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.

Tue 7th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Republican National Committee loses quarrel over .republican - RNC loses objection against Demand Media’s application to run .republican top level domain name. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has lost a community objection it filed against Demand Media’s application to run the .republican top level domain name. The RNC, which uses the domain name gop.com, is behind an application for the .gop domain name. This case is really interesting, as panelist Brigitte Stern provided a very detailed analysis of the language ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New escrow use Agreed.com launches - New domain name escrow service offers a good user experience to streamline domain transactions. Thought Convergence has formally launched its new online escrow service, Agreed. Those of you at TRAFFIC in Florida last October will recall that I wore an Agreed t-shirt one day. This was because Ammar Kubba won a charity auction: For a $2,750 donation to The Water School, I agreed to wear an Agreed.com t-shirt for a day, and to post a write-up about the company on Domain ... read more ...
Mon 6th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: GoDaddy acquires Afternic - The combined entity will give more reach domain name sellers, but it also means there’s one less competitor in the marketplace. Mergers and acquisitions in the domain name industry happen all the time. Yet one that took place in 2013 has the potential to have a big effect on domain name owners. In September, GoDaddy acquired domain name aftermarket Afternic. At its core, Afternic is a platform for buying and selling domain names across various websites. Yet the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verisign files obvious focus for automatically formulating Whois use for TLDs - Verisign wants to patent a way to scale creation of whois service for top level domain names. Verisign has filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to automatically creating Whois for new top level domain names. The application, 13/746579 (pdf), was filed in January 2013 and published last week. It describes a typical whois system, and then explains that creating whois for a provisioned top level domain name does not scale: With ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Wire stories for December - The 2013 RAA, .sucks and click fraud all figured into last month’s top stories. Over the past two weeks I’ve been posting about the biggest stories of 2013. But I’d be remiss to not also post my customary monthly list of the top news stories in the domain name business. So here’s a list of the top stories from December 2013: 1. A big website is going to go dark thanks to ICANN’s new Whois verification – the new registrar accreditation agreement may lead ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
13 some-more finish user domain sales, including Folia.com for $37,500 - App maker buys Folia.com for new app. Afternic and GoDaddy combined to sell $1.1 million worth of domain names over the holiday week ending December 29. Here are some of the sales that were to end users, including Folia.com. You can see more end user sales here. Folia.com $37,500 – Branchfire, creator of the iAnnotate app, bought this domain for a new productivity app. The seller appears to be Notion Research LLC, which previously was creating a product called Folia ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Gucci wins 182 domain names in a UDRP - Gucci wins a lot of domain names in a UDRP decision. Italian design firm Guccio Gucci S.p.A. has won 182 domain names in a UDRP. It’s one of the highest number of domain names I’ve seen transferred in a single UDRP, although there have certainly been larger cases. The case was filed against Brian E. Nielsen of “Boise, New York”. There doesn’t appear to be a city of Boise in New York, and Gucci claimed the whois information was bogus. It also alleged that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are we going to NamesCon subsequent week? - Hundreds of you are. Leave a comment if you’ll be there. Are you going to NamesCon in Las Vegas next week? If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you are. With over 450 people expected to attend, NamesCon will be the biggest domain name conference in a year (excluding ICANN’s meetings). The huge attendance numbers are good news, but it can also make it more difficult to network. The more people, the harder it is to seek out people you’d like ... read more ...
Sat 4th January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Owner Alert: Whois corroboration phishing scams have already begun - New RAA requirement to verify your contact information is great news to scammers. Effective January 1, any domain name registrar that has signed on to the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (that includes all of the big registrars) must verify certain aspects of whois contact information. The registrars must verify this by phone or email. Email will be the most popular method because it’s cheaper. Law enforcement agencies asked for this as a way to reduce bogus ... read more ...
Fri 3rd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
20 finish user domain name sales - GoDaddy and Afternic had a good sales week heading into the holidays. The domain name aftermarket doesn’t stop just because of the holidays! Today we’re playing catchup, as this list of end user sales is for Dec 16-Dec 22 at Afternic and GoDaddy. These are part of the $1.55 million worth of aftermarket domain names they sold during the week. You can see more end user domain name sales here. BluDot.ca $10,000 – Furniture seller BluDot. (I’m actually typing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NamesCon domain name discussion might sell out - With over 400 attendees, NamesCon is nearing capacity. I’m not sure what constitutes a “sell out”, but apparently this month’s NamesCon conference is nearing its capacity: Over 400 people have already registered, making this the biggest domainer-focused conference since Webfest nearly a year ago. This is despite being announced just a few months ago. The timing (with new TLDs finally rolling out) is great, the cost is low, and the content looks better than ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts appeals absurd .hospital objection - New TLD applicant asks ICANN’s board to reconsider objection that killed .hospital. A lot of new top level domain name applicants and objectors have filed reconsideration requests with ICANN after landing on the losing side of objections. I stopped writing about these filings after the first few. They’re so plentiful as to no longer constitute “news.” Also, ICANN is rejecting all of the requests, so it seems like a futile practice. But if there were ever ... read more ...
Thu 2nd January 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: New TLD Objection problems - “Blame part of it on how the guidelines to achieving these goals were actually written. Blame it on weak agreements with incapable arbitration groups that hired incapable panelists.” Well said Andrew! By the way we filed re-consideration requests on the Amazon cases. We will act accordingly to ICANN’s and the ICC’s response. Here it is: http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/reconsideration/request-dotmusic-23dec13-en.pdf (See http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/governance/reconsideration ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg launch AllThingsD inheritor on a .net domain - New tech publication Re/code acquires and launches on a .net domain name. Tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg have shut down AllThingsD after their contract with NewsCorp/Wall Street Journal concluded without a new deal. With backing from NBCUniversal and Windsor Media, they’ve launched the successor to AllThingsD on a .net domain: Recode.net. It appears the duo may have bought the domain name from NameMedia last month. In fact, the whois record still ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy gets sixth obvious for “Adwords for Top Level Domains” - Domain registrar continues to collect patents for ways to prioritize domain name search results. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a sixth patent to GoDaddy related to a way to position domain names in response to a user’s domain search. I first wrote about GoDaddy’s idea in 2011 after the USPTO granted the first patent, 7,890,602, for “Tools enabling preferred domain positioning on a registration website.” Domain name registrars accept marketing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Auctions sells tighten to 40,000 domain names in December - Top reported sale was Uber.org for $36,000. GoDaddy Auctions tallied 38,841 domain name sales in December, according to preliminary numbers in the company’s Domain Market Report. The top reportable sale was Uber.org for $36,000. Although the whois record does not yet reflect the buyer, a likely buyer is taxi/black car service Uber. Here are the top ten reported sales for the month: uber.org $36,000 supporter.com $35,000 personalcfo.com $29,000 squid.com $25,500 3dprinters.net $23,001 uchat.com $20,000 adata.com $15,000 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google’s and Cleveland Clinic’s .Med tip turn domains rejected - Panel determines .med would create likelihood of detriment to medical community. Internet powerhouse Google and one of the world’s most respected health institutions, The Cleveland Clinic, have both seen their hopes for operating a .med top level domain name dashed by an arbitration panel. Both parties were on the losing end of community objections filed by Independent Objector Alain Pellet as part of the new top level domain name objection process. International ... read more ...
Tue 31st December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: Demand Media to spin off domain business - Rightside will make some noise in 2014. Demand Media has had its share of ups and downs since it was founded in 2006. 2013 was mostly a year of downs for its content business, which includes eHow and Livestrong.com, thanks to Google’s search engine changes. But the domain name business is still holding its own, and it’s hoping to capitalize on the introduction of new top level domain names in 2014. In February, Demand Media announced that it was planning to spin ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows executes retreat batch split, starts trade on NASDAQ - Tucows shares trading close to $13.00. Domain name company Tucows is now trading on the NASDAQ at a double digit number, thanks to its reverse stock split. As of the time of posting, is shares (NASDAQ: TCX) are trading at $12.95. Shares closed at $3.11 yesterday, and today the shares are trading after a 1 for 4 reverse split. That would put the stock at an “open” of $12.44, so the stock is still up in trading today. Tucows moved to the NASDAQ and executed the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo and Tucows ink domain inventory placement deal - Tucows has joined SedoMLS, giving access to the domain sales network to its thousands of resellers. Sedo has gained a big customer for its SedoMLS network. Tucows, which is generally considered the third or fourth largest domain name registrar, is joining the network, the companies announced. This means that domain names listed for sale on Sedo are now eligible to appear on Tucows’ OpenSRS network of 13,000 resellers. Domain names registered with Tucows will also ... read more ...
Mon 30th December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: A new instruction for GoDaddy - GoDaddy has a new CEO and is moving in a new direction. GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving is trying to change the company — and its image.Blake Irving took the helm of domain name registrar and webhosting giant GoDaddy this year. It was a big shift for the company, which had been run by insiders until an investment group bought in to the company in 2011. The investors later installed an interim CEO until Irving came on board. Irving comes from Microsoft and Yahoo!, and brought ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Anti-Google organisation FairSearch.org loses conflict opposite .map - Panelist unmoved by FairSearch.org’s arguments against Google’s bid to run a .map top level domain name. FairSearch.org, a consortium representing companies that compete against Google, is now 0-for-2 in community objections it filed against Google’s top level domain name applications. Panelist Vladimir Khvalei has determined that the group’s community objection against .map fails (pdf). It previously lost its objection to .fly, and only a determination on ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s roughly 2014, and people are induction 2014 domain names in droves - Over 6,000 2014 domain names registered in December. It’s almost 2014, and the market for registering domain names that include “2014” is apparently quite robust. Verisign data show that 6,108 .com and .net domain names including “2014” have been registered in December as of the end of yesterday. Scanning through the list, I picked up on a few trends. First, counterfeiting and unauthorized trademark use is alive and well. Many of the domain names include ... read more ...
Fri 27th December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: First new tip turn domain name contracts signed - A big milestone in the new top level domain name program. It’s been a long at winding road to the introduction of new top level domain names on the internet. It’s taken many more years than some applicants expected. For some companies, that’s meant multiple rounds of staffing up and then trimming employees. But in July of 2013 the program hit a major milestone: the first new TLD registry agreement was signed with ICANN. dotShabaka Registry inked the contract ... read more ...
Thu 26th December 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2013 Top Stories: a 2013 RAA - A new Registrar Accreditation Agreement is finalized and signed by many registrars. 2013 saw the finalization of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), which is the contract between ICANN and domain name registrars that offer domain names to the public. It’s the first major update since 2009. This new agreement has major implications for everyone who touches the domain name industry, not just for registrars and domainers. It will affect every person who ... read more ...