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 December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Why we only done a concession to Internet Archive - Do you use a useful website from a non-profit? Consider donating. I use a lot of tools for research for Domain Name Wire, and many of these are free. Today I used Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to research the prior use of a website. While I was there, I noticed that Internet Archive is asking for donations to keep its operations running. It’s easy to overlook such a request. But the reality is that many great resources wouldn’t exist without the support of their users, and Internet Archive ... read more ...
 
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2016 Domain Name Biz Predictions – DNW Podcast #64 - Industry pros give their predictions for 2016. It’s the annual predictions podcast! Listen to predictions from over a dozen people in the domain name business about what’s on tap for 2016: Bill Sweetman, Michael Castello, Rightside CEO Taryn Naidu, Igloo, Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz, Braden Pollock, Richard Tindal, Giuseppe Graziano, .Club, THE Domain Conference, Christa Taylor, Richard Lau, Public Interest Registry CEO Brian Cute, Dan Adamson, Joe Alagna, Michele Neylon and InterNetX. Subscribe via ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BenPao.com during $25.7k in Chinese-dominated week for lapsed domains - Chinese buyers pick up the top spots last week. Thanks to mulled cider and holiday caroling, this article appears later than usual. Fa la la la la! While these auctions took place the week prior to Christmas (December 16-22), we decided against publishing on Christmas Day. As you can see, China came back with a vengeance. 10 sales over $2k were 4-letter .COMs, proving that category hasn’t been completely diverted  from the expiry cycle after all – not yet. As many as 17 of the top 30 ... read more ...
Thu 24th December 2015
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Mrs Jello sues to retard Camilla.com transfer - UDRP panel ordered generic domain name to be transferred to Australian company. Mrs Jello LLC, a company formed by the late Igal Lichtman, has filed a lawsuit to block the transfer of Camilla.com after an adverse UDRP decision. Camilla Australia Pty Ltd tried to buy the domain name for AUS $50,000 to upgrade its domain Camilla.com.au. When it was rebuffed by Mrs Jello, it decided to file a UDRP. Mrs Jello had purchased the domain name for $16,100. Shockingly, a three member UDRP panel found in favor ... read more ...
 
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The many respectful "no" I've ever perceived from a domain inquirer - One potential buyer didn’t get upset when I quoted him a price he couldn’t afford. Every domain name investor has dealt with angry people inquiring about buying domain names. You quote them a price; they tell you to flip off (or something along those lines). In the spirit of Christmas, I’d like to share a response I received last week after I quoted a $12,000 price for a domain name: Hi Andrew: Wow. I wish I could, but I can’t at that price. Thank you for your time. I congratulate you on ... read more ...
Wed 23rd December 2015
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What if TLDs are Chinese? - Do certain top level domain names have a Chinese meaning? We’ve often seen TLDs repurposed. For instance, .ME and .TV – originally the country codes of Montenegro and Tuvalu, respectively – are mainly understood as words. While .SI means Slovenia in Slovenia, Spanish speakers might read it as “yes”. More recently, .PW has been marketed as a shorthand for “professional web”. Such extra interpretations can be either natural or forced. Some arise without prompting; some fail to catch ... read more ...
 
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End user domain name sales adult to $50,000 - A “Merry Christmas” edition of the end user sales report. Sedo has changed its weekly sales disclosure to only include sales of $2,000 or less. Their median sales price is well below $2,000, so this means the volume of end user sales I can report is significantly lower. I’m going to work with Sedo to get additional data for this report going forward. But for this week–the last end user report of the year–I’ve discovered 11 end user sales of up to $50,000. Here’s a look at these end ... read more ...
 
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Viral grill spoliation video facilities .Vegas domain name - Video has nearly 800,000 views already. A Las Vegas Mexican restaurant turned a robbery into a viral video hit, giving the .Vegas top level domain name a bit of publicity at the same time. Frijoles Frescas was recently robbed. That sucks for the restaurant, but it managed to turn surveillance video of the robbery into a viral video hit that is giving it publicity and likely leading to the identification of the perpetrators. The restaurant uses the domain name FrijolesAndFrescas.com, but also owns ... read more ...
Tue 22nd December 2015
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Verisign gets obvious for generating Pronounceable domain names - Patent describes method of generating made up words that can be pronounced. .Com registry Verisign has obtained U.S. patent number 9,218,334 for “Pronounceable domain names”. The patent describes a method of generating domain names that can be pronounced. Verisign explains that while many short domain names are registered, there are still short domains that can be pronounced that can be registered: Short domain names are popular because they can be catchy and easier to remember than longer domain ... read more ...
 
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Make your NamesCon scheduling easy with Sched - Tool makes it easy to sync session calendar with personal calendar. Sched, a nifty tool for planning your schedule during NamesCon, is back this year. You can use Sched to plan which sessions you want to attend and then easily import them into your calendar. You can even change your session plans through the NamesCon site and have your calendar automatically sync. I just used Sched last week to plan my session schedule, and can now fill the gaps with meetings. Here’s how to do it. 1. Sign up or ... read more ...
Mon 21st December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows CEO Elliot Noss – DNW Podcast #63 - Noss explains the evolution of Tucows. Tucows (NADSAQ: TCX) started in the early 90s as a software download site, but is now one of the world’s largest domain name registrars and has a market cap of about $250 million. CEO Elliot Noss explains a common thread in Tucows’ transition from downloads to domains, and now a provider of mobile phone and internet service. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, or click play below or download to begin listening. ... read more ...
 
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Frank Schilling gets RDNH win on 3 minute domain name - Complainant failed to disclose prior negotiations. With the help of attorney John Berryhill, Frank Schilling has successfully defended his three letter domain name DKY.com in a UDRP. And, even though Berryhill didn’t ask for a finding of reverse domain name hijacking, the panel rightfully determined the complainant to have filed the case in abuse of the policy. The complainant was Dumankaya Yapi Malzemeleri San. Ve Tic. A.S of Istanbul, Turkey, represented by AYDIN AYDIN Law Firm, Turkey. It started ... read more ...
Fri 18th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign IDNs: Landrush sum and Premium Domains - Landrush will not be like Early Access. Verisign is getting ready to launch its first internationalized domain name, a Japanese transliteration of .com .コム. Based on comments Verisign CEO James Bidzos made on an investor conference call, it seemed that the company was considering a declining price “Early Access” model for landrush. Early Access was popularized by Donuts, and is essentially a dutch auction model in which the price to register a domain name decreases over time. Verisign is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Expired Domain Report – Chewbacca, Adorno… - Any bets: Who needs to be more frequently Flead.com ($211) – an ewok or Chewbacca? Seeing Adorno.com ($2.8k) in the charts this week, I’m sorely tempted to bore everybody with an essay on the philosopher, Theodor Adorno, who’ll never let me forget that “the splinter in your eye is the best magnifying glass”. He’d take a fairly dim view of domaining. Come to think of it, every other sentence the man wrote was a yelp in response to some metaphysical flea bite. So Adorno beats ewoks ... read more ...
 
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Neustar: Linking What Matters - As company continues to evolve, it files trademarks for likely new slogan. Neustar has been shifting its revenue base from a telecom contract to marketing, domain names and more. Based on recent trademark filings, it appears the company will adopt the slogan “Linking What Matters” going forward. The company filed six intent-to-use trademark applications for “Linking What Matters”, and the goods and services descriptions cover basically everything the company offers. That includes, of course, ... read more ...
Thu 17th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Gazetteer profiles 1,200 tip turn domain names - Guide covers the growing number of top level domain options. Domain name registrar Com Laude and sister company Valideus, both in the business of managing domain names for brands, released the third edition of the Domain Name Gazetteer today. A gazetteer is a geographical index or dictionary, and that aptly describes the publication. It features 1,200 top level domain names, each with information about restrictions, purpose, links to dispute policies, etc. It’s a handy datasheet, if you will, about ... read more ...
 
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Sedo links adult with .EU whois to sell domains - Name not available? Whois searchers will now see if it’s for sale. EURid is now showing if a domain name is listed for sale at Sedo when someone does a whois lookup, and linking directly to the sale listing. This is a nifty deal. Keep in mind that full .eu whois records are only available at EURid’s website, so many people use the actual website to look up whois records. Now, if they see the domain is registered, they will be notified that it can still be obtained (see picture below). A couple ... read more ...
 
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Sunday competence be a best day of NamesCon - Topic tables, networking and a wine bar greet attendees on Sunday. I typically get to Las Vegas for NamesCon on Sunday evening, and I’ve already booked the same travel for this year. Now that I’ve taken a closer look at the schedule, I regret the timing. If you haven’t booked your travel yet, try to get there earlier. Sunday, January 10 might be the most informative day for conference-goers. Multiple topic tables will be set up from noon to 6 pm, giving people the chance to chat with experts ... read more ...
 
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Minds + Machines has finished 1/3 of designed £15 share buyback - Company purchased another two million shares yesterday, bringing total to 59 million. New top level domain name company Minds + Machines bought another two million of its own shares for cancellation yesterday, pushing its total buybacks to £5.1 million to date. The company announced an up-to £15 million share buyback program in September, and has now spent about a third of the total within the first three months. To date, the company has purchased approximately 59 million shares, reducing its total ... read more ...
 
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SEC questioning Endurance International Group - Webhosting and domain name company reveals SEC investigation. Endurance International Group, a rollup of domain name and webhosting companies, announced today that it is being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company disclosed: Endurance International Group Holdings, Inc. (“Endurance”) received a subpoena dated December 10, 2015 from the Boston Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), requiring the production of certain ... read more ...
Wed 16th December 2015
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.Club has sole 2,000 reward domain name so distant today - .Club registry gets solid results from release of 13,000 premium names. .Club has sold 2,000 premium domains in less than a day through its registrar channel. [Update: 4,000 sold within 24 hours.] This morning, the company started offering 13,000 domain names through its premium program that were previously registry reserved. This means the names are available at participating registrars with a premium price. 5,000 of names retail for $100 or less, and all of the domains renew at standard prices. Some ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sharks.TV, 420.agency and other End User domain name sales - A condo board, marijuana company and rugby site bought domain names last week. Is the low-hanging fruit in short domain names gone? Sedo’s sales and dollar volume dropped this week. It turned in 602 transactions totaling $1.1 million. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but is lower than previous weeks. No matter. This column is about end user domain name sales. YogaShop.com and TheHairShop.com are still in escrow, but at $20k each, they’re definitely end user purchases. Sharks.tv sold for $15,000, ... read more ...
 
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Escrow.com wants to keep Trust while improving a service - GM Jackson Elsegood says support and usability enhancements are key initiatives for leading escrow service. Jackson Elsegood, GM for Escrow.comEscrow.com is under new ownership. With a change at the top, there’s been a bit of concern over making sure the core escrow product remains intact. Yesterday I spoke with Jackson Elsegood, the new General Manager for Escrow.com. His message is pretty clear: the core product and pricing will stay, and service and usability enhancements are on the way. What’s ... read more ...
Tue 15th December 2015
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Winners from China - A look at some of the winners from the Chinese domain name boom, from last week’s Domain Name Wire newsletter. Do you subscribe to the Domain Name Wire Newsletter? If you don’t, here’s what you’re missing. This was published as part of the newsletter that went out last week. You can sign up for the newsletter by sending a blank email to domain_name_wire@getresponse.net or use the signup box in the right column of this page. China is making it a great year for the domain name industry. Few ... read more ...
 
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Women in Domaining earnings to NamesCon - One of the most important events during NamesCon is returning for next month’s event in Las Vegas. Women in Domaining, a networking event for women in the domain name industry, will take place on Tuesday, January 12. This year’s event will be poolside at the Tropicana and feature a full buffet. Although the number of women in the domain name industry is growing, it’s still an industry made up primarily of men. This event is a great way for women to network before the evening’s Waternight ... read more ...