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 21st February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The domain name discussion circuit is really, unequivocally busy - Lots of competition creates a dilemma for attendees. The domain name conference circuit is undergoing a big shakeup in 2014 because there are a lot more options. A lot of the new(er) options are directly related to the rollout of new top level domain names. Money is flowing because of the rollout, and a lot of new faces in the industry are seeking to learn, meet people, and strike deals. The huge number of conferences means that prospective attendees will have to ... read more ...
Thu 20th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
22 finish user domain name sales adult to $25,000 - Ask.com, a pharmacy, and an Auctioneer buy domain names. Afternic and GoDaddy sold over $2 million worth of aftermarket domain names last week including new top level domain name auctions. Here are some of the domain names that were purchased by end users. You can see previous end user reports here. GoodNeighbors.com $25,000 – A MarkMonitor client purchased GoodNeighbors.com. State Farm is a client and uses the slogan “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is there”, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SteelBuildings.com: an instance of what’s wrong with UDRP - Small business owner forced to defend his great product-defining domain name. Last month I was shocked to see a UDRP filed for SteelBuildings.com. I was even more surprised when I saw that the domain name seemed to be in use by a company that sells steel buildings. I reached out to the whois contact for the domain name, as well as the email address on the website, to ask for details on the complaint. Yesterday, a few weeks later, I received a phone call from John ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Moniker has a new CEO - Bonnie Wittenburg takes over the top spot at domain name registrar Moniker. Domain name registrar Moniker has a new CEO, Bonnie Wittenburg. Wittenburg has been with Moniker’s parent company KeyDrive since 2009, where she served as Executive Vice President of Key-Systems USA. She has been in the domain name industry since 1999, including stints at idNames (later part of Network Solutions and then Verisign) and Iron Mountain. She replaces Craig Snyder, who came over ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain registrars doubt Minds + Machines’ Priority Reservation System - Registrar Stakeholder Group questions if Minds + Machines is complying with registry and registrar agreements. The separation between registry and registrar is being blurred with the introduction of new TLDs. For the first time, gTLD registries can also own domain name registrars. This uncharted territory is sure to lead to first time issues that need to get ironed out. Here’s the first major one to be raised. The ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG) is questioning ... read more ...
Wed 19th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The non-.com steam cause and what it means for new TLDs - In today’s world, secondary domains leak traffic to .com and dominant country code domains. Will this change? One of the challenges of registering a domain under a top level domain that’s not dominant in the location of most of your website visitors is confusion. In the U.S., that means choosing a domain other than .com. In the Czech Republic, that means choosing a domain other than .cz. Whatever the dominant TLD is in a country, opting for another extensions ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign gets obvious for Recovery of a Failed Registry - Verisign adds to patent war chest. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Verisign patent number 8,656,209 for “Recovery of a Failed Registry”. I wrote about the patent application in 2012. Verisign describes the system as one that “enables a registry recovery service to retrieve zone files from a target registry, archive the zone files, publish the zone files to a managed DNS server, reconcile ownership of the zone files, and publish the zone files ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What domain names Southpark, Kraft, American Eagle, and 21 others bought final week - Some big companies bought domain names on Sedo last week. Sedo sold $1.8 million worth of domain names last week. Here are some purchases by end users. (You can see previous end user sales reports here.) AEO.pl €744 – clothing company American Eagle Towelie.com €2,999 – Viacom. This is the name of an episode of Southpark, and a character in the episode. AccidentSolicitors.com £1,625 GBP – The same company behind LegalBrokers.co.uk UnitedPrint.pl €1,199 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex sells $1.6 million in domain names in Q4 - Marchex’s Archeo division continues to sell domains at fairly high prices. Marchex reported its fourth quarter earnings after the bell today. It included sales results from Archeo, its domain name division. Archeo sold 262 domain names for a total of $1.6 million last quarter. That’s about double how much it sold last year in the same quarter. It’s also a high average selling price of $6,100 per domain name. Averages can be misleading, but I suspect Archeo’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The story of how Microryza rebranded as Experiment.com for $54,000 - Story is typical of startups and explains the benefits of using a great domain name. Startups go through the name game all the time. Picking a name and acquiring the matching domain name is often no easy feat. But rarely is the story chronicled so well as this post on Priceonomics.com about Experiment.com. The story does a great job of outlining what I think is a typical adventure for startups: 1. Pick a bad name because it’s available for registration (or cheap). 2. ... read more ...
Tue 18th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Insurance.pro preference acknowledges boundary on UDRP and trademarks - Facing legitimate questions over a trademark’s legitimacy, UDRP panel determines case is outside the scope of the policy. A couple weeks ago a National Arbitration Forum panel handed down a decision in a complaint brought over the domain name insurance.pro. On the surface it appeared to just be a case about a seemingly generic domain name. But there are a couple interesting things about this case, and it could end up being an interesting reference case for UDRPs ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo sole $70.5 million value of domain domains final year, 53% were .com - Sedo releases 2013 sales data. Sedo published an infographic today highlighting its sales results from 2013. Here are some notable facts: * The company sold 37,241 domain names for a total of $70.5 million * 53% of sales were .com, followed by .de with 15%. 167 different TLDs were traded on Sedo last year. * The median sales price was $577, with 87% of sales for $2,500 or less. Just 3% of sales were for over $10,000. * 36% of buyers were in the U.S. and 21% in Germany. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aeropostale files Uniform Rapid Suspension box for .clothing domain name - Clothing company is second company to take advantage of new policy to defend against cybersquatting. Clothing company Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO) has filed a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) case against the domain name aeropostale.clothing. This is just the second case filed against a second level domain under a new top level domain using URS. URS is a faster and cheaper version of the UDRP. However, a win by the complainant results in only the suspension of the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Music new tip turn domain village objections fail - All community objections against .music and .band have failed. An International Chamber of Commerce panelist has denied Constantine Roussos’ community objections against competing applications for .music as well as applications for .band. The same panelist also denied an objection brought by International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies against another applicant. All of the .music objections have been decided in the applicants’ favor. Roussos ... read more ...
Mon 17th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Last year’s large domain opportunities: Bitcoin and dual forms of smoking - If you invested in bitcoin, marijuana, or e-cigarette related domains in the past year or two, congratulations. We can all see missed opportunities with hindsight. Looking back at the past year, I think there were two types of domain names that were ripe for buying: domains for bitcoin as well as two different types of “smoking”. Some good Bitcoin domains have been selling for top dollar in recent months. There was a good opportunity to pick up bitcoin related ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Top Level Domain Length vs. Total Domain Length - Some top level domain names are longer than we’re used to, but they can still be shorter overall. A lot of people have questioned if some new top level domain names are simply too long. Will people type in an eleven character top level domain name such as .photography when they’re used to typing in just two or three characters to the right of the dot? While it remains to be seen how internet users react, .photography appears to be an early winner with many photographers. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Latest tip turn domain associated trademarks: .xyz, Uniregistry, and more - These companies have filed trademark application for slogans related to top level domain names. Domain name registries are lining up all sorts of catchy slogans for their businesses. Here are some recent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “The Right Domain Name Can Change Your Life” – Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry filed an intent-to-use application for this slogan. Its applications could be for its registry or registrar businesses. “Name ... read more ...
Sun 16th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Guru vs. Ninja: let a conflict begin - Which top level domain name is better, .guru or .ninja? The runaway winner so far in new top level domain name launches is .guru. There are now over 30,000 .guru domain names registered. In my mind, .guru is similar to .ninja as many people use the underlying terms the same way. He’s a Ruby on Rails guru. He’s a Ruby on Rails ninja. So which is better, .guru or .ninja? It will be difficult to measure the two by registrations to figure out which one “wins” ... read more ...
Sat 15th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Afternic changes remuneration thresholds, ends Park & Sell remission program - Payment thresholds change for sales and parking platforms and rebate program ends. Afternic and domain name parking platform SmartName have changed their payment thresholds and options in the wake of GoDaddy’s acquisition. Afternic has also quietly shuttered its Park Sell rebate program. Payments For Afternic, the minimum domain sales payout for international wires is now $10,000 or more and comes with a $45 processing fee. Checks ($25 processing fee), PayPal, ... read more ...
Fri 14th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
27 finish user domain buyers including 23 And Me and Indiegogo - Popular startups among domain name buyers last week. Afternic and GoDaddy sold close to $2.0 million worth of domain names last week. Below are end user sales from last week. You can see previous end user sales lists here. AspireTechnology.com $30,000 – Aspire Technology, Ltd in Dublin MedPayment.com $2,088 – Direct Medical Claims Connection in New York. TrailerLoan.com $1,788 – Trailer Wheel and Frame, which sells what its name says. NetLeaseInvestments.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy auction information yield early denote of new TLD direct and values - Auction data show competition for new TLD registrations and shed light on strategic considerations for ordering domains. What are domains registered under new top level domain names worth, and what is the demand for them? We already know how many domains are being registered. .Guru has close to 30,000 registrations and .photography has topped 10,000. Most others are in the 1,000-5,000 range. But digging deeper into the pre-registration process provides another interesting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
People are shopping new TLDs when a “matching” .com is available - Would you pay over $1,000 for Metadata.guru when you could get MetadataGuru.com for just $10? This morning I posted about GoDaddy’s auction results for new top level domain names thus far. The post included nine domain names that sold for over $1,000 at auction. I totally missed something very, very interesting about some of these domain purchases. As Joseph Peterson pointed out in a comment, two of these domains had matching .com domains that were freely available ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Stone Temple Pilots to play DomainFest - STP on the bill for DomainFest 2014. DomainSponsor’s DomainFest conference is always known for legendary entertainment. The Playboy Mansion comes to mind. Renting our Universal Studios. In other words, over-the-top events when compared to other domain conferences. This year the conference has another great event, but in an entirely different category: Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington will play Tuesday, April 2 at a private event. The location will be ... read more ...
Thu 13th February 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
.Shabaka faces many hurdles bringing the domain name to market - In addition to going first, the Arabic TLD needs registrars and technology to support it. The first new top level domain names coming out of the gate are facing many challenges. Everything is a “first” and everyone is learning as they go. It’s perhaps hardest for شبكة. (shabaka), which faces many more hurdles than the others. Not only was it the very first top level domain to sign a contract with ICANN and go through sunrise, but it’s also an IDN.IDN – ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows on new TLDs, 2013 RAA, and Advertising - Tucows CEO Elliot Noss discusses the domain name business in the company’s latest investor call. Tucows released Q4 2013 earnings and held its investor conference call this week. Here are some highlights: * Tucows started charging for WHOIS privacy due to increased costs the company faces with the 2103 Registrar Accreditation Agreement. * Domain parking is still a drag on the company. It expects a flat or downward trend. This also affects its expired domain sales ... read more ...