registry’s regional partner TelChina has inked a strategic partnership with China Mobile to build a mobile payment solution with .tel. It’s not entirely clear what this entails, but the first phase will enable China Mobile customers to purchase and renew their .tel names via a Mobile-Pay portal using their mobile devices. This phase will be complete in May. Soon customers will be able to purchase .tel domains using ... read more ...
Sun 17th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Rio.com Probably Getting a Lot of Unintended Traffic - Visitors looking for movie info might be landing on tourism web site. When Rio.com sold in 2009 for $450,000, the buyer quickly went to work on a site about Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The site’s traffic will increase steadily as the World Cup and Olympics in Rio de Janeiro get closer. But this week the site likely saw an increase in traffic from an unlikely source: kids and parents interested in the new 20th Century Fox flick Rio. The animated movie from the same ... read more ...
Sat 16th April 2011
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Domain Owners Should Not Worry About Poker Domain Seizures - Poker domain seizures involved complex criminal activity specifically targeted at the United States. Yesterday the online gambling world was rocked by the seizure of five poker domain names used by three large online poker companies. The domain names were seized by the FBI from PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker. According to Compete.com, FullTiltPoker.com gets around 1 million unique visitors a month. Some people are drawing references to the Kentucky ... read more ...
 
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Poker Domain Seizures Show Futility of Nabbing Domain Names - Even without .com domains, sites can continue to operate. You can take away a domain name, but you can’t stop people from visiting a web site. Yesterday’s seizure of five poker company domain names is another case in point. Still want to get your fix of Poker Stars? Just go to PokerStars.eu. It reminds me of when online gambling site Bodog ran into legal problems. The solution? Change the URL from Bodog.com to NewBodog.com. Sure, it lost some players as a ... read more ...
 
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Just Released New TLD Guidebook Attacks Domain Parking - Applicants for new TLDs must answer question related to domain name parking. Out of nowhere, domain parking appears to be under attack in the new top level domain name application process. The latest guidebook, released yesterday, includes a section for applicants to explain: What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Health Officials on Playboy Mansion: H1N1, Credit Blogs and Social Media - Health officials say H1N1 infected DOMAINfest attendees and evaluates role of social media in responding to outbreak. We go to domain conferences. Health officials go to Centers for Disease Control conferences. You can imagine these events as rather dull. But last week officials from Los Angeles got to spice things up a bit as they discussed the illness outbreak after the DOMAINfest conference in February at the Playboy Mansion. They managed to throw in another ... read more ...
 
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eNom and Go Daddy Still Disqualified from Applying for New Top Level Domains - Language of new applicant guidebook disqualifies two large domain name registrars. If you read the spirit of the rules related to new top level domain names, domain name registrars eNom and Go Daddy are still disqualified from applying for their own top level domain names. In the latest draft ICANN tweaked the language regarding applicants for new TLDs who have been found guilty of cybersquatting, but not enough to let these two companies off the hook. The guidebook ... read more ...
Fri 15th April 2011
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NameBio Gets a New Look – A Sign of Things to Come? - Domain sales database gets a facelift. Last year domain name investor Adam Strong and a partner purchased domain name sales database NameBio. You probably wouldn’t have noticed, though, as the site stayed the same. Until today. I just went to the site and noticed a new look and feel. It’s a lot cleaner design without that annoying background image. You can access all of the advanced features without clicking between tabs. Also gone is the “instant search” ... read more ...
 
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Facebook Files Trademark Lawsuit Against FriendFinder - Facebook files trademark lawsuit against owner of FriendFinder. Facebook, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Various, Inc., parent company of FriendFinder, along with a couple related companies and John Does. The case was filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Califonia on Wednesday. The entire complaint hasn’t been posted online, but it involves Various, Inc’s trademarks for FriendFinder and AdultFriendFinder. I know that Facebook has called its ... read more ...
Wed 13th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
6 Reasons You’re Not Making More with Domain Names - Here are six reasons you may be missing out on more domain name earnings. 1. You refuse to price your domain names Some people don’t need to price their domain names. They just sit around waiting for high dollar offers, then ask for more money. But odds are you aren’t one of those people. Someone isn’t going to offer you $50,000 or more for one of your domains. So you should price them. The typical small to medium sized business doesn’t want to negotiate ... read more ...
 
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Domain Madness 3 Tries Again Today - Last week’s postponed auction gives it another try today. Nothing deflates excitement about a domain name auction that postponement. But today Domain Madness will try to overcome that as it runs its third annual auction a week late. Last week the auction platform ran into technical problems just as it began. This isn’t the first time a domain name auction has run into technical difficulties. In fact, every major live domain auction service has had some sort ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Amazon Buys AdMash.com and Other Domains Related to New Kindle - Amazon.com registers and/or acquires a slew of domain names related to new Kindle. This week Amazon.com announced a new Kindle ebook reader that costs less but shows advertisements. Users will be able to customize the ads they see on their Kindle screensaver through an app and web site called AdMash. Amazon.com purchased the AdMash.com domain name sometime in the past two years. The last publicly listed owner in whois was a Pennsylvania man, but since February 2010 ... read more ...
 
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Beware this GoDaddy Phishing Scheme - New phishing email tries to get Go Daddy customers to give away account details. I received a phishing email today that I haven’t seen before. Titled “Notice about GODADDY account activation”, it won’t fool most internet users. But it could certainly dupe some people. The message reads: Dear Godaddy User: This notification is generated automatically as a service to you because you subscribe to DomainAlert. Because of the Comprehensive upgrade of the website ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
DotAsia Announces IDN Release Details - DotAsia IDN launch plans released. DotAsia today announced more details for its upcoming launch of .asia IDNs. .Asia IDNs will be released in Chinese (Traditional and Simplified matched), Japanese and Korean. A seventy day sunrise period for rights holders will commence May 11. A landrush period open to everyone else begins August 2 and also runs for seventy days. In both sunrise and landrush an auction will be held if more than one entity submits an application ... read more ...
Tue 12th April 2011
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Czech Arbitration Court Issues Reverse Domain Name Hijacking Decision - UDRP provider blasts complainant and issues finding of RDNH. One of the smaller and lesser known UDRP providers has issued a finding of reverse domain name hijacking against a complainant. Czech Arbitration Court, known for its attempts to create a “quick” UDRP procedure, found that complainant Streetwave Pte Ltd brought its case against StreetWave.com in bad faith. Streetwave Pte Ltd has just filed for trademarks in a number of countries, but the domain owner ... read more ...
 
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How to Shoot Elephants Without Shooting Yourself in a Foot - To me, Bob Parsons’ response to elephant controversy is more damaging than the original video. Bob Parsons is no stranger to controversy. He doesn’t shy away from it. He embraces it. During his DOMAINfest keynote earlier this year he said you want to tee up your detractors. They make a lot of noise and drive publicity to your company. But has Go Daddy passed the point in which “all publicity is good publicity” is a truism? A number of people say Parsons ... read more ...
Mon 11th April 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Off to ad:tech, The Show Without Its Domain Name - Huge trade show for online advertising has a disappointing domain name. This morning I’m off to ad:tech, a large interactive advertising conference, in San Francisco. Countless times over the past month I’ve gone to ad:tech’s web site to remind myself of the agenda, book a hotel, etc. And most of the time I type in adtech.com. Unfortunately the show’s web site is ad-tech.com with a hypen. Perhaps even more unfortunate is that there’s an interactive advertising ... read more ...
 
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Sorry Beckstrom, You Should Have Voted on .XXX - ICANN CEO’s abstention from .xxx vote is weak. During ICANN’s meeting in San Francisco last month a number of board members gave their rationale for or against .xxx. Some members abstained and stated their reason. So it was a little odd when ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom didn’t vote. He whispered something away from the microphone to chair Peter Dengate Thrush about publishing his reason for not voting, but it was barely audible. His rationale has now been published, ... read more ...
 
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Toby Clements Discusses a Domain Sales Newsletter Sans Rick Latona - Toby Clements discusses the future of his domain name sales newsletter. A popular sales channel for domain names is coming back under a new brand. Rick Latona and Toby Clements recently announced they’ve parted ways, and now Clements will be taking over the newsletter formerly known as the “Rick Latona Newsletter”. It was a popular sales newsletter for a long time, and it’s good to hear it is coming back. Clements new web site for the newsletter isn’t up ... read more ...
 
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VeriSign May Be Able to Continue Hiking .Net Prices 10% Per Year - Proposed contract renewal allows for huge price increases on .net domain registrations. ICANN’s contract with VeriSign for running the .net domain name registry expires at the end of June. Thanks to a “presumptive renewal” clause, the contract won’t be put out for bidding. VeriSign also gets to pick up any goodies that rival registries have managed to get in their contracts. ICANN just posted the proposed renewal agreement for .net. It gives VeriSign the ... read more ...