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 21st October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dates and pricing finalized for NamesCon, a new domain name conference - NamesCon sets dates and pricing. Domain name investor Richard Lau is organizing a new domain name conference this coming January, as reported Friday on DNN. The conference in Las Vegas will be called NamesCon. A location has not yet been named, but dates are finalized for January 13-15, 2014. Early bird passes are available for $325 for the first 50 who register before November 1. Prices will increase as it gets closer to the event, with walk up prices of $925 at ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Walmart defeats kinship website - Panel orders union’s domain name be transferred to Walmart. Walmart has succeeded in taking down a criticism website created by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. In July, the retailer filed a dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization against the union’s use of the domain names ReallyWalmart.org, .com, and .net. ReallyWalmart.org hosted a site that parodied Walmart’s actual website TheRealWalmart.com. A three person panel ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC discussion kicks off in Ft. Lauderdale - TRAFFIC East 2013 began in Florida yesterday. The TRAFFIC domain name conference formally kicked off in Ft. Lauderdale last night. Poolside networking was followed by an opening night cocktail party. Later in the evening Frank Schilling hosted a number of Domain Name Sales clients for dinner. At the dinner, Schilling explained his plans for world domination in the domain name business. In addition to the many new top level domain names he’s launching, he’s also ... read more ...
Fri 18th October 2013
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Verisign combines domain name acid collection into DomainScope - DomainScope helps registrants find available domain names, including those with traffic or that recently expired. Verisign has released a new domain name search tool called DomainScope, which combines the functionality of its DomainFinder, DomainScore and DomainCountdown tools in one system. To use DomainScope, users plug in keywords and the system returns suggested available domain names. There are also tabs for available domains with traffic as well as expired domain ... read more ...
 
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CentralNic offers financing for new TLD auctions as good as operative capital - CentralNic will back new TLD applicants at auction and provide working capital. With ICANN’s auctions to settle new TLD contention sets coming soon, and applicants realizing they might need more money to launch their TLDs than previously expected, a number of companies are offering funding. One of those is newly-public CentralNic, which is offering financing for auctions as well as working capital for ongoing operations. CentralNic already has clients that have ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Bob Parsons buys selling agency - GoDaddy founder buys a marketing firm. GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons apprently never wants to be bored. He owns a bunch of motorcycle dealers and has been snapping up real estate in the Phoenix area. His latest purchase: a marketing and advertising firm. Parsons bought Scottsdale firm Martz Agency, which will be renamed Martz Parsons. His many organizations, including Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale, Go AZ Motorcycles, Spooky Fast Parts Engineering, YAM Properties, ... read more ...
Thu 17th October 2013
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23 finish user domain name sales from GoDaddy and Afternic - A furniture company, entrepreneur group, and a large electronics cases company buy domain names. Before jumping into this week’s Afternic/GoDaddy end user sales report, I’d like to call attention to two very timely domain name sales: DebtCeiling.com for $2,249 and DebtCeiling.net for $1,500. I don’t know who bought them (they have privacy on), but this may have been a smart buy. Even once this round of debt ceiling talks concludes, it won’t be long before ... read more ...
 
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5 with…Elliot Silver - Elliot Silver answers five questions about rebranding his blog. Elliot Silver has an occasional series on his blog called “5 with…” in which he asks someone in the domain industry five questions. In light of Elliot’s rebrand from ElliotsBlog.com to DomainInvesting.com this week, I thought it would be a fun idea to turn the tables on him. DNW: When did you initially decide it was time to change your blog’s name, and what were the key reasons? Silver: I had ... read more ...
 
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3 things to check out during subsequent week’s TRAFFIC conference - Here are three sessions I plan to attend at next week’s conference. The TRAFFIC conference kicks off in Ft. Lauderdale Sunday evening, with programming beginning Monday morning. You’ll rarely see me attend the actual conference sessions at these shows, but there are a few that I plan to pop in on this time around. They all take place Monday. gTLD Mania – Monday at 11:30 – What effect will new TLDs have the domain name market? Will they be successful? How do ... read more ...
Wed 16th October 2013
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Del Monte responds to bizarre new tip turn domain lawsuit - Del Monte Corporation has responded to Del Monte International’s lawsuit over the .delmonte top level domain name. Calling the lawsuit “ill-conceived”, Del Monte Corporation (DMC) has asked the court to dismiss the case. Indeed, the way Del Monte International (DMI) went about disputing a World Intellectual Property Organization ruling was rather silly. DMI applied for the top level domain .delmonte. Del Monte Corporation filed a legal rights objection against ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Would CatchJeremy.com be opposite with new TLDs? - T-Mobile’s advertising campaign includes a unique domain used just for the campaign. The commercial embedded below has been playing frequently during the National League Championship Series on TBS (Go Cards!). You’ll see that it prominently features the domain name CatchJeremy.com. The domain name is used solely as a tie-in to the advertising campaign about T-Mobile’s international data plans. Some proponents of new top level domain names have suggested that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
15 finish user domain name sales - Sedo’s end user sales last week include a three letter .org that sold for $56,000. I’m trying a different format for this week’s end user domain name sales report. The format is domain / price / buyer. Let me know if you prefer this to the old format. FaceTravel.at – 2,500 EUR – German travel company Facetravel GmbH. USA.org – $56,000 – this one hits close to home. It’s an Austin marketing company called GasPedal, which is located about a mile from ... read more ...
 
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Polo competition beats Polo code in .Polo tip turn domain name dispute - .Polo brand top level domain name application killed off by polo sport association. A panel has upheld a community objection (pdf) filed by The United States Polo Association against Ralph Lauren Corporation’s application to run the .polo top level domain name. Polo is, of course, Ralph Lauren’s flagship brand. While the result of the case will certainly come as a surprise to many, you can’t necessarily draw conclusions about what this means for other objections ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts’ .Shopping found too identical to .shop, will be placed in row set - Once again, who the string confusion panelist is determines the outcome of an objection. A string confusion objection panelist has ruled that having both .shop and .shopping as top level domain names will confuse the average internet user, and thus both should not both be delegated as TLDs. It’s the latest string confusion objection that might cause some head scratching amongst observers in light of other decisions. For example, how are .hotel and .hotels OK but ... read more ...
 
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Over 7,000 .LA domains purebred during GoDaddy given June - GoDaddy registers over 7,000 .LA domain names since promoting the domain for Los Angeles. A reader who invested in .la domain names asked me this week if I knew how the domain name was doing since GoDaddy put some of its marketing weight behind the domain. Here’s your answer: GoDaddy customers have registered over 7,000 domain names since the company got involved in June. The registrar started promoting the domains in July. At about $40 a year, that’s around $280,000 ... read more ...
Tue 15th October 2013
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Elliot’s Blog rebrands as DomainInvesting.com - Popular domain investing blog moves to a new domain name. If you visit Elliot Silver’s popular domaining blog today, don’t be alarmed by the redirect to DomainInvesting.com. Silver has rebranded the site from ElliotsBlog.com to DomainInvesting.com. The move will certainly help expand the audience of the blog and build credibility for new users. The new branding also comes with a slightly refreshed website. I think this is a smart move, although it will certainly ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy acquires webhosting association (mt) Media Temple - GoDaddy gets foothold in more technical customer segment with latest acquisition. GoDaddy has acquired Los Angeles-based webhosting company (mt) Media Temple, known simply as (mt), for an undisclosed price. (mt) targets a more technical customer base than GoDaddy, and the two companies will remain distinctly separate. (mt) will continue to focus on a more technical/developer audience and will not take on any of GoDaddy’s branding. GoDaddy says the deal will help ... read more ...
 
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Four .xxx domain names sell for $600,000 - Registry sells four more premium adult domain names. ICM Registry, the company behind the .xxx top level domain name, announced today that it sold four premium .xxx domain names for $600,000. Adult entertainment company Really Useful Limited bought Mature.xxx, Bdsm.xxx, Publicsex.xxx, and Teen.xxx. Teen.xxx was the highest priced domain name at $400,000. The Chairman of Really Useful, known only as “JT”, said he has found his .xxx domain names to outperform .com ... read more ...
 
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15 year aged domain mislaid in UDRP since “renewed in bad faith” - Panel uses 2012 renewal date as basis for transferring domain name. A National Arbitration Forum panel has ordered the domain name Big5.com be transferred 15 years after it was registered, basing UDRP principles on the last date the domain name was renewed. The respondent in this case, Roy Fang, registered the domain name shortly after the complainant, Big 5 Corp., registered its inferior big5sportinggoods.com domain name. Fang actually got trademark rights to Big5.com ... read more ...
Mon 14th October 2013
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NameBright.com: This is what happens when a domain financier creates a domain registrar - Team at TurnCommerce unveils new domain name registrar with tools for domainers. What would happen if a large domain name investor created a domain registrar from the bottom up? The result would look like NameBright.com. NameBright.com is a new domain name registrar created by the team at TurnCommerce, one of the largest domain portfolio holders with over 1 million domain names. The registrar has the potential to attract some of the top domain investors that require ... read more ...
 
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After appropriation TenMarks, Amazon.com’s domain name group went to work - Company registers over 75 domain names after making acquisition. Whenever Amazon.com announces a new product or acquires a company, it goes a bit nuts defensively registering related domain names. Last week Amazon acquired online match education company TenMarks, and its domain name team went to work. I count at least 75 defensive registrations, and I’m sure there are many more. ccTLDs - many startups don’t buy their domain names across multiple country codes. ... read more ...
 
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ICANN publishes new TLD applicant videos - All new TLD applicants invited to participate in recorded videos. As part of ICANN’s global awareness campaign for new top level domain names, the group invited all applicants for new top level domain names to participate in a recorded interview. ICANN hopes these videos will “provide insight into the individual story of a TLD, or portfolio of TLDs, the inspiration behind it and how they see it being used”. The first two videos feature some familiar faces. In ... read more ...
 
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Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt resigns - Richard Rosenblatt resigns as Chairman CEO of Demand Media. There’s been a change at the top of one of the domain name industry’s biggest companies. Demand Media announced today that Richard Rosenblatt has stepped down as Chairman and CEO of the company. Shawn Colo has been named interim President and will be the interim CEO once Rosenblatt’s resignation from that position is effective at the end of this month. Rosenblatt and Colo co-founded the company in ... read more ...
Sat 12th October 2013
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What domain names a Jacksonville Jaguars and 30 others bought final week - NFL team was among the end user buyers of domain names last week. When GoDaddy acquired Afternic, one of my unspoken concerns was that Afternic would no longer release sales data. GoDaddy has historically released less information than other large domain marketplaces. The good news is Afternic sales are still be disclosed. The great news is that GoDaddy’s sales are also being included now! Here’s last week’s sales list from GoDaddy/Afternic: Gun holster seller ... read more ...
Fri 11th October 2013
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.Wed becomes one of a initial new TLDs to contention a new registry use request - Company wants to let second level domain registrants transition to third level domain names. The ink is barely dry on Atgron, Inc.’s contract with ICANN to run the .wed top level domain name, and the company has already submitted a Registry Service request for a new service. The company is asking (pdf) to be able to offer third level domain name registrations to customers. The idea is to offer a way for couples to transition from a wedding site to an ongoing site ... read more ...