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 6th October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker only reset your password, and we need to do something about it NOW - Moniker tries to improve security, but… Moniker just sent an email to all of its customers notifying them that their passwords were reset in the name of better security. Requiring stronger passwords at Moniker is a good idea. It has historically had weak password requirements, including password character composition and reset requirements. Yet the way Moniker made the change was probably counterproductive to security. The email to each customer included the login ... read more ...
 
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Domain Name Wire Podcast #1: Ray King of Top Level Design - I’m very excited today to launch the Domain Name Wire Podcast. Each week’s podcast will include an overview of the previous week’s domain name industry news followed by a guest from the Domain Name Industry. The podcast will soon be available on iTunes, Stitcher and other services. Until then, you can play it directly on Domain Name Wire (below) or download the MP3. My first guest is Ray King. In this episode, King talks about his history in the domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Ward joins Uniregistry as Director of Registrar Operations - Ward moves from Directnic to Uniregistry. Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry has hired Michael Ward as its new Director of Registrar Operations. Ward will be in charge of registrar growth, marketing, and product support for the registrar side of the business. This was a smart hire for Uniregistry. Ward has experience with many parts of the domain name ecoysystem and has a solid reputation in the industry. He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer for DirectNic, ... read more ...
Fri 3rd October 2014
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Expired Domain Report: MedTravel.com $18k, BrownCollege.com $16k and more - Joseph Peterson provides a round up of expired domain sales from the past week. GoDaddy’s $17.8k sale of MedTravel.com hearkens back to the $7.1k sale of MedicalTravel.com at NameJet, which I reported in June. It’s tempting to conclude that trimming 2 syllables more than doubled the market value, but the prices could as easily have been reversed. MedTravel.com does feel more like a brand name, as opposed to a generic category. What we can infer is that medical ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$42,000 MySchool.com domain name survives UDRP - Complainant goes after domain name for a second time, and loses for the second time. Original Web Ventures has survived a UDRP that was filed against its MySchool.com domain name — a domain name it purchased last year for $42,000. The complainant, Joseph L. Carpenter, runs a site at MySchool411.com. He filed a UDRP against MySchool.com back in 2010 and lost that case. Now that the domain has changed hands, he took another crack at it. A three person National Arbitration ... read more ...
Thu 2nd October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Should new TLD registries sell directly to consumers? - New TLD registries might need to go direct to consumers in addition to the existing registrar channel. Can I interest you in a domain today, ma’am?There has been an established channel for gTLD domain name registrations for a long time. The registries offer domains to registrars, who in turn sell them to people like you and me. This channel has been mandated in top level domain contracts with ICANN because of the way these contracts were handed out. Verisign’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts aims for Million domain name miracle this month - Customers have registered 960,000 second level domain names under Donuts’ domain names. The millionth one will taste the sweetest.Donuts, the largest registry for new top level domain names, hopes to sell its millionth domain name registration this month. The company’s latest newsletter pegs its total registrations at 960,000 across 147 top level domains. That’s an average of about 6,500 per top level domain. It will need to add 40,000 more domains without the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Affiliate Summit sues hotel engagement company - Organizers say defendants are tricky conference attendees into booking hotel rooms. Many people in the domain name industry that go to January’s NamesCon conference will stick around Vegas for the Affiliate Summit conference, which starts January 18. If you are going to the show, beware: organizers of the conference say a company is misrepresenting itself to attendees in order to sell hotel bookings. In a lawsuit (pdf) filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Affiliate ... read more ...
 
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Analyst: new TLDs to strike $500 million in 3 years - Report forecasts strong opportunity for new top level domain applicants. B. Riley Co analyst Sameet Sinha issued a report today estimating that new TLDs should go “from Zero to $500MM in Three Years”. The report also initiates coverage of Rightside with a buy rating and a $15 price target. The stock currently trades for about $10. I reviewed the lengthy report and spoke with Sinha this afternoon. In general, I think it’s a good overview of the domain name industry ... read more ...
Wed 1st October 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Times have changed: GoDaddy CEO to pronounce during women in computing event - CEO of company known for sexy commercials to speak on panel at women in computing conference. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving is speaking at an event celebrating women in computing.GoDaddy’s CEO is speaking on the “Male Allies” panel at next week’s Anita Borg Institute Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing event. Let that soak in for a moment. Such a role for a GoDaddy CEO would not have been imaginable five years ago. The company, known for its objectifying ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Warning: do we know where your parked domain trade is going? - Zero click traffic may lead to scam and installer sites. “Zero click” monetization for parked domains, in which domain traffic is forwarded to another site rather than landing on a page full of ads, is nothing new in the domain name industry. In recent years, though, more parking companies have integrated with zero click providers in order to compensate for falling revenues from Google ads. Many domain owners are probably not aware that some of their traffic ... read more ...
Tue 30th September 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to selectively allot sales leads on DomainNameSales.com - DomainNameSales.com allows you to handle the sales inquiries you want and send the others to brokers. I use DomainNameSales.com (DNS) to park most of my domain names because I like using their sales platform. DNS’ platform allows you to handle purchase inquiries on your own for no fee or assign a broker to handle your inquiries for a commission. For a long time I had DNS handle all my inquiries, but then I decided to broker domain sales myself. Yet sometimes I’d ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Company pays $25k to solve lawsuit stemming from UDRP - Domain name owner that sued after losing UDRP settles for $25,000 (not including the domain). Companies that file long shot UDRPs with the hope of scoring a great domain name, take note. An Austin company has agreed to pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit filed against it after it initiated a UDRP case. And the company won its UDRP. Austin Pain Associates filed a UDRP against AustinPain.com, a domain owned by HugeDomains. I was surprised that the complainant won, and believe ... read more ...
Mon 29th September 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo finish user domain name sales - An aviation company and a seller of hair extensions among end user domain name buyers. Sedo handled 591 domain name transactions the week before last for a total of about $1 million in sales. The list includes a startup in Texas, a bunch of .uk purchases, and a company buying a .berlin domain name to match its .eu domain. The end user list, including new TLDs and existing ones, is below. (You can view previous lists like this here. If you’d like to learn how to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week’s new TLDs: .Bayern, .ovh and .deals - A geo and an open .brand top level domain name launch this week. It’s a slow week again for new top level domain names, and that will be the case going forward for awhile. On Tuesday, the geo domain .bayern (Bavaria) launches. On Wednesday, Donuts releases .deals in general availability. .City will enter the Early Access Phase. Next week Donuts won’t send any domains to EAP, as it is running low on domain names to release. There’s an interesting launch on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling has sole $12 million in domain names this year - Schilling says his domain aftermarket sales have hit $12 million for the year. Frank Schilling has sold $12 million worth of his own domain names this year, already surpassing his total from 2013. Schilling disclosed this number in an update to DomainNameSales.com (DNS) clients. He said his sales platform has been the engine behind his secondary market domain name sales success. The update lists a number of other big changes and features coming soon to his domain ... read more ...
Fri 26th September 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expired Domain Report: DormRoom.com $12.5k and hundreds more - In Persian mythology, the Huma (هما) is a Phoenix-like bird — part male, part female — that lives “its entire life flying invisibly high above the earth, and never alighting on the ground”. Its shadow falling on one’s head would foretell kingship. This meaning probably did not inspire the $11.5k sale of HUMA.com at NameJet last week. That domain could be some sort of acronym or even stand for Hillary Clinton’s personal aide. There’s also a “chia ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
UDRP filed opposite Bids.com, and it competence be interesting - Dispute might be over business rather than cybersquatting. A UDRP was filed against the generic domain name Bids.com yesterday, and this domain has an interesting history that suggests the issue might be bigger than cybersquatting. The domain was previously owned by Bidz.com, a company that is selling off its assets through “a General Assignment for the benefit of creditors pursuant to California state law.” That’s kind of like a bankruptcy. Hilco Streambank ... read more ...
Thu 25th September 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Spamhaus wins Spamhaus.com in UDRP, though it won’t get a domain right away - Domain name is part of Ondova portfolio tied up in courts. A UDRP panel has awarded anti-spam group The Spamhaus Project the domain name Spamhaus.com, but the group won’t be able to use the domain any time soon. The domain name is registered to Ondova Limited Company and is part of a domain name portfolio that has been locked up in bankruptcy court for years. When the UDRP was filed, lawyers acting for United States Bankruptcy Trustee of Ondova Limited Company sent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Apple iOS 8 tip #10: selecting TLDs from a keyboard - Millions of iOS 8 users are being reminded about how to quickly insert .com using the iOS keyboard. I made the switch from Android to iOS last week with the iPhone 6. iOS 8 has a “tips” app that pushes a new usage tip to you every few days. It’s helpful for someone like me who’s learning a new operating system. Some things in iOS aren’t intuitive to those that haven’t used the operating system before. Last night I received a push notification about shortcuts ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mike Robertson joins DirectNic as Business Development Director - Australian who co-founded Domain Guardians to move to U.S. for role. DNC Holdings (DirectNic) announced today that it has hired Mike Robertson as Business Development Director. A familiar face (and Australian accent) at domain conferences, Robertson previously co-founded Domain Guardians. Domain Guardians started as a sort of estate planning system for domain name owners. It later shifted into other domainer-focused products including domain brokerage. The company ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Level Design wins .design row set - Hotly contested top level domain name goes to Portland company. The .design top level domain name will be run, fittingly, by Top Level Design. Top Level Design beat out six other applicants in a private auction to win the domain. Given the number of applicants, I suspect the final price for the domain was near a high water mark. Top Level Design CEO Ray King told Domain Name Wire that winning .design was very important for the company, as you might guess from the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Escrow.com acquires Agreed.com escrow service - Escrow service that launched this year is gobbled up by largest online escrow company. For the past year, the number of online escrow companies targeting the domain industry has grown considerably. It’s about to shrink by one. Escrow.com announced today that it has acquired Agreed.com from Thought Convergence. This is Thought Convergence’s second divestiture in as many weeks; last week it announced the sale of Aftermarket.com. Agreed.com launched in January of ... read more ...
Wed 24th September 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Is Verisign’s devise for a standards organisation partial of the obvious play? - Company’s CEO disclosed creating an industry group as part of monetizing its patent portfolio. Verisign recently announced plans to organize a group called Registration Operations Association (ROA) to discuss technical aspects of domain name registration. A three part blog series proposing the group, penned by Verisign Senior Director Scott Hollenbeck, focuses on Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) and the challenges of registrars working with different EPP extensions ... read more ...
 
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Minds + Machines’ numbers uncover new TLD auctions are removing out of control - Highly contested new TLD auctions are likely ending well above $10 million. Minds + Machines put out a press release today about winning the .law and .vip domain names at auction, and the numbers in it provide hints about how much companies are paying to win private auctions for new TLDs. If my math is right, these new TLD auctions are getting out of control. The company won .law and .vip, but lost five auctions: .design, .flowers, .group, .realestate and .video. ... read more ...