News
Domain Price Fairy Tales are Hard to Kill
Myths about sales prices grow like weeds.
With Sex.com hitting the auction block next week, mainstream media are in a tizzy writing about the auction of the “world’s most valuable domain name”. As usual, they’re comparing it to other big ticket domain sales. The only problem is that many of the sales they refer to have misleading sales figures.
Consider The Huffington Post’s “The 11 Most Expensive Domain Names Ever“.
Casino.com is on HuffPos’ list at $5.5 million, but the caption notes that it was the web site and domain. So that wasn’t a domain sale.
You’ll also see Business.com, which was widely reported as sold for $7.5 million. But that was in illiquid equity. According to the buyer, the equity ended up being redeemed for only $2.0 million. (The seller claims it ended up being more than $7.5 million.)
Then there’s the granddaddy of them all, Insure.com. Look, Quinstreet did not buy the domain name Insure.com for $16 million. It bought an active web site, and it generates substantial leads. The domain itself wasn’t worth that much.
Buyers and sellers often times have an incentive to pump up the sales price for domains. The buyer gets lots of publicity, and the seller gets an ego boost. Yet it’s painful to see this sort of misinformation continue to spread.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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Marchex Gets UDRP Win with Clara.com, Robot Blocking Justified
Company defends generic domain name and explains legitimate reasons for blocking robots.txt from parked domain names.
Marchex subsidiary MDNH has successfully defended the domain name Clara.com from an attack by a magazine publisher in Spain.
Complainant Rba Edipresse, S.L. owns a magazine called Clara, and argued that it should get the domain name because it has trademarks for the term “Clara” and that Marchex hadn’t used the domain name since it was registered.
Clara.com was one of the domain names Marchex acquired when it bought UltSearch. It pointed out that the domain name is generic (woman’s name, translates to “clear” in Spanish) and that the parked page at Clara.com didn’t contain links competing with the magazine. In other words, the magazine didn’t have exclusive rights to the term Clara. The panel agreed with this assessment.
The complainant argued that Marchex’s use of robots.txt to exclude bots from visiting the site, including Archive.org, was a sign of bad faith. Complainants frequently suggest that using robots.txt to block archive.org is a sign of bad faith, especially when the block is placed after a complaint is received. In this case, robots.txt was in place well before the complaint was made. Further, Marchex and sttorney John Berryhill explained many legitimate reasons why the company uses robots.txt on parked domain names:
1. Lowers bandwidth costs
2. Limits click fraud and appearance of click fraud due to same IP
3. Avoids reverse engineering, copyright issues, click fraud, and other issues inherent with archiving
4. Keep parked pages out of search engines
5. Archived pages show only what was visible in one location; geo-targeting of parked domains means archives not accurate for all users
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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Survey Says Internet Won't Make Us Stupid
Or at least majority of 895 technology stakeholders' and critics' that were recently surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center. Some of the quantitative results from the expert group include the following:
Google won't make us stupid: 76% of these experts agreed with the statement, "By 2020, people's use of the Internet has enhanced human intelligence; as people are allowed unprecedented access to more information they become smarter and make better choices. Nicholas Carr was wrong: Google does not make us stupid."
Reading, writing, and the rendering of knowledge will be improved: 65% agreed with the statement "by 2020 it will be clear that the Internet has enhanced and improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge." Still, 32% of the respondents expressed concerns that by 2020 "it will be clear that the Internet has diminished and endangered reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge."
Innovation will continue to catch us by surprise: 80% of the experts agreed that the "hot gadgets and applications that will capture the imaginations of users in 2020 will often come 'out of the blue.'" Some of the best answers are in Part 3 of this report. Respondents hope information will flow relatively freely online, though they expect there will be flashpoints over control of the Internet. Concerns over control of the Internet were expressed in answers to a question about the end‐to‐end principle. 61% responded that the Internet will remain as its founders envisioned, however many who agreed with the statement that "most disagreements over the way information flows online will be resolved in favor of a minimum number of restrictions" also noted that their response was a "hope" and not necessarily their true expectation. 33% chose to agree with the statement that "the Internet will mostly become a technology where intermediary institutions that control the architecture and ...content will be successful in gaining the right to manage information and the method by which people access it."
Anonymous online activity will be challenged, though a modest majority still think it will possible in 2020: There more of a split verdict among the expert respondents about the fate on online anonymity. Some 55% agreed that Internet users will still be able to communicate anonymously, while 41% agreed that by 2020 "anonymous online activity is sharply curtailed."
Related Links:
The Future of the Internet IV (Webpage / PDF)
Doc Searls sharing his my full responses to all the questions
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More under: Web
Whither .XXX?
What's going to happen this week on .XXX? Nairobi is the first public board meeting since the independent review panel's nonbinding declaration in February that ICANN acted against its own rules in refusing to go ahead with .XXX. Reports that ICANN is going to 'do something' about .XXX have gone around the world via BBC news, and even surfaced on the radio in rural Ireland. The ICM team are out in force here in Nairobi, and there is endless speculation about what will happen at the Board's meeting on Friday.
ICM has no interest in being fobbed off with an invitation to join the new gTLD application process. That process is horribly delayed, of still uncertain timing and outcome, and would expose ICM to immediate competition from other porn-related TLDs. ICM has assiduously played by the rules and understandably does not wish to go to the back of the queue.
This could go one of two ways. First and most likely, the Board will fulfill its legal obligation to consider the panel's decision by having, and being seen to have at its public meeting on Friday, a discussion of the ruling. Then, perhaps regretfully, it will punt on any action by adopting some sort of delaying mechanism. One way to buy time and maybe even some credibility would be for the Board to put the 2007 registry contract with ICM out for another round of public comment. ICM says it will take legal action if there's any delay, though this might be hard to justify if it's 'just one more' round of public comment.
The second possibility is that the Board simply directs staff to execute the 2007 registry contract with ICM. This could and should happen. The US administration has changed and is no longer as beholden to the religious right. The remaining opposition within the GAC is likely quite isolated and far more concerned about new gTLDs in general. .XXX has been a thorn in the Board's side for several years, undermining ICANN's credibility and costing both parties around $6 million dollars. It can't go on. In arguments for 'not now': it would be a dramatic step that repudiates ICANN's past actions. The 2007 contract may no longer be fit for purpose. No one wants to be the host city or the CEO to open up the floodgates to yet more porn on the Internet.
Like any long running disagreement, the facts and sequence of events are in dispute. A posting by CEO Rod Beckstrom on the ICANN blog included an incomplete timeline and didn't commit to implementing anything more than the narrowest legal interpretation of the panel's findings. Many commenters attacked this, saying ICANN should just get on and do the right thing. This week in Nairobi CEO Rod Beckstrom has distanced himself from the blog posting, saying it was written by ICANN's General Counsel John Jeffrey. While that's not the most courageous stance I've ever seen, I hope it signals a move toward decisive action on .XXX.
Why is .XXX so difficult to sort out? The .XXX application triggered the perfect storm of conflict that got right to the heart of ICANN's mission and its point of deepest vulnerability. The average quango bumbles along for decades and never faces the precise set of people, motivation and cause with the potential to tear it apart. ICANN does so about every five years.
The .XXX affair exposed ICANN's core vulnerability, and gave flesh to all the conspiracy theories about the US government 'controlling the root'. The independent review panel's account sets out in black and white the invincible pressure on ICANN caused by a right wing religious lobby group's letter writing campaign to the US Department of Commerce. The panel drew strongly on Paul Twomey's statement that in the summer of 2005 the DoC said it would not put .XXX into the root. The version of events now in the public domain has not been publicly contested by the DoC.
The DoC's threat to unilaterally keep .XXX out of the root meant that ICANN, having gone through its whole consultative process and come to a decision well within the limits of its powers, would have publicly and finally been stripped of every last rag of its authority and raison d'etre. If this had been made public, ICANN would have been finished. At that point in the global Internet governance debate, the proof that the US government felt free to interfere in ICANN's work and exercise ultimate control over the Internet root would have fatally weakened the case for multi-stakeholder governance.
Not surprisingly, ICANN's leadership decided that is own failure to honour its commitment to ICM was the lesser of two evils. For the second time in eighteen months, ICANN faced down an existential threat and limped away, badly damaged. A legitimate question we can all ask ourselves is 'was it worth it'?
From the relative comfort of a lawyer's briefing room, it's easy to condemn ICANN's then leadership for not following through on the .XXX contract. ICANN's leaders faced the appalling dilemma of 'bombing the village in order to save it'. All ICM wants to do is run a registry and make some money. They played by the rules and didn't want to be drawn in to a world of international realpolitik. But there's no denying that's the world this dispute lives in. The legalistic nature of the dispute means ICM and most critics focus on ICANN's abrogation of its own procedures. This is important, but narrows the view too much to appreciate the big picture.
Who is the most at fault? Political appointees at DoC allowed religious extremists and bully boy tactics to drive policy on the stewardship of a global resource. They let momentary, parochial domestic impulses over-ride America's larger interest in a free and global Internet.
Stuart Lawley of ICM was absolutely right when he told me a couple of days ago that this issue is about much more than just a smutty little porn thing. It's a test of ICANN's accountability. The independent review panel is the jewel in the crown of ICANN's accountability mechanisms. Its declaration demands a substantive response, not just a discussion of the issues.
But .XXX is about more than ICANN's accountability, too. On a day in Nairobi that included a closed session on the role of the Government Advisory Committee and ICANN's institutional evolution, the transparency and accountability of individual governments should be in the spotlight, too.
Written by Maria Farrell, Independent Consultant
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More under: ICANN, Internet Governance, Top-Level Domains
Domain Madness 2 Set for Las Vegas
Second domain name auction in Las Vegas scheduled for later this month.
DomainConsultant premiered “Domain Madness” last year, a (mostly) online auction that was broadcast live from The Palms in Las Vegas. They’re back at it again this year, organizing an auction that will conclude on March 23.
This year’s auction will be limited to only a dozen or so premium domain names, and the auction will take place online at OneofaKind.comsite to be named soon. The sales commission is 8%.
Last year’s event was supposed to be online only, but the group organized a last minute trip to Vegas. This year will have a small crowd, as DomainConsultant invited a handful of people who were willing to pay up for an all-inclusive 48 hours in Vegas. Sounds like fun, but I won’t be able to make the last minute trip this year.
The 2009 event sold $150,000 in domain names. Here’s some video from the KingPin suite at The Palms, where the event took place.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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American National Broadband Plan Good First Step
The National Broadband Plan that the FCC will present on 17 March will set the USA on a completely different telecoms path. This plan will hopefully show Congress that it is worthwhile making the legislative changes that will deliver the social and economic benefits of a national broadband infrastructure.
Groundwork for a new direction in telecoms
Shortly before Barack Obama won the election in 2008 I started to work with what became the Obama Transition Team on some of the US telecoms policies. Obama and his small team of technological experts were aware of the developments in Australia—particularly in relation to the need for trans-sector policy on broadband infrastructure.
Together with a team of national (US) and international experts we prepared half a dozen 'BigThink' strategy reports for the Obama Team in the White House.
We also established a good relationship with the FCC (Blair Levin's team) and NTIA (Larry Strickling).
ALL parties publicly agreed to a trans-sector approach and many of our suggestions are clearly reflected in the stimulus package (open networks) of the FCC national purpose strategy. And our suggestions also appear in the upcoming National Broadband Plan—in the trans-sector approach to the public safety sector and the proposed mobile broadband infrastructure for this sector.
Visionary plan now needs legislative action
However, if we're talking about 'national purpose' a transformation of the telecoms industry is crucial, and the FCC has been specifically forbidden by Congress to address this topic.
The National Broadband Plan will most certainly highlight the benefits attached to a 'national purpose' policy but it is up to the Congress to make it happen. The plan will provide a new, visionary direction for telecoms in America but unfortunately in its current state it is a toothless tiger. It will be up to Congress to take action through legislation—without that it will be impossible to implement the plan in any timely fashion.
As matters stand at the moment the plan is the best the FCC can do. They should be applauded for the work they have done so far—they have laid the foundation for a totally new telecoms direction in the USA.
All of these trans-sector/national purpose policy proposals require very significant changes to the way the telecoms industry works and if—as has been stipulated by Congress—this can't and therefore will not be addressed in the Plan.
Affordable access to broadband infrastructure
Another key to telco transformation is the creation of a level of 'affordability' both for the end-users and for the sectors that could use the infrastructure, you won't get this without tough legislation.
To just get very fast broadband to American homes in isolation from this trans-sector approach is fairly useless. While you might get such a service to all homes the reality is that without a utilities-based trans-sector approach towards the underlying broadband infrastructure it will be impossible to make that an affordable service. We only have to look at the charges that currently apply to such (fiber-based) broadband services to realize that probably only about 25% of Americans can afford this.
While not defined as such in the USA, broadband is simply infrastructure. (Access to that infrastructure is now declared a national right in several European countries.) A problem in the US legislation is that the previous Administration gave broadband the unusual classification of 'an information service' and not an access service.
National purpose good for the nation and for lowering the consumer bill
If the trans-sector approach is applied other sectors (healthcare, education, energy, public safety) can be directed by the government to start using this network—thus paying their share towards the cost of the broadband infrastructure—for the delivery of their services, e.g., the monitoring of aged people from their homes to reduce the need for hospitalization.
This has to be a government-driven approach as the social and economic trans-sector benefits fall outside the balance sheets of the telco providers. These benefits need to be carefully monetized and used as input by the government in developing government policies in these areas. The OECD has indicated that the savings made by using the broadband network for healthcare, education and transport alone could pay for the deployment of a national broadband network.
Unfortunately the economic benefits are very hard to calculate. But was it possible to predict the benefits of the electricity network when it was built? The naysayers in those days said that it was outrageous to pay for infrastructure that would simple replace candles.
Structural changes to the industry are needed
In order for those sectors to be able to deliver these services the broadband infrastructure needs to be made available to them on a utilities basis. This can't be done within the vertically-integrated structure of the telecoms industry. An open network policy is required, and that is clearly not on the table in the United States—at least not for 90% of the infrastructure that will be involved in its National Broadband Plan.
So, yes, even without legislative changes the new broadband plan might indeed deliver broadband to most people in the USA—but at what cost to the average American citizen? For the moment at least, the incumbents can't believe their luck at the honey pot the government is placing in front of them. They are in a prime position to deliver these networks and they will not be required to do this at an affordable price. The government will pay the going rack rate which will include a very fat premium to the carriers on top of costs.
This situation cries out for structural changes to the industry, but it doesn't look as though change will take place in the foreseeable future.
The end result is that access to broadband will remain significantly more expensive to Americans than to people in countries that opt for an open network and utility approach towards basic infrastructure.
Regional and Rural America will be second rated
Another result will be that regional and rural users will get a second-rate service (lower speed). There is no way that those premium prices charged by the incumbent telcos can be afforded to build an equivalent broadband network in regional America. This is a very dangerous development as it will undermine the delivery of the trans-sector services to those communities. Healthcare, energy and public safety services require Qos, security, reliability, privacy protection, etc. A second-rate network will certainly compromise some of that and might even render it unacceptable for the usage of such service.
As mentioned above, the incumbents are jumping up and down with joy and—in relation to voluntary cooperation to give some spectrum back—the broadcasters are arrogantly saying 'over my dead body'. But in reality, and based on decades of anti-competitive behavior, who among these players will voluntarily give up their monopolistic rents as requested by what is, in that respect, a rather powerless FCC.
The ball is now in the court of Congress
Congress should take a very hard look at itself and answer some these questions before propping up an outmoded telecommunications structure. This money can only be spent once and at present it appears that without structural changes to the industry the new National Broadband Plan will not provide the right foundation for those national interest investments. It would be impossible to successfully implement these policies without simultaneously addressing the structural issues in the industry.
We have top-class people involved in the development of the National Broadband Plan—the ones mentioned above, as well as the excellent team of extremely hardworking people that Blair Levin has built up.
So that's not the issue. The issue is the failure of the American political system.
For the first time in its history a different approach is being taken towards telecoms in America—we now accept such notions as open networks, network neutrality and trans-sector/national. Let us hope that Congress now takes the baton from the FCC and supplies the legislative follow-up that is required to implement this very important first step.
The plan, as it will be presented on 17 March, has gone as far as the FCC can take it. It is now up to the legislators to be visionary—to make sure that the National Broadband Plan is followed up with legislation that will enable the telecoms industry to deliver the enormous social and economic national benefits highlighted in the plan.
Written by Paul Budde, Managing Director of Paul Budde Communication
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More under: Broadband, Policy & Regulation, Telecom
Typo? CanadaDrugs.com vs. CanadaRugs.com
Online pharmacy argues “Rugs” is merely a typo of “Drugs”.
Take two of these and
fire your lawyer in the morning.
Here’s an interesting UDRP case from National Arbitration Forum.
The company that runs CanadaDrugs.com, a popular online pharmacy, filed a complaint against the owner of CanadaRugs.com, which is a parked page featuring links for rugs.
CanadaDrugs.com tried to argue that the owner of CanadaRugs.com was typosquatting:
Complainant submits that the Domain Name is confusingly similar to its website and Canada Drugs Marks and that respondent has merely removed the letter “d” from the spelling of the word “Drugs” in the Domain Name. Complainant also submits that this omission of the letter “d” constitutes typosquatting and that Respondent has registered the Domain Name in an effort to take advantage of internet users’ typographical errors. Complainant argues that this alteration is not sufficient to distinguish the Domain Name from its own domain name and registered marks.
Hmm. Did it not occur to their lawyers that “Rugs” is a word?
The links on CanadaRugs.com are clearly unrelated to drugs, but the complainant argued that the parked page was a sign of bad faith intent to profit on the “typo”.
The panelist found that the two domain names were not confusingly similar for this reason. He then considered the last two elements of the UDRP “for completeness”, finding in the respondent’s favor. But for some reason he neglected to consider reverse domain name hijacking, even though the respondent asked for it.
The kicker? CanadaRugs.com is available for purchase on Sedo for only 500 EUR.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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ICANN Takes a Wrong Turn on New TLD Contracts - "Post Signature Revision Process?"
The pen is mightier than the word...or should be. When ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate-Thrush -- an accomplished attorney—said last year that he wouldn't let one of his own clients agree to a contract that could be unilaterally changed after it was signed, the Internet community breathed a sigh of relief.
But when the Chairman backed away from that stance earlier this week in Nairobi, it became clear that we should have held our breath a little bit longer.
ICANN's Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) is the bible for companies and organizations seeking to launch a new top-level domain. The latest iteration of the DAG, released last year, included a provision that would allow ICANN to summarily rewrite the terms of its contracts with new domain operators, even after those contracts are signed.
Members of the community roundly criticized the proposal which turns the fundamental covenant of a contract on its head, and has ramifications that extend far beyond prospective operators of new domains. When Dengate-Thrush signaled his own concern with the provision, many assumed that it was well on its way to being removed, or at the very least replaced with something more reasonable.
This week, however, the Chairman backed away from that position, saying that ICANN would need the flexibility to make changes to already-singed registry contracts. This has the potential to be a serious blow, not just to new registry operators, but also to clarity, contractual compliance and due process throughout ICANN.
Contracts form the backbone of ICANN's larger compact with the global Internet community. The subject of contracts, and of contract enforcement has been a repeated theme in the larger discussion of accountability and transparency within the organization.
On the eve of a critical review of ICANN's transparency and accountability, it would send a terrible message if ICANN were to take a giant step away from contractual certainty and fairness.
ICANN is under great pressure to finalize the DAG and launch the new TLD round, but this is an issue that cannot be overlooked. The community has spoken through the bottom-up process, and has said in a clear voice that this contractual provision is unacceptable. Even the most fervent proponents of the new TLD round cannot wish for a contractual obligation that can be changed at ICANN's whim.
The place to address this is here in Nairobi. ICANN needs to send a clear signal that it understands the community's concerns, and will work quickly to develop a contractual structure that is fair to all.
With any luck, new registries won't have to consider Dengate-Thrush's extremely sound legal advice, and not sign.
Written by Jonathan Zuck, President
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More under: ICANN, Internet Governance, Top-Level Domains
Go Daddy Set to Hit 40 Million Domains Milestone on Wednesday
Go Daddy set to hit another milestone.
[Update: Go Daddy hit the milestone earlier today.] About six months after crossing the 30 million domain name mark, The Go Daddy Group is set to surpass 40 million domains under management, most likely on Wednesday. So if you register a domain name tomorrow, you might get some extra notoriety if you time it just right.
Ten years ago there were only about 17 million domain names registered, and now there is a single registrar with more than twice that many domains under management. When you do the math, it’s no surprise the company grossed about $750 million last year.
It was on March 10, 2000, coincidentally the same day Go Daddy is likely to hit 40 million domains under management, that the .com bubble is generally thought of to have “burst”, with the NASDAQ topping out at 5132.52. In the period that followed, many people and companies let their domain names expire. It was during this time that the domain name gold rush caught its second wind.
Network Solutions was the biggest registrar at the time. Ten years later it has only about 6.5 million domain names under its umbrella.
Given the role Go Daddy played in bringing domain names to the mass market, I’m somewhat surprised it wasn’t nominated to The .Com 25. But rather than look at the past, I’m sure the company has its eyes on a bigger milestone: 50 million domains under management. At this pace, it could hit that number later this year.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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.Org Eyes Leadership Role in IDN Top Level Domain Names
.Org registry PIR wants to bring best practices to IDN top level domain names.
One of the big questions facing registries of existing top level domain names is how they should pursue Internationalized Domain Name “equivalents” of their domain names when they become available. These so-called IDN.IDN domain names will be available once new gTLDs — such as .nyc and .music — come out.
Last month we learned more about VeriSign’s plans for .com and .net; today I reached out to Lance Wolak, Director of Marketing & Product Management for Public Interest Registry (PIR), which manages .org.
PIR hopes to take a leading role in IDN top level domain names, as it has in other initiatives such as DNSSEC.
“We’re not primarily commercially driven in what we do,” explained Wolak. “We’re really driven to do what helps and protects the domain name registrant.”
When it comes to IDN top level domain names, PIR wants to show support for various communities.
“We’re doing this in the public interest and to show our support and respect for the different language communities,” said Wolak. “Idn.idn is a technology that we want to see move forward.”
IDN.org domain names, with the standard .org at the end, have been available in many languages since the middle of the last decade. Wolak said that many of these have been registered for search engine optimization purposes (i.e., exact match to what the searcher types in his or her language/script).
Wolak said it would be premature for PIR to give definite plans for .org-as-IDN domains, given that new TLD guidelines aren’t finalized yet.
“Right now we are watching the information that’s coming out of ICANN, and looking over the Draft Applicant Guidebook,” said Wolak. “Until that is finalized, we won’t have a hundred percent picture of the requirements to launch a new gTLD, which would include IDN TLDs. So we don’t have anything to announce on how many scripts we’ll go after, which ones, etc.”
Wolak noted that, in addition to Chinese script, Cyrillic and Arabic, PIR is looking at other popular scripts that have large populations behind them. Script tables are currently being developed for some scripts sets, including Arabic. PIR has been working with the community as it develops the tables. In addition to settling the tables, there are other issues for IDN TLDs that need to be worked out, such as current getting them to work with email systems.
There are still a number of open issues for IDN TLDs. But regardless of how they develop, PIR wants to be a thought leader.
“We want to take the approach that we can bring the best practices with what we’re doing in the .org space to a new IDN TLD,” said Wolak.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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ICANN to Reconsider the .XXX Decision on March 12
ICANN had previously given the domain the go ahead in 2005, but reversed the decision two years later amidst protests from US conservative groups. An independent review recently concluded that decision was unfair and that the plan should be reconsidered.
Read full story: BBC
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More under: Domain Names, ICANN, Internet Governance, Top-Level Domains
Guagua.com Sells for $100k, Pepe.com Sells Again
Guagua.com hits six figures, Domaining.com owner scores nice sale.
Sedo has sold the domain name Guagua.com for $100,000. Guagua has a number of different meanings, including being the name of a language and a municipality in the Phillipines.
The company also helped broker the sale of Pepe.com for 45,000 EUR. It looks like Francois Carrillo of Domaining.com scored a nice flip on this domain name. He bought it at Bido.com a couple months ago for only $15,000, and then listed it for sale on his Mocus.com domain listing site. Sedo brought a buyer to the table, helping Carrillo score about four times his money in just a couple months.
Here are other notable sales for the week from Sedo:
.COM
gastronomie.com 35,000 EUR
telemar.com 12,000 EUR
xtrader.com 10,000 USD
afx.com 8,100 USD
mallchina.com 6,000 EUR
buffalogroup.com 5,432 USD
cosmetiques.com 5,150 USD
okta.com 5,100 USD
bookmate.com 5,000 EUR
jpsports.com 5,000 USD
qualcos.com 5,000 USD
landingpagedesign.com 5,000 GBP
stayfair.com 5,000 USD
tridien.com 5,000 USD
ccTLD
risultati.it 32,000 EUR
energieagentur.de 21,500 EUR
escortservice.de 16,660 EUR
transpower.nl 15,500 EUR
ioffer.co.uk 11,500 USD
jb.de 9,500 EUR
stelle.it 8,000 EUR
shirts.co.za 8,000 USD
73.de 7,500 EUR
87.de 7,500 EUR
call.at 6,750 EUR
drucker-toner.de 6,500 EUR
carworld.eu 6,000 EUR
designshop.ch 6,000 EUR
luxury.co.za 6,000 USD
tmb.de 5,950 EUR
healing.de 5,950 EUR
mamme.it 5,900 USD
xa.de 5,700 EUR
hurghada.ch 5,000 EUR
Other
sys.net 12,500 USD
open.org 6,200 USD
analytics.info 5,000 USD
docs.net 5,000 USD
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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Happy 5th Birthday, Domain Name Wire
Domain Name Wire started publishing five years ago today.
On March 9, 2005, I wrote the first post on Domain Name Wire, reporting on the sale of Local.com for $700,000. 3,141 posts later, Domain Name Wire is running as strong as ever.
If you’re reading this, I’d like to thank you for making Domain Name Wire a premier news source for the domain industry. It’s because of your readership that I commit my time reporting on and analyzing this exciting industry.
Of course, that’s all possible thanks to DNW’s many advertisers. Please take a moment to peruse the ads on this page. If you haven’t visited any of the advertisers, please take a moment to do so.
A lot has changed in the past five years. Looking back at what I wrote in March 2005 is like a time capsule:
TrafficClub now open to public – Moniker launched one of the first major “traffic splitting” systems for domain parking, which closed down after upstream providers limited the practice and Oversee.net eventually bought Moniker.
Go Daddy launches radio show – Bob Parsons revved up the publicity act. I was later a guest on the show.
Yahoo to challenge Google Adsense – “Challenge” was probably too strong of a word. Yahoo Publisher Network is still in beta, five years later.
MSN readies pay-per-click system – Microsoft announced its Adcenter program. Fast forward to 2010, Adcenter will soon be the management platform for PPC ads on both Microsoft and Yahoo.
Thanks again for reading DNW over the past five years. If you haven’t yet done so, please subscribe to the DNW RSS feed and follow it on Twitter.
Here’s to the next five years.
© DomainNameWire.com 2009.
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Scenes from ICANN Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya
ICANN meeting in Nairobi running well, report attendees.
With all of the hype around security and possible disruptions, those in attendance at ICANN’s meeting in Nairobi say all is going well.
Attorney John Berryhill writes “The summit and the ICANN meeting are both running smoothly here. The “security issue” is waaaay overblown by those who simply didn’t want the meeting held in Kenya. The conference center is huge and in a secure block with Kenyan military around the perimeter…”
Berryhill surmises that it’s probably safer than Philadelphia.
Berryhill sent this picture from the room of the conference center in Kenya. He said the buses enter a secure gate and then all guests go through a second perimeter. The conference center is huge, and there were no difficulties with the African leadership summit.
Reports on Twitter show that ICANN leadership is actually making progress on issues at this meeting, holding various groups accountable rather than letting them just delay progress.
Here’s a picture of the Mount Kilimanjaro climbers arriving at the Nairobi conference:
Finally, a little humor for you. A celebrity guest interrupted the ICANN meeting today:
Notice the tattoo on Kayne West’s forearm.
Thanks John for keeping us all up to date.
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Sex.com Domain Name In Default for Over a Year
Debtors behind on bills for the past year.
With Sex.com heading to the auction block, there’s a been a lot of talk about what went wrong with the current owner, Escom LLC. According to a Reuters article, Escom has been in default on its loan for over a year to lender DOM Partners.
“The loan was in default and DOM partners is foreclosing pursuant to its right under the security agreement,” DOM’s attorney Scott Matthews told Reuters.
The auction is still scheduled for March 18. Clearly, there are some disagreements amongst Escom LLC investors. There was early indication from one of the investors that there might be a lawsuit filed to block the auction, but a search of Federal District Court records did not turn up any such suit yet.
Auctioneer Maltz Auctions says there’s been significant interest in the domain name. Prospective bidders need to deposit a $1 million check prior to the auction. There will definitely be bids in excess of $1 million, but any winning bid is subject to DOM Partners’ acceptance.
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ICA Requests Action on Czech Arbitration Court Policy Changes
Internet Commerce Association wants ICANN to act quickly on move by UDRP provider.
Internet Commerce Association counsel Philip Corwin has sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom and Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate-Thrush asking it to act on Czech Arbitration Court’s new UDRP policy.
Czech Arbitration Court (CAC), one of the newest UDRP providers, proposed a new scheme in which it would charge only 500 EUR to file a domain name complaint and arbitrators would not spend as much time on cases.
ICANN held a public comment period on the proposal, in which all 15 comments were opposed to CAC’s scheme. That includes comments from an existing arbitrator who questioned the basis for the proposal.
Counsel for CAC posted a comment on Domain Name Wire’s earlier story on the proposal, stating that it would not move forward without ICANN’s blessing. Instead, before getting final word from ICANN, CAC made a few changes to the proposal and announced it was going forward with our without ICANN’s approval.
So far, ICANN has not made any public comment on CAC’s move that I’m aware of. It was briefly discussed in another context on the first day of ICANN’s meeting in Nariobi.
Whether ICANN acts on CAC’s move or not, it needs to say something.
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Amazon.com Fires Colorado Affiliates Thanks to Affiliate Tax
Amazon says “see you later” to Colorado’s affiliate merchants. Thank inept state representatives.
Colorado is the latest state to exacerbate unemployment problems by effectively canning its affiliate marketers.
Colorado has joined a list of states that either proposed or enacted rules that make web companies collect sale tax if they have affiliates operating in the state. In the case of Colorado, HB 10-1193 didn’t necessarily require Amazon.com to collect sales tax. Instead, it upped the compliance burden on Amazon.com, making it just as costly.
As I’ve pointed out before, such “affiliate taxes” actually lower a state’s tax revenue. The e-commerce merchant usually cuts the state’s affiliates rather than deal with the sales tax. So the state doesn’t end up getting the sales tax. Also, it lowers the income of the state’s affiliate marketers, lowering state income tax revenues.
(Hat tip Bruno Falconi)
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Domain Companies Head to Austin for SXSW
Domain companies en route to Austin later this week.
Several domain name companies are heading to Austin later this week for the start of the annual South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Festival. The Interactive portion of the event attracted over 10,000 attendees last year. Many stay in town for the music festival, which kicks off in the middle of next week. Although the interactive festival is big, music is a big draw: over 2,000 musical acts will play at 80 official venues next week, and many more unofficially.
So here’s who I know will be in town for SXSW 2010:
DirectNIC – domain registrar will have a booth at the Interactive trade show. Swing by booth 932 to say ‘hi’.
Name.com – will be at the show
Demand Media – the company has a big contingent in Austin, thanks to its acquisition of Pluck
Traverse Legal – one of the attorneys at Traverse Legal, which handles a number of domain name cases, will be here
If you’re with a domain name company and heading to Austin for SXSW, feel free to leave a comment.
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ICANN CEO Urges African Telcos to Shatter Monopolies
ICANN CEO, Rod Beckstrom, urges African leaders to "shatter" telecommunications monopolies in their nations in order to help lower the price of Internet access to their citizens during his opening remarks at the start of the 37th ICANN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. Beckstrom noted that while 15 percent of the world's population lives in Africa, Africans make up less than 7 percent of all Internet users.
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WWW Prefix Typo Popular Among Trademark Infringers
Study says WWW typo is most common prefix in trademark infringing domain names.
A new study from Corporation Service Company (CSC) — which provides trademark protection services — shows that www is the most common prefix to brand names used to “trademark infringers” in domain names. (The very common typo where someone forgets the dot between www and the domain name.)
Perhaps more interesting is that most companies that do own the www typo of their web site don’t actually forward it to their main web site. 67% of the www typos owned by the actual web site owner didn’t point to any active web site. 80% of the www typos owned by someone other than the web site owner pointed to pay-per-click pages.
CSC says the www typo of its own web site gets about 1% of the traffic of its web site.
CSC determined that the most common suffix added to trademarks is “online”. Surprisingly, the common “com” typo where someone forgets to enter a dot between the second level domain and ‘com’ is only ranked #5.
The study looked at 100 randomly selected brands as well as all filed UDRP cases.
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