Author Archives: The Domains

About The Domains

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 5K domain names . Michael is also a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a consultant in the new gTLD space and a broker of super premium domains. Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest this year.

Fri 9th May 2014
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Google Possibly Preparing for Major Algorithm Update - Barry Schwartz wrote on Search Engine Roundtable that Google may be prepping for a large update to their search algorithm. From the article: I mentioned there was some chatter about a Google update on May 2nd but now we are seeing even more chatter and signs of flux in the Google search results on May 7th. These signs of shifts in rankings, spikes in crawl rates, often, but not always, are early warning signs of a major Google update happening in the near future. Here are flux/volatility charts ... read more ...
 
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Sunrise .Expert Registrations Include Mac.Expert & .Bowling.Expert - I just went through the .Expert Zone file which contains Sunrise registrations which are available to those having valid trademark which filed with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). I picked out some of the more interesting Sunrise registration and some day 1 and day 2 registrations which cost as much as $12,500 depending on the registrar the  domains were registered with. On the Sunrise side Apple went in and grabbed Mac.Expert.  I haven’t seen Apple registering a lot of MAC new gTLD’s this ... read more ...
 
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Now Owned By Disney, Maker Studios to Launch Maker.tv - Maker Studios recently got acquired by Disney for at least $500 million back in March. Disney Chairman and CEO, Bob Iger explained why Disney acquired the company in Variety on Wednesday, From the article: “We can allow the Maker people to substantially improve the distribution and reach of shorter form video using these characters and stories and add their expertise on the production side,” said Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger during the call. While the executive said Maker had built “a bit ... read more ...
Thu 8th May 2014
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Demand Reports: Registrar Revenue Up 11% But eHow & Content Continues To Decline - Demand Media, Inc. (DMD reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014 today after the market closed Its our personal opinion that the sooner  Demand can spin off Rightside from the rest of the mess the better. Rightside operates the back end of all Donuts new gTLD extensions, owns 107 new gTLD’s with Donuts, Owns Enom the 2nd largest domain registrar on the planet as well as Name.com another top 10 domain name registrar. The eHow business I never like. Anytime you rely ... read more ...
 
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Did Two Domain Sherpa’s Change The New gTLD Registrar Market? -   As most domain investors know myself, Adam Dicker, Rick Schwartz and Page Howe have had a weekly show on DomainSherpa.com for many months were we discuss news and other things going on in the domain industry.   On last Thursday’s DomainSherpa.com show, Adam Dicker said that he had just a few days before found the domain name registrar Hexonet.net and told the audience that he loved the customer service, support and that Hexonet was going to be his go to registrar and highly recommended them ... read more ...
 
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Maccabim.com Partners With DomainTools To “Identify Serial Cybersquatters” - According to a press release out today, Maccabim.com, a “researcher and developer of cybercrime solutions to protect brands and IP assets, today announced the launch of its Serial Cybersquatter Detector (SCD) Network powered by DomainTools® The SCD Network “instantaneously identifies both the serial cybersquatters exploiting its members’ trademarks, as well as the opportunities to either initiate or join class complaints through the platform.” “Members thereby reduce their Uniform Domain-Name ... read more ...
 
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.Wiki Landrush Starts Today; Here Are Domains Suggested By The Registry That Are Available - The new top-level domain (TLD) .wiki has Landrush today. The Landrush phase is a brief 2 week period when the you can register a .wiki domain on an early access basis. Of course any domain taking in landrush will not be available during general availability. The only .Wiki domain names not available during landrush will be those that are banned or reserved by the registry, have been temporarily blocked (collision list) , or were already claimed during the Sunrise period. “The possibilities for ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Hassle.com Bought For $16K on Afternic In Sep Raises $6 Million - Back in September 2013, we reported that the domain name Hassle.com was bought on Afternic for $16,000. Today comes the news via the Term Sheet that: “Hassle.com, an online marketplace for home-cleaning services, has raised $6 million in Series A funding from Accel Partners. ” So we are talking about a domain now bought for what now appears to be pennies on the dollar raising $6 Million in first round funding just 8 months after it was acquired. Something to keep in mind the next time you get ... read more ...
 
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Holdon.com 1st Registered in 1997; Transfered To New Owner in 2013 Lost In UDRP - Amicus Trade AB of Båstad, Sweden just won control of the domain name HoldOn.com This is the third recent case where a UDRP panel found the transfer of a domain name to a third party amounts to a new registration for purposes of the Policy The original registration date, which is this case was March 18, 1997. However, the current domain holder acquired the domain name this year (actually it appears the domain holder may have acquired the domain back in 2009 and financed it but it was in the name ... read more ...
 
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CentralNic Reports: Almost £4M In Revenue; £1M in Earnings & Has £4.93 In The Bank - CentralNic (AIM: CNIC), today announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2013. Share of the company are down slightly trading at 62.5P.  The company has a 52 week high of 115.5 P and has a low of 58,5 P. For 2013 billings were £3.89 million, representing a 15% increase on 2012, and producing net revenues of £3.05 million, an increase of 4% over 2012. Net cash-flow from operating activities was £1.13 million, a 15% improvement over the previous year. This growth in revenues ... read more ...
 
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Special Rights for IGOs and INGOs Could Lead To Registrant Rights Disappearing When it Comes to UDRP - A slight change of one word could open the door for domain registrant rights to evaporate over time. Currently ICANN is looking at a Preliminary Issue Report on Access by IGOs (Inter Governmental Organization )and INGOs  (Inter Non Governmental Organization) to the Curative Rights Protections of the UDRP and URS. You can read all the comments here. The Intellectual Property Constituency (“IPC”) of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (“GNSO”) would like to see the language changed when ... read more ...
 
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.Club Registers Over 25,000 Domains On 1st Day To #6; New gTLD’s Totals Over 711K -   .Club which just went into general availability today had over 25,000 registrations in less than its 1st full day,  according to the zone files that were just updated Ntldstats.com, is reporting 25,776 .Club domain names in the Zone file placing it as the 6th top new gTLD’s in terms of domain names in the root zone  files. Colin Campbell told TheDomains.com earlier today that the registry did not register any domains itself and all but 46 domains which the registry activated for its own use ... read more ...
Wed 7th May 2014
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Afternic/GoDaddy Sells $1.87 Million In Domain Names -

Afternic/GoDaddy expelled a sales news for a week of 4/28/14 – 5/4/14.

All sales for a week totalled $1,878,819.

The tip .com sale was lead by maimaiche.com for $80,000 followed by freehookups.com for $40,000.

The tip non-com sale lead by heirloom.net for $4,802.

Below is a finish report:

 

 

 

Via: thedomains.com

 
Written by The Domains in EN
Video: Watch The Live Launch Of .Club; Which Will Be Well Within The Top 10 Of New gTLD’s Today - .Club went live earlier today for general availability and here is the video of the live countdown and launch of the .Club extension. The video was shot at Godaddy.com where Colin Campbell and Jeff Sass gathered with some key Godaddy staffers I had a call a short time ago with Colin,  Jeff of .Club and Mike McLaughlin of Godaddy. For .Club its been a long road and they assured me that today is not the end but just the beginning for .Club “Today is the beginning for .Club not the end” “A lot ... read more ...
 
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Over $300K In Bids The Snapnames.com Spring Premium Auction Closes Thursday - The Snapnames.com Spring Premium domain name Auction closes tomorrow on Thursday May 8th at 3:15pm EST in accordance with Snapnames closing rules. As of publication there are over $300,000 in bids placed with the highest bid being on Airline.com at $170,000.  The domain name Airline.com has a reserve range of $250K- $500K so it has not hit reserve as of yet. Likewise the domain name Won.com has a bid of $75,00o, short of its Reserve Range of $100K-$250K. The domain name with the highest bid that ... read more ...
 
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Investor In Minds + Machines Sells Over 22.5 Million Shares Representing 2.8% Of Shares - According to a press release just out, it seems a major investor in Minds + Machines has sold over 22.5 Million shares in the past 2 weeks. “The Directors of Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX) were notified by Guy Elliot on May 7th 2014 that following disposals between April 22nd and May 6th; Guy Elliott and the Elliott Family Irrevocable Trust 22,686,350 ordinary shares representing 2.8% of the issued share capital of the Company.” The press release did not say if these shareholder sold ... read more ...
 
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Dots.com Auction Has $250,000 Stalking Horse Bidder - Hilco Streambank announced today that Rainbow Shops will be the stalking horse bidder in the Chapter 11 auction of Dots LLC intellectual property assets at an opening purchase price in the amount of $250,000. The bid deadline has been extended to 11:59PM ET Wednesday May 7th, 2014 to accommodate competing bidders. The auction was rescheduled to Friday May 9th, 2014. The marks include the well-known Dots(R) apparel and accessories brand, the Dots.com domain name, and the company’s customer database. ... read more ...
 
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Go Daddy issues recover on Dot Club Entering General Availability - .Club is now available to everyone Go Daddy put out a press release today on .Club entering general availability. – GoDaddy, the world’s largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, is helping customers find the right name for their business with the newest generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), .CLUB. As a word that translates across many languages, the .CLUB domain name extension brings immediately recognizable meaning and marketing value to names around the world. There are millions ... read more ...
 
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Russell Pangborn in as new CEO during Marksmen - Marksmen Names Russell Pangborn new CEO Brand protection firm Marksmen, Inc.  announced that founder Ken Taylor will become a consultant to the company as Russell Pangborn takes over at the helm. Pangborn previously had been at Microsoft where he was their Assistant General Counsel in charge of trademarks. The company put out a press release: Marksmen, Inc., a worldwide leader in brand protection services, today named Russell Pangborn chief executive officer effective immediately. He succeeds Ken ... read more ...
 
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Alibaba Group Files For Potentially The Biggest IPO in U.S. History - Chinese e-Commerce company Alibaba files for IPO The Chinese company is kind of a big deal when it comes to e-Commerce in China, accounting for 80 % of sales. The company has garnered a lot of press over the last two days. Forbes covered it: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group filed registration documents on Tuesday to go public in the U.S. in what may be one of the biggest initial public offerings in American history. While the average U.S. consumer may be unfamiliar with Alibaba and its operations, ... read more ...
Tue 6th May 2014
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UPDATED Orgasms.com Sells Very Quietly On SnapNames.com For $38K: Did It Drop? - The domain name Orgasms.com sold yesterday on SnapNames.com for $38,166 without much fanfare and without a blog post written about it during or after the auction, which is pretty unusual for a domain that sells for that amount. The domain has an Estibot appraised value of $143K. It’s not exactly clear from the whois records found at DomainTools.com what happened to the domain, but it does look like the domain expired at the end of March and had new registration date of  May 1st The previous whois ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Transactions Total $1.2 Million - Over the past week, 466 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.2 Million Dollars 44% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Interestingly (well at least I found it interesting) whatsup.today sold for more ($1,500) than Friday.org (999 Euro’s) Highlights of public sales are: · Top .coms: kalamata.com at 45,000 EUR · Top ccTLD: autos.de at 120,000 EUR (autos = “cars” in German) · Top “other” TLD: 房地产.在线 (portfolio with 3 domains) ... read more ...
 
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3 Number .Asia Domains On Namejet.com Are Public Auctions: 888.Asia $2,300; 777.Asia $900 -   Namejet.com has notified us that several three numbered .Asia domain names all except one which are repeating numbers, that are in auction were incorrect labeled as private auctions and are now marked as public auctions meaning that anyone can bid. The closing time for the auction was also extended for a couple of days due to the error. There are several domains including 888.Asian and 777.Asia which have met reserve and will sell. The auctions start to close tomorrow with 000.Asia, which has ... read more ...
 
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Twitter Registers Tweet.Cool: WalGreens Beauty.Cool; The First .Cool Registrations - .Cool which is goes into general availability tomorrow May 7th. For me its one of those new gTLD’s where the word is really on the wrong side of the dot, as Cool as used in language generally is the start of the phrase rather than the end of the phrase Having said that I thought I would take a look at the zone file to see what trademarks and Early Access Program domains had bee registered to see how people see .Cool domains. Walgreen’s registered Beauty.cool and pharmacy.cool Twitter stepped ... read more ...
 
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Famous Four Signs Its 100th Registrar & Now Covers 90% Of All Currently Regsitered Domains - Famous Four Media, one of the largest applicants for new gTLD’s announced today they have signed its 100th ICANN accredited registrar. Famous Four Media believes that these 100 registrars provide the largest distribution channel currently held by any new gTLD Registry operator, covering some 90% of all currently registered domains. Registrars are the only way through which end-users of domain names can purchase the domains. Andy Churley, CMO of Famous Four Media explains, “We have a laser-sharp ... read more ...