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.

Mon 17th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Kills Two More Domain Name Registrars - ICANN cites two registrars for breach of contract. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has de-accredited two domain name registrars for violating their accreditation agreements. The two registrars — Mobiline USA, Inc., and Western United Domains, Inc. — were sent termination notices on May 14. Mobiline, which has a web site at DomainBonus.com, was warned on April 15 that it was in breach of its contract with ICANN for failing to escrow ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Magic Bra Gets Stuffed in Domain Name Dispute - Bra company fails in domain dispute. A H Sportswear Co., Inc., which holds two trademarks for “Magic Bra”, has lost a UDRP case for the domain name MagicBra.com. The domain name was registered by Hu Yanlin of Beijing in 2001 and he says was never aware of A H Sportswear’s marks. He also said the term was descriptive in nature: The Respondent submits that the term “magic bra” is a descriptive term which not only refers to a brassiere which will make ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy User Generated Ads Hit a Mark - Commercials show what Go Daddy actually does. That’s refreshing. Last month I lamented that most of the submissions to Go Daddy’s commercial contest followed the same-old GoDaddy script. Now that the ten finalists have been selected, I’ve changed my mind. Sure, most of the finalist commercials use some sort of sex appeal, but the majority of the message is on how Go Daddy can help you get online. The visuals actually make you pay attention to the idea of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Peaches.com Headed to Auction - Peaches.com owner Kelly Pitts tells how he got the domain — and why he’s putting it up for auction. The next Sedo Great Domains auction kicks off Thursday, and my pick for the top domain name on the list is Peaches.com. It’s a spectacular category killer domain name that also has branding potential. I reached out to owner Kelly Pitts to find out when he acquired the domain name and why he has decided to offer it for sale. When did you originally register/acquire ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Sells IPS.com for $37,505 - Another five figure sale courtesy of Go Daddy Auctions. Last week I wrote about GoDaddy selling BusinessTube.com for $25,000. Go Daddy only reports certain sales it makes each week, and only sales made on its Go Daddy Auctions site. So we don’t always see five figure deals on its lists. But they did it again this week, selling IPS.com for $37,505. The domain’s whois record has been protected by privacy for a while so it’s unclear who the buyer is. Before ... read more ...
Sun 16th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Browser Usage Shows Domainers Are Early Adopters - No surprise — domainers are ahead of the curve on new browser and operating system usage. It’s been a while since I looked at the Google Analytics section for visitor browsers and operating systems. But this week someone pointed out that Domain Name Wire wasn’t loading correctly in Internet Explorer 8, so I checked to see how many people that affected. As far as browsers are concerned, here are the rankings on DNW: Firefox 45% Internet Explorer 32% Chrome ... read more ...
Sat 15th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Draft Advisory Could Put Chill on Domain Proxy Services - Draft advisory is a stark reminder of the legal liabilities and limitations of domain proxy services. I’ve argued before that providing whois proxy service (commonly referred to as whois privacy, although technically they are different) isn’t free. A big reason is legal repercussions of serving as a proxy. Technically, a proxy service is the registrant of the domain name and the service merely “licenses” it to the person who actually wanted to register ... read more ...
Fri 14th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live Current Posts a Profit (Sort of), Plans to Develop Boxing.com - Live Current goes into the black thanks to domain sales and leases. Live Current Media posted a small profit of $84,078 for the first quarter of 2010, the company announced today. But that profit was only possible thanks to a $250,000 “Gain on settlement of amounts due regarding Global Cricket Venture” and $600,000 from “Gain from sales and sales-type lease of domain names.” But the company says it is now fully funded through 2011 thanks in part to cost ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here Come Subway’s Lawyers for “Footlong” Trademark - Dumb and Dumber. A representative for Doctors Associates Inc., known for its Subway sandwiches restaurants, has filed a trademark for the term “Footlong” for restaurant services. The company is claiming a first use in commerce date of 1967. The company then sent a cease desist letter to Coney Island Drive In, which sells footlong hot dogs and uses the web site GotFootlongs.com. Apparently that letter was sent due to “clerical error”. But clearly the company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Friday Afternoon Domain Musings - Settling some misinformation, hat tip to Moniker, and TRAFFIC. Don’t Make ASSumptions I try not to make assumptions. I pick up the phone and call when I have a question. Why? Every time I do make an assumption, it comes back to bite me. You know what they say about making ASSumptions, right? So let’s set the record straight on Sedo and the EverythingEverywhere.com domain name sale. They didn’t throw anyone under the bus. I think that was quit clear even ... read more ...
Thu 13th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ResellerClub Launches Language Localization Program - Domain name and web hosting reseller launches program to localize its control panels. With all the talk of non-latin top level domain names hitting the web, ResellerClub’s latest news is very timely. The company is rolling out Localization Partner Program, a way to use crowdsourcing to help translate its control panel into multiple languages. English has been the primary language of the web, yet much of the growth is coming from people who do not use English ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
China’s .Cn Domain Name Loses 39% of Registrations in 4 Months - No surprise: .cn falls. It should really come as no surprise. As I predicted a couple months ago, China’s crackdown on the .cn domain name has led to a precipitous drop in the number of registered .cn domain names. Data from HosterStats.com shows that the registered base of .cn domain names has dropped 39% in the first four months of the year, from 13,459,133 at the end of 2009 to just 8,254,681 at the end of April 2010. The drop is due to a number of changes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Jackpot! Slots.com Domain Name Sells for $5.5 Million - Slots domain name sells for a whopping $5.5 million. I have received confirmation from domain name auctioneer Moniker.com that Slots.com has sold for $5.5 million — making it the largest reported domain name sale of 2010 and one of the top 10 most expensive reported domain sales of all time. The domain name was listed for sale in a SnapNames auction. The auction concluded without a bid reaching the reserve, but Moniker worked with both parties to close the deal. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Texas Governor Rick Perry Domain Name Expires - RickPerry.com domain expires; official site is hosted on .org. Texas Governor Rick Perry is in the middle of a gubernatorial race, which isn’t a good time for the RickPerry.com domain name to expire. The governor’s main campaign web site, operated by Texans for Rick Perry, is RickPerry.org. But that doesn’t keep people from visiting the .com address by mistake. For the past year RickPerry.com has forwarded to or mirrored the .org web site. Then the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
20 Great Expiring Domain Names To Backorder Now - Take a look at these 20 pre-release domain names. I don’t usually share expired domain name tips on Domain Name Wire. But the mood struck me today to do some research. Here are 20 pre-release .com domains at NameJet that you should consider. All domains are at least 8 years old and many are more than a decade old. I checked all of them today to verify they were still in pending delete status. Most of them don’t have any bids yet. RetireWealthy.com MiamiMortgage.com edoc.com ... read more ...
Wed 12th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are Expired Domain Companies Selling You Out? - adam you really havent much of a clue…heres one example? eport: #439486 Report: SnapNames, Media Web Plus, Oversee.net, Moniker, Kjel Holmberg, Protondomains, Nidal Elkadri Reported By: (Brooklyn New York) Snapnames, Media Web Plus, Oversee.net, Moniker, Kjel Holmberg, Protondomains, And DirectISnapNames, Nidal Elkadri – Scam Company Shady Registrar Partners – Protondomains Media Web Plus Portland Oregon … 1 Author 0 Consumer 0 Employee Respond to this report! What’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Arab: “Sorry We’re Late, Please Change a Rules” - Another group asks for special consideration in new gTLD process. Now that three versions of the Draft Applicant Guidebook for new top level domain names have been released, a group backing .arab is asking ICANN to make special accommodations for it. In a letter dated May 4, International Telecommunication Union informs ICANN that it has been appointed by the League of Arab States (LAS) to help establish the .arab TLD and corresponding IDN gTLD. The letter asks ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
You Should Go to TRAFFIC and You Should Register Today - Get a conference pass before the price increases tomorrow. I don’t always go around endorsing conferences. But if you’ve never been to a conference or if you’re on the fence about attending the Vancouver TRAFFIC conference next month, here’s my message: do it. But you should register today to take advantage of the $395 conference pass (the price goes up $200 tomorrow). This may be the least expensive domain conference you’ll ever attend if you’re in ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows’ OpenSRS Grows 9% Year-Over-Year - Domain name registrar reports first quarter earnings. Tucows (AMEX:TCX) reported first quarter earnings after the bell today and disclosed that its OpenSRS business grew 9% year-over-year in both transactions and revenue. OpenSRS includes the company’s domain registration business as well as e-mail services. The company hit a milestone of 10 million domains under management at the end of the quarter. Net income for Q1 was $0.6 million, but that was helped by ... read more ...
Tue 11th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Sells BusinessTube.com for $25,000 - Registrar sells another five figure domain name through Go Daddy Auctions. GoDaddy has sold the domain name BusinessTube.com through its Go Daddy Auctions (aka TDNAM) platform for $25,000. The domain name was registered back in 2006 and just purchased by a California man. A visit to BusinessTube.com shows a logo with a message that the site will be going online this summer. Here are some other sales Go Daddy made in the past two weeks: PianoPlace.com $9,500 GarageBuilders.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Facebook Fights for Facebook.me Domain Name - Facebook files for arbitration to get Facebook.me domain name. Facebook has filed a complaint with World Intellectual Property Organization to get the domain name Facebook.me. The domain name is currently registered to a United Arab Emirates man. .Me is technically the country code domain name for Montenegro, but has been commercialized to be a personalized “me” domain name. This isn’t the first country code domain name the social networking behemoth has ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Files Trademarks, Tips Its Hand - Trademarks might show what domain name registrar is up to. GoDaddy has filed a number of trademarks in the past couple months — some of which may foreshadow new services from the company. First, the company filed a pair of trademark applications for its new slogan “Domains, websites, and everything* in between”. The company started using the new slogan back in March according to the applications. A few days later it filed an application for the graphic version ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
11% of .Net Domains Aren’t Registered in .Com - This and other useful stats from HosterStats.com A few months ago I was introduced to HosterStats.com, a web site with a wealth of domain name data. The statistic in the headline of this post is somewhat surprising, but you’ll find it right here in HosterStats’ cross domain comparison. Over 1.4 million domain names that are registered in .net aren’t registered in .com. Over 20% of domains registered in .org aren’t registered in .com. Think about all the ... read more ...
Mon 10th May 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AOL Buys Advisibility.com Domain Name — For What? - Media giant buys domain name for a grand. Last week AOL bought the domain name Advisibility.com for $1,000. I did some searching to see what AOL might be up to on the domain name but came up empty. A logical answer is something related to online advertising — Ad Visibility. As we all know by now, AOL owns Advertising.com (and claims to have rights to many variants of the word “Advertising”). Could AdVisibility.com be a new product for this group? We’ll ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Vancouver Schedule Posted with $395 Admission - Details for Vancouver conference are posted, but is the price a typo? [Update: looks like I scooped Latona by a few minutes.] The Targeted TRAFFIC web site has been updated with the preliminary agenda for next month’s conference in Vancouver. There’s a nice surprise on the registration page for the web site — $395 admission. A typo? $395 would be a huge discount to normal pricing for TRAFFIC shows. But if you click through, you can indeed sign up for a ... read more ...