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 29th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
QuinStreet Buys Insurance.com Web Site and Domain Name - Publicly traded Quinstreet acquires Insurance.com. Lead generation company QuinStreet has purchased the Insurance.com web site and domain name. A notice on Insurance.com states “Insurance.com has changed ownership. Click here to review our updated privacy policy.” The privacy policy notes that site is owned by Quinstreet. I called a phone representative at Insurance.com who said the company was acquired “a couple days ago”. I am awaiting a response from ... read more ...
 
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New UDRP Provider Applies to ICANN, UDRP Status Back on Agenda - UDRP on the docket for ICANN meeting next week. ICANN’s Board of Directors will again consider its contractual relationships with Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Policy providers at its August 5 meeting, as well as consent to post an application from an entity wishing to become a UDRP provider. The topic of contractual relationships with UDRP providers was on the April agenda but was tabled because the board ran out of time. It wasn’t on the agenda in ... read more ...
Wed 28th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
13 Country Code Domains That Can Follow in .Co’s Footsteps - Here are 13 ccTLDs just begging to be commercialized. With the recent launch of .co, we’ve seen another re-purposed country code domain name get international recognition. It joins other fairly successful commercializations such as .tv and .me, as well as failures such as .ws and .md. Here are some other country code top level domain names that might have commercial potential, and my predicted marketing success for each one. But these countries better act fast, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO Panelist Calls Juice Bar’s Assertions “Mystifying” - Juice bar wants .com, but will have to pay for it. A WIPO UDRP panelist has ruled against a juice bar called “Juicy Details”, calling the complainant’s assertions about bad faith registration of JuicyDetails.com “Mystifying”. Juicy Details, based in the Netherlands, filed the complaint against Another.com, which owns JuicyDetails.com. But the panelist thought Juicy Detail’s accusations didn’t add up: The Panel finds these assertions mystifying. From ... read more ...
 
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Rick Latona Discusses TRAFFIC Dublin - Here’s the scoop on the next TRAFFIC conference. TRAFFIC is taking the show on the road again next month, traveling to Dublin, Ireland August 24-25. Domain Name Wire caught up with show organizer Rick Latona to get the scoop on the show. DNW: Why did you pick Dublin as one of the locations for this year? Latona: Many Internet companies are setting up their European headquarters in Ireland. There are excellent tax advantages as well as a very tech friendly infrastructure. ... read more ...
Tue 27th July 2010
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Court Rules in BME.com Cybersquatting Case, Could Affect Domain Owners - BME.com case ruling could affect domain owners. A United States District Court ruling in a case between Gregory Ricks and BMEZine over the domain name BME.com has some interesting implications for domain name owners. (For background on the case, see Ricks Files Lawsuit to Retain Control of BME.com) Without getting into all the details of what was argued, here are some of the court’s decisions (large pdf) worth noting: 1. The court held that a re-registration of ... read more ...
 
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My Comments on Inter-Registrar Domain Transfers - Have you submitted comments about inter-registrar transfers? Earlier this month I made a call-to-action on an important comment period at ICANN. At issue is the “Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part B Initial Report”. Part of the report suggests a mechanism by which victims of domain thefts can regain control of their domains. But important safeguards must be in place to not disrupt the domain name aftermarket. Here are the comments I submitted to ICANN. You ... read more ...
 
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GM-Volt.com Getting Lots of Traffic, But is a Site Owner during Risk? - Even if you’re a company fan, resist the urge to use a trademark in your domain name. The GM Volt electric car is getting quite a bit of buzz lately, including this article in the New York Times. The article links to GM-Volt.com, which it notes is unaffiliated with GM. Compete.com shows that GM-Volt.com gets about 75,000 visits a month, which is nothing to sneeze at. It probably brings in a bit of revenue for the site owner, too, which is why I would never recommend ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Sells Three Digit Domain Name For Six Figures - Two three digit domains sell for big bucks. Domain name brokerage Sedo has sold the domain name 029.com for $110,000, and also moved 980.com for $40,000 to lead its weekly sales charts. Both domain names now have proxy whois registrations. Another big sale was Underdog.com, which must have beaten the favorite when it sold for 40,000 GBP, or roughly $62,000 USD. Here are other notable sales for the week: .com cured.com 25000 USD 123123.com 20000 USD oink.com 17000 USD dressupgamesforgirls.com 15000 USD germanfood.com 15000 USD findmelove.com 12000 USD cachorros.com 10000 EUR posteando.com 9999 EUR fernlinienbus.com 7500 EUR pr1me.com 7500 GBP superaccounting.com 6500 USD adamsfoods.com 5000 USD engineeringviews.com 5000 USD facemuscles.com 5000 USD guyspy.com 5000 USD hellohotels.com 5000 USD homewarrantyreview.com 5000 USD kamra.com 5000 USD orangeconstruction.com 5000 USD topstockpicks.com 5000 USD vestimenta.com 5000 USD ccTLDs kinderspiele.de 16000 EUR sm.de 15000 EUR europoker.fr 12000 EUR holidaylettings.in 10600 GBP saunabon.nl 10500 EUR annonsera.se 10000 EUR independentfinancialadviser.co.uk 9975 GBP betnet.de 8888 EUR leathersofa.co.uk 8000 USD esp.de 5500 EUR irobot.es 5000 USD maleev.ru 5000 USD secret.nl 5000 EUR adultdvd.co.uk 4750 GBP carparto.de 4750 EUR checker.at 4000 EUR Other randomactsofkindness.org 25000 USD booking.travel 11000 USD datingservice.net 7000 USD heating.net 5655 USD onlinedegreeprogram.org 4000 USD ... read more ...
Mon 26th July 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Biz Was a Most Popular Billboard Domain on a Recent Car Trip - Stretch of I-70 is a big promo for .biz domain name. This past weekend I took my daughter to St. Louis to visit her great-grandfather. We flew into St. Louis, and then drove 75 minutes along I-70 to his house. You may be surprised by the domain name I saw most often on billboards on I-70: .biz.* Why the asterisk? Well, it was mostly one company with a .biz domain name. Porlier Outdoor Advertising has a ton of billboards along I-70 between St. Louis and Kansas ... read more ...
 
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Fairwinds Reduces Assumption of CPC on TypoSquatting Sites, But Still $2.03 - Fairwinds updates faulty report, but it’s still laughable. Last month FairWinds Partners, the group behind CADNA, released a report suggesting that typosquatting costs the 250 most visited web sites $327 million a year. I immediately smelled something fishy about the biggest underlying assumption in the report: the average cost-per-click on ads on typosquatted domains was pegged at a lofty $2.74 per click. The report referenced a VeriSign report for its CPC value. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
After 3,000 Emails, No Consensus on Registry-Registrar Separation - Still no general consensus on registry-registrar separation for new TLDs. With names such as RACK+, “Free Trade”, and CAM3, you can be excused for confusing proposals for registry-registrar separation on new TLDs with exotic subprime mortgage bonds or off-balance sheet Enron subsidiaries. But these are names of three of the six proposals for integrating the traditionally separate roles of registrars (e.g. Go Daddy, eNom) and registries (e.g. VeriSign, Neustar) ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Think a Domain Renewal Scam is Bad? Check out MediaNetCom. - Company will help me protect my trademark by listing it on its low traffic web site for $1,117.00. One of the more frustrating and misleading domain name shenanigans is the fake renewal notice. This notice, often sent via postal mail and disguised as an invoice, gets unsuspecting businesses to pay to renew their domain name. At the same time, they are unknowingly consenting to transferring their domain to a new registrar. It’s bad. It’s misleading. It’s ... read more ...
Fri 23rd July 2010
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Cloud.com Floats Higher with Good Domain Name - Cloud computing company gets more marketing punch with good domain name. Cloud.com VP of Business Development Shannon Williams admits that he wasn’t a huge believer in the power of a generic domain name for marketing. But when the opportunity for his company to purchase Cloud.com was discussed internally, he finally came around. Now he is a believer. I caught up with Williams during HostingCon this week in Austin. He explained some of the benefits of having the ... read more ...
Thu 22nd July 2010
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GrubHub Gets It All Backwards in Domain Dispute - A battle for foodies. Online food delivery portal GrubHub.com has lost a domain name dispute against the owner of HubGrub.com, with a National Arbitration Forum panelist finding against GrubHub.com on all counts. It’s an interesting case for a few reasons. First, it points out there might be confusion of word order when you use a two word domain name. This is something for entrepreneurs to think about; they might want to get both versions of their domain name. Second, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google to Treat .Co as International Domain - Domain won’t be pigeon-holed to just Colombia in search engine’s eyes. [Update: since some people asked, I successfully confirmed this with Google.] One of the concerns registrants of .co domain names have voiced is if Google will treat the domain as specific to Colombia instead of a generic, international domain name. This is a valid concern given that country code domain names are the top factor Google considers when figuring out who content is created for. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Court Ruling on Baidu v. Register.com Has Implications for Domain Registrars - Court says registrars can’t get away with gross negligence just because it’s in their TOS. Domain name registrars, take note: you can’t just claim no responsibility for your actions in your terms of service and expect a court to uphold it. That’s exactly what Register.com tried to do in a lawsuit brought by Baidu. If all the allegations are true, Register.com really screwed up on this one. Yet it claimed Baidu couldn’t hold it accountable because it agreed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Congratulations, .Co. Now a Real Work Begins. - Relaunch was successful, but hard work remains. It comes as little surprise to me, but it’s now apparent that the .co launch has been successful. As of now, 279,000 .co domain names have been registered. I calculate gross sales of about $19 million to date. There are a number of reasons I’m not surprised by the initial success of .co. I outlined many of these in my last newsletter. But regardless of how or why it has charged out of the gate, and regardless ... read more ...
Wed 21st July 2010
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.Music Initiative Says It Will Use Trademarks to Block Competitors - Andrew, You are right. I do not consider myself an insider. There are many reasons why. I have felt a bit excluded in many instances from the policy making or participation in things such as the Business Constituency. I was advised to join then was rejected on the basis of running a registry, which I have not yet. Other initiatives are part of the ICANN Business constituency, so why was I not allowed to join. Same with the Vertical Integration group. If I was such an insider I would ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
JPNIC Argues Companies Shouldn’t Be Able to Get Corporate Top Level Domain Names - Group says new TLDs aren’t meant for single brands that don’t offer second level domains to the public. One of the understood use cases for new top level domain names is a company creating .brand. Canon has already expressed its intentions to apply for .canon. But in comments by Japan Network Information Center, which provides allocation and registration services of IP addresses and AS numbers in Japan, says this clearly isn’t the purpose of new TLDs: The ... read more ...
 
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Glass Company Files Trademark for Company Name as TLD .Schott - Company wants trademark for .Schott. German glass and component company Schott AG has filed a trademark application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “.schott” for “Registration of domain names (legal services); management of domain names; renting or leasing of domain names; allocation of domain names; trading in domain names.” This is an interesting move that means one of two things: 1. The company plans to acquire its own top level domain name ... read more ...
 
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Domain Roundtable Goes to a Bahamas in March - Conference makes its return in a very nice location. After taking a year off, Thought Convergence’s Domain Roundtable is making a return in 2011 in a big way: a trip to the Bahamas. The event will take place March 1-4, 2011 at Atlantis in the Bahamas. Other details are not yet available. Last month I asked readers to participate in a poll asking where you’d prefer to see a domain conference: Hawaii or Bahamas. The response was fairly evenly split between the ... read more ...
Tue 20th July 2010
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Forbes Explains How Tucows’ CEO Plays Video Games to Become a Better Leader - Forbes published an article yesterday about how video games can teach better leadership, and the article prominently features Tucows CEO Elliot Noss. The article starts off: Elliot Noss, chief executive of domain name provider Tucows, has spent the past five years training to become a better leader. How? By playing “World of Warcraft” for six to seven hours a week. “‘You have these events [in “World of Warcraft”] that are very leadership-driven,” Noss ... read more ...
 
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Did Overstock.com Pay More for o.biz Than o.co? - Both purchases were big when you add it all up. e.biz was the highest selling one letter .biz domain name at $66,001, right? And at $350,000, Overstock.com paid a lot more for o.co than o.biz, right? Don’t jump to that conclusion. Overstock was awarded o.biz, which it currently uses as a b2b commerce store, through a request for proposal from .biz registry Neustar. Although the RFP didn’t require Overstock to pay much money directly to the registry, it did ... read more ...
Mon 19th July 2010
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HostingCon Kicks Off in Austin - Web hosting conference kicks off in Austin, Texas. The annual HostingCon conference kicked off in Austin this morning, with organizers expecting 1,500 or more attendees. I count over 115 vendors who will be showing their wares on Tuesday and Wednesday. A number of exhibitors are domain name companies who want to get hosting companies to sell their products including domain name registrations. Among the domain name companies are: Afilias DotMobi (which is running ... read more ...