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 18th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The First Thing to Do When You Get an Offer on a Domain Name - Shift to syndicated buy-it-now domain listings changes what you do after receiving an offer on your domain names. In the “old days” when you received an offer on a domain name your first step would be to try to figure out who’s was making the offer. But now that many people are using buy-it-now syndicated listings with Go Daddy and Afternic, there’s a step that’s even more important: removing your buy-it-now listing before negotiating. For example, over ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Biggest Party, err, Domain Conference, is Just a Couple Weeks Away - DOMAINfest quickly approaching. The biggest domain name conference and domainer party of the year is just around the corner. DOMAINfest Global 2011 kicks off Tuesday, February 1 at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, California. And although you’ll certainly learn a lot at the event, you have to admit a big draw happens each evening. On Tuesday night .Co Internet will host a Polynesian Paradise Party at the hotel’s Pool Terrace and Miramar Gardens. .Co tried ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Takes Away Demand Media’s PEP.mobi domain name - Demand Media’s Demand Domains loses three letter .mobi domain name. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Warwick A. Rothnie has awarded Demand Media’s PEP.mobi domain name to South African retailer Pepkor. Rothnie determined that the three letter generic domain name was registered in bad faith to target Pepkor’s “pep” mark because some of the ads on the parked pep.mobi page lead to ads targeted to South Africa — not necessarily because of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Sells MAAC.com for $63,000 and MLKonline.com for $42,500 - Domain name broker brings in big sales. Afternic had another strong sales week. In the top reportable sale, Mid-America Apartment Communities bought MAAC.com for a solid $63,000. The publicly traded REIT has over 45,000 apartment units. This is a nice domain upgrade for the company, which currently has its home at maac.NET. In a very timely sale, Afternic also sold MLKonline.com for $42,500 to a non-profit. Here are other notable reportable sales for the week: harmonie.com ... read more ...
Mon 17th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO Panel Hands Over VAX.com Domain Name - Three letter domain won through UDRP. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist J. Nelson Landry has ordered the VAX.com domain name be transferred to floor care products company Vax Limited. Landry noted that the term VAX was a “coined term”, and didn’t consider the potential that it was a generic acronym. That said, the respondent didn’t do himself any favors. Not only did he fail to respond to the proceedings, but he’s also lost 11 UDRP decisions ... read more ...
Fri 14th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Which Domain Parking Company is Best? - They all suck now, but it seems Parked.com is still the best, even after being cut off at the knees with a circular saw, shot in the face with a shotgun, and stabbed in the stomach by a pitchfork by the greedy, slimy, loser company named Bing. Sedo does okay on certain domains ; DomainAdvertising.com does okay on some domains also. But on a whole though Parked is still beating the competition, and that is sad b/c Parked is down around 50% since the migration. Whatever company though ... read more ...
Thu 13th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Which Domain Name Registrar is Best? - Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the greatest registrar of them all? When it comes to top domain name registrars, Go Daddy has been a clear winner in all five years of the Domain Name Wire survey. Last year it grabbed 41% of the vote, compared to just 16% for the runner up. Now the sixth annual survey is upon us. Will Go Daddy retain its crown? This year I’ve expanded the list of domain name registrars to include more of the mainstream top 25 domain name registrars. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Will You Buy Shares in Demand Media? - Company sets flotation price range. A large domain name company is getting ready to go public. Will you get in on the action? Demand Media, which owns eNom, has set an expected price per share of $14-$16. It plans to sell 4.5 million shares while existing shareholders hope to offload 3 million shares. The company also released preliminary, unaudited numbers for Q4 2010. In the last quarter of the year it grossed between $71.5 million and $73.5 million, a 31% increase ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Threatens to Shut Down 3 Domain Name Registrars - Three domain registrars face termination if they don’t start escrowing whois information immediately. ICANN has warned three domain name registrars that they face termination if they don’t start escrowing whois data within 15 days. The three registrars — iWelt AG, Zog Media dba Zog Names, and Centrohost — have not been escrowing their data with Iron Mountain. Escrowing data is important for .com and .net domain names because the registrar is the only entity ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bill Clinton to Address ICANN San Francisco Meeting - Former President Clinton set to keynote next ICANN meeting. [Update: ICANN confirms that Clinton has accepted an offer to speak at the meeting but the contract is still being finalized. It also says that his speaking fee will be covered by a targeted sponsorship.] You might still call it a rumor, but Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines says he has confirmed with “A personal source close to Bill Clinton” that President Clinton will keynote March’s ICANN ... read more ...
Wed 12th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook Still in Dispute With Organization that Sold it FB.com for $8M+ - Now that we know how much FB.com sold for, you may be surprised that Facebook is still embroiled in a dispute with the seller. We now have a better idea how much Facebook paid for FB.com — likely $8 million or more. Given this high number it’s shocking that the social network hasn’t yet settled its trademark dispute with seller American Farm Bureau. American Farm Bureau challenged Facebook after the latter filed a trademark for “FB”. While the dispute was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Talkbook Files to Cancel Facebook Trademarks - Company challenges Facebook on its trademark for “Facebook”. Facebook has been aggressively going after businesses with “book” in their name, including challenging a trademark by phone app company Talkbook. But Talkbook is fighting back. The company responded by filing its own challenge against the social network for what it calls “fraudulent” claims to get the Facebook trademark. Facebook originally filed for “The Facebook” before filing an amendment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WowWhatSavings.com Goes After AOL’s Wow.com in Lawsuit - Site owner says AOL’s wow.com is confusing his users. Late last year AOL converted its WOW.com domain name from a World of Warcraft site to a daily deals site similar to Groupon. Now the owner of daily deals site WowWhatSavings.com is crying foul in a lawsuit (pdf). WowWhatSavings.com owner Todd Rideman says his deals site has been known as “WoW” to its users. Once AOL launched Wow.com, confusion ensued. He provides an affidavit from a Boston restaurant that ... read more ...
Tue 11th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
123Inkjets.com Typo Cases Show More UDRP Inconsistency - Two different UDRP panelists reach the exact same conclusions, yet they differ from most previous decisions. A pair of cases by one of National Arbitration Forum’s most prolific arbitrators, John Upchurch, show continued inconsistencies in UDRP disputes and some other very odd coincidences. Upchurch ruled against 123Inkjets.com owner LD Products, Inc for the domain names 123inkjsts.com and 1238nkjets.com. In both cases Upchurch decided that LD Products did not ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy to Unveil First GoDaddy.CO Girl - Go Daddy says it will unveil GoDaddy.co girl in conjunction with Super Bowl commercial. .Co already scored a major coup by partnering with Go Daddy on its 2011 Super Bowl commercial. But the publicity train rolls on. The latest announcement from Go Daddy: it will showcase its first every GoDaddy.co girl in the commercial. Well, maybe. The company hasn’t decided it if will formally unveil the .co girl during the broadcast commerical or make viewers go to the the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google: Don’t Put AdSense on Sites with Unoriginal Content - AdSense can’t be placed on auto-generated sites with copied content. The latest “AdSense Facts Fiction” from the Google AdSense Blog addresses an issue that may affect domainers-turned-mass web site developers: Fiction: Publishers can put ads on auto-generated pages or other copied content that was not created by them. Fact: We don’t allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that ... read more ...
Mon 10th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Survey: What’s The Most Important Selling Point of a Domain Name Registrar? - Give your opinion in this year’s survey. There are hundreds of domain name registrars. So how do you choose one? Good question. And I ask it every year on the Domain Name Wire Survey. Last year survey respondents said security and price were the most important factors. Has that changed? When you complete the Sixth Annual Domain Name Wire Survey you’ll be asked to rank these factors: Price Customer service Security Ease of transferring domains within accounts Account ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Popular .Music Initiative Files US Trademark Application - .Music backer files application for U.S. trademark. Constantinos Roussos has been aggressive in marketing his initiative for a .music top level domain name. He’s also voice displeasure that latecomers could derail his hopes by also applying for the .music top level domain. At the June 2010 ICANN meeting Roussos voiced his displeasure about latecomers to new TLDs “gaming” the system and asked ICANN for an extra point on community application weightings for ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Conference Heads for a Rockies - Conference brings together domain names and snow. Mike Law, who writes the NameTalent.com blog, is organizing the first ever Rocky Mountain Domain Conference (RMDC) February 26 in Denver, Colorado. I’m a big fan of smaller, regional domain name conferences and meetups. They attract a lot of locals that don’t make it to large domain conferences and also bring in some larger domainers and companies from around the country. RMDC will be a one day event on February ... read more ...
Fri 7th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Roundtable Bahamas Q & A - What you need to know about this year’s Domain Roundtable Conference. After taking a year off in 2010, Domain Roundtable is back this March. And it’s back in style, traveling to The Atlantis in the Bahamas. I checked in with the Domain Roundtable (DRT) to get the scoop. DNW: Your last Domain Roundtable was in Washington, DC in 2009. Why did Domain Roundtable take a year off in 2010? DRT: We don’t feel compelled to have a show every year; we prefer to host a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Local.com Blames Yahoo-Bing Transition for Lower Earnings - First echos felt of rough transition from Yahoo to Microsoft for pay-per-click listings. Local.com has warned that its fourth quarter revenue will come in below expectations thanks to the transition of Yahoo pay-per-click to Microsoft. People who park domain names with Yahoo partners are reporting some fluctuations in revenue since the transition a couple months ago, which is part of a partnership. In an email to clients yesterday, WhyPark noted that its parent company ... read more ...
Thu 6th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Pepsi Goes After Arabic Bebsi.com Web Site - Company filed domain name dispute. [Update: Pepsi won the case.] PepsiCo, Inc. has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Bebsi.com. This isn’t just a typo of Pepsi as it may appear. In fact, ‘b’ is far away from ‘p’ on the keyboard. Bebsi is actually an Arabic way of saying Pepsi. Bebsi.com hosts a large forum, and one quick look at the forum will help you understand why Pepsi is going after the domain name: Google’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainTools Turns on “Recent Whois” For Go Daddy Domain Names - Site begins showing older whois records. DomainTools has come up with a (perhaps interim) solution after Go Daddy started blocking some whois services from accessing its full records. Searches at DomainTools for domain names registered at Go Daddy now include a “recent whois record” with the note “We provide this record when data provided by the registrar is missing key information.” Here’s an example: It’s not clear how recent the whois records are and ... read more ...
Wed 5th January 2011
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Why Creating and Canceling TRAFFIC during ICANN Were Both Smart Moves - It was a great idea, but ultimately doesn’t work out. When ICANN announced that its Spring meeting would be held in San Francisco, I immediately thought “this would be a great time to hold a domain name conference.” An hour later I received an email from Rick Schwartz saying that TRAFFIC would hold a “retreat” in conjunction with the ICANN meeting. Great idea. Shortly thereafter I started thinking of a bunch of problems with this idea. Just this week Schwartz ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gives ICANN $500k for Sponsorship - Hefty price tags to sponsor March event. I’ve written before about the relationship between ICANN and sponsors of its meetings. It looks like ICANN has upped the ante for its Spring meeting in San Francisco. As Kevin Murphy spotted today, ICANN has new sponsorship tiers for its next meeting reaching up to $500,000. VeriSign, which brings in over a half billion a year in fees on .com and .net through a contract with ICANN, has already signed up at the $500,000 ... read more ...