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 28th July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
27 of tip 50 websites safeguarding their brands on new Donuts domain names - How are brands protecting themselves with new top level domain names? Many are, but there are some surprises. I just checked how the top 50 websites are protecting their brands on Donuts top level domain names. I took the top 50 (public) sites from Quantcast and ran them through whois for their matching .gripe domain to see if they were registered by the brandholder or blocked with Donuts’ Domains Protected Marks List. I chose .gripe for several reasons. First, ... read more ...
 
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Heritage Auctions Video about reward domain names - Video explains some of the benefits of a good domain name. Heritage Auctions had another solid domain name auction last week, selling about $775k in domain names during bidding. The company is doing a good job educating collectibles investors and business owners about the value of good domain names. It recently published a video featuring domainer and Heritage Auctions’ employee Aron Meystedt discussing the benefits of premium domain names (see embedded below). ... read more ...
Sat 26th July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Roundup: this week in a Domain Name Business - It was another exciting week in the domain name industry. Here’s a look back. Domain Registry of America may finally get cut off from ICANN. The notorious company that sends misleading domain renewal notices to domain owners has been suspended by ICANN and a full termination may be coming. Sedo is planning a big new TLD booth at September’s DMEXCO conference in Germany. Interested new TLD companies are invited to reach out to the company about participating. Amazon ... read more ...
Fri 25th July 2014
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Paula Deen spends $27,900 on domain name for new try (end user sales) - Celebrity chef among end users who bought domain names last week. Celebrity chef Paula Deen, who experienced a spectacular fall from grace last year over her prior use of racial slurs, is making a comeback with Paul Deen Ventures. She’s launching a subscription service called Paula Deen Network (PDN). She just made a smart move by buying the domain name PDN.com for $27,900, which is a heck of a deal. That was just one of many end user domain name purchases at Sedo ... read more ...
 
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Verisign batch jumps after gain report - Stock investors still think .com is king. Verisign reported earnings yesterday and shares in the company are up 12% in trading so far today. Why the jump in share price after a dismal quarter for net domain name adds? Well, Citigroup upgraded the company from sell to neutral today saying “fundamentals have likely bottomed”. Financials apparently exceeded most expectations. Verisign had just 0.42 million net adds in .com and .net last quarter. It expects Q3 net ... read more ...
Thu 24th July 2014
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Weekly Expired Domain Report - Domain sales charts — expired or otherwise — make for some strange bedfellows. Any given week presents an orgy of bizarre juxtapositions. What else but the domain market can bring together Bill Cosby and French Marxists? Malaysian tourism for New Yorkers alongside Azerbaijani gossip in the ccTLD of Western Samoa? (I’m referencing TheCosbys.com, Marxisme.net, TourismMalaysiaNY.com, and Bizimbaku.ws.) Few university libraries contain such diversity. Lussumo.com, ... read more ...
 
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Google and Vint Cerf explain a NTIA transition (video) - Simple video explains what’s going on with the U.S. government’s role in the internet. Vint Cerf, the “father of internet” and former Chairman of ICANN, now works for Google. Cerf has narrated a new Google video about the history of internet governance, ICANN and the role of the U.S. government. (See video embedded below.) It’s a pretty clever way to sum up the proposed change in role of the U.S. government in a simple, sub-three-minute video. In other words, ... read more ...
 
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Interesting .CEO comments started by Paul Kedrosky - Last night venture capitalist Paul Kedrosky discovered .CEO and tweeted his thoughts on it to his 275,000 followers: Conversation obviously followed. One person noted: Kedrosky responded “Exactly.” Another comment: To which Kedrosky responded “And that exact thought had already crossed my mind.” There are some other colorful comments. Not every commenter was a detractor of .CEO. One person kinda liked it. In addition to the insurmountable silliness of ... read more ...
 
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A demeanour inside today’s practical domain name tradeshow - Virtual tradeshow is clunky but presents a good opportunity to chat with domain name companies. I remember going to a virtual tradeshow about a decade ago. It was clunky and hard to use. Apparently that’s the case in 2014 as well. I just attended Webfair Virtual, an online tradeshow featuring a bunch of domain name companies. The process of registering, downloading software, and navigating the show floor was rather cumbersome. (Once you figure out how to chat ... read more ...
 
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Google induction “MusicKey” domain names for song subscription business? - Google registering MusicKey ccTLDs. Is this the name of its new music service? Usually, when I see a company registering a bunch of similar domain names, I can track it down to a new product announcement. I’m a bit unclear about recent Google domain name registrations for “MusicKey” domain names, but I suspect it might be for YouTube’s new subscription music service. On Monday, the company registered MusicKey.co. It has registered MusicKey in many other ccTLDs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
HA Domain name auction grosses $774k, Cute.com and Digital.com sell for 6 figures - Heritage Auctions’ latest domain name auction goes well. Heritage Auctions latest domain name auction has concluded with $773,876 worth of domain name sales. That doesn’t include after-auction sales, which almost always increase the total sales number. That total (and the prices below) include a 15% buyers’ premium. Including the premium best represents the actual price paid and makes it apples-to-apples with auctions win which a commission is deducted. Digital.com ... read more ...
 
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Verisign reports negligence growth, hikes .Net prices 10% - .Com base inches forward, .Net prices are increasing. Verisign reported earnings after the bell today, and the results for .com/.net aren’t that promising. It gets harder to grow something as it gets bigger, but net adds across these two domain names slowed by quite a bit. Verisign reported just 0.42 million net new ads during the second quarter. Last year in the same quarter it added 1.2 million domain names. The good news for Verisign is that new registrations ... read more ...
Wed 23rd July 2014
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An engaging dates doubt in a UDRP - What if you registered a domain long ago, let it expire, and then registered it again? The date you first registered a domain name is a critical factor in a UDRP. Generally speaking, if your registration predates the complainant’s rights in a term, then the complainant can’t win a UDRP. That’s because it’s impossible that you registered the domain name in bad faith…unless you’re psychic. Some complainants have argued that the renewal of a domain name ... read more ...
 
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Larry Strickling debate to American Enterprise Institute - Speech lays out what’s ahead and why some people are overreacting. Lawrence Strickling, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), gave a speech to American Enterprise Institute yesterday about the transition of internet functions away from NTIA. The transition of the IANA functions has been hotly (and poorly) debated in some circles. People react to a brief snippet on a blog or to a talking head on TV about how “Obama ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GreatDomains and SnapNames auctions finish tomorrow - Several domain name auctions end tomorrow, including two online-only auctions. The big fireworks may come from the Heritage Auctions domain name auction tomorrow, but there are two other auctions ending as well. Sedo’s monthly GreatDomains auction concludes tomorrow at 12:00 pm EDT. So far three domain names have hit their reserves, including the head-scratcher LosAngeles.de at 3,000 EUR. The two letter domain name BL.com has been bid up to $172,500, which is below ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Neustar reports earnings, and income strike from .Co - Revenue was up 8% in the quarter, some of which is attributed to the company’s acquisition of .Co. Neustar reported second quarter earnings after the bell today. Revenue was up 8% and adjusted net income was up 1% compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company’s Security Services segment reported 28% growth, 12% of which it attributed to the acquisition of .Co. It’s not entirely clear if this represents a full quarter of .Co revenue, but .Co appears to ... read more ...
Tue 22nd July 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Comparing home appraisals to domain name appraisals - Appraising homes is easy compared to valuing domain names. Texas doesn’t have an income tax. But the state needs revenue from somewhere, and in Texas that “somewhere” is mostly property taxes. Every year I have to pay about 2.4% of my home’s value in property taxes. This steep rate creates a bit of a dance each year. The counties appraise homes by an automated system, kind of like Estibot. Then you have to argue with the county that the computer-generated ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An refurbish on Moniker - I’ve transferred many of my domain names out. I’m working on the rest. It’s been 7 weeks since domain name registrar Moniker switched to a new platform. 7 weeks since Moniker broke. The company has fixed a lot of the problems, even if confirmation messages were clearly written by a coder. But as I’ve written before, I’ve lost confidence in the registrar. I’m transferring my domain names out. I just completed my second batch of domain names and have now ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Tokyo domain name nears 10,000 registrations - Geo domain has a pretty good first day with nearly 10,000 domain name registrations. .Tokyo launched earlier today and now has 9,598 domain names in the zone file. That means day one adds were near 9,000. This is by far the largest city to launch a new top level domain name so far, and the numbers seem fairly good. One Domain Name Wire reader pointed out that Japanese companies often advertise for people to search for them, not type in their domain name. We’ll have ... read more ...
Mon 21st July 2014
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New TLDs this week: .Tokyo, .Moe, .Consulting and more - Two Japan-focused domains kick off the week. It’s another busy week for new top level domain names, including a big .city domain name hitting registrar’s shelves on Tuesday. Tuesday Tuesday sees the launch of two Japan-focused domain names…in English. The biggie is .Tokyo, by far the most populous city TLD to enter general availability thus far. At least one Domain Name Wire reader thinks it will take a big shift in habits for people in Japan to promote or ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
These 10 domain names in this week’s HA auction are value their reserve - These ten domain names strike me as fairly priced for the right buyer. Heritage Auctions holds its next domain name auction on Thursday, July 24. It’s getting quit a bit of press around this auction, thanks in part to the Bitcoins.com domain name. There’s a $750,000 reserve on that one. It will be interesting to see if someone steps up to the plate. Whether or not it sells, the press will shine some light on other good domain names in the auction. Here are ones ... read more ...
Fri 18th July 2014
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Minds + Machines nixes Priority Reservation System after registrars complain - Registrars complained to ICANN’s compliance department about program. Minds + Machines has nixed its Priority Reservation System for new top level domain names after registrars questioned aspects of the program. The program allowed customers to reserve domain names ahead of launch. Unlike typical pre-registrations, customers were guaranteed they’d get the domain name after sunrise since it was a program run by the registry, not registrars. Some registrars cried ... read more ...
Thu 17th July 2014
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Expired Domain Name sales results - Joseph Peterson reviews the past week in expired domain name sales. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So, rather than explain GoDaddy’s $6.8k sale of DivaZoo.com, let me just say, “See for yourself!”   This product line sells at mega-retailers like Amazon and Walmart but apparently has a wide distribution in smaller home decorating stores also. So if that brand is the buyer, then the domain’s price makes sense. (Note: I stripped the link’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker enables bulk send auth codes - Moniker makes it easier to transfer domain names to another registrar. It’s been a frustrating six weeks for Moniker customers. After a disastrous switch to a completely new registrar platform, many customers wanted to move their domain names to another registrar. Adding insult to injury, there was no way to get transfer authorization codes in bulk. Instead, customers had to request them one-by-one. Finally, some good news for customers: Moniker has added bulk ... read more ...
 
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Domain names advise Democrats to debate for “1 Million Votes” - DCCC registers domain name for new marketing push. Important midterm elections are upon us and both Republicans and Democrats are revving up their marketing engines. What catchy slogan will the Democrats push? “1 Million Votes”, judging from some domain names the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee registered yesterday. Here are the domain names: 1millionvotes.com 1millionvotesfor.com 1millionvotesfor2014.com 1millionvotesforequalpay.com 1millionvotesforimmigrationreform.com 1millionvotesforstudents.com 1millionvotesforthemiddleclass.com 1millionvotesforwomen.com 1millionvotesforworkers.com 1millionvotesforworkingfamilies.com onemillionvotesfor.com onemillionvotesfor2014.com onemillionvotesforraisingthewage.com onemillionvotesforstudents.com onemillionvotesforwomen.com onemillionvotesforworkingfamilies.com Unfortunately ... read more ...