Tag Archives: services

Wed 11th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The one thing that matters for a domain name escrow service - Reputation, reputation, reputation. This year’s Domain Name Wire Survey asked respondents why they use the domain name escrow service they do. The question offered a number of options, from pricing to licensing to customer service. It turns out that people really only care about one thing. The rest is just details: Yes, 61% said reputation was the most important factor. The next biggest factor had only 6% of the vote. Reputation was also top on last year’s poll. True, reputation encompasses ... read more ...
Wed 4th March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Radix portion adult Grilled Cheese during SXSW - New top level domain name company hopes to reach tech audience at SXSW this month. Radix is giving out t-shirts, such as this one for .tech, along with grilled cheese sandwiches at SXSW.People love free food, especially during a busy conference. I recently wrote about Sedo’s Froyo truck at SXSW; new TLD company Radix is also giving away free food at the event in Austin later this month. The company will have a large booth at the SXSW Tradeshow and will be handing out free .space-branded grilled ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
2015 Domain Name Wire Survey: By a Numbers - Here’s who took this year’s survey. The submission period for this year’s Domain Name Wire Survey, the tenth annual version of the survey, is now closed. You may recall that I changed the format of the survey last year. The topics are no longer “stuff the ballot box” questions; they focus on overall trends in the domain name business. Survey takers also have to provide some identification details. That means fewer — but higher quality — responses. About 200 people took this year’s ... read more ...
Tue 3rd March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
This week's new TLDs: .WhosWho and 4 EAPs - There aren’t many who’s registering this new domain name. Only one non-brand new top level domain name goes live this week in general availability, and it’s a rather unique one. .Whoswho went live yesterday. It appears to have only gotten about a dozen registrations on its first day and only has 22 names in the zone file so far. This isn’t too surprising. First of all, .whoswho is somewhat akin to .CEO. You can argue it fails the douche test. Second, whoswho is a somewhat strange term. I ... read more ...
Mon 2nd March 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
THE Domain Conference offers special pricing - Discounted tickets available for two weeks. The inaugural THE Domain Conference, Howard Neu’s follow up to TRAFFIC, takes place this coming September. Compared to TRAFFIC, the show is very inexpensive. And it’s even less expensive if you buy a ticket now. THE Domain Conference is offering passes for only $349 until March 15. To get the special price, enter code MARCH15 at THEDomainConference.club. The conference takes place September 27-29, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel and Spa on ... read more ...
Thu 26th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Interesting: Minds + Machines obvious app for regulating domain names as currency - Patent application describes a novel way to use domain names as a currency. So far, we’ve seen some innovation in how new top level domain names are distributed and sold, but not much innovation in how they’re actually used. Minds + Machines has an idea that certainly seems innovative: using domain names as a currency. The company filed a patent application on the idea last year, and it was just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office this morning. (Read the full application embedded ... read more ...
Wed 25th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex CEO stairs down - A new boss at Marchex and Q4 earnings released. Marchex reported earnings today, and also announced that long time CEO Russell Horowitz has stepped down. Company co-founder Pete Christothoulou has taken over the top post. The company, which derives the bulk of its revenue from performance advertising in which customers pay for phone calls, had a rocky 2014 after losing the bulk of its business from its biggest client. The stock trades for about $4.00 now, well below its 52-week high of $12.84. Marchex ... read more ...
Tue 24th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Minds + Machines reports numbers, including $36M from auctions - Big 2014 numbers from losing auctions, but domain registration revenue starting to grow. Minds + Machines released some preliminary numbers for 2014 today. It can be summarized as: it pulled in a lot of cash from losing auctions, and registrations of its domains picked toward the end of the year as it released more of them. Here are some highlights: Auctions – Grossed $36 million from losing 21 private auctions for new top level domain names last year; spent $25.9 million to acquire 6 contested ... read more ...
Mon 23rd February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NamesCon sets dates and early bird special for 2016 show - NamesCon sets dates for 2016 and offer $199 tickets. It seems like just last month that the domain name industry converged on Las Vegas for NamesCon 2015. Oh yeah, it was last month. Yet NamesCon has already announced dates for its 2016 show, which will take place January 10-13 in Las Vegas. Tickets are 80% off through the end of this month, and will cost only $199 until then. The event will again take place at The Tropicana hotel. Co-producer Richard Lau tells Domain Name Wire that it will re-evaluate ... read more ...
Thu 19th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
gTLD Food Truck entrance to Austin during SXSW - Sedo to promote top level domain name choices during SXSW. Sedo is bringing its “gTLD frozen yogurt” marketing idea to Austin next month during the SXSW conference. The company partnered with registries for a similar program during dmexco in Cologne last September. Sedo served frozen yogurt with toppings, and the toppings were all named after different TLDs. For example, someone who wants their froyo topped with chocolate sauce and sprinkles might have to order it “with .club and .sexy on top”. In ... read more ...
Thu 5th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Google: Become mobile friendly, or else… - Google sends warnings to website owners. Google has a message for you: it’s time to make your website mobile friendly or suffer the consequences. The search giant has started sending notices out to Webmaster Tools users notifying them if their site doesn’t work well on mobile resolutions. The emails warn that “These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.” In other words, if your site doesn’t ... read more ...
Wed 4th February 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
What a DNA news about new TLDs tells us - Few people know about them, but they like the idea of more choice. The Domain Name Association (DNA) released results of a survey this morning designed to understand consumer sentiment toward domain names, and especially new top level domain names. DNA is very much an advocacy group for the adoption of new top level domain names, yet I found its survey to be fair about the challenges to collecting data about new TLDs and its question methodology. A lot of the questions were hypothetical about which ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Neustar grossed about $2 million income from new TLDs in Q4 - Company is “cautiously bullish” about new TLDs over next few quarters, but I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what that means. Domain name registry and telephone services company Neustar (NYSE: NSR) reported 4th quarter 2014 earnings yesterday after the market closed. On the company’s conference call, CFO Paul Lalljie reported that the company pulled in about $2 million in revenue in the fourth quarter from new top level domain names, and much of that came from the .NYC launch. The ... read more ...
Fri 23rd January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New TLD association Architelos sued after melancholy IP Law Firm - Architelos sent cease and desist letter to intellectual property law firm, with a predictable result. What happens when you send a cease desist letter alleging trademark infringement to an intellectual property law firm? You get sued. That’s what happened after new top level domain name services company Architelos sent a CD to California-based Cotman IP this month. DeSantis Law Firm, which represents Architelos, sent the CD (pdf) to Cotman IP earlier this month, claiming Cotman was infringing ... read more ...
Tue 20th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Architelos gets obvious for NameSentry - Certain aspects of abuse monitoring and management solution for top level domain names is now patented in the United States. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office granted U.S. patent number 8,938,801 (pdf) to Architelos today for “Managing domain name abuse”. The patent is related to the new TLD services company’s NameSentry product for monitoring domain name abuse within a top level domain name. As described in the patent and marketing materials, NameSentry is a sort of dashboard for managing ... read more ...
Mon 19th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
A Review of final week’s NamesCon conference - Fantastic content and networking at second annual NamesCon conference. You really missed out if you didn’t make it to Las Vegas last week for NamesCon. About 900 tickets were sold, making it the largest domain name investing conference ever. Here are my thoughts on the show. Venue The Tropicana has fantastic meeting space for an event of this size. The three main session rooms were accessible directly from the exhibit floor. Everyone gathered on the exhibit hall ... read more ...
Fri 9th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to get a many out of NamesCon - A few quick tips to get the most out of your conference-going experience. Heading to NamesCon next week? You’re not alone. More than 800 people are expected to attend the conference, unless mother nature gets in their way. (We’re even expecting a little ice in Austin tomorrow!) Here are some tips for getting the most out of the event. Content There are more than 150 speakers and panelists at the event, and there will be multiple content sessions going on at the ... read more ...
Wed 7th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How Correctica done me demeanour smarter - Service finds errors that spell and grammar checkers don’t. When I write a post for Domain Name Wire, I act as researcher, writer and editor. That’s why you occasionally see a typo or two in articles. I review articles before posting, and always pay attention to that red squiggly underline indicating a misspelled word, but some types of errors are harder to catch. That’s why I was intrigued to learn about Knowingly, a new company launched by futurist and former ... read more ...
Tue 6th January 2015
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Use Sched.org to get a many out of NamesCon - Sched.org makes it easier to take advantage of NamesCon’s great keynotes and panel discussions. NamesCon starts on Sunday in Las Vegas. It’s going to be big (800+ people) and packed with content (125 speakers and panelists). With a number of concurrent sessions, planning is required to make sure you don’t miss out on the sessions that most interest you. This year, NamesCon used Sched.org to create the schedule. Attendees have received an emailed invitation to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name registry Afilias dumps designed IPO - Registry had planned to float in November. Domain name registry Afilias has pulled plans for a $100 million initial public offering, as reported by Domain Incite this morning. A company spokesperson told Domain Incite, “The final decision to cancel the IPO was based on market conditions at the time.” Given that stock markets are at record highs, that’s a euphemism for “investors weren’t interested in our IPO”. While stock markets are doing well, the same ... read more ...
Tue 23rd December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NamesCon registrations tip 600 - Next month’s domain name conference in Las Vegas will be a big event. Registrations for next month’s NamesCon domain name conference have topped 600, conference founder Richard Lau informed Domain Name Wire. Last year at this time, 336 tickets had been sold and the conference ended up with 572. Assuming the conference gets the last minute surge of registrations that are common at domain conferences, NamesCon could set a record for attendance at a domain investor-organized ... read more ...
Thu 18th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Club lifting some-more money, valued during $25.4 million - .Club to be valued at $25.4 million after investment. The .Club top level domain name registry is raising more funds, and the latest round will value the company at $25.4 million after the investment closes. .Club previously raised $7.5 million, with about $3.5 million of that in debt. The company is conducting two additional fundraising rounds, both of which are fully subscribed. The first is a raise from existing shareholders that will effectively convert the $3.5 ... read more ...
Thu 11th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Blast from a past: Tucows relaunches RealNames (and it’s really different) - Tucows uses name of dot.com bubble era company to launch new service. Remember RealNames? Tucows has brought back the name of the the dot.com bubble darling, but for a very different purpose. RealNames was a system designed to replace or circumvent domain names. Instead of typing a domain name like Money.com in your browser, you could just type “Money”. RealNames would resolve the query to whomever had registered the keyword “Money” with RealNames (at a cost, ... read more ...
Tue 9th December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Donuts and Rightside recover 6 new domains on Wednesday - …And they’re some of the better domains released so far. Remember the good ole’ days of the middle of 2014, when mega-registry Donuts would release four of five new top level domain names every week? Well, they’re back. For one week, anyway. Donuts will launch four new domain names at “regular” pricing this week after the conclusion of their early access phases: .business, .network, .immo and .pizza. .Business and .Network are interesting because they ... read more ...
Tue 2nd December 2014
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Name Collision domain names – is there event for domainers? - The release of blocked second level strings is good for the domain name industry. Is there opportunity for domainers to profit from it? Today, .XYZ will release 18,000 second level domain name options that previously could not be registered. They join hundreds of thousands of other second level domains under new TLDs that have “dropped” in recent weeks, and will do so going forward as well. These domains were blocked because of “name collisions”. Basically, ... read more ...