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.

Thu 23rd December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top 10 Most Searched Domainers of 2010 - 10 names in domains that got lots of search action this year. It’s that time of year when you start seeing “top 10 of the year” lists, so let’s get things started. This list is the top 10 people associated with the domain name industry (not necessarily domain investors) in terms of the number of searches driving visitors to Domain Name Wire so far in 2010. Each person’s name sent at least 100 visitors to DNW. 1. John Berryhill – I think many of the searchers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Comparing Instant Transfer, Reg Path Domain Sales Services - New sales channels are opening up for domainers thanks to efforts by Afternic, GoDaddy, and Sedo. Over the past week Afternic turned up two new partners in its Afternic DLS Premium program and Sedo extended the beta of its SedoMLS program to large domain holders. Each new partner that gets integrated into these systems means more domain sales. Afternic has found that, with each new registrar partner it adds, sales go up — it’s not just the same number of sales ... read more ...
Wed 22nd December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Surprise: Domain Registrant Not Responsible for Registrars’ Parked Page - UDRP panelist uses some common sense. UDRP complainants frequently point to the content of registrar holding pages as evidence that a domain name registrant registered the domain name in bad faith. It’s a convenient argument that takes advantage of most panelists’ misunderstanding of parked domain names vs. holding pages. Consider a recent case where Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company argued that the registrant of FiremansFundBlog.com registered the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minnesota Company Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - 3DCafe, Inc. found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. A three person National Arbitration Forum panel has called out 3DCafe, Inc. for attempted reverse domain name hijacking in a case over 3DCafe.com. The complainant argued that it had rights from its “predecessor in interest” for the term 3DCafe dating back to 1991. But the domain name owner, with the help of attorney Ari Goldberger, poked holes in the complainant’s arguments. The panel determined that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Resin.com: Another UDRP That Shouldn’t Have Been Filed - Company files claim for domain name registered 12 years before it started using the “trademark”. Here’s another case of a domain name owner having to respond to an egregious UDRP complaint. Paper Denim Cloth, LLC filed a complaint against VertMarkets, Inc. to get the generic domain name Resin.com. The complainant admitted that it just started using the mark “Resin” in 2010 and that VertMarkets registered the domain all the way back in 1998, but still filed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions and Register.com Slot .Co Second - Big registrars pushing .co as next best thing to .com. Last month Go Daddy created quite a buzz by briefly changed its default domain name search parameter to .co. Although Go Daddy and its competitors continue to offer .com first, two large retail domain registrars are making a significant push to get customers to register .co. Both Network Solutions and Register.com are promoting .com as a second choice to .co, with Network Solutions even promoting .co above other ... read more ...
Tue 21st December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Time Capsule From 10 Years Ago - A walk down memory lane in the tech world. Last weekend I was looking for some financial documents when I came upon a stash of old credit card receipts and stock trade confirmations from 1999-2001. In the process of sending some of these old documents through the shredder I took a walk down memory lane. There were credit card charges for GoTo.com, which I started using perhaps 6 months after the original pay-per-click search engine launched. The very credit cards ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Adam Strong Buys NameBio.com - Domain sales database switches hands. Domain investor Adam Strong has purchased the NameBio.com web site, a searchable repository of domain name sales. NameBio was the second notable site of its kind after DNSalePrice.com. Both sites aggregate information about various public domain name sales and present them in an easy-to-filter database. The original owner of NameBio made some great search interface upgrades back in 2008 to the site. He then sold the site earlier ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
VeriSign Registry Changes Logo and Web Address - VeriSign finds a new image and home on the web. The company that manages dot.com has a new dot.com. VeriSign — the .com and .net domain name registry — has changed its web address to VeriSignInc.com and changed its logo as a result of selling off its security division to Symantec earlier this year. I discovered VeriSign’s logo change plans earlier this month when the company filed six trademark applications for its new stylized “v”. The new logo has a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells Over $1 Million in One Week, Including LawFirm.com for $233k - Brokerage closes six figure domain name transaction. Sedo sold over $1 million in domain names over the past week, including closing a transaction for LawFirm.com at $233,501. Another interesting sale is TreasureMap.com at $25,000. Here’s a complete look at Sedo’s publicly available sales of $5,000 or more over the past week: .COMs lawfirm.com 233501 USD treasuremap.com 25000 USD gaana.com 21000 USD addresssearch.com 19000 USD arithmetic.com 16612 USD possum.com 13500 USD rental-cars.com 12550 USD 062.com 11562 USD aie.com 11099 EUR yesorno.com 11000 USD bioeffect.com 9000 USD lagniappe.com 9000 USD worldluxuryhotels.com 7500 EUR valueformoney.com 7500 USD 0f.com 7199 USD appaddict.com 6790 USD hr360.com 6500 USD linkpublicity.com 6200 USD solarfonds.com 5969 EUR techstore.com 5700 USD smos.com 5555 USD kinderplezier.com 5000 EUR monstersquad.com 5000 USD ccTLDS mexiko.de 32130 EUR horseracing.co.za 20000 USD auctions.co 15000 USD charms.de 10000 EUR bambus.pl 8400 EUR ellos.de 7500 EUR villa.es 7500 EUR send.me 7350 USD private-zusatzversicherung.de 7140 EUR try.me 7100 USD refer.me 6105 USD employ.me 6099 USD freesolar.co.uk 5500 USD list.me 5005 USD bracelets.fr 5000 EUR soap.tw 5000 EUR tovaglie.it 4500 EUR cuisiner.fr 4050 EUR zusammen-feiern.de 4000 EUR Other ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Sells MarketShare.com for $148,500 - Marketshare.com gets some serious market share. Afternic has brokered the sale of MarketShare.com for $148,500. It appears the seller was a software company, but the buyer is using whois privacy to protect their identity. While by far the highest reported sale coming out of Afternic this week, the company had some other solid five figure sales including: americanpro.com $25,800.00 LandingPages.com $20,000.00 expresshotels.com $16,800.00 biomics.com $14,500.00 ... read more ...
Mon 20th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Top Level Domain Delays Will Hurt Domainers - Current negotiations and delays could result in unfavorable terms for domain name investors. A lot of domain name investors are against the wholesale introduction of new top level domain names, or at least some of the provisions attached to them. They worry that new intellectual property guidelines, a lack of pricing controls, etc. will be extended to existing top level domain names such as .com. They also worry that ICANN will crumble under the weight of legal ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Bank of America Wants You to Know Its Executives Don’t Suck - Company defensively registers hundreds of domain names for its senior executives and board members. As Bank of American awaits a possible release of information from WikiLeaks, it wants to ensure that you don’t think its executives suck. Or blow for that matter. The company has been aggressively registering domain names including its Board of Directors’ and senior executives’ names followed by “sucks” and “blows”. For example, the company registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Companies Have Filed 51 .Co Disputes and Haven’t Lost Yet - Benefit of the doubt given to complainants in .co cases. Companies have filed 51 UDRPs against .co domain names since the relaunch of .co into an international domain name extension over the summer. They haven’t lost yet. Complainants are 25-0 in cases that have been decided, and further settled seven cases prior to having them heard by World Intellectual Property Organization panelists. In most cases the domain at issue is an exact match to a famous brand such ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Here’s What Your Afternic Premium Listings Look Like - Hi Adam, That’s what it is supposed to be. Found the terms for Register, under, “Premium:” “At the time of transfer of the Premium Domain Name into your account, we will add one year to the existing registration period. Any subsequent renewals of the Premium Domain Name will be charged at the then-current renewal fee.” That sounds like what one would expect. Under, “Fees, Service Term, Renewals,” though, you agree: “Register.com reserves the right to change fees, surcharges, ... read more ...
Sun 19th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Fun New Tool to View Today’s New Domain Registrations - Site shows latest registered domain names. There’s a new site to search through today’s (OK, yesterday’s) newly registered domain names: AddedDomains.com. All you do is type in a search term and the site displays domain names including the term that were registered yesterday. It uses an instant search technology, so as soon as you start typing letters you’ll see results displayed in a colorful, whimsical way. Soon you’ll be able to set up e-mail alerts ... read more ...
Fri 17th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic Premium Now Works with eNom and Moniker - Afternic “turns on” its two new partners, giving domain name owners access to a powerful sales network. Yesterday I wrote about my success with Go Daddy Premium Listings. The only downside to the service is that your domain names have to be at Go Daddy. But there’s good news for domainers who want to get similar reach for domains that are currently at Moniker and eNom — those two registrars are now active with Afternic’s Premium listing service. What This ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
California ISP Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - ISP tries to get domain name registered many years before it even existed. A World Intellectual Property Forum panel has found California internet service provider Webpass, Inc guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in its attempt to get the domain name WebPass.com. The ISP uses Web-Pass.com as its web page. Webpass, Inc. didn’t start using the Web Pass name until 2007, but the current registrant of WebPass.com registered the domain name in 2001. As such, it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Not Liable for Porn Spammer - by Kevin Murphy Domain name registrars cannot be held responsible for spammers who hide behind Whois privacy services, a California appeals court has ruled. Plaintiff Daniel L Balsam had won a $1.125 million default judgment against a spammer after receiving over 1,000 pieces of pornographic spam. Unable to recover the money, he found that the spammer had hidden his identity behind Tucows’ Whois privacy, so he sued the registrar for the cash instead. He argued that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Extends Public Comment Period for New TLD Guidebook - More time to weigh in on new top level domain name plan. ICANN frequently extends the deadline to submit public comments on both major and minor issues. But this is done prior to the comment period ending to give people more time to consider how they want to weigh in. A number of people requested additional time to comment on the proposed Final Applicant Guidebook for new TLDs but were rebuffed and the comment period ended a week ago. Now it has risen from the ... read more ...
Thu 16th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Possible New TLD Application Date: Aug 2011 - Application window for new TLDs could be pushed back to August. ICANN’s board set back the process for new top level domain names last week by agreeing to meet with the Governmental Advisory Committee in February to hash out their differences. How long will the delay be? Kevin Murphy discovered some recently disclosed ICANN staff documents that were used to estimate the previous application starting period of May 2011. Based on the assumptions in the staff documents, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple Wins Appl.com and Why It Was a Right Decision - Four letter domain transferred to Apple based on content of parking page. Last month I wrote about how Apple had filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Forum to get the domain name Appl.com. Apple just one the case. But before you get upset about a four letter generic domain name being surrendered through UDRP you should read panelist Richard G. Lyon’s decision. Lyon notes that Apple doesn’t have rights to any domain containing the word “apple” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
My Sales Results from One Year of Go Daddy Premium Listings - The future of SMB domain sales is in the registration path. It’s been about a year since I first start using Go Daddy’s Premium Listings option for selling domain names. This option lists your domain names for sale in Go Daddy Auctions, but more importantly in the registration path on GoDaddy.com when someone wants to register a domain name you own: I currently have about 250-300 domains with Premium Listings at Go Daddy, although for most of the year it was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
AT&T Takes Advantage of “Expired Phone Numbers” - Company redirects out of service phone numbers to similar businesses. When a domain name expires it is often snapped up by someone with a similar business to the previous owner in an effort to get more business. Or the domain ends up parked with ads for similar businesses. It looks like ATT is taking a page out of the same playbook. I called a number today for an insurance company I’ve used previously. They recently changed phone numbers and the number I dialed ... read more ...
Wed 15th December 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainers Need to Bring Professionalism to ICANN San Francisco - San Francisco event could be good for domainers — if they bring their professionalism. Next up on the ICANN meeting schedule is meeting #40 in San Francisco. Being the first U.S. meeting in a while, and since there will be some sort of TRAFFIC event immediately proceeding the event, you’re going to see a lot more domainers there than usual. This is a good thing as domain investors are generally underrepresented in just about everything that deals with ICANN. But ... read more ...