'Net Features : domain name

Protect Your Brand and Save a Headache

Michael Garrity — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 08:35:00 GMT

On the Web, the most valuable part of your business is your brand, and branding always starts with the name of your company and website. Thus, it’s critical that you protect that identity to safeguard all of the assets you have wrapped up in it.

Recognizing the importance of brand name protection, “value based” domain name registrar NameIT has partnered with Digital Media Monitors LLC to provide its clients with brand security and domain monitoring services.

Digital Media Monitors was selected because of its in-house expertise and access to “the most powerful domain monitoring tools available,” allowing NameIT customers to stay updated on the information needed to legally protect their brands. In addition, thanks to proprietary technology and alert systems, NameIT will be able to notify customers of any changes that may have an impact on their brands or businesses, which gives them an opportunity to take immediate, effective action.

This new service, known as NameIT Domain Monitoring and Brand Protection, offers four unique ways to help look after the identities of its customers. The first is Registrant Alerts, which alert businesses or individuals with registered domains anytime their brand name appears in a whois record for newly registered, renewed, or deleted domain names.

NameIT is also offering Brand Alert, so that businesses will know anytime a word or string of words close to their brand is used in a domain registration.

The third service is Domain Monitor, which provides information on the expiration dates and statuses of the domain names, and notifies customers of any status changes.

Finally, NameIT is offering its clients access to a plethora of industry experts and attorneys that can provide assistance in disputes, appraisals, and domain name sales.

Need Help Picking a Killer Domain Name?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:22:00 GMT

Let’s be honest – picking a domain name is hard. It always seems like most of the good ones are already taken (for obvious reasons). But this is why we love domain name suggestion services, such as DomainsBot, which can help wade through the sea of bad names to find the one that is best for your business.

Starting today, DomainsBot is offering the new Domain Suggestion Developer API, a copy-and-paste JQuery plugin and client code for the representational state transfer (REST) API. The client code is available in C#, PHP, or Java.

The widget provides a self-service experience for small and medium-sized hosting companies or domain resellsers, allowing them to put it right on their website, where visitors can use it to track down their perfect domain name without leaving the provider’s site.

“We designed the widget to allow anyone with a basic understanding of HTML to implement our domain suggestion within minutes,” says the DomainsBot VP of Product Development, Francesco Simoneschi.

So far, DomainsBot has been able to report a 15 percent increase in domain name sales for those partners using the suggestion tool, with over 1.5 million of their suggestions being registered in the last year.

The API and widget are available for free, and can be found here.

The .ORG Registry Grows 10 Percent

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:52:00 GMT

The Public Internet Registry (PIR) – which manages the .ORG extension, this week released the results of its bi-annual domain name report. The world’s third-largest generic top-level domain saw growth in the second half of 2011.

.ORG registrations grew by 9.9 percent in 2011, reaching 9.6 million total domains under management by the end of 2011 – a net gain of just over 400,000 domains for the second half of the year. This is the third time in as many years that .ORG has seen between 9 and ten percent annual growth.

"With Internet usage continuing to surge worldwide, and individuals and organizations alike placing even greater importance on doing good and promoting their passions online, it's no surprise that .ORG continued to see consistent and substantial growth during the second half of 2011," said Brian Cute, CEO of The Public Interest Registry. "We look forward to maintaining this consistent growth, as well as expanding globally in 2012."

In the report, PIR also indicated its intention to pursue the new domain extension, .NGO (non-governmental organizations).

Search for an Online Identity

Michael Garrity — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:20:00 GMT

A major part of online marketing is establishing a strong brand identity, which means that consumers have to be able to easily find your online properties (websites, social media profiles, mobile sites, etc.) for you to see real success on the Web.

The absolute best way to do this is to ensure that your primary website's domain name and social network URLs are simple and will make accessing your Internet properties as hassle-free for consumers (and, more importantly, potential consumers) as possible.

For the last half decade, DomainsBot has been helping companies by providing an easy way for them to check the availabilty of potential domain names that they may want to use, which dramatically reduces the time spent searching for an unused domain name.

"Our goal is to simplify an important and time consuming process creatively," says DomainsBot CEO Emiliano Pasqualetti.

Social Media Takeover
Of course, anyone who is even a moderate Internet user can tell you that social media has completely altered the way that we use the Web. Now, many users will have their first encounters with brands on social networks, specifically Twitter or Facebook, and many consumers are conditioned to visit these profile pages more frequently than websites because they are easier to engage with and located on social networking sites that the users are already visiting regularly.

DomainsBot took note of this development, and it was the catalyst for the development and launch of the 2.0 version of its website. DomainsBot now offers "an innovative real-time search experience" that includes some new tools to search for not only domain names, but also Twitter handles and Facebook URLs. Ultimately, this will help brands establish unique online identities in a quick and efficient manner.

"Five years ago we only needed to worry about checking domain availability before naming a new business or product," says Pasqualetti. "Today's challenge is to take care of domains and social media identities."

Keeping Up with Google
A big part of the redevelopment of the DomainsBot technology revolved around meeting Google's new "Instant" feature. Now that the search giant displays relevant search results as words are typed into the search engine, DomainsBot will offer "a similar, real-time experience that gives users more control over results."

The new website is live now, and the new features have also been integrated into DomainsBot's mobile application.

A Variety of Businesses Interested in .XXX

Allison Howen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Businesses are rushing to protect their identity from the new .XXX domain names that will be available soon.

According to Easyspace, one of the UK’s largest Web hosting companies, 8 out of 10 businesses that are pre-registering their interest in the triple X domain names are not part of the adult industry.

“As we expected, the early indications are that non-adult industry businesses have realized the need to protect trademarks and brands in dot XXX. As an officially accredited registrar of the new domain we are encouraging businesses to pre-register with us so we can submit their claims to ICM Registry quickly and efficiently,” says Sarah Haran, managing director of Easyspace.

The new domain name registration will take place in a series of controlled phases starting in September and running through December.

“To increase your chance of securing .XXX it’s important to pre-order your preferred domain before general availability begins,” says Haran.

90% Off Your Next (Perhaps Only) .Tel

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:40:00 GMT

Domain People has begun registering .tel domain names under the general registration period. (Registration officially opened on March 24, 2009.) The good news for anyone in the market for one of the new domains is that the registration prices dropped 90 percent from the premium landrush rate.

"If you haven't registered your .tel domain name yet, now is the time to do it," said Chris Kruk, product manager at DomainPeople. "Registration is now open to anyone, and names are awarded on a first-come, first served basis. So the sooner you register, the better your chances of getting the domain name you really want."

I personally think you have to have rocks between your ears to pick up a .tel. The landrush pricing was, in my personal opinion, nearly criminal with the extortion. I mean pricing, starting at $375 US (which did include the application fee and three years of registration).

__________

What's One Great Idea Worth?
Upgrade to a professional-level membership from Website Magazine and find out!

Domain Name Self-Serve Listing Service

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:20:00 GMT

Users of domain registrar Moniker will now be able to list domains for sale on domain name auction site SnapNames. Both companies are part of the Oversee network.

Domain sellers will be able to choose the appropriate listing format (auction or fixed priced) and transfer domains on the same day of the transaction, although the sale proceeds will not be available to sellers for seven days in most cases.

"After listening intently to buyer and seller marketplace requirements, we are offering this new functionality to our community of users," said Oversee.net President Jeff Kupietzky. "As people continue to develop Internet identities and expand their demand of domain names, it's absolutely essential to offer a comprehensive selection of quality domains. By allowing users to list from their Moniker accounts, we can quickly increase the availability of quality domains that may otherwise not be available."

Show .Me Your Domain

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Despite reports of registration difficulty for some, personalized .me domains look like quite a hit around the Web.

The .ME Registry officially opened for live, real-time registrations July 17, 2008 and was met with huge international demand. More than 50,000 new me domain names were registered in the first two days, with the first "live" name registered being: yusu.me.

"While English speaking countries led the way in registration volume, many non-English speaking countries such as Germany, China, and France made a strong showing," said Predrag Lesic, the Me registry's executive director. "We believe this bodes well for the international success of .ME as the only domain name that is all about YOU. .ME is a domain space that offers personalized me domain names for your products and services, or your personal presence on the web, including email, in a more generic way than any other."

Did you purchase a .me domain name? I did - worriso.me. Now show me your .me domain! Just comment below.

Domain Madness: Dot Pro Hype

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:27:00 GMT

Next Monday (July 21st, 2008) EnCirca will launch a special promotion for dot-pro domain names. Licensed professionals will be eligible to apply for dot-pro domain names on a first-come, first-serve basis.

"We enthusiastically support the re-launch of dot-pro," says Thomas Barrett, President of EnCirca, the leading dot-pro registrar. "These long overdue changes will open the door for businesses representing over 1,100 licensed professions, from every country in the world, to establish their Internet brand identity with the .pro domain name."

Examples of qualified businesses and licensed professionals that are eligible include doctors, architects, engineers, plumbers, inspectors, contractors and many others. License credentials need to be provided by the applicant, however there will be no verification of credentials conducted before the dot-pro names can be used. Instead, the dot-pro registry will perform periodic audits of the registered names to check compliance.

How will ICANN's recent announcement affect dot pro domain names and other such as .travel? Who knows, but don't expect much action - especialy at $99 a year.

Domain Name Happy Hour

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:42:00 GMT

There are few events on the Web that elicit more giddiness in the halls of Website Magazine than freebies!

Dotster is running a Domain Name Happy Hour Promotion on Thursday, April 17th at 4:00pm EDT. Customers who click the Happy Hour banner ad on the company's homepage will be taken to a page where they can receive a coupon redeemable for one free .com, .net or .org domain name. If your clicking finger just isn't fast enough and you aren't one of the first 500 to snag a new domain courtesy of Dotster, fear not, some good deals are still available including 10% off all hosting plans from April 17th to April 22nd and an After Hours sale that will feature domain registrations for $6.99.

Clint Page, CEO of Dotster, said, “Dotster’s new Happy Hour promotion gives businesses a unique way to experience the full power of online Web marketing with our complete array of value added services: Web hosting, customized web site designs and Search Engine Optimization.”