Tag Archives: registrars

Mon 10th August 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Photon Group Continues to Buy Dark Blue Sea Shares - Battle over Fabulous’ parent company continues to escalate. Photon Group Limited, which is trying to force out the Chairman of the Board of Dark Blue Sea and place two of its own on the board, continues to buy shares in Dark Blue Sea. According to a regulatory filing (pdf), Photon has acquired nearly 1.8 million shares of Dark Blue Sea (DBS.AX) on the open market since the beginning of July. The biggest acquisition was 1.227M shares on August 5 for 25 cents each. ... read more ...
Sat 25th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions E-Commerce Servers Hacked - 573,000 credit and debit accounts compromised. Network Solutions’ web servers have been hacked, resulting in 573,000 compromised credit and debit accounts, writes Brian Krebs of Washington Post. The exposed data isn’t that of domain registration customers, but instead financial accounts of people who purchased something from a web site hosted with Network Solutions e-commerce package. In other words, it’s mostly customers of mom-and-pop stores on the web. Network ... read more ...
Mon 20th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2009 First Half Domain Name Registrar Scorecard - A look at winners and losers in the domain race in the first half of 2009. The first half of 2009 was tumultuous for many domain name registrars. But a few — including GoDaddy — continue to grow their registration base. Here’s how the top 10 registrars (plus a couple others popular amongst domainers) fared in terms of domain registration base from January 1 through June 30, 2009. This data is from RegistrarStats, and only covers .com, .net, .info, .org, .biz, ... read more ...
Fri 17th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Releases New Fast Domain Registration Option - Registrar adds new “Express Buy” option that speeds up the domain registration process. One of the complaints you hear over and over about GoDaddy are the pages and pages of cross-sells you encounter when trying to register a domain name. In fact, some people used the company’s mobile web site to register domain names because it had a shorter and easier process. In response, the company has added an option to its home page called “Express Buy”: Express ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Delivers a Blow to Dark Blue Sea - End of sales agreement could have broad implications for Australian domain company. It’s been a rough year for Dark Blue Sea (ASX: DBS), parent company of Fabulous. Its profits are down by three quarters, it has cut half its staff, and one of its biggest shareholders is trying to oust its Chairman. But the news got worse yesterday, as reported by Domain Name News: GoDaddy terminated its sales agreement with the company. This is a big deal. Dark Blue Sea was ... read more ...
Wed 15th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Registrar eNom Sued. Here’s My Take. - Man sues eNom after domain (not in his name) is transferred to someone else. One of the costs of doing business as a domain registrar is the inevitable lawsuits. Most of these are trademark suits where the plaintiff includes the registrar of a domain name as an defendant. But some of them are more interesting, such as a suit against eNom for allegedly failing to implement appropriate domain transfer safeguards. Plaintiff William Georgevich claims he bought the ... read more ...
Wed 8th July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Transamerica Sues Moniker Over Trademarked Domain Names - Insurance giant sues domain registrar, but red flags abound. Insurance company Transamerica has filed a lawsuit against Moniker, Oversee.net, and multiple John Does in United States District Court in the Southern District of Florida. The suit alleges that Moniker registered domain names including the Transamerica trademark and used these to profit for pay-per-click and pay-per-lead programs. Transamerica did not provide proof linking Moniker directly to any of ... read more ...
Thu 2nd July 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Files Patent for Method of Selling Equity in Domain Names - Domain registrar files patents for system to sell equity in domain names. Go Daddy Group Inc. has filed a patent for a method of selling equity in domain names and protecting the domain names in which the equity is issued. The patent is for a system that will facilitate the sale of shares in a domain name. The patent application explains that a number of institutions are interested in investing in domain names, but there isn’t a simple mechanism to do so. Conversely, ... read more ...
Thu 18th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous Adds Physical Security and Whois Privacy - Domain name registrar adds new security features and advanced whois privacy. Domain name registrar Fabulous is adding two new features including a whois privacy service that sets the bar for customer service. The features will be available July 1. The first new feature is a physical security device that adds additional security to sensitive areas of your account, such as name pushes and nameserver changes. The USB device delivers a one time-use passcode with the ... read more ...
Sat 13th June 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Next Big Domain Auction: GoDirect.com Today On NameJet.com - The auction closes today for GoDirect.com and with almost 4 hours to go the domain is already at $15,100. The are 121 bidders in the closed auction. Godirect.gov is a site where you go if you want to sign up for direct deposits of government benefits.  The .gov site gets a lot of traffic, compete.com shows it getting over 70K visitors a month.  Compete also shows the .com ranging from 2,500-5,000 visitors a month. The term “go direct” seems to be trademarked. It will be interest to see how ... read more ...
Tue 9th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Study Questions if Consumers Want New Top Level Domains - Research report shows consumers not keen on new TLDs. A couple weeks ago I received an email from a researcher at The Future Laboratory, a UK-based research and trend forecasting company. The company was preparing a report, sponsored by domain registrar Gandi.net, about the introduction of new top level domain names. We later discussed the issues surrounding new TLDs via phone. I assumed that the report would be tainted by Gandi’s position on new top level domains, ... read more ...
Mon 8th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom Ensnared in Cybersquatting Lawsuit - Lawsuit claims domain name registrar transferred domain name back to cybersquatter. It’s not unusual to find a domain name registrar named in a cybersquatting lawsuit because an infringing domain is registered with them. But a case filed June 2 in U.S. District Court against eNom involves an alleged inappropriate transfer back to a cybersquatter. Here’s what happened, according to the lawsuit. Financial services company First American won the domain name firstamerican.com ... read more ...
Fri 5th June 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Track GoDaddy Terms of Service Changes during New Web Site - New web site allows you to track changes in GoDaddy’s terms of service. Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched TOSBack, a new service to track changes to company’s terms of service. It currently tracks a number of popular web sites, including Facebook, eBay, YouTube, and domain name registrar GoDaddy.com. It shows a side-by-side comparison with relevant changes highlighted. Most of these are minor or benevolent changes, but we all remember the uproar ... read more ...
Wed 27th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media Awarded Patent for Tiered Domain Name Registrations - The return of domain name tasting? Demand Media, parent company of eNom, has been awarded United States Patent 7539774 for “Method for domain name registration and a corresponding apparatus”. The patent application was filed in 2005 and appears to be targeted toward domain monetization of low traffic domains. The idea would be for the registry, such as VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN), to offer domain registrations at different prices but with different rights. For example, ... read more ...
Wed 20th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Me during 250,000: What’s Next? - 250,000 .me domain names have been registered. Here’s what it means. 250,000 .me domain names have been registered since its relaunch earlier this year. I draw two conclusions from this. First, it shows the power a registrar has in pushing a domain. .Me is run by a partnership between Afilias and GoDaddy. GoDaddy has aggressively pushed the domain and dissed others at the same time. (Bob Parsons stopped using BobParsons.tv and switched to BobParsons.me). ... read more ...
Mon 18th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
6 Signs Your Domain Registrar is Going Defunct - After RegisterFly, ESTdomains, and Parava, here are some tips to avoid bad domain name registrars. Even when a relatively small domain name registrar, such as Parava, loses its ICANN accreditation, it can have devastating consequences for web site owners. But there are usually tell-tale signs that a company isn’t doing well. Below are six warning signs that your domain name registrar might not be in it for the long run. 1. It isn’t accessible in a public forum, ... read more ...
Fri 15th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Woman Sues GoDaddy for Alleged Discrimination - Former employee alleges company ignored complaints about harassment. A former GoDaddy employee has sued the company in U.S. District Court, alleging it discriminated against her after she complained of sexual harassment. In the lawsuit, Rachel Pearson alleges that a co-worker engaged in “many offensive, hostile, and threatening acts” such as staring at her and touching her inappropriately. She claims that GoDaddy did not respond properly to her allegations, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Did Parava Bilk Customers from Renewal Fees? - Parava alleged to have kept renewal fees instead of paying them to VeriSign. What’s a warning sign that your domain name registrar is about to leave you in a lurch? You pay it to renew your domain many years in advance, but it only renews it for one year at a time. Apparently a lot of Parava customers have experienced that. This week Tucows (Hover.com) took over the domain names that were at Parava, which was de-accredited by ICANN. It didn’t take long for ... read more ...
Thu 14th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Posts Q1 Profit - Domain name registrar sees strong domain registration revenue. Tucows (AMEX: TCX) has posted a profit of close to $1M for the quarter ended March 31. This compares to a loss of about $1M in the same quarter in 2008. The company cites both sales of its domain portfolio through Yummy Names and improved domain registration and renewal numbers for the improved results. On the company’s investor conference call last night, CEO Elliot Noss said new domain registrations ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
directNIC Offers NameMedia Domain Name Inventory - Large domain name registrar to offer AfternicDLS domain names. People searching for domain names at directNIC will soon have the option of buying an existing domain name through NameMedia. NameMedia, which owns BuyDomains and Afternic, will offer its catalog of domain names to customers. For example, I just searched for “baseball.com” at directNIC and was offered an assortment of baseball domain names for purchase: Domain owners that want to have their domains ... read more ...
Wed 13th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Parava Transition to Hover Has Started - Transition of domains from de-accredited registrar begins. The wait is almost over for Parava Networks’ customers who haven’t been able to access their domain names in a couple weeks. As I write, domains are being transferred to Tucows’ Hover.com. Parava customers need not contact Hover yet, as they will receive an e-mail with instructions later today when the process is complete. Customers will go to a special URL on the Hover site to claim their domain ... read more ...
Tue 12th May 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Parava To Give Tucows’ Hover Brand a Boost - Registrar will take over management of domain names from de-accredited domain registrar. Domain Name Wire has learned that Tucows (AMEX: TCX) will be taking over the management of domain names previously registered at Parava Networks, also known as 10-domains.com. The official announcement is forthcoming from ICANN. Tucows CEO Elliot Noss declined to comment for this story. Parava was de-accredited in April 2009 for a number of infractions, including failure to ... read more ...
Thu 30th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Disses .TV and What it Says About a Echo Chamber - The echo chamber about GoDaddy’s diss of .tv shows that new and old media can get it wrong. GoDaddy is taking its diss of the .tv domain name a step further. How people are reacting to and writing about it shows that it’s hard to know who the “authoritative source” is. In November I wrote an article about how if the country of Tuvalu (which has the .tv country code) ceased to exist, .tv would technically go away. GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons later joked about ... read more ...
Wed 29th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions Settles Class Action from Frontrunning Practice - Company to provide cash and coupons to class. Network Solutions has settled a class action lawsuit stemming from its controversial practice of reserving domain names queried on its web site. The settlement provides coupons or cash depending on what type of customer you are. If you searched for a domain name at Network Solutions while it used its reservation practice and subsequently registered it during the same session, you will receive a $6 coupon per domain toward ... read more ...
Mon 20th April 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Network Solutions Adds to Domain Forwarding Patent - Company files continuation patent for domain name forwarding. To most domain name owners, domain name forwarding is a basic function offered by domain registrars. Many registrars offer it for free. Simply login, type where you want the address to forward, and start forwarding the traffic. Back in 1999 Network Solutions filed a provisional patent for domain name forwarding. It then filed for a patent – U.S. application Ser. No. 09/500,639 – in 2000 for domain ... read more ...