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.

Fri 13th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Where to find Domain Name Companies during #SXSW - Find at least seven companies in Austin at #SXSW. Over the next 10 days about 400,000 people will come to Austin for SXSW and the many unofficial events that surround it. Here are some of the places you can find domain name companies in Austin during SXSW. .Co – .Co always has a big presence in Austin during SXSW. You can find a number of events that .Co will attend and/or sponsor at Go.co/austin. .Club – .Club is also making a splash, sponsoring a number of events. The company is sponsoring ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MarkMonitor: we won't distinction on .Sucks - Company will charge modest service fee on “Extortion domain”. Brand protection domain name registrar MarkMonitor says it understands its clients will feel compelled to pay for a .sucks domain name, but it won’t profit from the registrations. The company says it will charge just $25 above wholesale for the domain names. The registry has set a suggested retail price of $2,499 for a .sucks sunrise registration. Even without charging a mark-up, brand holders should expect to pay well over $1,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts hurdles ICANN's .Doctor decision - Stethoscope may be required to register a .Doctor domain name. Donuts has filed a reconsideration request after ICANN decided to slam the door on who can register a domain name under the .doctor top level domain name. Last month, ICANN’s New gTLD Program Committee determined that .Doctor should be a namespace restricted only to “legitimate medical practitioners”. This eliminates a number of possible uses of the .doctor domain name. For example, brands like Rug Doctor and Lawn Doctor wouldn’t ... read more ...
Thu 12th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: .Club and .Web domain names are favorites - .Club is In Da Club. .Club is a favorite new top level domain name, according to this year’s Domain Name Wire Survey. The survey asked which top new level domain name was the respondent’s favorite, as well as which TLD they thought would get the most domain name registrations. .Club was the runaway answer to both questions. Its heavy marketing and early results (about 200,000 registrations to date) certainly put the domain top of mind. Responses weren’t limited to already-released domain names, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Google Mobile deadline approaching, though we don't wish to use .Mobi - Responsive design, not a separate website, is key to going mobile. On April 21, Google’s search rankings will undergo a “significant” change on mobile devices. Websites that are mobile friendly will get a big leg up on those that aren’t. The .Mobi domain name wants to take advantage of this, and tweeted this today: Major Google update: mobile-friendly sites will rise in ranking! Get your .MOBI now – the mobile-specific domain. http://t.co/tdAgND00zE — dotMobiOfficial (@dotMobiOfficial) ... read more ...
 
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18 End User Domain Name Sales - Wyndham Hotels, Business Insider and 23 and Me buy domain names. Sedo handled 602 domain name transactions last week for a total of $1.4 million in sales. Among the purchases were some typos and famous brands, but also companies buying up great generics for their industries. Writer wanted: Joseph Peterson has been writing the end user sales lists for the past month, but the weekly expired domain reports alone are taking up enough of his time. I’m looking for a writer to handle this weekly post. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Wall Street Journal covers domain name theft - Article shines light on growing problem for businesses. Domain name theft is getting mainstream exposure today thanks to a Wall Street Journal article. The article focuses on the recent theft of ShadesDaddy.com, but also discusses other companies that have fallen victim to domain name theft. It also quotes the ICA’s Phil Corwin and attorneys Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal and David Weslow of Wiley Rein. It also refers to domainers, but describes them in a much better light than the typical article ... read more ...
Wed 11th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The one thing that matters for a domain name escrow service - Reputation, reputation, reputation. This year’s Domain Name Wire Survey asked respondents why they use the domain name escrow service they do. The question offered a number of options, from pricing to licensing to customer service. It turns out that people really only care about one thing. The rest is just details: Yes, 61% said reputation was the most important factor. The next biggest factor had only 6% of the vote. Reputation was also top on last year’s poll. True, reputation encompasses ... read more ...
Tue 10th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Fifty, Shades among tip trending domain registrations final month - Fifty Shades of Gray inspires domain name registrations. Verisign’s monthly “Trending Keywords” report is out for last month, and it appears a certain book-turned-movie was quite popular in .com domain names. The terms “Fifty” and “Shades” both made the list, no doubt due to the release of the Fifty Shades of Gray movie. As for some of the other terms, I’m a bit at a loss as to why they suddenly spiked. Holo? Roof? Here’s the list of top ten trending terms in .com and .net for February: The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Owners bullish on domain name values in 2015 - Domain name owners think domain name values will increase in 2015. Despite all of the changes in the internet naming landscape, or perhaps in spite of it, respondents to this year’s Domain Name Wire Survey are bullish on domain name values. 61% said they think domain name values will go up in 2015, compared to just 9% that think they’ll go down. The rest think they’ll stay about the same. The initial question did not distinguish between existing TLDs and new ones. In a subsequent question, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Hot Winter during NameJet - It’s cold in most of North America, but this winter has been hot at NameJet. Winter at NameJet has been hot. In January the auction venue set a record with more sales above $2k than during any previous month. February racked up 121, which makes it the 3rd month in a row surpassing 100. Apart from December, 2014 ranged between 61 and 95 monthly sales $2k … with a mean of 76. So if your impression has been that bids are climbing into higher price ranges more frequently, well, the data agrees ... read more ...
 
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This week's new TLDs: Mo Money, Mo Domains - Four domain names launch this week, including .money. Donuts releases four new top level domain names this Wednesday: .Money, .Legal, .Memorial and .Coach. Ironically, .Money costs the least money of the four. A couple registrars I checked are offering the domain name for $28 per year. .Legal, .Memorial and .Coach are all priced about $50 retail. Many of these domain names are similar to other existing domains. .Money will compete with .Cash (4,200 domains) and .Finance (2,600 domains). .Legal is ... read more ...
Mon 9th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Wire is 10 years old - Happy Birthday, Domain Name Wire. Domain Name Wire celebrates a decade today.Today is a special day for Domain Name Wire. Ten years ago today, I wrote a post about Local.com selling for $700,000. It was the first post on Domain Name Wire. Domain Name Wire started as a hobby but has become a business. Over 8,000 posts later, the DNW archives are like a time capsule for an industry always in transition. Ten years ago I was more likely to write about domain name parking than top level domains. 8 years ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Going .Green with Annalisa Roger – DNW Podcast #23 - .Green domain names are available this month after a long journey. The .Green top level domain name comes out this month. In this episode, DotGreen Community CEO Annalisa Roger discusses the long road to .green and how she hopes companies, groups and individuals will use the domain name. Also: how we choose domain name registrars, Google joins Afternic, and U.S. names a domain name registrar to its “Notorious Markets” list. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Com's biggest winners and losers - Uniregistry wins and Moniker loses when it comes to .com domain name transfers in November. ICANN has published the most recent monthly report from ICANN showing .com transfer wins and losses from November. Uniregistry had the biggest net inflow of transfers for a public registrar, while Moniker had the biggest net outflow. As bad as the number was for Moniker (23,847 lost to only 3,136 gained), it wasn’t as bad as its October outflow. Here are the top 5 winners*, measured by net transfers-in (transfer ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mega List: 67 finish user domain name sales - Joseph Peterson tracks down 67 recent end user domain name sales. During the previous week, Sedo’s network handled 581 domain transactions totaling $1.4 million. Compared to last week, whose top 3 public sales at Sedo added up to $500k, a high of $14.5k seems pitifully small. But the total volume is up 56%. This time, I tracked down end users for 67 domains. As usual, I’m mixing domains that just sold with others that closed earlier but just emerged from escrow. Additive-Manufacturing.de (€3610) ... read more ...
Fri 6th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
LuxeValet.com shortens domain name to Luxe.com for $172,500 - Domain name sold to parking company after auction ended. Heritage Auctions continues to sell domain names that were listed in its auction last month in New York. One of the bigger sales is Luxe.com, which was purchased by on demand parking and valet service Luxe for $172,500. It has been using the domain name LuxeValet.com. Luxe recently raised $20 million in financing. The total from Heritage Auctions’ February auction lots now stands at over $1.2 million. In addition to the Luxe.com sale, the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines pockets $1.68 from 3 some-more auction losses - Company gets cash for losing auctions. New top level domain name company Minds + Machines has added $1.68 million to its bank account after losing three more contention set auctions. The money primarily comes from losing .beauty and .soccer, both of which were resolved through a private auction. L’Oreal won the three-way race for .beauty and Donuts won the four company auction for .soccer. The company also received a $37,000 refund from ICANN for withdrawing its .app application. .App was resolved ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ASOP gets Tucows named in U.S. Government "Notorious" List - Registrar blamed for domain names used for fake online pharmacies. The U.S. government just released its “2014 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets” report (pdf), which calls out markets in which there is apparent widespread counterfeiting or privacy. At the urging of Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP), domain name registrar Tucows has been placed on the list. According to the report: Based in Canada, Tucows is reportedly an example of a registrar that fails to take action when notified ... read more ...
Thu 5th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google Domains joins Afternic - Domains listed on Afternic will show up for searches on Google Domains. Google’s new domain name registrar is now part of AfternicDLS and its fast transfer network, according to an announcement on the Afternic.com website: Google Domains has joined Afternic DLS and will be part of our Fast Transfer network. Afternic domains that are opted into Premium Promotion will be promoted on Google Domains. We are delighted to add Google Domains to Afternic DLS, the world’s largest premium domain reseller ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy names Chief Customer Officer, new CMO - One of GoDaddy’s original employees moves to new position. GoDaddy announced today that long time Chief Marketing Office Barb Rechterman will be the company’s Chief Customer Officer, a newly-formed position. According to a press release, this new position is “responsible for aligning the company’s products, services and engagement models with strategic needs and values of GoDaddy’s unique customer base.” Rechterman has been with GoDaddy since it was founded in 1997. She has been a driving ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: domain name registrars contingency concentration on confidence and price - Domain name registrars must offer strong security and price to attract customers. There are some questions I’ve asked on the Domain Name Wire Survey over the past ten years that have predictable answers year after year. One of these is “Rank the importance of these items when choosing a domain registrar.” Just about every year, security and price are the top two. That was the case again in 2015. The weighted score for these two factors was essentially a statistical dead heat for the most important ... read more ...
Wed 4th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Radix portion adult Grilled Cheese during SXSW - New top level domain name company hopes to reach tech audience at SXSW this month. Radix is giving out t-shirts, such as this one for .tech, along with grilled cheese sandwiches at SXSW.People love free food, especially during a busy conference. I recently wrote about Sedo’s Froyo truck at SXSW; new TLD company Radix is also giving away free food at the event in Austin later this month. The company will have a large booth at the SXSW Tradeshow and will be handing out free .space-branded grilled ... read more ...
 
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Miami cook alleges web engineer is holding domain name hostage - Personal chef claims he can’t get his domain name back and former web marketing firm is sabotaging his new website. Chef Stuart Shaw switched his domain name to TheMiamiPersonalChef.com (pictured) and claims his former web firm is holding his old domain hostage.A Miami personal chef has sued the owner of a web design/marketing company, alleging (pdf) that the company held his domain name hostage after he canceled services. Stuart Shaw says he contracted with Need Marketing Group in 2007 to develop ... read more ...
 
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2015 Domain Name Wire Survey: By a Numbers - Here’s who took this year’s survey. The submission period for this year’s Domain Name Wire Survey, the tenth annual version of the survey, is now closed. You may recall that I changed the format of the survey last year. The topics are no longer “stuff the ballot box” questions; they focus on overall trends in the domain name business. Survey takers also have to provide some identification details. That means fewer — but higher quality — responses. About 200 people took this year’s ... read more ...