Domain Name News: Apr. 8 Week in Review

DomainSherpaApril 8, 2011 | Updated: December 9, 2015 2

Domain Name Week in Review Every Friday, DomainSherpa.com provides you with a hand-selected, editorially based review of the week. In this summary, you will find the latest articles and videos produced by DomainSherpa staff and contributors. You will also find links to the best news articles in the domain name industry — so you don’t have to spend your time searching for news or reading something that was not worth your time.

This Week’s Articles in Review

This Week’s News in Review

Google Purchases Several Music and Cloud-themed Domain Names – 08-Apr-11
Google recently bought up a number of .com domain addresses that combine to provide a singular theme: cloud-based music. Earlier this week, the search engine giant felt inclined to register several interesting music-related domain names, including GoogleBass.com, GoogleAlto.com, GoogleSoprano.com and GoogleTenor.com, according to Tech Crunch. On the same day, Google picked up a few cloud-related addresses like GoogleNebula.com, GoogleThunder.com and GoogleLightning.com.
Live Domain Auction – Domain Madness 3 – Crushed By User Requests – 07-Apr-11
Everything was set perfectly. The video crew was lit and ready, the domain names lined up, the announcers seated and prepped, the auction start time only minutes away. Several attendees were mingling about, eating and getting chair massages in the lavish Crib Suite at The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas. It was all as planned… except for one thing. The online auction failed. The replacement auction is set for Wednesday, April 13, 2011.
UK Cops Have ‚ÄúSuspended‚Äù More Than 3000 Infringing Sites – 07-Apr-11
Most were apparently accused of selling counterfeit products, but critics warn they could pressure Nominet, the .uk domain name registry, into expanding wh
ICANN Revenues Grow – 07-Apr-11
Non-profit Internet governance group expands its revenue during 2010 as new TLDs set to debut.
ICE Vows to Continue Domain Name Seizures – 07-Apr-11
ICE Director John Morton says the DHS will continue to seize domain names suspected of engaging in copyright infringement. Morton – who recently testified before the U.S. House of Representatives – also insisted the seizures were perfectly congruent with “respecting free speech” and “providing due process.”
Top 10 .mobi Registrars and What It Says About New Tlds – 05-Apr-11
Half of all .mobi registrations are at one domain registrar. I was just looking through tallies of total domain names per registrar by TLD as of the end of 2010. This graph of .mobi registrations at the end of December is telling: There’s only one thing to notice on this graph: Go Daddy. The domain registrar manages 49% of the total …
Are You Ready for The Net’s Biggest Security Upgrade? – 05-Apr-11
On March 31, DNSSEC was activated for the .com top-level domain. Websites and businesses should upgrade to make use of it.
Company Hit With UDRP for Typo of Its Own Domain Name – 04-Apr-11
ShoeBuy.com registered typo of its own domain name, only to have to defends itself for cybersquatting. Imagine you’re an online shoe retailer. To protect against cybersquatting you register over 100 common typos of your domain name. Then one day someone comes along and says that one of the typos of your domain name infringes on its …
Google Canada Giving Out Websites and Domain Names – 04-Apr-11
Google Canada has announced its Canada Get Your Business Online initiative to help small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) that have yet to establish a web presence. The plan will see Google give out websites and domain names to at least 100,000 Canadian SMBs. The initiative can be found at gybo.ca.
Crisis Communications: How GoDaddy.com’s Bob Parsons Can Recover from Bad Publicity – 04-Apr-11
Name one CEO whose shoes you wouldn‚Äôt want to be in right now. I‚Äôm going to go out on a limb and say Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of GoDaddy.com. The world‚Äôs largest Web hosting provider and domain name registrar is under attack again. No, it‚Äôs not because of his edgy, provocative commercials. Parsons is now taking some hefty hits because of a video he posted on his blog during a recent trip to Zimbabwe.
Letter.ly Abrupt.ly Loses Domain Name As a Result of The War in Libya – 04-Apr-11
There’s been a question as to what happens to .ly domains (i.e. the ones used by Bit.ly, Ad.ly and others) if these domain names are suddenly taken away by the Libyan government. As we wrote last Fall, vb.ly was seized by NIC.ly (the domain registry and controlling body for the Libyan domain space) because the content of the website was apparently in violation of Libyan Islamic/Sharia Law. Today, it appears that email subscription startup Letter.ly has lost its domain name as a direct result of the ongoing unrest and war in Libya.
US Government‚Äôs ‚ÄòPirate‚Äô Domain Seizures Failed Miserably – 03-Apr-11
The seizure of file-sharing related domain names by the US Government in recent months have stirred up a lot of controversy. Despite heavy critique from various sides, the responsible authorities justified their actions and claimed that it is an effective tool to clamp down on Internet piracy. However, those who take a good look at the end result soon notice that reality paints a different picture.
WIPO 2010 ADR Report: Cybersquatting Hits Record Level – 02-Apr-11
This spike in the number of domain name disputes caused by cybersquatting represents an increase of 28% over the 2009 level and of 16% over the previous record year, 2008.
.so ccTLD Launched and No One Bought Any – 01-Apr-11
The general availability of the .So extension opened yesterday April 1st 2011. No joke. DomainMonster.com is charging $24.99 per year for a .So registration. Name.com is charging $23.99 for a .So registration. As an extra added bonus it does not seem that the registry whois is working properly.
Domain.com Responds to Go Daddy “Problem Elephant” Scandal – 01-Apr-11
In response to recent controversial news about Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons sharing a video where he boasts about shooting and killing an African elephant, leading domain registrar and web hosting provider Domain.com is offering Go Daddy customers a coupon to transfer their domain names to Domain.com at sub-cost for $4.99/year. Parsons stands by his decision to kill the “problem elephant” to help feed hungry African villagers, but as many news outlets have reported, including CNN, it is unnecessary to kill elephants to feed the hungry. Instead of glorifying killing elephants, Domain.com will donate to Heifer International which helps feed hungry African families.
Humane Society Dropping GoDaddy As Domain Host – 01-Apr-11
HSUS announced today that it was in the process of finding new hosting for the more than 650 domain names it currently has through GoDaddy.com.
Verisign DNS Fix Paves Way for Safer Internet – 01-Apr-11
VeriSign, the administrator of the .com domain, announced on Thursday that the company had deployed the domain-name system (DNS) security extensions to that popular top-level domain. In addition to .com, the other major top-level domains have been signed, including .edu, .gov, .net, and .org.