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 14th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Eco crook files heading focus for .Eco - What is planet.ECO up to with its latest trademark filing? A company that appears to be out of the running for the .Eco top level domain name has filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “.Eco”. planet.ECO LLC was one of four applicants for the .Eco top level domain name. Rival applicant Big Room won a Community Priority Evaluation for .Eco, meaning it will get rights to run the domain name exclusively. Two other applicants, Donuts and Minds + Machines, filed with ICANN for the Independent ... read more ...
 
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Michael Blend – DNW Podcast #62 - How Michael Blend finally struck gold with domain names. The domain name opportunity was staring Michael Blend in the face on two occasions, but he missed it. The third time around he finally pounced on the opportunity…and it paid off. Blend developed the domain parking service HotKeys and acquired some of the world’s best domain names, then sold the business to Demand Media. Hear his story, what he sees for the future of domain names, and learn about TopCoin, the “frequent flyer program” ... read more ...
 
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Company says new TLD is "cool", though comes with drawbacks - Classic Engineering has a cool domain name, but founder Eduardo Umaña sometimes has to explain it to people. Classic Engineering promotes its watches on a .Engineering domain name.A couple weeks ago I profiled Huemor, a company that moved from a .com domain name to the new top level domain .Rocks. Today I’m going to look at a more likely scenario: a company choosing a new top level domain name because the .com was registered already. Eduardo Umaña chose the name Classic Engineering for his product ... read more ...
Fri 11th December 2015
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Constipated.com, Roper.com and some-more lapsed domain name sales - Last time, China was conspicuously absent from the high end of NameJet / SnapNames expired domain auctions; and I proposed 1 theory as to why. Since then, Chinese-style domains have made a comeback; but they’re clearly playing second fiddle. China placed 3 sales among the top 10, ranking #4, #5, and #6. In the top 20, another 5. Reaching out to the top 30, you’ll find just 3 more Chinese domains. That’s a fairly uniform 37% spread – 32% by spending. Compare that to China’s presence ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICA issues matter on terrible Camilla.com UDRP decision - Policy and advocacy group takes unusual step of issuing statement about a particular UDRP case. The UDRP for Camilla.com was truly horrible. A three-person panel essentially stole a valuable, generic domain name from the heirs of the late Igal Lichtman, commonly known in domain name circles as Mrs Jello. It ruled that a company that didn’t have any sort of trademark rights in the name “Camilla” at the time the domain was registered should get the domain name. Internet Commerce Association, ... read more ...
 
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Google files censure to take down Adsense click rascal site - Site purported to offer “no risk” way to increase Google Adsense revenue. Google has filed a cybersquatting complaint against the owner of the site AdsenseClickers.com in order to take over the domain name. [Update 1/11/16: Google won the case.] Until recently, the website at AdsenseClickers.com offered a service to help people boost their Google Adsense pay-per-click revenue. The service promised to send only real, natural traffic and promised “zero risk” to customers, but I wouldn’t believe ... read more ...
 
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It was only a bug: .Com by-pass is behind in iOS 9.2 - Shortcut that dissapeared with iOS 9.1 is back in iOS 9.2. Last month I wrote about how Apple changed the functionality of the top level domain shortcut button on its keyboard for iPad devices. When you press and hold the period “.” key, it brings up a list of top level domain name options. Previously, if you didn’t select anything and just released the key, .com was inserted by default. When iPad devices were updated to iOS 9.1, however, the .com default didn’t work as usual. If you pressed ... read more ...
Thu 10th December 2015
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Google Domains pitches new TLDs with Q&A post - See a new TLD in action by searching for “coffee club”, company suggests. It’s not from Google’s search team, but a new blog post today from Google Domains seeks to clear up any misunderstanding about new domain names and search. The post answers common questions about new domain name endings, such as will they affect my website’s search ranking (no) and can I move my site to a new domain name (yes). Google uses Coffee.club as an example of how new domain names show up in search. It suggests ... read more ...
 
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15 finish user domain name sales that happened final week - A bus service, real estate firm and other companies that bought domain names last week. Sedo handled $1.4 million worth of domain name transactions last week. The end of 2015 is helping Sedo finish the year in style. Last week it handled 654 domain name transactions for a total of $1.4 million. Among the end users that bought domain names were a New Zealand company that bought a .co to match its .co.nz, a pharmaceuticals company that is rebranding, and a site that wants to be a gathering place for ... read more ...
 
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Next Smurfs film is expected "The Lost Village", domain names suggest - Domain names are likely for third film due out in 2017. The next Smurfs movie will likely be called “The Lost Village”. Papa Smurf is ready to make his return… Sony has registered a number of domain names suggesting its third film in the series will be called Smurfs The Lost Village. The company is planning to release a new Smurfs film in 2017. Rumors are that it will deal with the origin of the Smurfs and how they all got together. Among the domain names the company registered yesterday are: smurfsthelostvillage.net smurfsthelostvillagemovie.com smurfsthelostvillagemovie.net smurfsthelostvillagethemovie.com smurfsthelostvillagethemovie.net LostVillageMovie.com ... read more ...
Wed 9th December 2015
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Why Marchex and WWM domain name acquisitions make clarity for GoDaddy - Unique characteristics make these portfolios valuable to GoDaddy. Worldwide Media’s portfolio is a good match for GoDaddy’s business model. GoDaddy made the surprising announcement on Monday that it had purchased Michael Berkens’ domain name portfolio. It was surprising because I had no idea Michael Berkens’ Worldwide Media (WWM) portfolio was for sale. But it’s unsurprising that GoDaddy was interested in this particular portfolio. Like the portfolio GoDaddy acquired from Marchex earlier ... read more ...
 
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Verisign appeals XYZ justice loss - Case will continue in Court of Appeals. Just days after .XYZ asked a court to force Verisign to pay its legal bills in a lawsuit; Verisign upped the ante by appealing the case. In late October, judge Claude M. Hilton granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment in the false advertising case brought by Verisign. On November 20, Hilton released his opinion, noting that XYZ’s claims were just puffery and opinion. Last week, XYZ said the case was “exceptional”, and Verisign should be required to ... read more ...
 
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Remember Congo? It rebranded as LawBooth.com - Company finds a good .com for under $3,000. Congo changed its brand to Lawbooth. Remember Congo? The company that started its lawyer-match service at Congo.io, and then balked at the “egregiously overinflated” asking price of $750,000 for Congo.com? Although I disagree about its characterization of the Congo.com asking price, I like the contest it proposed: find us a .com domain name we can buy for less than $3,000 to make our new brand. When people say “all the good .com domains are taken,” ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The late Igal Lichtman, aka Mrs Jello, loses a terrible UDRP decision - Panel re-writes UDRP and “registered in bad faith” requirement. The heirs of the late Igal Lichtman, commonly known in domain name circles as Mrs Jello, have lost a UDRP decision for the common name Camilla.com. The case was filed by Australian clothing company Camilla Australia Pty Ltd, which uses the domain Camilla.com.au. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization panel determined that, even though the domain name was registered prior to the Complainant having rights in the (common ... read more ...
Tue 8th December 2015
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"China" is #1 trending word in .Com - Thousands of registrations over two days help “China” spike. It turns out the Chinese aren’t just buying numeric and short .com domain names. “China” was the #1 trending word in new .com registrations last month according to .com registry Verisign. It seems that there was a spike in domain name registrations containing China followed by three letters (e.g. Chinadjr.com) on November 13-14. Drone was also a trending term last month. And no research is necessary to understand why “Friday”, ... read more ...
 
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Another record-buster during NameJet - November was a great month for NameJet. During 2015, NameJet surpassed itself several times. July had a record-setting 6-figure sale, but then September broke that record within weeks. And in many ways, October was the auction platform’s strongest month ever. That is, until November. November set 2 new records. Each month, NameJet reports sales above $2000. (Most fall below that threshold.) In total, these top auctions have beaten the million-dollar mark just 4 times – starting in July, every ... read more ...
 
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CentralNic acquires Instra for $24 million, sells $3.6M in domains, and skeleton to lift $15M - CentralNic buys another domain name registrar. CentralNic is buying Instra for USD $24M.Publicly traded domain name registrar and registry CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC) has agreed to acquire domain name registrar Instra Group for AU $33 million (USD $24 million), the company announced today. The purchase price includes AU $30 million in cash and AU $3 million in stock, with AU $5 million held in escrow and paid out over the next five years. To fund the acquisition, CentralNic plans to issue 25 million ... read more ...
Mon 7th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2016 Domain Name Wire Media Kit now available - Domain Name Wire is nearly 11 years old, and I couldn’t do it without the support of the many sponsors of this site. I’ve just completed a new media kit explaining sponsorship opportunities, ranging from traditional graphic ads to podcast promotions. If your company targets the niche Domain Name Wire market, please contact me at andrew (at) domainnamewire.com and I’ll send the media kit to you. Here are some of the types of people that visit Domain Name Wire daily: Domain name investors Corporate ... read more ...
 
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New TLDs, Whois and IANA with Michele Neylon – DNW Podcast #61 - The perspectives of a mid-sized domain name registrar. Michele Neylon runs Irish hosting and domain name company Blacknight. On today’s show, he gives thoughts on new TLDs from the perspective of a mid-sized domain name registrar…and you’ll find his perspective to be really interesting. We also discuss WHOIS and the IANA transition. Also: China clamps down on .com domain names, a banner month for .Club, big Rightside investors and an agency that .Rocks. Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the ... read more ...
 
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GoDaddy acquires Mike Berkens' WorldWide Media domain name portfolio - Berkens sells majority of domain names to GoDaddy. GoDaddy has acquired the majority of Michael Berkens’ domain name portfolio; the company announced today. Berkens writes the blog TheDomains.com and his portfolio was under the company Worldwide Media. GoDaddy acquired the vast majority of Berkens’ domain names, about 70,000 names in total. “GoDaddy is focused on making sure our customers get the perfect online name for their business or passion, so we’re always looking at ways to improve ... read more ...
 
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Domain Owner sues National Arbitration Forum and complainant after losing UDRP - Lawsuit names UDRP complainant and National Arbitration Forum. VirtualPoint, Inc., which operates the site UDRPSearch.com, has filed a lawsuit after losing a UDRP for the domain name WindCreek.com. The company filed the suit (pdf) against not only the complainant in the case but also the National Arbitration Forum. Against complainant Poarch Band of Creek Indians, VirtualPoint alleges that the group fraudulently obtained its Wind Creek trademarks and manipulated evidence by searching for a specific ... read more ...
 
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Twitter only went "all in" with Periscope domain names - Company registers 75 domain names related to Periscope. Twitter’s Periscope AppTwitter’s Periscope live-streaming app is proving to be a hit. Someone at the company decided it was time to go all in on brand protection for the app. On Friday, Twitter registered 75 domain names related to the app, ranging from PeriscopeCats.com to PeriscopeValentines.com. I guess it’s not just the Chinese that continue to register .com domain names en masse. Here’s the entire list: periscopeair.com periscopeball.com ... read more ...
Sun 6th December 2015
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.XYZ asks Verisign to compensate $1.6 million in fees from lawsuit - The .XYZ domain name registry has asked a court (pdf) to force Verisign to pay $1.6 million in fees and expenses related to the lawsuit Verisign filed against it. Verisign, the $10 billion (market cap) company that runs .com, sued XYZ for false advertising claims. The judge overseeing the case eventually granted XYZ’s motion for summary judgment. But that was after XYZ paid $1.6 million in fees and expenses to defend itself, a massive sum for the startup. XYZ claims the ongoing costs of the suit ... read more ...
Fri 4th December 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
November Top Stories and Podcasts - A look back at November in the domain name business. In a roundabout way, China accounted for 3 of the top 5 stories on Domain Name Wire last month. This makes sense given the unprecedented runup in prices for short and numeric domain names is driving the domain name business. Here are the top five stories from Domain Name Wire last month: 1. Be careful of domain name pumping – People with ulterior motives are pumping the prices of certain domain names. Be skeptical. 2. Booking.com buys .Hotels ... read more ...
 
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How a artistic group switched from .Com to .Rocks - A New York web design agency took precautions when it decided to switch to a .rocks domain name. Earlier this year, web design and marketing firm Huemor decided it wanted to switch its online presence from HuemorDesigns.com to Huemor.rocks. “SEO folks told me I was crazy to switch from a long-standing domain,” Huemor co-founder and President Jeff Gapinski told Domain Name Wire. “However, the new extension really appealed to us from a branding perspective. It summarized how we feel in one little ... read more ...