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.

Sat 5th March 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
National Arbitration Forum Now Taking .Co Disputes - Two largest UDRP administrators now handling .co domain name disputes. [Update: Apparently NAF started offering .co disputes last fall. This is the first time I’ve seen a .co dispute there.] National Arbitration Forum has joined World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in offering dispute resolution services for .co domain name. When .co relaunched last year the only authorized UDRP provider was WIPO. Some companies were behind the ball and didn’t get ... read more ...
Fri 4th March 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is There a Buying Opportunity for Mid-Tier Domains? - There seem to be some good buying opportunities for mid-range domain names. In early 2005 I looked around a domain name aftermarket that was quickly heating up. I saw high prices paid for category killers and lots of people snapping up less expensive domains. But there seemed to be a sweet spot in the $2,000-$20,000 range in which values were still available. Looking over some recent auction sales I think that sweet spot may have returned. There have been lots of ... read more ...
Thu 3rd March 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
GoTo.com. Those Were a Days - Fondly remembering the predecessor to Yahoo Search Marketing. I was writing something down yesterday when my pen ran out of ink. I tossed it into the trashcan when a logo on the side of it caught my eye: I think I was on a new features review panel as a GoTo customer and they sent this pen to me. This ten-year-old pen brought back memories… …memories of a simpler time when all that mattered was your bid price, not your click-through rate or the quality of your ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The iPad 2 and The Multi-Screen Household - The increase in internet-connected screens is good for web site publishers. Before the original iPad was released I opined that it could be bad for domain name investors. The world seemed to be (slowly) shifting from web sites to Apps. But then I discovered that may not be the case. With all the hoopla around the iPad 2 I now realize that more internet connected devices can only be a good thing for web publishers (and thereby the importance of domain names). As ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Landmark Showdown during World Intellectual Property Organization - Case represents a big victory against radical UDRP ideology. A World Intellectual Property Forum panel handed down a UDRP decision on March 1 that could reverberate for a while and finally put to rest some recent shenanigans with UDRP. If you aren’t a UDRP junkie you may not appreciate it. But if you are, read on… The Background The case pitted Xbridge Limited v. Marchex Sales, Inc. over the domain name simplybusiness.com. Xbridge operates business insurance ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
French Word for Wedding Domain Name Gets $130,000 Bid - Six figure offer made for French language .com domain name. Mariage.com — a typo of Marriage but more importantly the French word for Wedding — has received a 92,000 EUR bid at Sedo. That’s about $130,000 USD. An auction for the domain name ends March 8. Elsewhere in the domain auction world SnapNames is running its March feature auction. It includes primarily domains related to travel and entertainment. A few domains already have bids but the auction ... read more ...
Wed 2nd March 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Domain Name Marketplaces - Major domain marketplaces continue to innovate and grow. The number of domain name sales venues is expanding. More importantly, the way these venues syndicate sales listings is leading to a more fluid domain aftermarket. Domainers use a number of domain marketplaces beyond the usual suspects. Still, the big three dominate: Sedo received the most votes in this year’s Domain Name Wire survey with 39% of the vote. Go Daddy and Afternic received 12% and 9% respectively. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Gets Biggest Traffic Lift of Top Super Bowl Advertisers - Registrar gets biggest lift among top 10 most watched advertisers. A new report from audience measurement firm Nielsen says that GoDaddy saw the biggest traffic surge of any of the top 10 most watched advertisers during the Super Bowl. Nielsen says the domain registrar’s traffic surged 41% compared to the week before the Super Bowl. The next highest traffic surge for an internet-only company was HomeAway.com at 27%. Groupon only saw a 3% lift. Ironically, both ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
When Domains Expire, Just Blame a Registrar - Registrars take the blame for forgetful customers. When you screw up and don’t renew your domain name, just blame the registrar when you talk to the press. I see that happen all the time. Here’s another example. Liberal blog RIfuture.org let its domain name expire on February 24. As is standard practice, domain registrar eNom replaced the DNS for the domain and pointed it to a parked page. But you wouldn’t blame the owner of the domain if you read this article ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Sport Trademark Application Games Continue - One applicant for .sport TLD continues to try to get related trademarks. I guess trademarks are just like any other sport — a big game. dotSport LLC, which wants to run a .sport top level domain name, has been aggressive in its hunt for .sport related trademarks. It just filed another application for registry.sport. It filed the first one in January 2009 but it’s now abandoned. It filed another one in May 2010. In August 2010 the U.S. Patent and Trademark ... read more ...
Tue 1st March 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Security and Price Top Requirements for Domain Registrars - Domain registrants look for security and price when selecting a domain registrar. Domain registrars need to focus on security and price if they want to win your business, according to a survey of over 1,500 people in the domain name industry. As usual, participants in Domain Name Wire’s annual survey said security was the most important factor when considering a domain name registrar. 31% picked it as the top factor and 20% selected it as second most important. Price ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey Picks Top Domain Name Registrars - Some familiar faces and a new one in registrar poll. This is the sixth year of the Domain Name Wire survey. I’ve never pretended that it’s a scientific survey. It’s more of a vote. So I’ve taken small anomalies in stride. But this year there were some problems with the voting for “best domain registrar”. Without getting into details, there was significant voting that looked like it might be gaming the system. Thankfully I found a simple solution. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
According to Analytics Sites, eHow Unphased by Google Changes - Site traffic steady at eHow according to analytics sites. If Demand Media’s eHow was a target of Google’s algorithm changes last week, it’s not showing up in third party web traffic stats. Quantcast shows a nice, steady increase in traffic to eHow over the past few days. Alexa shows a seven day page view increase of 3.9%. Of course, eHow could be compensating by increasing the speed at which it adds articles. eZineArticles.com, another supposed target, shows ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Site Finds “Orphaned” Domains on Sedo and Afternic - Site lists domains listed for sale that are free to register. Have you ever seen a domain name for sale on or Sedo or Afternic only to find out that it’s freely available for registration? Someone lists a domain, lets it expire, but the sales listing never gets deleted. The problem used to be rampant. It’s gotten better thanks to new controls and monitoring by both sites (particularly Afternic). But a new service from domain name search engine DomainWhiz shows ... read more ...
Mon 28th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How To Determine if Google’s Algorithm Changes are Aimed during You - A handy guide to determine if Google is gunning for you. Last week Google announced some changes to its algorithm that affect a whopping 12% of search results. The target? “low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful” While some say this is aimed at so-called “content farms”, here are the warning signs that this change is aimed at your web site(s): – You created ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN May Shut Down .Jobs Registry - ICANN threatens to shut down .jobs, even after approving its “registry service”. ICANN has notified .jobs registry Employ Media LLC that it is in breach of its contract at ICANN, and the contract is subject to cancellation if the breach isn’t corrected within 30 days. That this breach letter (pdf) is going out now shows a massive failure on the part of ICANN. (More on that in a bit.) In a letter dated February 27, ICANN informs Employ Media that it has failed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 5 Domain Name Wire Stories of Feb 2011 - A look back at the month in domaining. The shortest month of the year is coming to a close. Here’s a look back at the top five stories of the month on Domain Name Wire, ranked by number of views. 1. Is Bit.ly Toast if Libya Shuts Down the Internet? – despite what bit.ly tells you, the company runs a real risk by using Libya’s ccTLD. 2. Joan Rivers Body Double is No Stranger to Go Daddy Commercials – the skinny on Joan Rivers’ body double in Super Bowl ad. 3. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
ICANN “Satisfaction Rate” Rebounds - Not as bad as last year. But not great. The percentage of people who rate their satisfaction with ICANN as “Good” has rebounded a bit from the past two years. But it still sits at a dismal 21%. That’s according to over 1,500 people who took the non-scientific 6th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey at the beginning of the year. 25% rate their satisfaction “poor”, down from 40% in 2010. Although a nice reversal from the past couple years, the results still ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pre-Bidding Opens for Aftermarket.com Live Domain Auction - Live auction kicks off with pre-bidding. Aftermarket.com is back in the live domain name auction game this week. The company will host a live domain name auction in The Bahamas and will simulcast it through its new Aftermarket.com site. The actual auction will be Thursday, March 3 at 2PM EST. But pre-bidding has already open at Aftermarket.com and will run until 15 minutes before the live auction starts. You must register for a Premium account into order to bid. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
EzineArticles.com Cracks Down After Google Algorithm Changes - Site forces quality changes for submitted articles. One of the sites frequently mentioned as being targeted in Google’s recent quality crackdown is EzineArticles.com. It should come as no surprise that today the site instituted new rules and checks for quality. The site lets people submit articles that are free to reprint. The author gets a number of benefits, but backlinks are one of the biggest. As a result, many authors submit quick articles with little substance ... read more ...
Sat 26th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You Can Become a Cybersquatter for Only $192,500 - Some Saturday afternoon cybersquatting humor for you. It takes guts to sell a trademarked domain name on such a public venue as eBay. So what do you call it if you try to sell an eBay trademark on eBay? One of my readers just sent a link to me for just such an auction. Yep, that’s right. Someone is trying to sell eBay.net.in on eBay. For only $192,500. I’ve pasted some of the auction description below with my own commentary in italics. ************ Today is ... read more ...
Thu 24th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
China’s .CN Domain Name Keeps Dropping - Size of .cn registration base falls 75% from peak. Thanks mostly to tighter controls and rules on registration, China’s .cn domain name count keeps falling. According to data collected by HosterStats.com, there were about 3.5 million .cn domain names registered at the end of January. That’s a far cry from the over 14 million .cn domain names that were registered at its peak in February 2009. At that point .cn had more registrations than any other country code ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Never Start a Mainstream Web Site on a .Net Domain Name - This is what happens when you create a popular web site on something other than .com. You should never start a mainstream web site on a .net domain. Or .org, .biz, .info, etc. Unless you own the .com of the same name. Especially if the domain name you choose is generic. Unless you don’t care about losing traffic to the .com. OK, so why the rant? I just finished reading a UDRP case brought by First Showing, LLC, which owns FirstShowing.net. FirstShowing.net ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Reports Q4 Results - Demand Media results shed light on revenue sharing, eNom results. Earlier this week Demand Media reported fourth quarter results. The company eked out a small profit in the quarter, but expects to return to losses going forward. You can read the complete details here, but here are some interesting numbers: Revenue Sharing: In Q4 its network of customer web sites (which would include parked pages) generated 3.866 million billion page views with an RPM of $3.11. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
June ICANN Meeting Moves to Singapore - ICANN announces new location for June meeting. The rumor mill was correct. ICANN just announced that its June meeting will be moved to Singapore. The meeting was supposed to be held in Jordan. But security concerns and unrest in the region prompted ICANN to change the location. ICANN has a penchant for selecting meeting locations with security issues. This culminated in a number of high profile participants sitting out last year’s meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. ... read more ...