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 26th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Demand Media Pops On Open, Great News for Domain Industry - Domain name company gets nice lift in initial public offering. Shares in Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) have popped 40% on open to just over $23 a share after pricing yesterday at $17, above the anticipated range of $14-$16. This is good news for the domain name industry. Demand Media owns domain name registrar eNom, parking company HotKeys, part of NameJet, and a large portfolio of domain names. It’s true that much of the company’s growth is coming from its content ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
USPTO Grants Extension to Facebook in Fight with American Farm Bureau over FB - Facebook still embroiled in fight over ‘FB’ mark with non-profit that sold it FB.com domain name. So you bought a domain name from someone for $8 million plus and you still haven’t settled a trademark dispute with them? Makes no sense to me. But on Monday Facebook filed an extension request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to settle a trademark dispute with American Farm Bureau (AFB). The request said the parties are still engaged in settlement talks. AFB ... read more ...
Tue 25th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Auction Bulks Up By Slimming Down - Fewer domains, better quality on tap for next live domain auction. This headline may seem contradictory. But it aptly describes the change Moniker has made with its live auctions of late, and it’s very apparent with February’s DOMAINfest Auction. What’s the change? Fewer domains. Better quality. The Premium Live auction on February 3 will have no more than 100 domains and should take less than two hours to complete. (Only 90 minutes is scheduled, but you ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Elliot Silver is Too Nice. Here’s What I’m Doing With Comments. - Please don’t spam and please stay on topic. This weekend Elliot Silver posted about commenting on his blog and restrictions on what “name” you can use in the comments. (Your name is optionally linked to a URL.) Elliot threatened to remove the URL of anyone who used a spammy keyword name to link to a web site. That’s a nice first step but doesn’t go far enough. I used to measure the success of my posts by the number of comments, but then I realized that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Perils of Working With ICANN - Business models dependent on ICANN are risky. If the new top level domain name process and .xxx are any indication, staking an entire business model on something that must work its way through the ICANN process requires unending patience and a strong appetite for risk. New top level domain names haven’t even been approved yet, but we’ve already seen layoffs in the new TLD business. Companies that sprung up to launch new TLDs have had to cut back to lower their ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Creates New GoDaddy.CO Logo, Files Trademark Application - World’s largest domain name registrar creates new logo with .co. Domain name registrar Go Daddy has been a big supporter of the .co relaunch. It has tested promoting .co as its default search, tried lowering prices to match .com, and is partnering up with .Co Internet for its Super Bowl ad. It’s even teasing the media with a new GoDaddy.co girl that will be unveiled on Super Bowl Sunday. It is also going to test changing its name to GoDaddy.co? Last week the ... read more ...
Mon 24th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Jobs Changes Are Not an Example of a Power of New Top Level Domains - .Jobs changes could be done without the .jobs TLD. Over the weekend I read The Washington Post’s article about the liberalization of the .jobs TLD and what this means for companies such as Monster and Career Builder. Last week 40,000 .jobs web sites went live for just about every major profession (e.g. nurse.jobs) and city (e.g. austin.jobs). Companies that are members of Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) can post jobs for free on the job boards, which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge Shuts Down Zuccarini Fight Against NameJet, NetSol, and VeriSign - Judge calls for an end to lengthy domain name battle. United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema has said enough is enough in a domain name lawsuit filed by John Zuccarini. Zuccarini filed the lawsuit after a court appointed receiver failed to renew domain names of his that were seized to settle a cybersquatting judgment. The domain names were at Network Solutions and subsequently auctioned off on NameJet when they expired. One of the domain names was bid up ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
How Does a Web Cookie Know What Domain Names we Own? - Ad shows a domain I own. [Updated: see update and probable answer at bottom.] You’ve probably come across a “re-targeted” ad on the web before. One day I searched for Puma shoes at Zappos. Later that day I visited a web site with an ad for the exact shoes I had searched for on Zappos. They’re highly targeted (and useful) ads. But I came across one the other day that has me puzzled: Needless to say, this ad caught my attention as I own ExecutivePay.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Is Amazon.com Planning a Free 3 Day Shipping Plan? - Recent domain name registrations hint to new promotion. Amazon.com currently offers free ground shipping on purchases of $25 or more and free two day shipping to members of its paid “Amazon Prime” promotion. But is the company launching a new free three day shipping option? Some recent domain name registrations suggest this may be the case. Last Friday the domain names Amazon3Day.com, Free3Day.com, and Free3Ship.com were registered by DNStination, Inc. DNStination ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Microsoft Wins First Batch of Kinect Domain Names - Microsoft recovers Xbox Kinect domain names. Last month I wrote about how Microsoft had filed seven UDRP cases at the end of December for Kinect domain names. Today rulings in four of the cases were handed down and Microsoft won each of them. That includes wwwKinect.com, a typo of Kinect.com. Microsoft didn’t own Kinect.com at the time it filed the case, but has since purchased it from a marketing group. The company also won MicrosoftKinect.com, KinectGameStore.com, ... read more ...
Sun 23rd January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge Issues Rulings in Lawsuit Over Women.com - Both sides in case have something to be happy (and upset) about after judge issues rulings on motions. A federal district judge has denied motions by both the plaintiff and the defendant in a lawsuit over the failed sale of Women.com. Done! Ventures says it made a $1 million offer for Women.com and Women.net via Sedo that was accepted by NBC Universal. After NBC Universal allegedly backed out of the deal, Done! Ventures filed a lawsuit to force the company to complete ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dine With an Expert during DOMAINfest, But Frank Schilling is Booked - Hurry if you want to “dine with an expert” at DOMAINfest. DOMAINfest is trying something new at its conference the first week of February: Dine With An Expert. Attendees can reserve a spot at the breakfast or lunch table with a handful of the event’s speakers. So who are the hottest tickets? Frank Schilling and SEO expert Bruce Clay. All 9 of their seats have already been reserved. You also need to hurry if you’d like to sit with Sedo’s Kathy Nielson ... read more ...
Sat 22nd January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Top Level Domain Timeline Takes Another Hit - More delays likely to handle GAC issues. ICANN has released details about its upcoming meeting with the Governmental Advisory Committee regarding new top level domain names. Although the meeting will take place ahead of the ICANN meeting in San Francisco this March, the February 28-March 1 get together does not appear to be the final meeting between the two on the matter. As Kevin Murphy points out, ICANN’s release about the meeting states “This meeting is not ... read more ...
Fri 21st January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Wire: Mumbai Edition - Highlights from my recent trip to Mumbai. I spent last week in Mumbai at the Directi headquarters. It was great to sit down and work beside many of the people that I’ve only met over email and video conferences to date. Experiencing Mumbai I spent much of the time in the office and it was a fairly short trip. But I did get part of the “Mumbai experience”. The first experience you have upon arriving in Mumbai is what locals call “driving”. I call it one ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameDrive Releases Details on Investment and Reorganization - Parking company confirms recent investment and restructuring. Today I received information from domain name parking and sales company NameDrive about its recent investment from BIP Investment Partners and its company reorganization. News of the investment and reorganization was first reported by Domain Name News on Tuesday. [Update: DNN’s source was DVmag.de.] BIP Investment Partners S.A., a public investor listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, made an undisclosed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WikiLeaks.com is Expired. Who Will Register it? - Wikileaks.com expires but fate of domain name unknown Elliot Silver has written a series of articles about Wikileaks.COM, a domain name that was registered at Go Daddy. Here’s something else that’s interesting: wikileaks.com is expired. I noticed this after reading a TechDirt article today about how the domain name is owned by the group behind Wikipedia. Wikia registered the domain name defensively after Wikileaks said it would be a “Wikipedia of secrets”. ... read more ...
Thu 20th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Names First Salvo in UAW vs. Toyota Fight - Toyota domains registered — a defensive move? The domain names EmployeesAgainstToyota.com and ToyotaTracker.com have been registered as the United Autoworkers Union prepares to do battle with Toyota. The domain names were registered on January 17 by DNStination, Inc., an affiliate of brand protection company Mark Monitor. DNStination was the same company that acquired FB.com on behalf of Facebook and recently registered disparaging domain names on behalf of Bank ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Devises Way to Sell More Expiring Domain Names - System would discount price of domain names until a buyer is found. VeriSign has devised a system to sell more dropping domain names by discounting their price over time. Details of the idea are in a patent application the company filed in 2009 that was just published today. U.S. patent application number 12/504396 (pdf) for “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SALE OF DOMAIN NAMES” describes a way that a domain name registry can discount the price of domain names within ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Overstock.com Releases New o.Co TV Commercials - Online retailer releases new commercials for o.co. Overstock.com — or should I call it o.co? — has released two new commercials touting its o.co web address after announcing this morning it is using o.co as a “shortcut”. One of the ads is embedded below. It’s all a bit confusing, honestly. In some cases the company refers to o.co as merely a shortcut. But its logo is now o.co with “also known as Overstock.com” next to it. This seems bigger than a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Marchex Stock More Than Doubles In Less Than 5 Months - Marchex stock on a tear. Owners of Marchex stock in recent years haven’t had a lot to cheer about. The company, perhaps best known in domain name circles for buying Yun Ye’s domain name portfolio for $164 million, has traded at over $20 per share within the past five years. But more recently it has also traded as low as $2.98. Yet the tide has turned in recent months. The stock closed today at $9.50, a 133% improvement over its September 1 opening price. One ... read more ...
Wed 19th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
South Sudan Could Name Itself for Domain Name Profits - New country means a new country code. When Montenegro became independent from the former Yugoslavia (aka Serbia and Montenegro) it also picked up a nifty country code, ME. As the official country code in ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency’s list for the country it’s also what was delegated to the country as a country code top level domain name — .me. .Me has been marketed as a vanity top level domain name and has generated revenue for the country. Another country ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Left of a Dot Media Hires Frank Michlick as CTO - Familiar face joins startup domain name monetization company. A new monetization service for owners of premium domain names has hired domain consultant and writer Frank Michlick as Chief Technology Officer, Domain Name Wire has learned. Left of the Dot Media enables domain owners to sell subdomains (i.e. third level domain names) on their existing domains. The company is currently working on Villa.com. For example, a villa owner in Orlando could register orlando.villa.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Austin.com Goes Up for Sale - Big geo domain is looking for a new owner. The domain name and web site Austin.com is now officially for sale at Sedo. I caught wind a few months ago that the site was up for sale, which didn’t surprise me much. I met with one of Austin.com’s key employees a year or two ago and left feeling that the site owners were taking it in the wrong direction. They were investing a significant amount on creating timely content rather than focusing on building out the directory ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is “Rip-Off Report” a Same as “Report a Rip Off”? One UDRP Panelist Thinks So. - The never ending stretch of confusing similarity. National Arbitration Forum panelist Jonas Gulliksson has determined that the “Report a rip off” is confusingly similar to “Rip-Off Report”, and has ordered ReportaRipoff.net transferred to the owner of RipoffReport.com. Now, if what the complainant in this case states is true, it’s clear that the registrant of ReportaRipoff.net crossed some bounds that were sure to land him in hot water. But I have a hard ... read more ...