RareDomainsForSale

Hayward, California domain name given to pool company.

Here’s a domain name dispute that should make geo domain owners’ blood boil.

A three person World Intellectual Property Organization has awarded the domain name Hayward.com to pool company Hayward Industries.

The domain name is owned by Chad Wright, a domain investor known for owning popular California city .coms. Hayward is a city in the San Francisco Bay area.

Hayward Industries convinced the panel that the parked domain name at Hayward.com showed links for the pool company and its competitors. But a look at archived screenshots of the domain doesn’t show anything related to the pool company. Instead, it has links to “airline tickets”, “hotels”, and “employment”.

So how did Hayward Industries get these competing links to show up on the site? Well, you can always perform a search on the domain for “hayward”. You could also do that on any other domain, for that matter.

Worse, the WIPO panel of Douglas M. Isenberg, W. Scott Blackmer and David H. Bernstein, decided how much geo domain names should be worth. Wright bought the domain name for $20,000, and listed it in an auction for $100,000. Apparently this is too much to pay for a city geo domain name based on the city value alone:

Finally, the Panel finds it informative – though not decisive – that, according to documents in the record, Respondent purchased the domain name hayward.com for USD$20,000 and was attempting to sell it for at least USD$100,000. These figures would seem to indicate that Respondent saw some value in this domain name for reasons other than its existence as the name of the city of Hayward, California – with a population of only about 150,000 people, according to the city’s website – and for purposes other than as a PPC parking page (which, in the normal course, would not be expected to earn a return to justify such a rich investment)

Hmm. Palm Springs has a population of less than 50,000. I think I’ll ask the Castello bothers to sell it to me for less than $100,000.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. How To Value City Domain Names
2. Pool.com to snag .EU domain names
3. DingBats.com Case Discusses Pool.com Lawsuit Over Domain Theft

Google launches Buzz. AT&T owns Buzz.com.

Google announced Google Buzz today. Immediately I thought of the domain name Buzz.com.

A couple years ago I was working on a domain acquisition from AT&T and, while searching whois, noticed that the company owned Buzz.com.

The Buzz.com domain name has sat largely underutilized. Recently, a landing page for a closed-beta social networking service appeared on the site:

About buzz.com: Want to know the best places to go or businesses to call? Let buzz.com help you tap your social net for business recommendations from the people you trust most – your friends and family.

OK, so a social network for local business recommendations. How’s that working out for you? AT&T shouldn’t be in the business of social networks, and this is going to go nowhere.

So perhaps AT&T should sell the Buzz.com domain name to Google. True, I don’t think Google will pay much for it. After all, people will access Google Buzz through Gmail. And Google hasn’t shown a propensity to buy domain names related to brands.

But at least the domain would go to better use.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Google Gets Into Local Directory Business
2. Google Lets Advertisers Opt Out of Domain Parking Sites

Politicians and instrumental web companies nominated for awards.

As part of a year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of .com, domain registry VeriSign today announced nominees for its “.com 25″. There are 75 nominees; a panel of judges will whittle it down to the “.com 25″. The public is invited to show support for nominees to help the judges.

Winners will be announced at a gala in San Francisco this May, hosted by comedian Dana Carvey.

Among the nominees are Al Gore, who was instrumental in the commercialization of the web (no joke), Vint Cerf (of ICANN and later Google), Steve Jobs, and James Gosling (creator of Java).

In addition to people, there are a number of companies nominated. Web 2.0 favorites include Digg and Flickr. E-commerce nominees include Amazon.com, Zappos, and Overstock.com. Of course, the web has also transformed dating. So it’s only fitting that Match.com and eHarmony are nominated. Blogs on the list include the Gawker network and celebrity site TMZ. Representing social networks are Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

You can read more about each nominee and rate them at 25YearsOf.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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No related posts.

Two weeks, two great recreational domain sales.

Domain name brokerage NameMedia has sold the domain name Biking.com for $250,000. This comes just a week after selling Boating.com for the same amount. As you might have guessed, the buyer of both names is the same, Stein Holdings. That’s a half million bucks in a couple weeks, instantly putting the buyer on the map for recreational domains.

Thanks to the Biking.com sale, NameMedia sold about $800,000 worth of domains in the past week, a couple hundred thousand over its normal weekly pull. It sold 308 .com domains at a median price of $1,100 and 68 other domains at a median price of $888.

Here are other notable sales by NameMedia for the week:

backpage.net $10,000.00
niederlande.com $9,000.00
leatherware.com $7,395.00
ecotone.com $6,750.00
jiae.com $6,400.00
xtips.com $5,840.00
urbantrends.com $4,500.00
visoka.com $4,254.00
daily-sun.com $4,200.00
filethis.com $4,088.00
ligman.com $4,070.00
univan.com $4,038.00
wsu.net $4,000.00
doctorlist.com $4,000.00
hbpe.com $4,000.00
CyclingOutlet.com $4,000.00
securitycentral.net $3,888.00
communitydoctor.com $3,788.00
weddinglinen.com $3,590.00
ckdonline.com $3,588.00
funbars.com $3,588.00
chipkey.com $3,588.00
lightingcentre.com $3,500.00

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. NameMedia Sells Flying.com, Racks up $600k Domain Sales
2. NameMedia Sells over $800,000 in Domain Names Last Week
3. Claim.com Domain Name Sells for $80,000

Company releases 2009 market report.

Sedo didn’t turn in any blockbuster domain sales over the past week, but you can forgive the company for a slower-than-normal week. After all, the company just released its 2009 domain market study (pdf), which contains a startling stat: Sedo sold 10,070 domain names last quarter.

That’s more than the company sold in any one quarter for at least the past two years, and maybe more. (I have an inquiry into Sedo to find out if it’s an all-time record.)

But more recently, here are the company’s completed sales from last week:

.Com
downloadtube.com 33000 USD
kulu.com 25000 USD
3p.com 19500 USD
gitana.com 15000 USD
optivo.com 15000 EUR
freecomputers.com 13500 USD
screenprinter.com 12000 USD
gmh.com 10099 USD
energyadvice.com 8500 USD
directfurniture.com 8000 GBP
lacrossesticks.com 7500 USD
designliving.com 7371 EUR
joyus.com 7250 USD
casinospiele.com 5500 EUR
domesticgeneral.com 5500 EUR
vojago.com 5102 USD
remen.com 5050 USD
blabr.com 5010 USD
coupedafrique.com 5000 EUR
geomarketing.com 5000 USD
housefix.com 5000 USD
stayalive.com 5000 EUR
usalotteries.com 5000 USD
geniax.com 5000 USD
anaban.com 5000 USD

ccTLDs
wo.de 20000 EUR
hybrids.de 7950 EUR
better.fr 7500 EUR
site.co.uk 7051 GBP
tuh.co.uk 6500 USD
accelerate.eu 6000 EUR
en.de 6000 EUR
73.de 5000 EUR
wandtatoos.de 5000 EUR

Other
estrazionisuperenalotto.net 4700 EUR
ilmeteo.net 4000 EUR
fff.net 3400 USD
anniversaire.net 3300 EUR
kieferorthopäde.org 3000 EUR

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Sedo Sells $1.25M Domains in One Week, Top.com Tops Them All
2. RSS.com Leads Sedo’s Sales for Week at $125,000
3. French Insurance Domain Names Sell for $87,000

Domain content aggregator adds more features.

NameBee.com has added twitter, news, and forum posts to its domain information content aggregation site.

Launched a year ago this month, NameBee.com has primarily focused on aggregating domain name blogs. The new features, released today, allow domainers to review and interact with more content outside the blogosphere:

- Twitter Aggregation – Aggregates the most popular Twitter users in the domain name industry.

- News Aggregation – News stories from outside domain industry web sites that relates to domain names. This is a nice feature to catch news stories that don’t get picked up by domain blogs.

- Forum Aggregation – Aggregating messages posted on the top message boards about domain names. Includes major forums as well as lesser known ones.

Additionally, the site upgrade includes new features for blog aggregation. For example, blogger’s logos are now much bigger, giving more branding to each blogger. Visitors can also “flag” inappropriate or off topic posts.

As part of the upgrade, NameBee.com was also rebuilt for better speed.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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How much did customers overpay thanks to Halvarez?

Last week I reported about how the judge in the California lawsuit against Snapnames questioned how much money was at issue. In order to qualify for class action status, at least $5 million must be at stake.

In questioning the total number, the judge noted that the plaintiff in the case had lost a whopping $20. If ‘halvarez’ participated in 50,000 auctions at an average overpayment of $20, that would be only $1 million. It’s simple math, but the plaintiff decided two can use that logic.

Yesterday the plaintiff and his lawyers submitted their own crude analysis. The lawyers say they talked to a number of people, one of which had overpaid by $200 in an auction. So between one overpayment of $20 and another of $200, the median is $110. Multiply that by 50,000 and you get $5.5 million.

Hmm. Seems like a stretch to pick the highest overpayment selected out of talking to many people who were affected.

I’ve talked to lots of people, too. And I’d estimate the amount at play here is well under $5 million. Perhaps it makes sense for SnapNames to file with the court the exact amount at issue.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Judge Says SnapNames Lawsuit Might be Too Small for Class Action
2. A Peek Inside the SnapNames Lawsuit
3. Second Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Oversee.net and SnapNames

Domain owners think values are headed up.

Are domain name aftermarket prices heading up? Domain owners are certainly optimistic.

61% of those surveyed in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey believe domain values will be higher in 2010 than last year. Only 12% think they’ll be lower.

Compare that to last year, when only 32% thought prices would be higher in 2009 compared to 2008.

Indeed, domainer sentiment on values saw a quick one year dip, followed by a recovery to almost 2006 levels:

Are domainers good at predicting value increases, or have we all drunk the same Kool-Aid? It’s a tough question, as there is little data to accurately compare prices from year to year since each domain is unique. It’s safe to say that the lofty expectations of domainers going into 2008 were perhaps to high. Yet low expectations for 2009 may have been too pessimistic.

For more results from the 2010 Domain Name Wire Survey, click here.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

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2. 2008 Domain Name Wire Survey Results
3. 2009 Domain Name Wire Survey Results

Brand yourself with customized URL shortener.

It has always bothered me that URL shorteners are taking over the web. As many people have pointed out, your entire linking history is subject to the lifeline of a third party service. And with many URL shorteners operating on questionable country code domain names, the risks are prevalent.

This weekend I set out to get my own URL shortener. After all, I plunked down five figures for my short domain name DNW.com, so I may as well get as much value out of it as I can. I came across Your Own URL Shortener (YOURLS), and it does the trick.

There are a couple steps to using YOURLS. First, you install it on your web server. This process is painless, assuming you have PHP 4.3 or better, MYSQL 4.1, and mod_rewrite enabled.

Once installed, you can manually create short links. You can also link it to WordPress to automatically create short URLs for your new blog posts using the WordPress plugin.

The WordPress plugin automatically shortens URLs for each of your posts and posts them to Twitter. Like most shorteners, YOURLS also keeps stats to help you understand how much traffic each short URL or tweet delivers. For example, the short URL to this post is dnw.com/6.

You can also open up your shortening service to friends, but that presents plenty of risk.

If you follow Domain Name Wire on Twitter @DomainNameWire, you’ll see YOURLS in action. Here are the benefits:

1. Not reliant on third party service
2. Sends link juice to your domain, not a service provider
3. Customize your short links
4. Build your brand (showing your URL)

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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A look at selling points for domain name registrars.

Price and security are the most important characteristics customers consider when choosing a domain name registrar, according to a survey of over 500 people in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.

171 respondents selected the security of their domain names at the registrar as the most important factor, while 153 said price was the primary concern. However, when the weighted average of all factors shows that price is the top concern.

The third most important factor was customer service, with account management tools coming in at number four. The ease of transferring domain names between accounts, which is important when selling domain names, ranked fifth.

Of relative little importance is what the domain name registrar does with its domain names when they expire. Some registrars auction off expired domain names, others keep the domains themselves, while still others have a hybrid model. The availability of value added services such as web hosting and domain privacy were also of relatively little importance. However, these value added services are where registrars make most of their profits.

Weighted results:
1. Price
2. Security
3. Customer service
4. Account management tools
5. Domain push/transfer
6. Expired domain handling
7. Value added services

When you consider the opinion of only owners of 1,000 or more domain names, security is clearly the most important factor, with 52% of people selecting security as most important. Account management tools also weigh more heavily for registrants with more than 1,000 domain names to manage.

See more survey results at DomainNameWire.com/survey.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Survey: Price, Security top considerations when choosing registrar
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News network wants Spanish domain name.

Cable News Network, aka CNN, wants to get its hands on the CNN.es domain name. There’s just one problem: it was registered back in 2005. So the company has filed a domain dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization to try to get the domain name.

At the time of writing CNN.es doesn’t resolve to a web site. But the domain’s owner appears to be based in the United Kingdom if his email address is any any indication. (.Es is the country code for Spain.)

This isn’t the first time CNN has challenged domain names through domain arbitration. It filed 8 cases last decade, winning all 8 of them. However, this appears to be the first challenge the company has made for a second level domain name merely containing “CNN” in a country code domain.

CNN knows the value of a good domain name, even if belatedly. In 2008 the company ponied up $700,000 for the domain name iReport.com. CNN had made the iReport brand valuable thanks to its crowdsourced news program by the same name.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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3. Network Solutions Adds to Domain Forwarding Patent

Getting buzz from Super Bowl commercials isn’t the only thing domain name registrar Go Daddy does well.

For the fifth year in a row, the registrar has been rated best registrar in Domain Name Wire’s annual survey. This year 41% of those survey said Go Daddy was the best domain name registrar.

Here are the top five vote-getters:

1. GoDaddy 41%
2. Moniker 16%
3. Fabulous 11%
4. eNom 5%
5. Name.com 4%

The rankings remain mostly unchanged from last year, with one major addition: Name.com. Making the top five is especially surprising given that it isn’t a top 20 registrar in terms of registrations. That means it wasn’t even an option on the survey, and all votes it received were write-ins. The registrar is popular amongst domainers and has a presence at most domain shows.

Just off the list is another write-in registrar: DynaDot.

Although the selection list is limited to 20 registrars, next year we’ll add Name.com and DynaDot given their positive showing as write-in candidates.

When looking only at domain owners with 1,000 or more domains, GoDaddy still takes top honors. Moniker and Fabulous swap places.

To rate and review domain name registrars, visit RegistrarJudge.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

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2. Survey: Go Daddy Top Domain Name Registrar
3. Which Domain Name Registrar is Best for Domainers?

Communications company settles lawsuit over typosquatting.

Verizon has reached a tentative settlement with 2Cool Guys, LLC, Warren Weitzman, and Arnold Trebach over alleged trademark infringement from domain name typos.

The communications company filed the complaint in October, alleging that the defendants parked typos of its popular Verizon trademark in order to earn pay-per-click revenue. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but two of the three domain names in question have been transferred to Verizon as of this morning. Verizon was asking for $100,000 per domain name plus fees and recovery of pay-per-click revenue earned.

Typo domain names involved in the case included varizon.com, vierzon.com, and virazon.com.

Verizon has frequently sued entities that allegedly register and monetize typos of its trademarks. In 2008 it won a default judgment of $33 million in one such case. However, Verizon happens to be one of the biggest typosquatters in the world itself.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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1. Verizon Files Another Cybersquatting Lawsuit
2. Verizon Wins $33 Million in Cybersquatting Case
3. Verizon Sued Over Error Redirects

Mardi Gras plus Saints celebration makes New Orleans the place to be this week.

Last month I interviewed Domainer Mardi Gras Executive Directory Michael Ward about this year’s conference. After the interview, he sent an email to me about how important it was that people reserved their hotel rooms early. Here’s what he wrote:

The hotel is already fully booked and they plan on selling out any rooms that I give back to them. We ran into this problem last year where attendees tried to book a room last minute and found that they could not find one. This is New Orleans and this is Mardi Gras and if the Saints end up going to the Super Bowl (the week before DMG 2010) and winning even MORE people will come to New Orleans to celebrate. Don’t say that last part because I don’t want to jinx the Saints

Well, now that the Saints won, I’m sure Michael won’t mind me printing that!

By the way, if you haven’t yet registered for the event, Michael might be able to hook you up with a hotel room or other accommodation for Domainer Mardi Gras. Send an email to him at mward (at) domainermardigras.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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3. Domainer Mardi Gras on Tap for Next Week

For online domain auctions, less is more.

Two “extended” domain name auctions concluded this week. The results were underwhelming.

In the Rick Latona auction, only 9 of 600 domain names sold. The Moniker extended auction sold 79 of about 2,000 domains.

So what’s the problem? Too many domains, and especially too many poorly priced domain names.

I won’t profess to be an expert at picking which domain names will sell. But I assume auction houses apply some mathematics to it. You take the reserve price times the odds it will sell to come up with an expected value. Of course, you also consider that you want a high sell through rate, so you don’t just accept million dollar domains with a 1% chance of selling over $5,000 domains with a 90% chance of selling.

If auction houses are using a similar selection process, it just isn’t working. I think the problem is too many domains in the auctions.

Moniker set the high water mark a few auctions ago with 5,000 domains in the extended auction. It has since lowered the number, with about 2,000 in the latest auction. This is still too many, as shown by the less than 5% sell rate.

When there are too many domains in an auction, it turns off buyers. Some buyers like that, because they can run their analytics and find a few gems. But it’s bad for sellers if buyers don’t show up.

In addition to the number of domains, if a buyer sees any outrageously priced domain names, they’ll assume all of the domain names are overpriced. If I see a .ws domain name with a reserve over $5,000, I’m not going to waste my time looking at other domains in the auction. I’m going to assume everything is overpriced.

To be fair, part of the problem is too many submissions. If an auction company asks people to submit their ten best .com domains, they’ll end up with submissions of 50 .cc domains instead. That’s a mess to sort through.

We’re still at the early stages of domain auctions. But the results are becoming frustrating.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Aftermarket.com Auction Ends Today, Great Domains Thursday
2. More Domains Sell in Aftermarket.com Extended Auction
3. Submit Domains to Aftermarket.com Auction by Saturday

Eyewear company’s dates don’t add up.

Zenni Optical, LLC, a retailer of eyeglasses, has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking by a World Intellectual Property Organization arbitrator.

Zenni Optical filed the complaint to get the domain name Zenni.com. But its dates didn’t add up. Zenni.com was registered in May 2002. But Zenni Optical didn’t register trademarks in Zenni and Zenni Optical until 2008 and 2009 respectively.

That’s where things get interesting. In a supplemental filing, Zenni Optical submitted a trademark licensing agreement between the trademark holder (which was apparently an individual) and Zenni Optical. That licensing agreement appeared to have been signed in September 2002, but referred to trademarks not obtained until 2008 and 2009. How could that be? Here’s what the arbitrator wrote:

…the license agreement is purportedly signed and dated in September 2002. At the same time, the agreement refers to the marks registered in 2008 and 2009. From this alone, it is self-evident that the agreement cannot, in fact, have been made in September 2002 but that, at the earliest, it must have been made after the registration of the second trademark in March 2009. The agreement could conceivably have been made any time up until the Complainant’s supplemental submission. Neither the Complainant nor the terms of the license agreement indicate when it was made. As such, it is not possible for the Panel to rule out the possibility that it was made after the filing of the Complaint.

Hmm. What makes the situation even more interesting is that, even if the trademarks were first used in September 2002, that would still be after the domain name was registered.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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3. Australian Company Wants .Com, Gets Nailed for Reverse Domain Hijacking

Amount in question may be below $5 million required for class action case.

U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow is asking the plaintiffs bringing a class action against Snapnames over the insider bidding scandal to show that the controversy exceeds $5 million.

Under the Class Action Fairness Act, the amount at issue in a lawsuit must exceed $5 million (not including interest and costs) to qualify for class action status.

In the case of Stewart Resmer vs. Oversee.net (SnapNames’ parent company), the judge says that the plaintiff hasn’t given enough facts to show that the SnapNames case is a dispute that exceeds $5 million:

Plaintiff has alleged that the amount in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, exceeds
$5,000,000. This allegation, unsupported by facts, is not sufficient to satisfy the $5,000,000 amount
in controversy requirement. To satisfy his burden of pleading jurisdiction, plaintiff cannot rely only
on conclusory allegations.

In fact, the lead plaintiff allegedly lost $20 in one auction thanks to bidding against ‘halvarez’. If that’s the typical amount lost, the total amount would be far less than $5 million:

Although plaintiff alleges that the defendants have engaged in shill bidding in approximately 50,000 auctions, the plaintiff himself suffered a monetary loss of only $20 due to one inflated bid. If $20 is typical of the loss suffered by the winners in the 50,000 auctions, then the total losses at issue would be approximately $1,000,000—far less than the requisite amount. While it is possible that the losses suffered in the 50,000 auctions exceed $1,000,000, plaintiff’s complaint does not explain why this is so.

Judge Morrow has given the plaintiff until February 8th to show otherwise, or the action may be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Second Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Oversee.net and SnapNames
2. First Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against SnapNames
3. A Peek Inside the SnapNames Lawsuit

Marketplaces find the correct price for paying for content production.

Earlier this week I wrote two stories about Demand Media, a company that has found a way to make money with online content. I noted that the company will have a hard time getting fair press coverage since many journalists probably feel threatened by its model.

Here’s one example, aptly named “Demand Media Can Go To Hell“. In the post, author Tony Silber complains about what he calls Demand Media’s low pay to writers. There are a few times in my life I’ve told someone to go to hell, and it’s usually when I feel threatened.

Through Demand Studios, Demand Media is bringing market efficiency to content production. That’s scary to some people that are afraid of change. Call me a capitalist (the horror!), but that’s the coolest thing about Demand’s model.

Now, am I just some smug blogger who laughs at the peril of others? No. My wife is a professional journalist. My family gets its regular paycheck from her job. It’s our only source of health care, too. But one of the things that most impresses me about my wife is her ability to adapt.

She graduated college 10 years ago. The next ten years saw perhaps the most upheaval the journalism world has ever seen. When she interned for BusinessWeek in the late nineties, there was a clear wall between print and online. Online was second rate. That quickly changed, and she changed with it. A couple years ago she left the print world for an online blog.

I’ve also experienced the effects of increasing market efficiency. When I graduated college I landed a nice, high paying job as a financial analyst for a software firm. Then the dot com bubble burst and the company had to cut costs. First, it moved almost all of its development to India. A little while after I left, it hit closer to home: the company moved almost all of its finance jobs to India, too.

Those affected could have bitched and moaned. But one smart guy in the finance department saw an opportunity. He started a financial analysis company where he interfaced with companies in the U.S. but had a team of analysts in India.

Oh, and that same software company has subsequently moved much of its development to China. It was cheaper.

Now, back to the Demand Media model. First of all, I don’t think it pays as little as people like Silber claim. Sure, a magazine may pay $1 a word for freelance writing. But to get that job you have to pitch stories. Once accepted, you have to write the story. Then you have to invoice the publication and wait 30-60 days to get paid.

Demand Media writers have an unlimited flow of work. No pitching. Payments by PayPal twice a week. So they may earn about $25 an hour on average, but they get paid for each hour they work. To put it in perspective, when I do domain name consulting for companies I usually charge about $400 an hour. But if you consider how much time I spend on the sales call and keeping up to speed on everything I need to know, I’m not earning close to $400 an hour.

Is Demand Media paying too little? Apparently not, since thousands of writers are willing to write for it.

In fact, if you want to see some truly scary market efficiency at work, try this idea. Perhaps Demand shouldn’t pay a set price for articles. It should hold a reverse auction, letting writers say how much they’ll write the article for. Now that would show us the true price of the content.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. In Demand: How Demand Media is Profiting from Web Content
2. Domain Market More Stable than Stock Market
3. Inside Demand Media’s Content Machine

Escrow.com offers service for domain name purchase payment plans.

I caught up with Escrow.com president Brandon Abbey during DOMAINfest last week. When I asked him about current trends in sales, he said the company is seeing more people wishing to do payment plans when they acquire domains.

Escrow.com has a service for these customers. It runs similar to its traditional domain escrow service, except that Escrow.com takes control of the domain name and facilitates multiple payments from buyer to seller. Once all payments are received, ownership of the domain name is transferred to the buyer.

In most cases, the buyer makes monthly or quarterly payments, which are then disbursed to the seller.

To set up a payment plan escrow, users create the transaction on Escrow.com as usual. They then contact Andee Hill (ahill at escrow.com) with the payment terms. Escrow.com then sends agreements to both parties for signature. Next, the seller transfers the domain name to Escrow.com’s account at Go Daddy.

For extended payment transactions, Escrow.com generally accepts transactions of $75,000 or more. It is currently managing transactions ranging from 8 months to 5 years.

The cost is reasonable — just the standard fees plus a $500 annual fee.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Survey: Escrow.com Tops for Big Ticket Domain Name Transactions
2. Survey: Escrow.com Still Top Domain Escrow Service
3. DNW Interview: Brandon Abbey of Escrow.com

Another commercial problem for Go Daddy.

There’s more controversy with GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercials, but this time it actually may not have been planned.

The company planned to air an ad called “movies” during Sunday’s game. The ad showed Danica Patrick performing a couple scenes from iconic movies. But apparently GoDaddy ran into licensing problems with some of the movie studios with scenes portrayed in the commercial. So the company yanked the commercial.

Instead, GoDaddy will run an ad called “Spa“. In the ad, Danica Patrick is getting a massage, but the masseuse realizes who she’s working on and asks for a chance to be a GoDaddy Girl herself.

Although the ads will certainly drive a lot of traffic to GoDaddy’s web site on Sunday, the company has already received a nice ROI thanks to the usual pre-game press coverage.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. GoDaddy.com Purchases Second Super Bowl Commercial
2. GoDaddy Manages to Get SuperBowl Ad Banned
3. What’s Happening to the GoDaddy Brand?

Domain name survey closes tonight.

This is it — the last day you can participate in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. At midnight central time today, the survey will close.

So if you have an opinion about which parking company is best, don’t delay. Vote today.

If you have an opinion about which domain sales company is the most innovative, take the survey.

If you have an opinion on new top level domains, register your opinion now.

If you think your domain name registrar is da bomb, let everyone know.

The survey takes about five minutes to complete. Honest, that’s it. Over 500 people have already given their opinion, but your opinion counts, too.

Click here to begin the survey. You could also be one of five respondents to pick up a free copy of “The Domain Game” by David Kesmodel.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. 2010 Domain Name Wire Survey Concludes Thursday
2. Domain Name Survey Concludes Friday
3. 2008 Domain Name Wire Survey Concludes Monday

Fight shows complexity of new top level domain name process, and a city council that just left money on the table.

“Not so fast”, says a competitor who wants the chance to operate a .Vegas top level domain name.

Dot Vegas Inc. has struck a deal with the City of Las Vegas to launch and operate a .vegas top level domain name when (if) ICANN approves new TLDs. It has an optimistic view on how much money it can bring in to the city.

But the owner of Vegas.com wants in on the action, and offered the city more than the 75 cents per domain or 10% that Dot Vegas Inc. is offering to run the registry.

Too late for .Vegas? Well, Vegas.com has an ace up its sleeve. Clark County says the City of Las Vegas shouldn’t have exclusive rights to launch the .Vegas TLD. After all, The Strip is located outside the city limits, and many people think of The Strip as Vegas. So now Vegas.com is trying to work with the county on a deal to launch the new TLD.

ICANN’s current plans for releasing new TLDs offer special privileges to governments of cities, states, and countries for TLDs. It makes things really complicated, especially since capitals may get even more special rights. This is one example where the proper authority to approve a location TLD could be in dispute. After all, the group that “approved” this TLD should probably only have rights to approve .LasVegas, not .Vegas.

According to an article in The Las Vegas Sun, which is a sister company of Vegas.com, competitor Dot Vegas Inc. told the Las Vegas City council it needed to act quickly because ICANN was going to require “Expressions of Interest” in new TLDs in a week. If Dot Vegas Inc. really said that, then the city just got snookered.

Here’s my advice to the City of Las Vegas and to Vegas.com, if it’s not too late.

To the city: You’re getting ripped off. You’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars of your time evaluating a proposal that may earn you very little. You should be asking for 30%-40% of each registration. You should also ask for a guarantee rather than just a percentage of profits.

To Vegas.com: You win either way. If Dot Vegas fails, then you dodged a money trap. If it succeeds, you’ll get a lot of spillover traffic from people typing in Palms.Vegas.COM by mistake.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. How Many Registrations Can .Vegas Expect?
2. Vegas Baby, Vegas!
3. New Top Level Domain Names: Challenges and Opportunities

Extended online domain name auctions from TRAFFIC and DOMAINfest end today.

Two extended online domain name auctions from recent conferences end today.

First, the extended auction from TRAFFIC concludes on Proxibid at 1 PM EST. With less than 3 hours to go, a few domains have bids but haven’t met their reserves. This may indicate there are some buying opportunities since bidding is light.

Closing today at about 3 PM EST is Moniker’s extended auction on Snapnames from the DOMAINfest conference. KZ.com has already attracted two bidders, bringing the domain up to $122,650. (Moniker extended auctions start at the reserve price.) CheapPaydayLoans.com is attracting the most bids, with 34 from 11 bidders. The domain is currently $1,324. There are also a few .tel domain names receiving bids, with Taxes.tel, Healthcare.tel, and Lisa.com all receiving bids in the mid 3 figure range.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Big Day for Online Domain Name Auctions
2. .Me Domain Name Auctions to Last a Loooong Time
3. SnapNames Introduces New Monthly Auctions

IBM files patent application for overcoming limitations of tagging.

The past few years on the web have been all about tagging. Tagging blog posts, tagging products, tagging pictures, etc. Blogs often times represent their tags in tag clouds. But what is that, other than a collection of links weighted by the number of times the content has been tagged?

IBM wants to improve upon tagging, bringing the idea of the semantic web to tag clouds. And it just filed a patent application for the idea.

U.S. patent application 12/184,731 (pdf) describes what’s wrong with traditional tag clouds, and how IBM wants to apply ontology and relationships to make them more useful. According to IBM, here are the limitations of tagging:

“Although tagging can help users find content, there are some disadvantages associated with tagging. For example, tags are generally single words, as most tagging technologies do not allow multiple word (phrase) tags. Also, users cannot associate a context or description with the tags. For example, a user may tag a picture as “dog”. Alone, this tag (dog) could have a variety of meanings (e.g., animal, food, person, etc). Adding context to the tag (e.g., John’s dog plays in the garden) could give users a better understanding of what to expect when they click on the tag. Additionally, different users can use the same tag with different meanings, thus making tags semantically imprecise. For example, a user interested in computers may search for content tagged “Apple” only to receive results related to the fruit. Current tagging technology also does not allow tags to be associated with their synonyms. For example, pictures tagged as “dog” will not show up when a user searches for content associated with the tag “puppy”. Therefore, as the tag space grows, the value of tags may diminish.”

But IBM has the solution, it says: a way to apply the semantic web to tag clouds by creating an ontology. Here are some of the benefits:

“Once this ontology (classification) is generated, it can provide users with a better way to visualize the tag environment and describe how individual tags are related to one another. The ontology can also enable users to add description to their tags, thus making tags more understandable, informative (semantically rich), and easy to locate. Additionally, it also results in more precise and specific searches and captures the users’ behavior, usage of words, etc. For example, consider two tags—one that reads “sunset at Pompano beach”, the other that reads “sunset at Miami beach”. A user may search for content with tags “sunset in Florida”. Using the ontology and the semantic web, the machine may identify that Pompano Beach and Miami Beach are both in Florida and hence display both results. However, the process of generating such a classification is very time consuming, requires people with a lot of programming expertise, and a variety of domain experts. Moreover, users tend to use colloquialisms and people’s vocabulary changes over time.”

The patent application includes a number of methods that can overcome the challenges of relating information in tags.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. SnapNames Awarded Patent for “Demand based domain name auctionability”
2. Sun Microsystems Awarded Patent for Detecting Spoofed Domain Names
3. Google Files Patent for Unified Address Bar/Search Box

New gift card lets retail shoppers pick up a domain name on impulse.

You can register domain names through web sites, twitter, and text message. So why not buy one with your latte?

A new gift card from Canadian domain name registrar WebNames.ca lets customers buy a voucher for a .tel domain name at the cash registrer and then redeem it online. The card is apparently being offered (or soon will be) at CanTalk Wireless and Blenz Coffee in Canada.

A number of domain name registrars, including heavyweight GoDaddy, offer online gift cards. But I’ve yet to see domain name gift certificates offered in retail stores, at least not in the U.S. If you’ve seen something like this elsewhere, please post a comment.

By the way, it’s too late to register DomainNameGiftCertificates.com.

Photo link.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. GoDaddy offers gift cards
2. Web 3.0? Let’s Get Web 1.0 Right First
3. Sedo Offers Bonuses on Domain Name Parking

Time is running out to give your thoughts on the domain name industry.

The response period for the 5th annual Domain Name Wire Survey concludes Thursday at midnight, Central Standard Time.

Make your voice heard as you give your important opinion on these topics:

-Which domain name registrar is best
-Where the value of domain names is headed
-The best domain research/management software
-The most important factors when selecting a domain name registrar
-How ICANN is doing
-What the biggest story in the domain industry was in 2009
-Who the most influential person is in the industry
-Which domain parking company is best

As a thank you, five respondents will receive a free copy of David Kesmodel’s “The Domain Game” book.

Please join the over 500 people who have already responded by completing the survey now. It only takes five minutes.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. 2010 Domain Name Wire Survey Opens
2. 2008 Domain Name Wire Survey Concludes Monday
3. Domain Name Wire Survey Results

Registrar explains its expiration notification policy.

A lot of times domain name registrars get the blame when their customers forget to renew domain names. “I didn’t get the notice” is a common line.

Of course, you can easily say the opposite. Really, how many emails does GoDaddy need to send me about my expiring domain names? It may seem like they trip all over themselves to get you to renew domain names. And that’s exactly the point.

In the wake South African Airways forgetting to renew its domain name, Network Solutions has penned a blog post about why it pesters customers to renew. It explains its notifications:

We start sending domain renewal notices 75 days from the expiration date, then again on day 45, day 20 and day 10. If we get a bounce back from the email address that’s on file on day 20, then we send a written notice to the registrant’s physical address on file.

Sending postal mail based on a bounce back is great — and something most registrars don’t do.

In the case of South African Airways, it appears their outsourced technical team was actually the group to drop the ball. The email address in whois is dns(at)itnt.co.za, which is a South African web company.

ICANN has been looking into how domain names expire. My message has always been that more notifications to registrants aren’t necessary. The reason valuable domain names expire is because the registrant has incorrect contact information. More bounced emails won’t solve that problem.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Network Solutions Displays Customers’ Whois Queries to the Public
2. Network Solutions phone survey
3. Did Parava Bilk Customers from Renewal Fees?

UK domain name leads sales chart.

Sedo has brokered the sale of the domain name Designer.co.uk for 76,300 GBP, or about $120,000 USD at today’s exchange rates.

The second highest sale for the week was Lundi.fr for 50,000 EUR, or about $70,000 USD at current exchange rates. Lundi means Monday in French.

A couple other notable sales include ISDB.com, a four letter domain that sold for $53,500, and GolfZone.com, which took in $50,000 — a nice sale for a brandable golfing name. Comtech.com led the .com pack at $60,000.

Here are other sales for the week:

.com
orbion.com 25,000 USD
pao.com 14,500 USD
russiacalling.com 12,650 GBP
1y.com 10,000 USD
listentome.com 10,000 USD
mobilelearning.com 10,000 USD
thick.com 10,000 USD
socialtalk.com 7,500 USD
require.com 7,000 USD
hostdns.com 6,000 EUR
tereva.com 5,899 EUR
purchased.com 5,499 USD
kaika.com 5,099 USD
celsia.com 5,000 USD
smartdigital.com 5,000 USD

ccTLDs
dachbox.de 14,900 EUR
musiktotal.de 14,000 EUR
bathroomtiles.co.uk 9,000 GBP
ecommerce.it 8,400 EUR
assurancescooter.fr 5,000 EUR
mietwagenreisen.de 5,000 EUR
leerwereld.nl 4,500 EUR
gartenmöbel.eu 4,300 EUR
global.hk 4,300 EUR

Other
hypothek.net 9,825 EUR
clicks.net 9,599 USD
dental.travel 2,295 USD
pharmacytechnicians.net 2,200 USD

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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No related posts.

by Peter Askew

I’ve got it. And darn near every domainer I’ve met has some form of it.

Good ole ADHD.

Now, I ain’t horribly afflicted by it. But I can easily say that without it, I woulda failed at domaining 3-6 months in.

Consider these traits:

“Be easily distracted…frequently switch from one activity to another”

Yup, that’s me. Simply replace the word ‘activity’ above with ‘domain name’.

“Have difficulty focusing on one thing”

Bingo. Too many domains. Too little time.

“Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless they are doing something enjoyable”

Jackpot. Not so much bored, but impatient as there always seems to be more money made in greener pastures.

“Daydream”

Of course. There’s always a new domain dropping, for sale, or just waiting there to be acquired.

“Fidget and squirm in their seats”

During every auction, yes. They should add ‘flailing arms’ as well. Oh yeah, and cursing.

The disorder is so spot on, it almost seems tailor made for us. And in most cases, the more aggressive the disorder, the more successful the domainer. Dare I say, unfair advantage?

The trick I’ve found is to hone it. I cast a wide net when I jumped into this game, but focused my ADHD over the years into a few small buckets. Buckets that allow me to continue both domaining and developing (without burning out or going bankrupt).

And for that, I thank you, my wonderful disorder.

Peter Askew is a contributing writer on DNW, and is currently honing his ADHD on his latest project DudeRanch.com, which launches in March of 2010. You can also follow him on Twitter @searchbound.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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No related posts.

Answers to three commonly asked questions about the ‘halvarez’ scandal.

The topic commonly known as ‘halvarez’ — the insider bidding scandal at Snapnames — wasn’t a major topic at DOMAINfest. I didn’t expect it to be, either. Within days of the scandal breaking I talked to several big SnapNames customers. They were disappointed about what happened, but also understanding. Most had accepted SnapNames’ compensation offer and moved on.

But a number of people still have questions. So I took advantage of a media breakfast with Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky last week to get some answers to some of these commonly asked questions.

If ‘halvarez’ did what Oversee.net alleges, why hasn’t a lawsuit been filed against him?

This is the questions I hear most frequently. Kupietzky described it as an “ongoing legal matter”. This makes sense. Contrary to what some people believe, the first reaction when someone allegedly does something wrong isn’t to file a lawsuit. There are other ways to get restitution or compensation.

Has it always been against SnapNames’ policy for employees to bid on auctions?

The exact date that employees were notified they may not bid in auctions isn’t known. However, the employee’s alleged behavior of bidding to increase customer’s costs has clearly been against the rules and norms.

How much compensation has been paid out to customers?

SnapNames isn’t releasing the actual dollar amount. But of the compensation pool it set aside, about 55% has been claimed.

My personal knowledge from talking to some of SnapNames’ biggest customers is that most customers weren’t owed nearly as much as you might read about on some forums and blogs. Some of the biggest customers were owed low-to-mid five figure sums. This depends, of course, on what types of domains they were bidding on. But as I mentioned before, most big customers I’ve talked to took the compensation offer and continue to bid at SnapNames. (Hat tip to Kieren McCarthy for asking the last question.)

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. In SnapNames Scandal, Conspiracy Theorists Were (Sort of) Right
2. Poll: How SnapNames Scandal Affects You
3. Nelson Brady on SnapNames Scandal

Dynadot extends data use to customers.

Last year VeriSign quietly started offering its Internet Profile Service (IPS) to domain name registrars. The service provides traffic data on pending delete domain names. Since VeriSign runs the DNS for .net and .com, it has access to data that most other sources don’t have.

Now domain name registrars are beginning to make the same data available to their customers. One of the first is Dynadot, which offers IPS to bulk customers. (Bulk customers spend $500 or more a year with the registrar. If you open a new Dynadot account, you can prepay $500 to become a bulk customer and get access to the data immediately. Dynadot also offers to send the current daily report for free so you can see if it’s worth it before signing up. Just send an email to info@dynadot.com with your request.)

IPS’ data set is rich, including non-existent domain and existent-domain traffic data. For example, here’s some of the data on a few domains currently going through pending delete:

The first two numbers represent a scale of the amount of traffic the non-existent domains are receiving for the last six days, as well as over four weeks. It’s on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest.

IPS also includes traffic data from the three months before the domain expired, a traffic score, the number of incoming links, and about a half dozen other metrics.

When using IPS to find domains with traffic, you should look for consistent traffic from the three months of data, as well as high scores for non-existent domain queries for both the last 6 days and four weeks.

With IPS, you can actually register expired domains at retail prices after they expire that still have traffic, and target them without the no-longer free practice of domain tasting. Granted, without marrying the database to a pay-per-click database, you won’t be able to estimate parking revenue. The data will be more valuable when a company such as FreshDrop integrates it into drop analysis systems.

Most of the domains on the list will be domains from previous web sites, so traffic will likely fall over time. You should also be wary of trademarks and trademark typos when using the data.

Also keep in mind that there is no data on domains that are sold through exclusive deals with NameJet, Snapnames, TDNAM etc. because these are usually sold before the domains reach pending delete status.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Google Public DNS Could Be Data Treasure Trove for Google
2. Dynadot Recovers from Two Day Outtage
3. GoDaddy releases traffic data

Alias Encore releases software tool making it easy to construct UDRP cases.

Typosquatting domain recovery company Alias Encore has opened a beta for its new Domain Enforcement and Management System. The system helps companies find out which of their domain names are being typosquatted, prioritize enforcement action, and even use a simple tool to create and file UDRP cases.

As a first step, the system allows brand owners to find typos of their domain names, and then prioritize which ones to go after based on the nature of the infringement and estimated traffic to the domains. Users can then use a UDRP construction kit to create complaints for National Arbitration Forum or World Intellectual Property Organization. The kit enables people to select options and reference cases to build their case.

Alias Encore’s system also includes a domain portfolio manager to help brand managers control their domain names across multiple registrars. Companies that win domain names through UDRP often have to manage the domains at a variety of registrars.

Now, if only there were a tool to file responses to UDRP cases…

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Linking Automated UDRP Filers CitizenHawk and Alias Encore
2. Roche, Lego, and Google File Most Domain Arbitration Cases in 2009
3. Coming Soon: File a UDRP Domain Name Dispute for $250

End user lead generator is a game changer.

End-users, end-users, blah, blah, blah. I get so tired of people talking about selling to end users, but expecting the domain exchanges to do all of the hard work for them. Until Estibot 2.0, contacting end users about buying your domain names was a lot of work. But the service has taken the grunt work out of the process, making it effortless to find potential buyers for your domains.

Here’s how it works. For any given domain, Estibot end-user leads system finds advertisers on Google for the domain’s term, searches for related domains that are inferior, and finds sites listed in search engines for similar keywords. It then checks for sites that are actually built, rather than parked. This should limit most results to end-users.

Today I did a Domain Leads search for CommunityRelations.com. Here are some of the results:

-Several company that purchases Adwords for “community relations”, which click data shows costs about $1.08 per click or $198 per month.
-Web sites with similar names but an added word in the domain
-Web sites with the same or similar name in inferior extensions (i.e., not .com)

This process saves a lot of time. But the search goes a step further by pulling all the data you need to contact the potential buyers. You can even use Estibot to e-mail all leads directly using a template. (As always, you should be careful sending multiple emails to sell domains. Estibot uses your current email provider. You should also consider if it’s worth calling instead of e-mailing.)

I have done a similar process in the past, but manually. It was also limited to companies with an inferior extension. It works.

To use the end-user lead tool, you need to upgrade to a Domainer Pro Exclusive account. This costs $39.95 per month, which basically pays for itself in terms of time saved after just searching on one domain.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

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2. OVT Matcher Makes Finding Traffic Domains A Snap
3. Moniker Advertises to End Users On MonikerBrokerage.com

Estibot 2.0 public beta offers better valuation algorithms and new tools.

Frequent readers of Domain Name Wire know that I’m not always a fan of automated appraisals. It’s not the appraisals themselves that I dislike; it’s how domainers misuse the numbers. The best part of automated appraisals is less the final number, and more the data used to get to that final number.

Consider the time I wrote about a big domain sale, and a reader promptly emailed me to say the seller got a horrible deal because an automated appraisal said it was worth twice as much.

Perhaps the most popular automated appraisal service is Estibot. A couple months ago Estibot started its Estibot 2.0 beta. Today it switched the DNS to unveil 2.0 to all visitors. It’s a huge improvement over the previous Estibot, and goes way beyond the appraisal. Later today I’ll write about Estibot’s “Domain Leads” system for selling domains to end users. It’s incredible. But first, let’s look at the appraisals.

Compared to Estibot 1.0, the appraisal numbers seem quite accurate. I ran a few of my domains in the system today:

Now, do I agree with all of the numbers? Of course not. But that’s why you get to see the underlying data, and that’s what’s important. Take a look at IdentityAlerts.com, for example. This appraises low. As you can see, there are no ads for the term, it has few search results, and basically no searches. It’s a brandable name, though, so of course I wouldn’t sell it for $50. The domains that do have some advertisers and data fall in line with my expectations.

Here’s how I would used Estibot’s bulk appraisal tool:
-Scan auction lists to look for outliers where the appraisal is much higher than the reserve. Investigate to see why this is, and if you’ve found a good buy.
-Scan dropping domain lists to look for potential diamonds in the rough. (Estibot pre-downloads and scans these lists for users.)
-Review your own portfolio to see if there are domains you should consider developing (due to advertiser demand) or should be moved to the top of your sales queue.
-Use underlying data and appraisal as guidance when buying or selling a domain.

When using the service, keep in mind that Estibot 2.0 is still in beta.

Estibot remains free for basic services on a limited basis, with upgrade options for bulk users and advanced tools. One tool that requires an upgraded membership — the End-User Lead Generator — is so powerful you’ll want to spend the money. More on that later today.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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2. GroupValuation.com Offers Domain Appraisals from Peers
3. OVT Matcher Software Releases Upgraded Version

Case recognizes limitations of UDRP.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche has lost a domain name dispute for the domain name ValiumNoPrescription.biz in a case that recognizes important limits of the Uniform domain-name Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP).

Roche filed more domain disputes under UDRP last year than any other company, and it usually wins without contest. But in this case, even though Valium is a trademark of Roche, UDRP panelist Dan Hunter noted that there’s no way an internet user would confuse ValiumNoPrescription.biz with a site owned by Roche. After all, getting prescription drugs with no prescription isn’t something Roche would offer.

…here the domain name involves a drug name and a means of procuring it (i.e. without prescription). In this Panel’s view, Internet users are not going to be confused about the purpose of the website, nor are they likely to think that the site is operated by the Complainant. Rather, they will go to the website associated with the domain name thinking that they will be able to obtain drugs without a prescription, in the nature of all Internet pharmacies.

That’s not to say that Hunter finds the domain owner’s behavior acceptable. In fact, he believes the contrary. However, the panel discusses how the use of this domain name isn’t meant to be objected to under UDRP:

As much as unlicensed Internet pharmacies might be appalling and dangerous and desperately in-need of regulation, the Policy is not intended, nor is it well-adapted, to stop this type of Internet commerce. In this Panel’s opinion, Paragraph 4(a)(iii) was always intended to track the standard international understandings of what amounted to an abusive misappropriations of a trademark, misappropriations of which demand either consumer confusion or some kind of unfair competition / passing off. Proof of this can be seen both in the examples articulated in paragraph 4(b)—all of which fit into one or other of these categories—and in the discussion in WIPO’s Final Report to ICANN of April 30, 1999 which led to the development of the UDRP.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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2. SAP Loses Another Domain Name Case
3. Louis Vuitton loses case for LV.com

A look back at the month in domaining.

Here are the top five stories on Domain Name Wire from January, ranked in order of traffic.

Google’s Brilliant Move: Not Buying NexusOne.com Domain Name – Why it makes sense that Google didn’t buy NexusOne.com prior to launching the “Google phone”.

The Biggest Loser: Taco Bell Loses Case for DriveThroughDiet.com Domain – Taco Bell tries to get domain name for “correct” spelling of Drive Thru Diet. Fails.

Why the iPad is Bad for Domainers – a controversial look at how apps and other technology could dent type-in traffic.

These UK Students Must Have a Big Budget to Buy Domain Names – domain purchase spammers
pose as UK students. Of course, they don’t honor their offers.

Rick Latona Puts AEIOU.com Up for Sale – after closing down minisite service, Rick Latona adds AEIOU.com to domain name auction.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. The Biggest Loser: Taco Bell Loses Case for DriveThroughDiet.com Domain
2. AEIOU.com Calls it Quits
3. Rick Latona Puts AEIOU.com Up for Sale

Reviewing last week’s DOMAINfest conference.

For many years, DOMAINfest has attracted the largest crowd of all domain conferences. It only takes place once a year, and Oversee.net and DomainSponsor spend over a million dollars organizing it.

The event last week set an attendance record with some 650 attendees. I was literally running back and forth between meetings, all the while bumping into people in the halls that I hadn’t seen in a year.

As hectic as it was, there was plenty of room for quiet conversations about the state of the industry. Many of the top domainers that I usually communicate with via email were there, each providing their own view of where the domain industry is headed. Now that I’ve had some time to think about those conversations, you can look forward to some related posts this week. I also spent several hours with Demand Media on Wednesday, learning about the company’s business. You can look forward to an overview with my thoughts later this week.

The entertainment at DOMAINfest was also hard to beat. Oversee.net doesn’t skimp on parties. Even the rain that brought the “beach party” inside didn’t seem to faze people.

My hat’s off to the organizers, including Oversee.net’s excellent PR and marketing teams that kept in constant contact during the conference.

If you attended, please share your thoughts on the show.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Oversee.net Plans Future DOMAINfest Conferences
2. Critiquing DOMAINfest Global 2009
3. 5 Questions to be Answered at DOMAINfest

iPad means more web users will circumvent web addresses to get information online.

It wasn’t a question of whether or not Apple would release a tablet computer this past week. It was only a question of the specs and name.

What we’re left with is a device called iPad that is basically a big iPod Touch. But it could be part of a larger trend that will wittle down at direct navigation traffic on domain names. In the iPad’s case, it’s applications that access the web. These applications don’t require typing in a URL. Instead, a tap on the home screen icon gets you to what you’re looking for.

A move to apps as opposed to URLs also throws web analytics into question. If someone accesses their bank account via the Bank of America app, that’s one less visitor to BankofAmerica.com. Should that count in its stats?

While at DOMAINfest this past week, one of the questions I asked a number of large domainers is if they’ve seen any decline in type-in traffic. Most said no, or very little. But there are certainly threats. In addition to apps, witness Google Chrome’s “one box”, which merges the URL bar with the search box.

I’m not sure what the biggest threat to type-in traffic is. But it is lurking.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Slow weekend for domainers
2. 5 Questions to be Answered at DOMAINfest
3. DOMAINfest Connect Connects Domainers

Here’s how to block friends from seeing your crazy night at the Playboy Mansion.

That was quite a party Thursday night at the Playboy Mansion in L.A. Compared to last year, it was really off the hook.

So now that your hangover has worked its way off, you might find another hangover when you log on to Facebook and see yourself tagged in a bunch of photos. These might not be photos you want your friends and family to see. So what do you do?

There are a couple things. First, you can untag yourself in each photo. Just go to the photo, and click “remove tag” next to your name.

That’s a manual process that might take a while. But there’s also a way you can prevent your friends from seeing all pictures tagged of you, and it’s worth turning it on if you stayed at the party until closing.

When you log on to Facebook, click the settings link at the top. Then choose privacy, and you’ll see a page of what people can see in your profile. Scroll down to “photos and videos of me”, and change the drop down box to “only me”.

This won’t remove tags, but it will prevent friends from looking up photos of you.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Oversee.net Goes Back to the Playboy Mansion for DFG 2010
2. I Didn’t Get My Facebook URL Because I was Socially Networking
3. Facebook URL Landrush This Friday Night

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 agreement.

According to registrar stats, DomainCannon has 11,729 registered domain names.

It is good to see ICANN cleaning up its registrars. But that’s a heck of a lot of past due fees — more than I recall seeing on any termination notice. You have to ask why it took so long to terminate the registrar.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. ICANN Shuts Down Red Register
2. Three Registrars Lose ICANN Accreditation
3. EstDomains Challenges ICANN De-Accreditation

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 agreement.

According to registrar stats, DomainCannon has 11,729 registered domain names.

It is good to see ICANN cleaning up its registrars. But that’s a heck of a lot of past due fees — more than I recall seeing on any termination notice. You have to ask why it took so long to terminate the registrar.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. ICANN Shuts Down Red Register
2. Three Registrars Lose ICANN Accreditation
3. EstDomains Challenges ICANN De-Accreditation

Survey assesses most important aspects of domain name registrars.

When it comes to choosing a domain name registrar to manage your domain assets, what’s the most important factor?

It’s a question we’ve asked all five years of the Domain Name Wire Survey, and the results have been telling. Will it change this year?

The survey asks respondents to rank these factors when choosing a registrar:

-Security of domain names
-Price
-Value-added services such as web hosting and domain privacy
-Ease of transferring domains between accounts
-Account management tools
-Customer service
-What the registrar does with expired domains (e.g. auction off, warehouse, etc.)

Already, more people have completed this year’s survey than last year, and the survey doesn’t close until February 4. If you haven’t yet taken the survey, please do so now. Five respondents will win a copy of David Kesmodel’s “The Domain Game” book as a thank you.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Survey: Price, Security top considerations when choosing registrar
2. Survey: Security Top Concern for Domain Name Registrants
3. Survey: Price, Security Top Considerations When Registering Domains

Survey assesses most important aspects of domain name registrars.

When it comes to choosing a domain name registrar to manage your domain assets, what’s the most important factor?

It’s a question we’ve asked all five years of the Domain Name Wire Survey, and the results have been telling. Will it change this year?

The survey asks respondents to rank these factors when choosing a registrar:

-Security of domain names
-Price
-Value-added services such as web hosting and domain privacy
-Ease of transferring domains between accounts
-Account management tools
-Customer service
-What the registrar does with expired domains (e.g. auction off, warehouse, etc.)

Already, more people have completed this year’s survey than last year, and the survey doesn’t close until February 4. If you haven’t yet taken the survey, please do so now. Five respondents will win a copy of David Kesmodel’s “The Domain Game” book as a thank you.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Survey: Price, Security top considerations when choosing registrar
2. Survey: Security Top Concern for Domain Name Registrants
3. Survey: Price, Security Top Considerations When Registering Domains

GAC asks to postpone expressions of interest for new top level domain names.

The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) is asking ICANN to delay a decision on the so-called “Expressions of Interest” process for new top level domain names.

In a letter dated January 26, GAC Chairman Janis Karklins says that the period of community feedback has been to short and more time is needed to deliberate and fully understand the implications of the EOI process. The chairman is also miffed that ICANN didn’t ask GAC for its opinion: “no request has been made for GAC’s opinion, despite the clear public policy implications of the proposal.”

GAC’s concerns are threefold: the process will aid ICANN insiders, it will allow a speculative market for EOI application slots, and that it will penalize developing country applicants and non-profits.

I suspect the later concern is over the $55,000 price tag for submitting an expression of interest. But I have to ask, if an entity can’t fork over $55,000 for an EOI, how will they come up with the other $130,000 necessary to apply, let alone the hundreds of thousands of dollars to run a registry?

GAC is asking ICANN to postpone making a decision until after the Nairobi meeting.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. ICANN May Green Light EOIs for New Top Level Domains in February
2. An Easy Way to Comment on EOI for New Top Level Domain Names
3. Governments Want Control of New Geo Domain Names

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 have to go take after take to get something the network censors would accept. But thanks to organizations such as Morality in the Media, GoDaddy is getting plenty of press. (By the way, I’m calling for censorship of Morality in Media’s press release.)

Other companies are learning how to play GoDaddy’s game. Well, a religious right organization, anyway. Focus on the Family is grabbing plenty of pre-game press for its ad starring Tim Tebow.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Related posts:

1. Morality in Media Gives GoDaddy a Boost
2. Brandweek to GoDaddy: Enough is Enough
3. Twitter Can’t Take Down GoDaddy

Domainers dress up for The Getty.

When you think of domainers at a party, the last thing you think of is viewing Rembrandts. But that’s exactly what they did at Wednesday night’s DOMAINfest party at The Getty in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of domainers made the trip to The Getty, arriving by bus and then boarding trams for the trip to the top of the hill to enter The Getty. Inside, guests were treated to dinner and drinks, and access to many of the museum’s galleries. They could also participate in a drawing contest or an art mystery.

Although the art was cool, I was personally more captivated by the contemporary architecture of the buildings. Oh, and the view off the south side of the complex wasn’t bad, either (see the last scene in the video below).

Tonight there will be a true domainer-style party, as DOMAINfest returns to the Playboy Mansion. Check back later for video.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. DOMAINfest Goes to Getty Center for a Bit of Contrast
2. Scenes from DOMAINfest Opening Night Party
3. Video.us Sells for $75,000, Sets Record Domain Sales Price

Domainers dress up for The Getty.

When you think of domainers at a party, the last thing you think of is viewing Rembrandts. But that’s exactly what they did at Wednesday night’s DOMAINfest party at The Getty in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of domainers made the trip to The Getty, arriving by bus and then boarding trams for the trip to the top of the hill to enter The Getty. Inside, guests were treated to dinner and drinks, and access to many of the museum’s galleries. They could also participate in a drawing contest or an art mystery.

Although the art was cool, I was personally more captivated by the contemporary architecture of the buildings. Oh, and the view off the south side of the complex wasn’t bad, either (see the last scene in the video below).

Tonight there will be a true domainer-style party, as DOMAINfest returns to the Playboy Mansion. Check back later for video.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. DOMAINfest Goes to Getty Center for a Bit of Contrast
2. Scenes from DOMAINfest Opening Night Party
3. Video.us Sells for $75,000, Sets Record Domain Sales Price

This is a live post of Tony Hsieh’s fireside chat at DOMAINfest…updating.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com gave a keynote fireside chat with Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky.

Hsieh founded LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft. He then invested in and joined Zappos.com, which he sold to Amazon.com. He’s a 36 year old Harvard graduate.

He ran a pizza business in college, where he met Alfred Lin, who is now the CFO at Zappos now. Alfred would buy pizzas from them, and sell it by the slice.

LinkExchange’s reach was more than Yahoo or any other internet property back then. They had about a million web sites in their network. The sixteenth web site on their network was what became eBay. They sold the company because it stopped being a fun place to work anymore. They didn’t pay attention to company culture. Even Hsieh didn’t enjoy coming to work anymore.

They (Lin and Hsieh) used the money from selling the company to invest in OpenTable and many other startups, but they passed on PayPal.

“The original business idea never works out the way you” think it will. So they should have invested in the team behind PayPal, not the original idea (PayPal was supposed to send money over Palm Pilots).

They got the investment pitch for Zappos, and they almost passed. But the founder gave stats about the state of the shoe business, so they realized the web could take over the 5% of shoes sold via mail order. At first it was going to be a dropship business. They did that for the first couple years (100% dropship). Then they realized there were some brands that didn’t have the ability to dropship. They moved to a hybrid model. It was OK, but not a great customer experience. So they decided to become a ‘customer service’ company.

Overnight, they dropped the dropshipping business, which was 25% of their business.

Original name of site was ShoeSite.com. They based name on Spanish word for shoes. The name Zappos.com was available. Some people thought it was “Zappo’s”, and people went to Zappo.com. They ended up buying the domain for hundreds of thousands of dollars later.

He bought BBQ.com for something like $25,000. He bought Drugs.com at the height of the dotcom bubble, he bought through GreatDomains. He paid $823,456, which were the first six digits of his cell phone number, which he set up as his max bid. Then .com crash happened, and he was betting on Zappos, he sold Drugs.com for the same amount a couple years later. He put that money into Zappos.com.

They view phone calls as a branding experience, rather than a cost to be minimized. Although 99% of sales are on the web, most customers will call at some point. They don’t have phone scripts, they just ask reps to connect with the customers. Reps use their personality.

Spending money on offline ads improves ROI of online ads.

Idealab had the domain Clothes.com and sold it to Zappos. It was at the time they were focused on shoes and thought their next category would be apparel. It seemed like “there’s only one clothes.com”.

Tony had no idea that domain names was an industry before hearing about this conference.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Zappos CEO to Keynote DOMAINfest Global
2. Zappos Paid $4.9 Millon for Clothes.com Domain Name
3. Scenes from DOMAINfest Opening Night Party

This is a live post of Tony Hsieh’s fireside chat at DOMAINfest…updating.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com gave a keynote fireside chat with Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky.

Hsieh founded LinkExchange, which he sold to Microsoft. He then invested in and joined Zappos.com, which he sold to Amazon.com. He’s a 36 year old Harvard graduate.

He ran a pizza business in college, where he met Alfred Lin, who is now the CFO at Zappos now. Alfred would buy pizzas from them, and sell it by the slice.

LinkExchange’s reach was more than Yahoo or any other internet property back then. They had about a million web sites in their network. The sixteenth web site on their network was what became eBay. They sold the company because it stopped being a fun place to work anymore. They didn’t pay attention to company culture. Even Hsieh didn’t enjoy coming to work anymore.

They (Lin and Hsieh) used the money from selling the company to invest in OpenTable and many other startups, but they passed on PayPal.

“The original business idea never works out the way you” think it will. So they should have invested in the team behind PayPal, not the original idea (PayPal was supposed to send money over Palm Pilots).

They got the investment pitch for Zappos, and they almost passed. But the founder gave stats about the state of the shoe business, so they realized the web could take over the 5% of shoes sold via mail order. At first it was going to be a dropship business. They did that for the first couple years (100% dropship). Then they realized there were some brands that didn’t have the ability to dropship. They moved to a hybrid model. It was OK, but not a great customer experience. So they decided to become a ‘customer service’ company.

Overnight, they dropped the dropshipping business, which was 25% of their business.

Original name of site was ShoeSite.com. They based name on Spanish word for shoes. The name Zappos.com was available. Some people thought it was “Zappo’s”, and people went to Zappo.com. They ended up buying the domain for hundreds of thousands of dollars later.

He bought BBQ.com for something like $25,000. He bought Drugs.com at the height of the dotcom bubble, he bought through GreatDomains. He paid $823,456, which were the first six digits of his cell phone number, which he set up as his max bid. Then .com crash happened, and he was betting on Zappos, he sold Drugs.com for the same amount a couple years later. He put that money into Zappos.com.

They view phone calls as a branding experience, rather than a cost to be minimized. Although 99% of sales are on the web, most customers will call at some point. They don’t have phone scripts, they just ask reps to connect with the customers. Reps use their personality.

Spending money on offline ads improves ROI of online ads.

Idealab had the domain Clothes.com and sold it to Zappos. It was at the time they were focused on shoes and thought their next category would be apparel. It seemed like “there’s only one clothes.com”.

Tony had no idea that domain names was an industry before hearing about this conference.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Zappos CEO to Keynote DOMAINfest Global
2. Zappos Paid $4.9 Millon for Clothes.com Domain Name
3. Scenes from DOMAINfest Opening Night Party

by Aaron Krawitz, Gary Males & Patrick Carleton

[Editor's note: this is a guest article about the potential of IDN geo domain names.]

We’ve long been believers in GeoDomains and continue to be on the lookout for new and lucrative niches, which is why we have each individually made substantial investments in IDN GeoDomains.

With the fog of uncertainty finally lifting over IDNs, now is the ideal time for for geo investors to stake a claim in IDNs where the window of opportunity is quickly closing.

For years, antagonists of non-latin IDNs have focused on the premise that the part to the right of the dot was still in English. Let’s face it, [non-English] dot [English "com"] never made any sense, and that was the number one reason why many didn’t take a closer look.

But a few weeks ago, this all changed, as VeriSign finally showed its hand and put to bed the rumors of how these half IDNs were going to operate. In a brief, but game changing interview, Vice President of Policy and Compliance for VeriSign Information Services (VIS) Chuck Gomes spoke of how an existing [non-English] dot [English "com"] could be unlocked so that the domain owner also owns the rights to the same domain but with a localized extension (i.e [the same non-English domain] dot [non-English "com"]). For example, the owner of the Japanese domain, ニューオーリンズ.com (New Orleans), would also hold the rights to the same keyword with a non-English extension in the corresponding local language, such as ニューオーリンズ.コム. The characters “コム” are the familiar way to express “com” in Japanese.

So what does this mean for GeoDomainers?

ICANN’s IDN program aims to deliver on many promises, and the majority of these promises are to native speaking countries. IDNs intrinsically breed nationalistic pride in having one’s own language represented in a domain name, so it makes complete sense that GeoDomains of native cities/towns in their respective languages will be warmly welcomed.

What should we make of the competition, the new IDN ccTLDs?

Russia’s new .рф extension is a prime example, which, like the existing Japanese ccTLD are reserving all geos for government use. You can bet there will be mildly interesting informational sites put up on these geos for IDN ccTLDs, but they will be void of any commercial use. This will clear the way for IDN dot com names to dominate.

Where are the opportunities?

With only 1 million IDNs registered today, there is ample opportunity, and most old-time IDNers haven’t bought geos with a population under 100,000!

We are still in the early days of the IDN market and geos can be picked up for bargain prices on droplists or even occasionally at reg fee.

Aaron Krawitz of IDNBlog and Gary Males of IDNDemystified co-own IDNDroplist, IDNTools and IDNNewsletter. Patrick Carleton is Executive Directory of Associated Cities.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. Telnic Wants to Release .Tel IDNs
2. How The Japanese Avoid Domain Names
3. 2008 GeoDomain Expo Preview with Patrick Carleton