GoDaddy offers $5.99 .Com Domain Names - Promotional offer for $5.99 domain names ends December 31. The world’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy, is offering special pricing on .com domain names through the end of the year — $5.99 plus $.25 ICANN fee, or $6.24 total. The pricing is not good for renewals and transfers. In order to get this special pricing, customers must enter coupon code gdh1219a during checkout. GoDaddy recently started its advertising campaigns with new spokeswoman Danica Patrick ... read more ...

Google Offers Domains from GoDaddy, eNom - Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is offering domain registration services from GoDaddy and eNom. Google is an ICANN-accredited registrar. So why has it partnered with GoDaddy and eNom to offer domain names to customers? That’s exactly what Google is doing. Through its Google Apps for Domains service, Google is offering domain registrations from two leading registrars for $10. Here’s why this is interesting: 1. Google is an ICANN-accredited registrar. Why don’t they ... read more ...

The High Cost of Cheap Domain Registrations - There’s a price to pay for cut-rate domain name registrations. In November 2005 I wrote about a seemingly great offer from a webhosting company and domain reseller called IPOWER that was offering domain registrations for $2.95 with no strings attached. You didn’t have to make additional purchases to get the low price. With the wholesale price of .com domains hovering around $6, this meant IPOWER was losing money on each domain registered. The company’s goal ... read more ...

Lawsuit Against GoDaddy Goes to Trial Tuesday - A job discrimination lawsuit against domain registrar GoDaddy is scheduled to begin Tuesday morning. The lawsuit was brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and charges GoDaddy with national origin and religious discrimination. The complaint charges that GoDaddy denied a management position to Youssef Bouamama, a Muslim Moroccan who speaks Arabic. The agency said Go Daddy fired him because of his Moroccan national origin and religious affiliation, ... read more ...

Sedo Knocks Afternic off Dotster Search Results - Sedo has signed an agreement with Dotster to place its listings in domain search results. The agreement between Sedo and Dotster comes less than a year after Afternic signed a similar agreement with Dotster. Dotster likely receives a commission on any sales it refers to Sedo and it’s possible Dotster wasn’t satisfied with the results from its Afternic agreement. A press release from Sedo alludes to the company’s larger database of domains for sale compared ... read more ...

Domain Registrar Moniker Gets a Facelift - Moniker has updated its web site for easier nagivation; the new version is more targeted to it core types of customers. Usability of most domain name registrars’ web sites is pitiful. Ordering a single domain takes a long time and a lot of clicks, and managing a portfolio of 1,000 domains gives many users a migraine. Perhaps registrars are getting the message. GoDaddy recently upgraded its account management interface, and now registrar Moniker has performed ... read more ...

Aplus.Net (Abacus America, Names4Ever) Acquired - Webhosting company and domain name registrar Aplus.Net has been acquired. Aplus.net has been acquired by Catalyst Investors. Aplus.net is mostly known as a webhosting company, but the company is also an ICANN-accredited regsistrar through its parent company, Abacus America, d/b/a Names4Ever. According to the company’s web site, Aplus.net has registered over 500,000 domains since it was founded. It also has 200,000 customers and 4,000 dedicated server customers. ... read more ...

Domain Registrations strike 112 million - Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) is reporting that over 112M domains have been registered as of the end of Q3 2006. A record number of domain names are now registered, at 112 million, which is 30% higher than just one year ago and 6% higher than the previous quarter. The five largest TLDs remain .com, .de (Germany), .net, .uk (Britain), and .org. 9.4 million new domains were registered during Q3, the third highest number of registrations ever in a single quarter. New registrations ... read more ...

GoDaddy “Cancellation Confirmations” Cause Alarm - Domain registrar GoDaddy is now sending out “cancellation confirmation” notices when users transfer their domains to other registrars. When a domain owner receives a message that one of his domains has been cancelled, he certainly takes notice. GoDaddy has sent “cancellation confirmation” e-mails for a while when users cancel a domain registration or a service associated with a domain name. But now the company is sending out the same notice when customers ... read more ...

What Happens When Domain Registrars Merge? - The recent acquisition of BulkRegister by eNom created headaches for some BulkRegister customers. Are more acquisitions on the horizon? Many years ago I used an online bank called CompuBank. It was a great internet-only bank that offered free free checking and billpay. When I sent deposits in by mail they posted the next day. It was great. But then a larger bank called NetBank acquired CompuBank. NetBank was horrible and botched the integration with CompuBank. ... read more ...

.eu Domain Name Wholesale Prices to Fall - The registry responsible for managing the .eu domain announced that it is cutting the wholesale price of its domains in half. The launch of the .eu domain earlier this year was a success in terms of the number of domains registered. It remains to be seen if the domain itself will take off and what the effects of extensive acquisitions by domain investors will be. But now that the initial registration rush is over EURid, the registry in charge of managing the .eu ... read more ...

GoDaddy offers present cards - The world’s largest domain registrar is now offering gift cards that can be exchanged for domain names and other products. Earlier this year I was on a mission to find a domain registrar that offered gift certificates. I was starting a promotion for Domain Name Wire readers in which I’d offer free domain registrations. I hit a number of deadends. The only registrar I found offering gift certificates charged close to $20 per domain registration. I realized ... read more ...

Microsoft becomes domain registrar - Microsoft has become an ICANN-accredited domain registrar. Microsoft is now an accredited domain name registrar. There are a several reasons Microsoft likely took this step. First, Microsoft gives away a free domain with its Office Live service. Before becoming a registrar it was registering these domains through Melbourne IT. By becoming a registrar Microsoft will have more control over the process and get the wholesale domain price (approximately $6.25 for .com ... read more ...

GoDaddy logon blunder summary and user interface - GoDaddy’s poor user interface and error messages are frustrating. Managing GoDaddy’s web site must be a major undertaking. With dozens of products and new ones added seemingly every week, fitting everything onto a web page and making it easy to navigate is a big task. Last month GoDaddy made a major improvement to its domain management interface. But other areas of the site are still lacking. GoDaddy’s parking service has an interface similar to its new domain ... read more ...

eNom adds confidence codes to .net and .com transfers - eNom, the world’s second biggest registrar, is adding security codes for transfers of .net and .com domains. If you have ever transferred a .biz, .info, or .org domain you are familiar with security codes (alternatively called domain secrets, authorization codes…). This adds an added layer of protection when domains are transferred from your account. Typical transfer authorization only requires someone to have access to the email address of the registrant. Once ... read more ...

GoDaddy comment government gets an upgrade - GoDaddy has upgraded it’s account management system. (Update 10/15 – see comment from GoDaddy; this feature is being rolled out in phases but all customers can access the new account manager). One of my biggest complaints about GoDaddy has been its user interface for managing domains and features. GoDaddy offers so many products now that its interface has become clunky. I logged into my account today and it looks like GoDaddy finally got the message and hired ... read more ...

Imitation is a sincerest form of flattery - Is the GoDaddy Girl selling domains? Dotster just announced the “Dot Girls”. Apparently selling domain names is a lot like selling beer. GoDaddy started the trend with the “GoDaddy Girl”, Candice Michelle, which the company prominently featured in its commercials. Now registrar Dotster is getting into the act, introducing the first “Dotster Dot”, Heather. The company is holding four open auditions for women to become Doster Dots. The auditions will ... read more ...

New Dotster banking code - Dotster has a new coupon code for 25% off. The code is only valid from September 1- September 4 (a U.S. holiday weekend). Just enter weekend25 in the coupon code box when you checkout to save 25%. Unfortunately it’s not valid on renewals. Save 25% off your entire order This Friday through Monday (September 1st – 4th) all new products are on sale. Visit Dotster on September 1st – 4th and use the coupon code: weekend25 to save 25% off any new order. Register ... read more ...

Verisign domain name marketplace report - Verisign recently released its Domain Name Industry Brief. The briefing discusses recent trends in domain names. Verisign is the registry for .com and .net domains and therefore has access to a rich data set. Among the more interesting data: -As of the end of Q2 2006 there were over 105M domains registered. This is the first time a quarter has ended with over 100M domains registered. -The top ccTLDs are .de (Germany), .uk (United Kingdom), and .eu (European Union) ... read more ...