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 2nd February 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pac-10 Asks Arbitrator for Pac12.com Domain Name - Collegiate conference wants Pac12.com domain name. After last year’s conference realignment the Pac-10 now has 12 teams. As it looks to rebrand itself as the Pac-12 it ran into a snag — it doesn’t own Pac12.com. The conference just filed a domain name dispute with World Intellectual Property Forum against the owner of Pac12.com to get the domain name. But the owner of that domain is throwing up a smoke screen with a page geared to the late rapper Tupac. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Co Launches Revamped Opportunity.co Site - Opportunity.co gets a refresh. .Co Internet has revamped its information site at Opportunity.co. The new site speaks to “creators” and entrepreneurs: A web address for launching great ideas? What a great idea. .CO is for creators. For the people and businesses who make the world turn. From products and stories to brands and beliefs, .CO is the web address that makes “making your idea a reality” a reality. The site includes resources for getting a business ... read more ...
Tue 1st February 2011
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Go Daddy Releases Part of .Co Commercial - Who the heck is the new .co girl? Go Daddy has released 17 seconds of its Super Bowl commercial unveiling the new GoDaddy.CO girl. It’s a tease — you won’t find out who the Godaddy.co girl is until the commercial airs in the first half of the Super Bowl. But you can start guessing who it is. I’m personally at a loss. I’m not a big celebrity stalker, so this isn’t my sort of game. I wonder if she’s also wearing a wig in the shots below? ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ClickBank Files Complaint to Get Clickbank.co - Popular payment processor and affiliate company files complaint to get .co equivalent of its .com domain. Add Click Sales, Inc, the company behind popular information products payment processor and affiliate network Clickbank, to the list of companies filing UDRP cases to get their .co domain name. The company filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum to get Clickbank.co. The domain name is currently registered by someone in China and parked at Sedo. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Record Crowd Gathers for DOMAINfest in Santa Monica - Biggest crowd ever packs house for DOMAINfest 2011. DOMAINfest just kicked off today in Santa Monica and new registrations are still coming in. Yet the crowd has already surpassed last year’s record and is quickly approaching 700 people. And while the rest of the country braces for a severe cold spell it’s a beautiful 62 degrees in Santa Monica. At 2 PM local time Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky will take the stage to talk about the state of the industry and where ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live: Jeff Kupietzky Gives 10 Prophecies for Domain Industry - Jeff Kupietzky gives predictions for 2011. This afternoon at DOMAINfest Global in Santa Monica Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky provided 10 prophecies for the domain name industry. But first he reviewed Oversee.net’s results over the past year: – Moniker had 10% revenue growth and growth in number of domains – 50% growth in Oversee Aftermarket revenue – 50 new employees – 10% increase in revenue per click 1. Increase in premium domain sales in 2011 – predicts ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bob Parsons Tells His Story during DOMAINfest - Bob Parsons talks to a standing-room only crowd at DOMAINfest. He carries a rock star persona. And he’s definitely a rock star to the domain name industry. Monday afternoon Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons told his story — from his troubles in Catholic school to serving in the Marines to finally getting a breakthrough and turning Parsons Technology into a $64 million payday — to an enthusiastic crowd at DOMAINfest in Santa Monica. And after his talk, Parsons looked ... read more ...
Mon 31st January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Person Files UDRP Against New Domain Owner After Letting Domain Expire - Former owner of domain claims cybersquatting after letting domain registration lapse. Imagine that a domain name expires and you pick it up in an expired domain auction. Then the previous owner files a UDRP against you claiming cybersquatting to get the domain name back. I’ve seen a few cases like this, including one just decided for PitRoad.com. In this case the complainant had a registered trademark for PitRoad.com*, which could have been harmful to the respondent. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Action.com Looks Like It Sold for Big Bucks Again - Sedo sales feed reports a big sale. Action.com sold for $230,000 at a live Moniker auction back in 2008, and it looks like it may have just sold for big bucks once again. This morning Sedo’s domain sales feed shows a $270,000 sale for the domain name: Sedo’s RSS sales feed is known for randomly throwing up sales from many years ago, but given the difference in price this one looks to be legit. (Plus, Sedo wasn’t the seller back in 2008). The whois on the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Suggests Domain Sellers Use a Super Bowl Bump - Company touts Premium Listings ahead of Super Bowl commercials. On Super Bowl Sunday traffic will flood to GoDaddy.com as millions of guys decide they want to get teased by possibly naked pictures of Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels. Some of them will buy domain names, and that’s good news for you. Today the company put out a press release touting its Premium Listings and suggesting that Super Bowl traffic will drive more premium listing sales. I’m a fan of ... read more ...
Sun 30th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After Losing UDRP, New York Times Buys DealBook.com from Frank Schilling - Media behemoth buys Dealbook.com domain name after losing arbitration for the domain. In November I wrote about how Frank Schilling defeated New York Times Company in a landmark UDRP ruling for the domain name Dealbook.com. After losing the decision it appears New York Times ponied up and bought the domain name. The domain name has not yet been forwarded to the publication’s Dealbook site. Schilling’s Name Administration owned the domain name through early ... read more ...
Sat 29th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Julian Assange Now Owns WikiLeaks.com - Founder of controversial WikiLeaks organization now owns Wikileaks.com domain name. Last week I wrote about how the domain name wikileaks.com had expired. The domain name was registered by Wikia, Inc, the group behind Wikipedia, for defensive reasons after the official WikiLeaks site Wikileaks.org launched. Wikia was trying to hand the domain name over to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, but Assange failed to accept the transfer and the domain name expired ... read more ...
Fri 28th January 2011
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Stars Aligning for .Nxt Conference - New gTLD conference timing might end up being perfect after all. Just days after .Nxt Conference organizer Kieren McCarthy lamented that some supporters were asking him to postpone his new gTLD conference, it looks like the timing is better than ever. Yesterday ICANN released documents showing that it is formally invoking the GAC-Board consultation process and intends to approve the final applicant guidebook for new TLDs in March. That makes .Nxt’s February timing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
VeriSign Shares IDN Plans with Investors - Company updates investors on internationalized domain names. Yesterday VeriSign released fourth quarter results. On the investor conference call CEO Mark McLaughlin answered questions regarding the market opportunity for internationalized domain names, or IDNs. McLaughlin explained “You could expect us to bid on all of the transliterations for .com and .net” when the new gTLD process is opened up. Of course ‘all’ is a big number. I expect the company to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Google Changes Algorithm to Address Sites with Unoriginal Content - Algorithm change went into effect earlier this week. Google web spam czar Matt Cutts blogged today about a recent algorithm change to Google’s rankings. The algorithm change is a follow up to Cutt’s post a week ago about addressing low level “content farms”. An algorithm change designed to address these concerns launched earlier this week. It specifically addresses “sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content”. I suspect ... read more ...
Thu 27th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Use a VeriSign Trust Seal to Get More Search Traffic and Conversions - Hidden value of Trust Seal is in higher search click-throughs. When eNom announced last summer that it would start selling VeriSign’s Trust Seal I kind of chuckled to myself. Why would anyone pay $299 a year to display a VeriSign seal on their site? After all, you can get a full-blown SSL certificate from some providers for only $20 a year. But the benefits are more than meets the eye. Perhaps the biggest is increased search engine clicks. Many people who use ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are You Going to DOMAINfest? - Biggest domain conference of the year starts next week. DOMAINfest officially kicks off next Tuesday, February 1 in Santa Monica. Organizers expect to meet or beat last year’s attendance of 650 people. So far attendees are from 28 countries. Registration is still open at a discount rate of $1,295 until Sunday. The conference has a record 37 sponsors (including BigJumbo, which I’ll be representing in addition to covering the event for Domain Name Wire). The ... read more ...
 
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ICANN Briefing Documents Still Full of Redactions - by Kevin Murphy ICANN continues to hide details of staff briefings to Board. ICANN is continuing to redact large portions of its board briefing documents, despite the recommendations of its Accountability and Transparency Review team. The organization has just published over 300 pages of documentation that was used to inform its board of directors before its meeting in Cartagena last month. But large chunks of text have been whited out. Many of the redacted portions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apparently WeWannaBuyYourCar.com is Confusingly Similar to “We Buy Any Car” - I need a crash course in confusing similarity. I don’t know, folks. Maybe it’s time for me to pack it up and go home. Why the frustration? After reading hundreds of UDRP cases apparently I still can’t figure out what “confusingly similar” is. Today’s case in point? WIPO panelist David Perkins has awarded the domain name WeWannaBuyYourCar.com to a company with trademarked logos for “We Buy Any Car.com”. OK, so ‘we’, ‘buy’, and ‘car’ ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here is Go Daddy’s First 2011 Super Bowl Commercial - See what Go Daddy has cooked up for Jillian Michaels and Danica Patrick. Can’t wait until the Super Bowl to see what Go Daddy has in store for this year? You don’t have to; the company’s first commercial is available below. But this isn’t the one that has most people curious. In the first half Go Daddy will run a commercial featuring its new Go Daddy.CO girl. With the traditional shock tactic wearing a little thin after all these years, Go Daddy has cooked ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Loses Money (Sort Of) as .Com and .Net Top 105 Million - Excluding a one time charge VeriSign reports nice earnings for Q4. VeriSign reported a loss for the fourth quarter of 2010 in earnings just released. So how can the company that prints money with the .com and .net registry lose money? It was a one time charge related to contingent interest on a special dividend that swung the company to a loss. Ignore this one time event and VeriSign had a great quarter thanks to rising domain registrations. The company earned and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD Guidebook May Be Approved in Mar After All - New TLD supporters received good news today. After what seemed like disappointing news last week, now things are looking up for potential new top level domain name applicants. ICANN just released resolutions from its board meeting on January 25 and they indicate that ICANN plans to go forward with approving the applicant guidebook during the March meeting in San Francisco. The group plans to “trigger the Bylaws mandated consultation” with the Governmental Advisory ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
India Gets 7 IDN County Code Domain Names - India gets seven IDN ccTLDS and more good news for IDN domain name supporters. One thing I learned on my trip to India earlier this month is that there are a lot of local languages. This week ICANN approved delegation of seven (yes, seven) internationalized county code domain names to National Internet Exchange of India. The delegated ccTLDs include भारत (“Bharat”), encoded as “xn--h2brj9c”; بھارت “Bharat”), encoded ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Numeric Only Domains Coming to .Tel - 777.tel on its way. Soon you’ll be able to register .tel domain names existing solely of two or more digits. This week ICANN’s Board of Directors agreed to amend its registry agreement with Telnic to allow for the numeric domain names. Telnic requested the change through the Registry Service Evaluation Policy (RSEP) process, which opened up the proposal to public comments. Go Daddy filed comments opposed to Telnic’s plan. The registrar argued that the change ... read more ...
Wed 26th January 2011
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Battle of a Forums: Which Domain Forum is Best? - Provide your input on the best domain name forums. Are you one of the 1,000 people who have already taken the 6th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey? That’s how many people have participated in the survey already, and one of the questions they’re answering is “which domain forum is best?” Last year DNForum took home the most votes. The popular gathering spot for domainers has taken home the top prize 4 out of 5 years on the survey. NamePros came in second, ... read more ...