Tag Archives: registrars

Fri 29th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Shuts Down DomainCannon, Owes $187,000 in Fees - Domain registrar shut down after not paying accreditation fees. ICANN has sent a notice of termination to New Orleans-based domain name registrar DomainCannon, citing a number of infractions. The registrar apparently owes $186,598.39 in past due accreditation fees. Additionally, it’s web site is not available, and it has failed to escrow whois data, the letter states. The termination notice from ICANN also notes that DomainCannon is in breach of VeriSign’s registry-registrar ... read more ...
Thu 28th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Manages to Get SuperBowl Ad Banned - One ad banned, but others approved. Phew, that was a close call. GoDaddy’s media strategy around Super Bowl ads was almost thrown into the air as CBS approved some of its risque ads. Without a banned or censored ad, that would mean less pre-game media coverage. But thanks to “Lola”, a flamboyant ex-football player turned fashion designer, GoDaddy can live another day. The ad is somewhat humorous, in typical GoDaddy fashion. Unlike prior years, GoDaddy didn’t ... read more ...
Wed 20th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Morality in Media Gives GoDaddy a Boost - Censorship organization asks parents to visit Go Daddy’s web site. Brilliant. Go Daddy made a name for itself with Super Bowl commercials. But it wasn’t just advertising in the big game that brought attention. The real value was in pre-Super Bowl coverage. At first it was “Hey look, here’s a ‘dot com’ company that is advertising in the Super Bowl after the tech bust”. Then it was all about the racy nature of its commercials. Last year the religious ... read more ...
Tue 19th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Baidu Sues Register.com Over Hacking Incident - Domain name registrar sued over alleged security breach. [Update: The court has now published an unredacted version of the lawsuit, detailing how Baidu alleges Register.com gave the keys to its domain to a hacker.] Baidu, Inc. announced that it has sued domain name registrar Register.com over a hacking incident by Iranian Cyber Army earlier this month. Baidu claims that Register.com was negligent, allowing the hackers to change the DNS for the domain name. I have ... read more ...
Thu 7th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Expanding in Iowa - Domain registrar expands footprint in Iowa. Domain name registrar GoDaddy is bulking up its customer service operations near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The new customer service facility should be running by this spring. The company is looking to hire 60 people in the next eight weeks, but the facility has 50,000 square feet and can accommodate 500 employees. Cedar Rapids already houses a number of GoDaddy employees in marketing, development, legal and business intelligence. ... read more ...
Wed 6th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Gets Patent for Domain Name Reseller and Affiliate Program - Domain name registrar picks up patent for domain name reseller programs. The USPTO has granted The Go Daddy Group, Inc, parent company of GoDaddy, a patent for “Turnkey reseller program for registering domain names”. The patent describes a system for both turnkey and API-based domain name reseller programs: A reseller program may be used to increase the number of Customer desired domain names that are registered by a Registrar. There are two main embodiments ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Transamerica Dismisses Moniker from Lawsuit, Win for Domain Registrars - Oversee.net and related companies dropped from Transamerica lawsuit. Transamerica has dismissed Moniker, Oversee.net, Domain Systems, and Moniker Privacy Services LLC from its lawsuit over alleged trademark infringement. The parties filed a Joint Stipulation for Dismissal with prejudice on December 28, 2009. Moniker also withdrew its request for sanctions under Rule 11. This is a big win for domain name registrars. Since the beginning, Moniker claimed it was merely ... read more ...
Tue 5th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Takes Over Domains from 1stDomain.net [Updated] - ICANN selects Tucows to receive bulk transfer. [Update: I have received clarification from Tucows that 1stDomain did not renew its accreditation with ICANN, rather than being terminated due to any sort of breach of contract. Further, it appears that registries did not cut off the registrar’s access, but instead 1stDomain did this to facilitate the transfer.] Following the de-accreditation of domain name registrar 1stDomain.net, Tucows has been selected by ICANN ... read more ...
Mon 4th January 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Your Domain Registrar May Affect Your Web Site’s Reputation - Patent application describes system that validates web sites based on reputation of domain name registrar. A patent application (pdf) filed in 2008 and published on December 31, 2009 describes a system where a web site’s reputation is affected, in part, by the reputation of the domain name registrar where the domain is registered: Reputations of domain registrars are calculated based on the hosting of risky domains. The more undesirable domains a registrar hosts, ... read more ...
Thu 31st December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2009 Domain Dunce Award: Parava - Domain name registrar shuts down, exposing a host of unknown problems. It wasn’t quite RegisterFly, but the fall of domain name registrar Parava this year was a stark reminder that the domain registration business remains poorly regulated with lax compliance. ICANN sent a breach notice to Parava on February 27th, notifying it of major infractions including not paying accreditation fees, failing to escrow whois data, and failing to take action in response to invalid ... read more ...
Tue 15th December 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Move Over Danica; Pamela Anderson Is Newest Domain Name Spokesperson In Commercial For CrazyDomains & (Yes You can Watch It Here) - Following in Godaddy.com footsteps, the domain registrar CrazyDomains.com.au (also the owner of CrazyDomains.com) has hired Pamela Anderson to appear in commercials for its domain registrar services. According to the blog, NextRound.com,  the Australian based ICANN accredited domain registrar’s commercial featuring Pamela Anderson starting airing last week on Australian TV. “The commercial debuted last week and is exponentially sluttier than anything Danica Patrick can produce.” This strategy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Revenue Tops $750 Million - A look behind the numbers at the world’s biggest domain name registrar. Bob Parsons has more tosmile about than just theGo Daddy Girls. Yesterday I wrote about Go Daddy’s revenue for 2009, and I extrapolated that the company grossed $600 million this year. That’s an incredible number — but the real number is even higher. In his opening remarks at the Go Daddy holiday party this past weekend, CEO Bob Parsons announced that the company has topped $750 million ... read more ...
Mon 14th December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Goes Big with $3 Million Holiday Party and Record Donations - Go Daddy throws big party and makes major charitable contributions. Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons certainly lives by the “go big or go home” mantra. As evidence, his company topped last year’s $2 million holiday party with a $3 million party this year. The event was held last Saturday night at Chase Field in Phoenix. Among the notable guests were boxer Muhammad Ali, a friend of Bob Parsons and Shane Tews, VP VeriSign Global Public Policy Govt. Relations. The ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Judge Nixes Moniker’s Motion to Dismiss, Repercussions for Domain Registrars - Judge says defendants are more than just a domain name registrar. United States District Judge Cecilia Altonaga has squashed a motion to dismiss by domain name registrar Moniker in its battle with Transamerica. In a 25 page order (pdf), Altonaga denied Moniker’s motion and renewed a debate about whether domain name registrars can be held liable for their customer’s behavior. The judge was not attempting to judge Transamerica’s allegations, but merely if the ... read more ...
Thu 10th December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Telnic Wants to Release .Tel IDNs - .Tel registry asks ICANN to let it register IDNs. .Tel registry Telnic has sent a letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom requesting permission to issue internationalized domain names (IDNs). The letter (pdf) from Telnic CEO Khashayar Mahdavi requests ICANN authorization to release domains that contain hyphens in the third and fourth positions from the pool of reserved domains in the .tel registry agreement. This would enable IDNs. In his letter, Mahdavi writes that Telnic ... read more ...
Tue 1st December 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Scores Another Whois Privacy Patent - Domain name registrar firms up patents related to whois privacy. GoDaddy was today awarded U.S. patent 7,627,633 (pdf), a divisional patent for its previously awarded whois proxy patent 7,130,878. This patent for “Proxy email method and system” relates to the email masking portion of its whois privacy service. In the system, a proxy email address is displayed in whois. Email sent to this proxy email address is then forwarded to the domain owner’s actual email ... read more ...
Sun 29th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dark Blue Sea Accepts PGA Buyout, What Does it Mean for Fabulous? - Photon Group to acquire Dark Blue Sea. Does a nickel make all the difference in the world? Dark Blue Sea has accepted (pdf) Photon Group’s takeover bid after Photon upped its offer from 30 cents per share to 35 cents per share. In a joint statement, Dark Blue Sea Chairman Vernon Wills stated “We are pleased with the increased offer. It is in the best interests of DBS that this transaction is concluded as promptly and efficiently as possible.” Let’s rewind ... read more ...
Wed 25th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Adam Dicker Shutting Down Domain Registrar - GoDaddy VP no longer using his accredited registrar. I always thought it was odd that DNForum owner Adam Dicker still owned his own domain name registrar after he took a job as VP at GoDaddy. So when I saw that ICANN was not renewing his accreditation for Domain Jingles, Inc., it gave me a chance to reach out to him. As it turns out, Dicker moved his domains to GoDaddy a long time ago and hasn’t been actively using his registrar. In response to an email, Dicker ... read more ...
Fri 20th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Indictment Shows Ease of Hijacking Domain Name - Three hackers indicted for hijacking domain name. An indictment against three hackers involved in hijacking the Comcast.net domain name last year shows how easy it is to pull it off: just get access to the administrative contact’s email address. The U.S. government has charged three hackers with doing just that, and using the email address to change the nameservers on Comcast.net at domain name registrar Network Solutions. Blame the hackers, but also Comcast for ... read more ...
Thu 19th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
More Problems for .CM Domain as Registry Loses Files - .Cm domain name registry NETCOM loses financial files. The “relaunch” of Cameroon’s .cm domain name stuttered out of the gate after many technical difficulties. Apparently those problems continue, and it highlights one of the risks of buying certain country code domain names. .Cm registry NETCOM has emailed its registrars informing them of data loss in its accounting systems, and admitting it didn’t have a data backup plan in place: Dear Registrars, our ... read more ...
Wed 11th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows’ Revenues Steady, Brandable Domain Sales Growing - Tucows reports stable revenue and increase in brandable domain sales. Tucows today reported earnings of $.07 per share for the third quarter, compared to a loss of less than a penny per share in the same quarter last year. The company benefited from income from its final receipt for selling its stake in domain name registry Afilias, as well as from foreign exchange gains. Revenue held essentially steady compared to last year. On its investor conference call today, ... read more ...
Fri 6th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Mobi Domain Registration Base Down 10% Over Year - Registered base of .mobi domains is sinking. The total number of .mobi domain names registered fell to 850,712 in July 2009, the latest number available through ICANN. That represents a 10% drop from the same month in 2008 when the total base was 946,357. The number of .mobi domains registered has held stagnate this year, hanging around 850,000 domains. .Mobi has been one of the best marketed new top level domain names to ever be released. A couple months ago ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Analyzing .Asia and .Tel Domains: What does it meant for new TLDs? - Considering .asia and .tel results, how many domains can a new TLD expect to register? What makes a top level domain name successful? If you compare any top level domain to .com, they are all failures. But if you look at it from the registry’s perspective, the number required to be profitable isn’t that much. .Biz brings in about $12 million a year to registry Neustar even though .biz is only tiny sliver of the domain market at two million domains. That’s ... read more ...
Thu 5th November 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Renewal Scam is Back - Domain name renewal scam resurfaces. A domain renewal “scam” that I first wrote about in 2007 has surfaced again. The e-mail scam comes from an outfit calling itself ISP renewal aka Domain Renewal, and informs you that your domain name is expiring. The company misleads domain registrants to think they need to renew their domain through ISP renewal, but the fine print says that “Domain Renewal monitors domain names and renews your domain names through your existing ... read more ...
Fri 30th October 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Photon Group Submits Formal Takeover Offer for Dark Blue Sea - Group submits plan to takeover Fabulous’ parent company. Photon Group has submitted its formal share purchase statement (pdf) for its planned purchase of outstanding Dark Blue Sea shares. Dark Blue Sea is the parent company of domain name registrar and parking company Fabulous. Photon owns almost 30% of the outstanding shares in the company. In a letter to shareholders, Photon Group Executive Chairman Tim Hughes says the offer represents a premium to the average ... read more ...