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Via: telecompaper.com
Afnic opens .aslace TLD to all comers -
Tue 7th April 2015
What to Know About an ICANN Compliance Audit, and How to Handle One if … -
Now that new gTLD registries have been operating for more than a year, a few registries have already experienced going through an audit and a few more are now receiving notifications that they are next in line. For all, the process of going through an ICANN audit is a first. Once you receive the Request for Information (RFI), you will have 15 days to respond, or seek an extension of time. Extensions may be available on a case by case basis.
Origins
ICANN's ability to request an audit comes ... read more ...
Sedo Weekly Sales Total $1.8 Million Led By Mercari.com during 100,000 Euros - Over the past week, 543 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1.8m. 59% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings.
Highlights of public sales are:
Top .com: mercari.com at 100,000 EUR
Top ccTLD: feedback.me at 10,000 USD
Top “other” TLD: airwave.net at 10,000 EUR
7 of the top 11 sales were three letter .coms
... read more ...
The Bitcoin Foundation is "effectively bankrupt" according to one house member -
Ars Technica published an article that the Bitcoin Foundation according to one board member, is bankrupt. The organization was created a couple of years ago to bring some sense of official community face for users and investors of Bitcoin. It seems the wheels are coming off as some of the original members have not had a great go of it lately. Of course some have always held that the beauty of Bitcoin was anonymity and open with no central command so to speak. The flip side of the crypto coin is ... read more ...
Premium Generics, the Domain Industry’s Luxury Goods -
Categories. The mere mention of the word risks eliciting groans from any domain industry specialist. In the run up to the new gTLD program, this concept was oft discussed. It seemed obvious to most that TLDs were not a homogenous ensemble but instead, could exist in many different shapes and sizes. Except to ICANN staff. They systematically refused to entertain the notion of categories. Even when ICANN Board members suggested some kind of recognition for different TLD types should be hardwired ... read more ...
The 3 Biggest Challenges Facing New gTLDs - In this guest post, Aditya Chauhan of LogicBoxes explains big challenges facing new top level domain name registries.
When ICANN announced the nTLD program, thousands of applicants threw their hats in the ring. It seemed pretty straight forward; the existing TLDs were running out of short meaningful options, all that was needed was to create newer options that would be more relevant for specific sets of customers.
Years later, the process is well underway; hundreds of nTLDs have hit the market, yet ... read more ...
Google Removes Images To Avoid Being Banned in Turkey -
According to BBC.com, Turkey had threatened to ban Google unless it removed links to images of a an Istanbul courthouse where a Turkish prosecutor was taken hostage. Google apparently has removed the image and therefore no ban took place. Other social networks were also required to remove the image and several networks saw brief outages.
From the article:
Turkey threatened to ban Google unless it removed links to images of a prosecutor being held at gunpoint.
The images were taken last week in ... read more ...
Neustar Files Suit Against a FCC - Neustar (NSR) is suing the FCC over the loss of the Local Number Portability contract which it held for 18 years. Neustar which has watched the price of its stock drop close to 50% from August 2, 2013 when the shares were at $55.71, initiated a $150 million share buyback once the contract loss was official.
Local Number portability refers to the ability of a “customer of record” of an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier (LEC) to reassign the number ... read more ...
EnCirca announces $39 Price For Matching .XXX, .Porn & .Adult Domains - The domain registrar EnCirca just published a press release with a very catchy title; “Here Comes More X-Rated Domains”
EnCirca announced during the month of April, they are offering a $39 package covering one name in all three adult-related extensions: .XXX, .Porn and .Adult.
This works out to be $13 per domain name in each extension.
Considering they are currently selling stand alone .XXX domain registrations for $99 a year, that is quite a deal.
The policies for .Porn and .Adult will be ... read more ...
SEO Benefits Between .Com and Everything Else - This will probably be a controversial post as the topic has certainly been controversial. SearchMetrics.com published an article that took a look at the SEO benefits of .com vs every other extension. Now Google has always said there is no difference and Matt Cutts has debunked the new gtld crowd that said they would have a benefit. Matt wrote on his Google + in May 2012:
lsauer.com wrote:
Technically, it is not sensible to a priori discredit certain domains based on their domain extension. So far ... read more ...
Slicing a data: Top 50 "Premium" gTLDs - One more way to look at the top level domain leaderboards.
Registries have sliced and diced the new top level domain name leaderboards in many ways: paid registrations, registration years, number of domains used, Alexa rankings, etc. Here’s another one courtesy of StartingDot, the company behind .Bio, .Archi and the forthcoming .Ski.
StartingDot has ranked the top 50 “Premium” gTLDs, with premium defined as an average retail price of at least $40. Since StartingDot’s domains are priced high, ... read more ...
ICANN Publishes Its Tax Return; Spends $46M In Salaries; $17M In Travel; Has $300M In Cash/Stocks - ICANN just published its tax return, Form 990, for the year ending June 30, 2014.
ICANN Revenue decreased from the year earlier to $127 Million from $236 Million.
However salaries compensation rose from $32 Million to $46 Million.
Total expenses in 2014 were $124 Million against last years $150 Million.
ICANN ended its fiscal year with $193 Million in net assets up from $168 Million in the prior year.
The CEO of ICANN made $842K in reportable compensation and another $56K from “other compensation”
Akram ... read more ...
Skechers Loses URS Bid To Have The Domain SKX.science Suspended - Skechers just lost its bid to have the domain name skx.science suspended in a Uniform Resolution Proceeding (URS) and the domain holder a Joel Williams did not even respond.
Skechers was represented by Kleinberg Lerner, LLP of Los Angeles, CA,
The examiner Luz Helena Villamil Jimenez, found although Skechers had a trademark in the term “SKX” it “did not submit any arguments to support the grounds of the Claim.”
“Skechers simply did not submit one single argument to demonstrate why they ... read more ...
Analyzing NameJet and Short Domain Name Sales - Joseph Peterson reviews recent NameJet sales, and takes a deep dive into sales of 3 and 4-character domain names.
After a record-setting Winter, NameJet began Spring with a reduced sales volume for March. Even so, given 94 sales closing at or above $2000, March matches the best month out of an 11-month stretch during 2014. NameJet also scored its 4th highest sale of all time with VVV.com being bid up to $136,400.
The real story here is the massive preponderance of 3 and 4-character domains. Out ... read more ...
UC Berkeley, along with other schools, purchases web addresses in adult … -
UC Berkeley and other schools, including Harvard University, have bought web addresses in adult-oriented Internet domains to avoid trademark infringement from third parties.
Starting in June, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, will open several new generic Top Level Domains, or gTLDs — a class of Internet domains such as “.com” and “.net” — to the public, including “.porn” “.adult” and “.sucks.” The imminent release by ICANN, the international ... read more ...
SEO Benefits Between .Com and Everything Else - This will probably be a controversial post as the topic has certainly been controversial. SearchMetrics.com published an article that took a look at the SEO benefits of .com vs every other extension. Now Google has always said there is no difference and Matt Cutts has debunked the new gtld crowd that said they would have a benefit. Matt wrote on his Google + in May 2012:
lsauer.com wrote:
Technically, it is not sensible to a priori discredit certain domains based on their domain extension. So far ... read more ...
UC Berkeley, along with other schools, purchases Web addresses in adult … -
UC Berkeley and other schools, including Harvard University, have bought web addresses in adult-oriented Internet domains to avoid trademark infringement from third parties.
Starting in June, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, will open several new generic Top Level Domains, or gTLDs — a class of Internet domains such as “.com” and “.net” — to the public, including “.porn” “.adult” and “.sucks.” The imminent release by ICANN, the international ... read more ...
Mon 6th April 2015
Dot Website Hits 50000 Registrations - Dot Webstie hits the 50,000 registration mark
Radix released some stats about one of their strings today, Dot Website went over 50,000 regs, they did actually give my OnlineCasino.website sale a mention. To be fair it was not for a huge amount but profit is profit (non premium registation of $14.99). I have mentioned that .website was a generic string that I have speculated in, for full disclosure I do own one other .website domain. I think it was important for Radix to win .site so that they own ... read more ...
Namejet Reports Over 640K in Domain Name Sales In Mar Led By vvv.com for $136K - Namejet.com reported its domain name sales that closed in March for those domains selling ofr $2,000 or more.
All sales were led by the rare three letter .com repeater vvv.com which sold for $136,400.
Total reported sales came to $641,557.00
The highest 7 sales of the month were all three letter .com domains as were 9 of the 1st 12 highest sales.
Only three 4 numbered .com’s broke up the clean sweep of three letter .com’s in the top 12 sales of NameJet.com
Here are the reported sales of $2,000 ... read more ...
Q&A on “dot.bank” registration - Many bankers have heard from their trade associations that there will be a new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) released by ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for institutions to use on the internet called ".bank."fTLD Registry Services, LLC, (fTLD) a coalition of banks and insurance companies, is managing the registration process. (A “.insurance” domain also recently debuted.) We have been asked by many clients about obtaining a .bank domain name.Here are some of ... read more ...
Dot Website Hits 50,000 Registrations - Dot Webstie hits the 50,000 registration mark
Radix released some stats about one of their strings today, Dot Website went over 50,000 regs, they did actually give my OnlineCasino.website sale a mention. To be fair it was not for a huge amount but profit is profit (non premium registation of $14.99). I have mentioned that .website was a generic string that I have speculated in, for full disclosure I do own one other .website domain. I think it was important for Radix to win .site so that they own ... read more ...
Donuts files engaging heading applications - Donuts files trademark applications, likely for marketing campaign.
Top level domain name registry Donuts has filed two interesting trademark applications. The applications are for the marks:
I Am.___________
We Are.__________
My guess is this is for a marketing campaign, as it runs nicely with its current video ads that show a number of options to the right of the dot. I can imagine a campaign in which I Am. is followed by everything from .contractors to .dental.
The trademark applications were ... read more ...
Inside Sedo with CEO Tobias Flaitz - Sedo CEO discusses domain name parking, selling and more.
Domain name owners park nearly 5 million domain names and list 18 million + domains on Sedo. This week Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz comes on the show to talk about the past, present and future of the domain name business and Sedo. We discuss the challenges of parking (and how Sedo has turned it around), changes and trends in domain name sales and the impact new top level domains are having on the business. Tobias also discusses a startling stat ... read more ...
Returns.com, PMG.com And More Domain Name Movers - Welcome to the latest round of company domain name movers. This series exclusively digs deep to find new acquired domain names, newly registered domain names and simply domain movers owned by some of the largest companies on the internet, plus more. Here we go with a huge list of domain movers!
Betaworks Studio, LLC has registered the domain name VitePad.com
Schroders plc and asset management company registered the domain name IncomeIQ.com on 12/12/2014 and is redirecting it to Schroders.com, has ... read more ...
New TLDs this week: .Flowers and .Wedding - Pick out your .flowers arrangement for the .wedding.
Two top level domain names launch this week, and it’s fitting that they launch near the same time.
Uniregistry launches .Flowers on Tuesday, April 7. You can pick these domains up at a number of registrars for about $20-$30.
Of course, flowers are a key component of any wedding, and Minds + Machines launches .wedding on Wednesday. .Wedding domains are priced about the same as .flowers at retail, with prices in the $20-$30 range.
There’s already ... read more ...