Domain Masters : domain names

Get Naughty With a XXX Domain

'Net Features : wm-domains — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:49:00 GMT

ICM Registry , registry operator for the .XXX top-level domain (TLD), has announced that new .XXX domain registrations created from May 1 through May 31, 2013 will be available just $ 8.99 - a big reduction in price. Interested domainers (or those looking to protect their brand) can use their current registrar or one of the participating .XXX-friendly registrars. The registry also indicated that it is also making moves to protect .XXX TLD holders with its recent applications to operate three additional adult entertainment-related TLDs — .SEX, .PORN and .ADULT. If ultimately awarded thsse new TLDs, ICM Registry will offer a “grandfathering” clause and will automatically reserve matching names (at no additional cost) to those who already have .XXX domains. So if you buy a .XXX domain now and ICM Registry is approved to run those other domain extensions, you won't have to pay a dime. If you do choose to use them however, there will be a fee of course, but it will likely be nominal. “Our goal is to serve the adult industry by continually creating new initiatives and platforms that increase the inherent value of each .XXX website,” said CEO of ICM Registry, Stuart Lawley. Those that know me, know of my affinity for domain names. The one domain extension I have not purchased however, is that of the .XXX top level domain. Now, however, the draw may just be too much to bear....(read more)

Domain Stats to Know

'Net Features : wm-domains — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:34:00 GMT

Verisign released their quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief for the 3rd quarter of 2012 this week. Q3 ended with just over 246 million registered domain names (across all TLDs). In total, 5.7 million domains were added, a 2.4 percent increase in total registrations representing the seventh consecutive quarter of more than 2 percent growth. Clearly, social and apps aren’t taking away from the domain name industry as dramatically as some pundits suggested. Year-over-year growth increased 12 percent with 26.4 million names added over the previous 12 months. The .com extension remains, far and away, the most popular extension according to results included in the recent Verisign report. As of the end of September 2012, there were e 105 million .com domains and 14.9 million .net names. It’s not all good news for the domain name industry however. The .com and .net renewal rate for 2012’s third quarter was down slightly to to 72.5% after a 72.9% rate in the second quarter. There was also a 1.1 percent drop in new .com ad /net registrations. Another interesting domain name related news items comes from WIPO – the World Intellectual Property Organization – which received a record number of UDRP complaints in 2012. WIPO reported 2,879 cases were filed in 2012, compared to 2, 764 in 2012....(read more)

Do You (Really) Need WHOIS Protection?

'Net Features : wm-domains — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Irish web hosting and domain registration service LetsHost is now offering WHOIS privacy services for all new and existing domain registrants wanting to shield their private information from public view. While many question the usefulness of these privacy services, most registrars continue to offer them - and at a premium. The LetsHost offering is available now for free for any .com, .net, .org, .biz or .info domain name registered through LetsHost. By activating the service, registrants can keep information including the owners email, address and telephone number out of the hands of those that may want to use it for sales or for the purpose of sending unsolicited messages. “It is important that accurate information be entered during the domain registration process,” Graeme Conkie, Director said. “So we give our clients the opportunity to protect this personal or business information without paying an extra fee. Whether we’re delivering a domain registration, web hosting, or cloud VPS service, we want to help customers safeguard their online presence.”...(read more)

Sedo Dot CO Auction Worth a Look

'Net Features : wm-domains — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace and monetization provider Sedo is auctioning over 150 premium .CO domain names from November 12th through the 19th. The list of .CO’s in auction is actually quite impressive, including robot.co, gadget.co, hot.co, real.co, among others. Most of the .CO domains in auction have reserve prices starting at $500 but reserve prices for many of the more appealing listings range from $10-25,000. This premium auction is being held in honor of Global Entrepreuership Week. .CO Internet, the registry for the dot CO domain extension, is even auctioning 50 of its own premium reserved .CO domains. “The global startup community has really embraced .CO domains since they were introduced in 2010, with companies like Twitter, Angel List, Google and 500 Startups helping to drive adoption and consumer awareness,” said Liesbeth Mack-de Boer, Sedo’s Chief Sales Officer. “With such heavyweights paving the way, .CO has become the premier choice for startups who may not be able to register legacy extensions which are often more cost-prohibitive or already registered. For entrepreneurs and start-ups, this premium .CO auction provides a great opportunity to purchase a domain that will help grow their business.”...(read more)

Exact Match Domains Clipped by Google

'Net Features : wm-domains — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 17:16:00 GMT

Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock the past few weeks, you are likely well aware that Google’s most recent algorithm update caught quite a few Web workers (and domainers) off guard. What was interesting about this update in particular is that it targeted exact match domains specifically (some would argue that partial match domains were affected as well). Google’s Matt Cutts announced the “minor weather report” on Twitter just before the update actually took place the final weekend of September 2012. The update, which affected approximately 0.6% of all queries to a noticeable degree, took several days to roll out but we can safely assume that the effects will be long lasting. According to Cutts, the change targeted “low-quality” exact match domains (EMD) – those domains that carry the keyword or phrase that users queried. As you might imagine, the algo update has left many (as usual) scratching their digital heads to find an answer to what “low-quality” actually means (again) as several sites, many with a long history and decent link portfolios, seemed to have been swept up in the rollout. With some confidence, and I say this only after giving Google a week or two to fine tune its changes, that the use of Exact Match Domains carries far less weight than it used to. What do you think? Time to switch domains to a more "brandable" option? What will this do to the upcoming release of additional gTLD's...(read more)

Congressional Domains Names Used in Squatting

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:38:00 GMT

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) has released a report which found that upwards of 27 percent of congressional members domain names are used in identity squatting - the act of registering domain names containing famous names in had faith with the intention of profiteing from them.

CADNA examined six domain names corresponding to the name of each U.S. House and Representatives and Senate member (totaling 3,210 domains) and found that on average, members of Congres only own 1.86 of the six domain names examined in teh report, and 95 did not own one single domain name. Only 16 members of Congress owned all six of the domain names examined.

Some additional highlights from the report include (available here in PDF):

- 49 percent of senators and 57 percent of representatives own their FullName.com domain names; 29 percent of senators and 29 percent of representatives own their FullName.org domain names

- 49 percent of senators’ FullName.com domain names and 64 percent of their FullName.org domain names are owned by third parties. 39 percent of representatives’ FullName.com domain names and 32 percent of their FullName.org domain names are owned by third parties

- And my favorite little nugget from this report: 59 percent of representatives’ FullNameForCongress.com and 77 percent of their FullNameForCongress.org domains are available. Let the squatting begin.

ICANN Completes Bulk Transfer of Domains to NamesBeyond

'Net Features : wm-domains — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:30:00 GMT

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has ordered a bulk transfer of domains from two de-accredited registrars to the still accredited NamesBeyond . The two registrars that were de-accredited were Planet Online and Name For Name...(read more)

Automate UDRP Filings with CitizenHawk

'Net Features : wm-domains — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:45:00 GMT

When the new dot.anything, generic top-level domains arrive in less than a year, you can expect to see an increase in UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy) filings as brands scurry to secure their brand assets. Fortunately, the often confusing...(read more)

Sedo Domain Market Study Q2 2012

'Net Features : wm-domains — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:00:00 GMT

The more things change, the more they stay the same – at least as it relates to domain names. Sedo, a domain name marketplace and monetization platform, has released its Domain Market Study for the second quarter of 2012. While the digital world...(read more)

Dot Org Hits 10 Million Domain Milestone

'Net Features : wm-domains — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:55:00 GMT

While most domainers are laser-focused on the potential in the new generic top-level domains, don’t rule out acquiring a tried-and-true extension like .ORG. Public Interest Registry , the operator of the .ORG domain, this month announced a major...(read more)

GoDaddy Adds "Request Price" Domain Inventory from Afternic

'Net Features : wm-domains — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:38:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace Afternic announced an enhanced partnership with Godaddy that will make available Afternic's "Request Price" domain names to Godaddy customers - presumably within the registrar's auction environment. Godaddy, which...(read more)

Defensive Domain Name Registration Strategies

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:23:00 GMT

The practice of reserving domain names that are "hostile" toward a company (or its staff) is not uncommon. The most recent case has been that of investing company Blackstone Gruop and its CEO Stephen Schwartzman.

Tim Bradshaw of the Financial Times reported that Blackstone Group has been purchasing web domain names such as blackstonesucks.com and schwarzmansucks.com. This kind of "defensive registration" is common for large companies and there are many vendors serving the market to support a company's defensive domain registration initiatives.

Some of the premier vendors in the space include MarkMonitor, SafeNames, MelBourne IT and others. These vendors typically offer some variation or mix of domain portfolio managment, brand monitoring, trademark protection, and domain recovery services.

Domain Name Registration Down Under

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:40:00 GMT

According to a new report from Deloitte Access Economics, Australian domain names (using ‘.au’) contributed $474.7 million to the economy last financial year.

Deloitte’s investigation found that 60,000 new domain names are being registered each month, compared to just 6,552 back in December 2002. Back in August of 2011, there were just 2.18 million domain names registered in Australia. The sector now employs 4,330 people in full-time work, and pays out $275.7 million each year in wages.

The majority of domain names were registered by companies, with 53% of all registrations, followed by personal websites (in the ‘other’ category) with 18%, sole traders with 14%, registered businesses with 11%, partnerships with 2% and non-profits with 1%. The industry with the weakest web presence was agriculture, forestry and fishing, with only 11% of businesses in that sector having a domain. Transport, postal and warehousing also posted a poor result with 22%.

Large corporations were more likely to have a website, according to the report, with 90% of companies with over 200 employees having a presence on the internet. This was followed by businesses of between 20 and 199 employees, with 71% having registered a domain. Smaller businesses posted worse results, with 51% of those with 5-19 employees having a website and just 29% of businesses with 0-4 employees having registered a name.

Verisign’s New Top Level Domain Plans

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:57:00 GMT

Verisign will apply for several new top level domain names, said Senior VP and GM of Verisign Naming Services Pat Kane, during its most recent Q4 earnings announcement. Just how many you ask? “About 12” indicated Kane, and most will be internationalized domain names (IDN).

The company also said that VeriSign has already been selected as the registry provider by several brands that will apply for new top level domains. It did not reveal any numbers, although the company has predicted there will be 1,000 to 1,500 total new TLD applications. \

Verisign Registry Services ended the quarter with approximately 113.8 million active .com and .net domain names, representing an 8% increase year-over-year. Verisign also added 7.9 million new domain name registrations (a 4% increase).

Bargain.com on Sale at Sedo

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:34:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace Sedo has been selected as the exclusive seller of the Bargain.com domain name.

The domain/website is currently owned by consumer credit and identity protection service FYI Direct. The site was originally registred in 2001 and developed into a provider of foreclosure information and foreclosure listing service, before becoming a lead generation platform (aggregator) for daily deal vendors.

“FYI Direct currently owns thousands of real estate foreclosure-related sites. While Bargain.com is one of our key URLs, we never felt it was a great fit with our current portfolio, and decided it could be better put to use as a merchandise site or something similar,” said Bryan McCann, vice president, business development of FYI Direct. “We understand the massive value potential the domain provides, so enlisted Sedo’s expert guidance to help find the right buyer who can develop a site that does justice to such a great domain.”