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 11th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HostExploit Exploits Demand Media’s IPO Filing - HostExploit report generates more questions than answers. I just finished reading HostExploit’s report about Demand Media and its domain name registration business (eNom). Whenever I read a report like this, I try to think about the motives of the report’s authors. In this case, it’s clear that HostExploit wanted to rush something out to piggyback on the buzz of Demand Media’s S-1 filing to go public. When I see punctuation errors in a research report, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Certified Stats Now Works with Parked.com - Parked now works with DNW Certified Stats. Today I launched Parked.com on DNW Certified Stats, which means you now have an easy way to share your Parked domain name parking stats. (If you don’t have a domain parking account with Parked.com, click here to sign up.) Here’s how it works. Say you’re buying or selling a domain name, or doing some sort of development deal with the owner of a domain name that is currently parked at Parked.com. You want to easily ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Earnings Warped by Currency Exchange Rates - Domain registrar’s business generating cash, but currency changes skew results. At first glance Tucow’s second quarter earnings announcement today looked bad. The company lost a penny a share for the quarter, compared to earnings of 6 cents a share in the same quarter of 2009. But then you dig into the details: the company realized a mark to market loss on foreign exchange of $1.9 million in Q2 2010; in the same quarter 2009 it realized a mark to market gain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telnic Wants to Release 1 and 2 Character .Tel Domain Names - Look for shorter .tel domain names soon. .Tel registry Telnic has formally asked ICANN to allow it to offer one and two character .tel domain names. The company would not offer two letter domains that correspond to an existing country code, nor would it release one and two digit domain names. Telnic wants to initially ask interested parties to respond to a request for proposal in order to obtain one of the domains. While other top level domain registries have used ... read more ...
Tue 10th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gets Patent Related to Internationalized Domain Names - Patent is for method of registering and using IDNs. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. patent number 7,774,432 to VeriSign for Registering and using multilingual domain names. The patent application was a continuation of a 2001 application that was abandoned, and a provisional application from 2000. This particular application was filed in 2007. The abstract for the patent sums it up: A method, system, and computer-readable medium are described ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verdict: $35.6 Million Insurance.com Acquisition Wasn’t Just The Domain Name - Quinstreet is clear about what it acquired when it bought Insurance.com. It wasn’t just a domain name. I just finished listening to Quinstreet’s investor conference call from last night, in which the company reported it paid $35.6 million in total consideration for Insurance.com. Now the big question, as others are debating right now: How much of this was for the domain name? Was this a domain name purchase at $35.6 million? The answer to the second question ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AntiCybersquatting Lawsuit Filed Against ChicagoRestaurant.com - Shunned by UDRP, former domain owner takes his case to court. After losing a UDRP case for the domain name ChicagoRestaurant.com, Chicago Restaurant Entertainment Guide, Inc., has filed an in rem lawsuit against the domain name alleging cybersquatting. Before you yell “that’s a generic!”, you should know that this domain name was allegedly stolen. The plaintiff had registered the domain and kept the whois email in the name of a technology service provider. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are Niche Domain Stores The Wave of a Future? - New topical online domain stores try a different tact to sell domain names. Most online domain name marketplaces are generic in nature, letting customers search or navigate to the category of their choosing. Does it make sense to have online marketplaces specific to a particular category, too? A handful of entrepreneurs and domainers think so. Last week David Bleaman sent me information about YellowShow.com, a site where small businesses can purchase their geo-targeted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Showtime! Sedo Sells Showtimes.com for $250,000 - Domain broker has another big week. Domain name brokerage Sedo has completed the sale of Showtimes.com for a quarter million dollars to lead its sales list for the week. The domain name appears to have been sold by Hollywood.com, which previously forwarded the domain name to its web site. The new buyer is using a whois privacy service to protect its identity. Sedo’s next highest sale is one I wrote about last night, with e.co going for $81,000. Another big sale ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aftermarket.com Gearing Up for Launch - TCI is working on relaunching its aftermarket business. Thought Convergence, parent company of TrafficZ, is working on a formal launch of its domain name marketplace Aftermarket.com. Thought Convergence started using the Aftermarket.com domain name this time two years ago. Since then it has used it primarily as a service for its own and third party event auctions. The company bought the domain name for $125,000 at a Moniker auction in 2008. You’ll find very little ... read more ...
Mon 9th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameDrive’s NDX Market Gears Up for Auction of 3 Character ccTLDs - Domain marketplace gets ready for another three character auction. Fresh on the heels of a three character .eu domain name auction in which all 771 domain names sold, NameDrive’s NDX Market is getting ready for a follow on auction. Starting tomorrow, NDX Market will run an auction for 300 three character country code domain names. The domain names will be in these country codes: .AT, .BE, .CH, .CO.UK, .DE, .ES, .FR, .NL, .PL, .SE. The auction will run until approximately ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are we going to DOMAINfest NYC Next Week? - DOMAINfest gears up for Manhattan. Are you heading to DOMAINfest in New York City next week? If so, leave a comment on this post to help with networking. The “Power Networking Day” will take place August 18 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Admission is still available for $175. I have a feeling this will be one of the larger domain name events of the year. The agenda has shaped up nicely. For the first time in a long time at a domain event, there ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media S-1 Discloses Details of NameJet Deals with Tucows, Others - IPO filing discloses financial deals for expired domain names. Demand Media’s S-1 filing last Friday revealed a bit about the company’s expired domain deals, although it doesn’t refer to its partners directly by name. NameJet has deals with Network Solutions (with whom it co-owns NameJet) and Tucows. It probably has deals with other companies as well. Here’s one of the statements (dollars are in thousands): On February 9, 2009, the Company entered into an ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FTC Settles with Con Artists in Domain Name Renewal Scam - FTC settles lawsuit over domain name renewal scam. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled with a group in Canada that it says posed as domain name registrars and duped thousands of people and companies into paying bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid. We in the domain name industry often refer to this as the “domain name renewal scam”. The FTC charged Toronto-based Internet Listing Service back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
e.Co Transfer Complete, .Co Landrush Auctions Begin - Big .co sale finally completed; landrush auctions begin. e.Co, which was auctioned for $81,000 in a charity auction in June, has finally changed hands. Although the whois for the domain name still shows CO Internet, the buyer has informed me that the domain name was transferred to his registrar account today and that he paid for the domain weeks ago. It will be interesting to see what the buyers have planned. In other .co news, the landrush auctions began today. ... read more ...
Sun 8th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Peace and Love, But No Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Company fails to get generic PeaceandLove.com domain name. GS Enterprises LLC has failed in an attempt to get the generic domain name PeaceAndLove.com through UDRP. But the panelist’s line of thinking, and failure to consider reverse domain name hijacking, is troubling. Thierry Ehrmann registered the domain name all the way back in 1997, and GS Enterprises’ trademark for “Peace Love” wasn’t registered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office until 2007. ... read more ...
Fri 6th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Moves Forward on .XXX - .XXX gets the yellow light at board meeting. The ICANN Board adopted a resolution yesterday that will allow ICM Registry’s application for .xxx to move forward. But it may not be a quick process, and a new can of worms will be opened allowing for another comment period on the actual registry contract. Here’s the resolution that was adopted: Whereas, ICANN’s General Counsel has completed the expedited due diligence regarding ICM Registry, as directed by the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sri Lanka, Thailand Among Those Getting New IDN Domain Names - Sri Lanka and Thailand join ranks of countries getting their own ccTLD in their own language. ICANN has delegated five more internationalized domain names for top level country code domain names. Yesterday the ICANN board approved a resolution delegating two top level domains for Sri Lanka and one for Thailand: Delegation of IDN ccTLDs: 1. Sri Lanka Whereas, Sri Lanka is a country currently listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard. Whereas, .ලංකා (“Lanka”), ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Jobs Expansion Approved, .Travel to Release 1 and 2 Character Domains - Registry operators for .jobs and .travel get their wishes. .Jobs and .Travel, two top level domains that probably would have done better if they were released as generic TLDs rather than sponsored, got positive results from ICANN’s board meeting yesterday. At least as far as the registries are concerned. First, the .jobs registry received permission to effectively open up .jobs. Until now it has been restricted to companies registering just their company name, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Responds in Domain Case, Says Assignee is Lying - Zuccarini responds to contempt charges, alleges contempt himself. The ongoing battle of John Zuccarini and the assignee in Office Depot’s cybersquatting case is getting even more interesting. To bring you up to speed: -Zuccarini was found to have cybersquatted on Office Depot -DS Holdings “bought” the judgment Office Depot won, so now it is owed the money (the IRS also has a tax lien) -Zuccarini’s other domain names were to be used to satisfy the judgment ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Vertro Reports Earnings Including $285k from Sale of ScreenSavers.com - Successor to FindWhat unloads domain name. Vertro (VTRO) reported second quarter results yesterday, and that included a gain of about $285,000 from the sale of a domain name. Domainers probably know Vertro as the successor of FindWhat. After doing some checking with Vertro, I confirmed that the domain name was Screensavers.com. Moniker auctioned the domain name in a showcase auction earlier this year, selling the domain for $335,000. Vertro took home roughly $285,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Co Domain Tops 400,000 Registrations - Another milestone. What’s next? It has taken .co just two and a half weeks to hit a big milestone: today the .co domain name surpassed 400,000 domain name registrations according to the ticker on its web site. Although the rate of registrations will obviously slow over time, this is a fantastic launch. Including roughly 39,000 domains that were charged a premium in the sunrise period and landrush (but excluding auction fees), I calculate that consumers have paid ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Files to Go Public – Demand By a Numbers - Demand Media files for IPO, with Goldman the lead banker. Demand Media, the parent company of eNom, has filed to go public and raise up to $125 million. I’m reading through the S-1 as we speak, so this article will expand. Here are some of the details: -The company generated $198 million in revenue last year, and $114 million through the first 6 months of 2010 -The company reported a net loss of $22 million last year and $6 million through the first 6 months of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom Uses Domain Lookups to Decide What to Register for Itself - Looking up potential domains at eNom? The company uses that data in many ways. [UPDATED] Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt has referred to the data from eNom and its value to the company before, but its newly filed S-1 explains the value succinctly. It uses the data not only for its content business, but also to determine which domain names to acquire for its own portfolio: Proprietary Data. In providing registration services for over 10 million domain names, ... read more ...
Thu 5th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Threatens Latona’s and TRAFFIC Over Planned Auction - Court documents reveal that John Zuccarini has warned auctioneer and promoter of legal action if they go forward with auction. On Monday I wrote about a proposed court order to sell John Zuccarini’s remaining domain names at October’s TRAFFIC conference to settle tax liens and a judgment in a cybersquatting case brought by Office Depot. Now an attorney for the judgment creditor says that Zuccarini has contacted both Rick Latona and TRAFFIC organizers Rick Schwartz ... read more ...