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.

Wed 16th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Limited Edition Tucows Cookie Goes Back Up For Sale - Famous cookie goes up for sale. Last April I paid what I believe to be a domainer record for a cookie: $127.50. But this wasn’t just any cookie. It was a sugar cookie commemorating Tucows’ 10 millionth domain name registered. This is a limited edition cookie to be sure. And the proceeds from the cookie auction went to some Canadian charity that (I’m told) had nothing to do with ice hockey or Molson. The cookie has been sitting in my office for the past ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo and Parked Still Top Domain Parking Companies, But Revenue Down - Survey reveals favorite parking companies but continued downward trend in parking revenue. A non-scientific survey of over 1,500 domain name industry participants shows that Sedo and Parked.com are still the top domain name parking companies. Sedo received 30% of the votes as top parking company in Domain Name Wire’s sixth annual domain survey. Parked came in a distant second place with 14% of the vote. Last year Sedo took 23% of the vote and Parked brought home ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Best Part About a New DomainTools - DomainTools gets a facelift and new membership levels. DomainTools launched a new interface today. It makes finding and using its vast array of tools much easier. But the best part is that account credits are gone. In the words of DomainTools: “We’ve taken the most confusing pricing model ever conceived, and we’ve given it the axe.” Amen. The old system was based on “units” for various products. And the number of units required to order the same product ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Gotta Love The Media Coverage of DOMAINfest Illness - Media coverage of illness outbreak is just really…bad. Over the past week it seems that every major news outlet has covered the illness outbreak after this month’s DOMAINfest conference. Take one part Playboy, one part illness outbreak, mix it up, and you’ve got everything the media needs for a story. It’s even good enough for Jay Leno. But man, has that coverage been bad. Flat out wrong at times. When you see how wrong some of these stories are it makes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Took Down 36,000 Pharmacy Sites Last Year - Registrar’s General Counsel testifies on Capitol Hill. Go Daddy Executive Vice-President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary Christine Jones testified before The United States Senate Committee On The Judiciary committee today. The hearing was titled “Targeting Websites Dedicated To Stealing American Intellectual Property.” While her testimony provided many examples of how domain name registrars such as Go Daddy fit into the enforcement puzzle, I found the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN: Definitely No Vote on New TLDs during Mar Meeting - No longer just a “probably not”. In case your glass-half-full optimism wouldn’t let go of the idea that ICANN’s Board of Directors would approve the new gTLD applicant guidebook at its March meeting in San Francisco, I’ve got news for you. It’s not going to happen. In a blog post today, ICANN outlines ongoing work with the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on new TLDs. ICANN and the GAC are meeting in Brussels next month. Then it will have a bylaws-defined ... read more ...
Tue 15th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Adsense for Domains Testing New Design Templates - Two new templates being tested, including one with a graphic. Google’s self-service domain name parking program appears to be testing new design templates. An alert reader sent me an example of a domain name using Adsense for Domains “Online” that rotates between three different landers. In addition to the standard lander we’re all accustomed to, there’s a more basic one and one with a tropical theme: Update: another Adsense for Domains user sent me an ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Texas Considering a Dreaded “Affiliate Sales Tax” - Legislation would require etailers to collect sales tax if it has any affiliates in Texas. Add my home state of Texas to the list of states that are considering taxing etailers who have affiliates in the state. At least if one state representative gets his way. State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin introduced legislation that would require online retailers to collect Texas sales tax if it and enters into an agreement with a Texas resident that receives a commission ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uh-Oh. ICANN Traveling to Another Trouble Spot for Jun Meeting in Jordan. - Safety and security will be concerns once again for upcoming ICANN meeting. [UPDATE: ICANN will move the meeting to another location.] I’ve got to hand it to ICANN’s meeting planners. They have a penchant for choosing locales that give less-traveled attendees heartburn. This hit a pinnacle for last year’s Nairobi meeting, where many of the biggest companies and sponsors decided to stay home over security fears. (Nairobi was probably a safer venue than the March ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Devises “Pay for Placement” Idea for New gTLD Operators - Patent describes system where new top level domain operators can bid for preferred placement registrar sites. Want to get your new top level domain name positioned well on GoDaddy? Prepare to pay. That’s the idea behind a pay-for-placement approach for TLD placement on registrar web sites that Go Daddy has devised. Oh, and it has a patent on it. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued U.S. patent 7,890,602 (pdf) to Go Daddy today for “Tools enabling preferred ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo and Afternic Combine for Well Over $1M in Sales This Week - Two large domain name brokers have strong week. Sedo and Afternic have both turned in sales reports this week combining for well over $1 million in reportable sales. Sedo’s top reportable sale was Award.com for $56,005 and Afternic’s top reportable sale was Funo.com for $20,000. Here are other top sales for the week from Afternic: passings.com $15,000 floridaautoinsurance.com $15,000 nextstar.com $15,000 Fabo.com $15,000 prescreen.com $13,000 OnlinePcSupport.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Sold $2.1 Million of Domains Last Quarter - Marchex sells of more domain names. Marchex reported GAAP earnings of two cents per share after the bell today on $28 million revenue in the fourth quarter of 2010. It also announced that it sold $2.1 million of “non-strategic” domain names in the quarter. Marchex frequently reports seven figures worth of domain name sales in its earnings announcements. The company is famous for buying Yun Ye’s domain name portfolio for $164 million. A number of domain names ... read more ...
Mon 14th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.nxt – Like an ICANN Meeting With a Pulse - by Kevin Murphy The inaugural .nxt conference on new top-level domains wound up in San Francisco Thursday, with most participants seeming to agree that it was a success. The two-day meeting attracted 196 sign-ups (about 20 of whom apparently paid but did not ultimately show up to collect their badges) and almost 20 sponsors, not a bad showing for a first-of-its-kind event. The purpose of the conference was to provide a venue to discuss the business of new TLDs without ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bankrate Acquires and Launches CreditCards.ca - Company launches credit card information site for Canada. Financial media company Bankrate recently acquired and has now launched CreditCards.ca, a credit card information site, Domain Name Wire has discovered. Bankrate recently purchased the company CreditCards.com as well, but the acquisition of the CreditCards.ca domain name appears to be separate. The site complements a Canada-focused sub site of CreditCards.com, ca.CreditCards.com. Based on DomainTools historical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Scott Day’s DigiMedia Wins Reverse Domain Hijacking Charge - WIPO panel finds complaint against DigiMedia.com was brought in bad faith. Legendary domain name investor Scott Day’s company DigiMedia.com has won a charge of reverse domain name hijacking against a Dubai company. Prime Pictures LLC filed the case in an attempt to get the domain name CinemaCity.com. But DigiMedia.com had registered the domain name way back in 1998, about 7 years before the complainant used “CinemaCity” in commerce. That clearly means the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Scores a Win in Antitrust Lawsuit - Court rules plaintiffs don’t have standing to bring suit. A California court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Coalition for ICANN Transparency (CFIT) against VeriSign for its .com and .net domain name contracts. The court ruling was first reported earlier today by DomainIncite. United States District Judge Ronald Whyte ruled that CFIT didn’t have standing to bring the antitrust lawsuit. The suit originally aimed to get ICANN to make a competitive bidding process ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
New Chrome Extension Lets You Block Content Farms in Google - Google releases extension in response to “content farm” complaints. Tired of seeing eHow in your Google search results? Now you can block it. Today Google released a new Chrome extension that allows people to block entire sites from results when searching on Google. In a blog post, the company says it created this extension in response to outcry over content farms which have low quality or shallow content. Demand Media’s eHow has been a poster child for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
L.A. County Health Department Sends New Alert to DOMAINfest Attendees - Those with multiple symptoms asked to undergo testing. The Los Angeles County Public Health Department has sent a new alert (pdf) to attendees of this month’s DOMAINfest conference giving explicit instructions for medical testing. In an email to DOMAINfest attendees, the health department asked people who have multiple symptoms to ask their healthcare professionals for a battery of tests. The L.A. health department will perform these tests for free for locals. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames Increases Prices on Deleted Domain Names - Cost to get deleted domains increases from $59 to $69. On Tuesday SnapNames will increase its minimum fee for catching fully deleted domain names by $10 to $69. The fee increase only applies to domains that go completely through the deletion cycle and are deleted by the registry. It does not apply to domain names auctioned off through registrar partners and other sellers. Domains auctioned through registrar partners don’t go completely through the deletion cycle. ... read more ...
Sun 13th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
The Internet is One Big Game of Telephone - Stories that start innocent enough often morph into something else. Do you remember that game of “telephone” you played in elementary school? The first person in the circle makes an innocent statement to the next person. “Mrs. Teacher is going on vacation to Hawaii next week.” By the time it gets passed along to the end of the circle the statement has morphed into “Mrs. Teacher’s husband is buying Antarctica and moving their because he hates Mrs. Teacher ... read more ...
Sat 12th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Playboy: Don’t Blame Us for Illness - Playboy rep says its staff didn’t get sick at party. The New York Post wrote an article today about the illness outbreak after last week’s DOMAINfest conference. It quotes both Ron Jackson and Elliot Silver. The story asks if the Playboy Mansion was the source of the illness. (It wouldn’t be “New York Post-worthy” without the Playboy part.) The article quotes a Playboy rep saying: There is no truth in the rumor that anyone caught anything at the Playboy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Launches “Map Your Valentine” - Map your Valentine with Google. On Thursday I wrote about how Google had registered the domain names GoogleValentine.com .org and MapYourValentine.com .org. Today MapYourValentine.com is now active and invites you to “Use Google Maps to remind your Valentine of a special place.” Essentially it’s what I guessed on Thursday with an added Google maps component. The service let’s you send a Valentine’s eCard to someone but with a twist — remembering a special ... read more ...
Fri 11th February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SanDiego.com Dispute Goes to Court [Updated] - Former owner files breach of contract claim. [Update: I now have a copy of the complaint (pdf). It focuses on mostly alleged verbal contracts between Burgess and DeuPree for total damages of $185,00. It also alleges that when DeuPree negotiated to buy the site that he “and unknown collaborators planned for force Burgess from sandiego.com, the business Burgess founded, and refuse to honor agreements between Burgess and SanDiego.com.] Last year the original owner ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Tel Pages Will Soon Look Like… - Contest for .tel facelift ends. Now for the winner… .Tel pages may soon get a facelift courtesy of a design competition. Telnic, which runs the .tel domain, ran a contest on 99Designs to get user submissions of a potential new template. It received 223 submissions as of Wednesday’s deadline. .Tel is a unique domain name created for disseminating contact information across the internet. Now Telnic will make a shortlist of the templates and present them to the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom “Backpack” Girl Turned Into Oil Painting - eNom’s famous “backpack girl” is now available as an oil painting. It’s one of the most popular pictures on the internet, made famous thanks to eNom/Demand Media. And now she’s available on canvas. The so-called “backpack” girl was made popular by eNom’s parking templates and is a common joke in the industry. At Demand Media’s party during DOMAINfest they brought in “backpack girls”. When company employees travel to Austin they go to The ... read more ...