Tag Archives: registrars

Wed 7th January 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The .ORG Registry Adopts A Domain Anti-Abuse Policy; Allows For Domain Cancellation: Are Your .Org’s At Risk? - Today The Public Interest Registry (“PIR”), the company which runs the .Org registry, announced a Domain “Anti-Abuse Policy”, effective 5 February 2009. In announcing this policy PIR is taking a strong stand against what is defines as Domain Abuse and it gives itself the right to cancel,  any .org, domain registration which is considered to be abusive. From the announcement: “”””Abusive use(s) of .ORG domain names should not be tolerated. The nature of such abuses creates security ... read more ...
Mon 5th January 2009
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Register.com’s Customer Service Lie - J.D. Power should reconsider Register.com’s call center award. Domain name registrar Register.com likes to tout its J.D. Power and Associates call center certification. Perhaps their call center representatives are friendly, but the company’s policies make it difficult to get trivial things done. If you’ve ever had a domain at register.com, you know they require you to call their call center to get transfer authorization codes to move your domains to other ... read more ...
Tue 30th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Donates $1.7 Million to Charity - GoDaddy tops last year’s giving by $300,000. With all of the negative news I’ve written about Go Daddy this year, it’s nice to end the year on an up note. Today the company announced that its total philanthropic giving for the year is $1.7M, topping last year’s $1.4M in giving. That’s about $1,000 per employee, a very respectable number. Go Daddy supports a number of non-profits from local (Phoenix Children’s Hospital) to international (Make A Wish ... read more ...
Tue 16th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
They Listen: GoDaddy Changes Pricing Policy On TDNAM Auctions - As DomainNameWire.com reported today, Godaddy has changed their minimum bidding policies on TDNAM expired domain auctions after a few posts ran criticizing Godaddy.com for the practice both on Andrew’s site and on this blog. Godaddy now has reduced all minimum prices on TDNAM auctions to $10. Last week DomainNameWire.com pointed out that the practice of having variable starting pricing for TDNAM domains with traffic and PPC earnings were placing Godaddy in a position where it was basically bidding ... read more ...
Mon 15th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito Joins Tucows Board - Joi Ito joins Tucows Board of Directors. Creative Commons CEO, technologist, and venture capitalist Joi Ito has joined domain registrar Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) Board of Directors. In addition to serving as Creative Commons’ CEO, Ito is CEO and founder of Neoteny Co. Ltd, a venture capital firm investing in Internet technologies and services, and Kula Co., Ltd., an internet software company. Mr. Ito is the Chairman of Six Apart Japan, a weblog software company; ... read more ...
Fri 12th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker MaxLock Gets Maxed Out - New Portfolio MaxLock covers more and costs less. In September I wrote about MaxLock, a new product from Moniker that improved the security of domain names by making it harder to transfer domains out. Just recently CheckFree.com had its domain hijacked when someone logged in to CheckFree.com’s Network Solutions account and changed the nameservers. Fabulous has a free product called Executive Lock that would have prevented this hijacking. Now Moniker has put ... read more ...
Thu 11th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Wire on Go Daddy Radio Show - I’ll have an open talk with Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons next week. I’ve written a lot of good things about domain registrar GoDaddy over the past few years. But I’ve also called the company out numerous times when it did no-so-good things: such as Standard Tactics. Yesterday Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons called me to talk about Standard Tactics and invite me to be his guest on next week’s Radio GoDaddy show. I accepted the offer. On Today’s Radio Go Daddy show, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fabulous’ Executive Lock Would Have Saved CheckFree.com - Service prevents nameserver changes without multiple levels of confirmation. In light of the CheckFree.com nameserver “theft” last week, I opined that registrars must offer added security for important domain names. Specifically, important domain names should require more than just a username and password in order to change the nameservers. It turns out at least one registrar has an official product offering to do just that: Fabulous offers Executive Lock. ... read more ...
Tue 9th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
With Its Business Ethics Called Into Question, GoDaddy Shoots SuperBowl Commericals & Plans The Party Of The Year - After last weeks, revelation in the domainnamewire.com that Godaddy is warehousing domains, and our discussion of how this action is jeopardizing the whole domain industry, now we see where some of the ill gotten profits are going. GoDaddy shot two completely different SuperBowl ads this week near Los Angeles. Both concepts feature auto racing superstar and GoDaddy Girl Danica Patrick. “We have two options and they’re both absolutely…GoDaddy-esque,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons, ... read more ...
Mon 8th December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Commentary: Why Standard Tactics is a Problem - Analysis of Go Daddy’s Standard Tactics subsidiary.UPDATE 12/17/08: GoDaddy is shutting down Standard Tactics. It’s been five days since Domain Name Wire published its expose on The Go Daddy Group’s subsidiary Standard Tactics LLC. Judging from the over 100 comments, it appears to have struck a nerve in a lot of people. Interestingly, I received some feedback that people “disagreed” with my story. This is interesting because there really aren’t any ... read more ...
Fri 5th December 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
How GoDaddy Is Making Big Money Off Of Trademaked Domains and Putting a Domain Industry Right in a Hands Of CADNA - I’m sure you have all read the fine journalistic piece written by Andrew Allemann over at DomainNameWire.com, if not stop go read it and come back. I have a slightly different take on this ramifications and effect of what Godaddy.com is doing. Yes they are warehousing domains, in a tricky fashion, which Andrew’s outstanding research discovered. But there activity much more serious in nature, than simply taking domains for their own benefit. Godaddy.com action may wind up negatively effecting ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CheckFree.com Theft Should Lead to Added Registrar Security - CheckFree.com theft is a reminder of how easy it is to divert a domain name’s destination. Visitors to bill pay site CheckFree.com early Tuesday morning were diverted to a Ukraine site that tried to install malware on visitors’ computers. It wasn’t a high tech hack. It turns out someone got a hold of CheckFree.com’s username and password at domain registrar Network Solutions. They logged in and changed the nameservers for the domain name. It was really ... read more ...
Wed 3rd December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Standard Tactics, LLC: How GoDaddy Profits from Expired Domains - GoDaddy goes to great lengths to hide its expired domain warehousing operations. UPDATE 12/17/08: GoDaddy is shutting down Standard Tactics. Scottsdale, Arizona based The Go Daddy Group, which runs the world’s largest domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, is warehousing its customers’ expired domain names and profiting from them. The company has taken a number of steps to hide this practice from public view. This article covers the results of a Domain Name Wire ... read more ...
Mon 1st December 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling Changes Registrar Name - Registrar for Frank Schilling’s Name Administration empire changes name. I was always a bit confused about the name of Frank Schilling’s domain registrar, Domain Name Sales Corp. Schilling would lament on his blog about how many purchase inquiries he received, when he generally did not sell domains. Well, if I saw a domain name registered at “Domain Name Sales Corp”, I would think it was for sale. An astute reader noticed that the name of the registrar ... read more ...
Mon 24th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Registrars Added to RegistrarJudge.com - 7 more registrars added to domain name registrar review site. Six more registrars are available for reviewing at Registrar Judge, Domain Name Wire’s sister site. Domainers can now review ResellerClub, Dynadot, Gandi.net, DomainDiscover, Joker.com, directNIC, and NameCheap. The registrars were added at the request of Registrar Judge users. ResellerClub and Dynadot were added last week and since then ResellerClub has shot to the top of the charts. At Registrar ... read more ...
Fri 21st November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ResellerClub to Take Over EstDomains’ Domains - Directi company to take over domains previously registered at EstDomains. Although ICANN has not announced it yet, it appears that domain registrar ResellerClub is taking over domains managed at domain registrar EstDomains, which is losing its accreditation. ResellerClub has emailed customers of EstDomains to tell them that it will be taking over: As you might be aware, EstDomains Inc will soon be de-accredited by ICANN and is awaiting its termination in lieu with ... read more ...
Tue 18th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Increases Default Registration Period to 5 Years - Be careful as you click through checkout on GoDaddy. If you’re used to quickly clicking through the GoDaddy checkout process to register domains, be warned: the default registration period has changed to 5 years. The graphic below shows the default when I tried to register the domain RegisteringDomainsForMultipleYears.com. Most domainers already stop at this step to change the default from two years to one, and it’s likely that you’ll catch the change when ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Big Three Registrars Ask Feds for Bailout - A comical look at the state of our economy (satire). [As CEOs of the “big three” auto manufacturers in the U.S. go hat-in-hand to the federal government today, I thought I’d take a humorous look at what may happen if the biggest three registrars ran into trouble.] Representatives of the “big three” domain name registrars — GoDaddy, eNom, and Network Solutions — asked Congress for a bailout today after facing unheard of financial hardship. “There are ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker to Consolidate 12 Domain Registrars Into One - Moniker to consolidate management of its registrars to Moniker’s system. [Update: See comment from Monte Cahn regarding further consolidation of 105 SnapNames registrars.] Have you ever won a domain at Snapnames and found the winning registrar — such as 1HostUnitedKingdom.com or AceofDomains.com — to look suspiciously like Moniker other than a different logo? That’s because these registrars are all “owned” by Moniker. Starting this Tuesday afternoon, ... read more ...
Fri 14th November 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Here We Go Again: Now Enom Has A Site To Sell Its Own Domain Inventory: Where Did These Domains Come From? - Following on the heals of Tucows launch of YummyNames.com,  to sell expired domains of its customers, Tucows elected to keep, today we notice that Enom has launched  AcquireThisName.com. Enom is not taking credit for this site, at least not directly. If you click on the “about us” link you get this: Q: Do you own the domains you sell? A: No, we represent the domain owner and facilitate the sale of the domain. Q: Is AcquireThisName a domain registrar? A: No, AcquireThisName ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Cuts EstDomains, Spam Down 75% - ICANN moves forward with de-accreditation of EstDomains, related spam host cut off. Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is moving forward with terminating EstDomains, a domain registrar managing about 280,000 domain names. EstDomains had come under fire for managing a high amount of domain names used for spam, spyware, and other nefarious activities. EstDomains was a reseller under Directi, parent company of domain parking provider Skenzo. ... read more ...
Wed 12th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW Launches Domain Name Registrar Review Site - RegistrarJudge.com allows users to rate domain registrars. I’m excited to announce the launch of the beta for RegistrarJudge.com. Registrar Judge allows domainers and other consumers to rate domain registrars on 5 criteria and write reviews about them. Domain registrars are automatically ranked on the site according to the ratings. There are lots of forums and other discussions about domain registrars, but I haven’t found a simple way to rank and review domain ... read more ...
Tue 11th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Lays Off 15% of Staff - The action by WADND to strip Tucows registrar of their seal of approval could only be interpreted as a self-serving action to influence registrars like Tucows to join other registrars auctioning their domain names through Snapnames, Namejet and others. As the value of domain names commands sometimes 6 and 7 figures, many registrars have used every trick in the book to make it difficult for domain owners to renew their domain names, sometimes by not accepting their credit card for payment ... read more ...
Mon 10th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Reports Slight Loss in Q3 - Domain registrar fights currency fluctuations; down economy. Tucows (AMEX: TCX) reported a third quarter loss of $71,000 today. Despite a difficult environment, our third quarter revenue growth was driven by the strong performance of our OpenSRS Wholesale Services, primarily domain registration,” said Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows. “A number of factors, including weakness in our email business and the general economy putting downward pressure on ... read more ...
Thu 6th November 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Butterscotch.com Sends Mixed Message from Tucows - Tucows launches Butterscotch.com. Why? I’m a bit confused. Yesterday Tucows (AMEX: TCX) announced it entered into an agreement to sell its stake in domain registry Afilias for $7.4 million. Investors cheered, sending the stock up 25%. In the press release, Tucows CEO Elliot Noss said: “This sale is another step in our stated goal to divest non-core assets in order to unlock hidden value for shareholders. The proceeds of the sale provide additional funds ... read more ...