Domain Name News: Week 3 of 2011 in Review

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Wikipedia Owns Some Wikileaks Domains, But Assange Won’t Take Them Over – 21-Jan-11
Wikipedia owner Jimmy Wales says that WikiLeaks has not completed the paperwork on some Wikia-owned domains it transferred and that Wikia will let the domain names expire. Although some people confuse the two entities, they have no official relationship. Wales started the encyclopedia site called Wikipedia, which has involves people working collaboratively to write and edit online encyclopedia entries. Julian Assange started WikiLeaks, the organization that obtains secret documents from governments and businesses for the purpose of leaking them to the public.
Why I Rarely Hand Register Trend Domain Names – 21-Jan-11
3-D was hot last year, and some might argue it‚Äôs still hot. Everywhere you went, people talked about 3-D televisions and movies, and practically everything else 3D. From my perspective, that chatter seems to have died down a bit and consumers aren‚Äôt buying 3D tvs as much as expected. Too expensive, ugly/annoying glasses, not enough programming‚Ķetc all contributing to this… They‚Äôll be discarded like the losing lottery tickets they were hoped to be by their owners.
A Visit to Directi Headquarters in Mumbai, India – 21-Jan-11
The Directiplex is a 1,500 seat building in the Andheri East area of Mumbai. It’s an impressive testament to Directi’s growth. The building houses all of the company’s businesses including ResellerClub, LogicBoxes, Skenzo, BigJumbo, and Media.net. It also houses the company’s new domain registrar BigRock.
Namedrive Releases Details On Investment and Reorganization – 21-Jan-11
Today I received information from domain name parking and sales company NameDrive about its recent investment from BIP Investment Partners and its company reorganization. BIP Investment Partners S.A., a public investor listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, made an undisclosed investment in the company. BIP is no stranger to domain names; it holds investments in German registrar Key-Systems, Luxembourgian registrar EuroDNS, domain fund Domain Invest, as well as Polish registrar az.pl.
Threewords.me Acquired By Domain Name Czar – 20-Jan-11
Mark Bao, creator of viral vanity app ThreeWords.me, has just sold his site and service to Kevin Ham, we‚Äôve learned. Ham is a dot-com mogul whose portfolio includes around $300 million worth of domain names. Billed as ‚Äúthe man who owns the Internet,‚Äù Ham owns domains such as God.com and Satan.com and routinely pays six-figure prices for URLs he likes. Bao launched the app not too long ago; its purpose was to solicit compliments from users‚Äô online friends…
Overstock.com Releases New O.co TV Commercials – 20-Jan-11
Online retailer releases new commercials for o.co. Overstock.com — or should I call it o.co? — has released two new commercials touting its o.co web address after announcing this morning it is using o.co as a "shortcut". One of the ads is embedded below. It’s all a bit confusing, honestly. In some cases the company refers to…
Overstock.com Announces Introduction of O.co Domain Name – 20-Jan-11
Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) today announced the introduction of the domain name O.CO as a shortcut for its Overstock.com website. The company purchased the domain name from .CO Internet S.A.S, the official .CO domain registry in July 2010. During the initial introduction period, consumers who shop O.CO will receive free shipping on their entire order. To learn more visit www.o.co.
American Idol Premiers: Let The Domain Name Cybersquatting Begin – 20-Jan-11
So American Idol had its 2011 premier tonight, and you know what that means… the unsavory practice of registering domain names related to AI contestants. It seems that every year, as contestants perform in the preliminary rounds, some people speculate and purchase domain names of the contestants who have great (or horrible) performances. I am sure Go Daddy is buzzing right now with people trying to grab these names to strike cybersquatting gold.
RIAA Threatens ICANN Over Domain Names – 20-Jan-11
The Recording Industry Association of America has turned its sights on ICANN, the body responsible for managing domain names. At issue is ICANN’s plan to allow a series of new generic top level domains (gTLDs), including .music. The RIAA reckons – apparently seriously – that simply allowing such TLDs to exist will encourage music piracy. In a letter to ICANN chairman Peter Dengate-Thrush, Victoria Sheckler, deputy general counsel of the RIAA, says the organization is concerned that the process for objecting to a new TLD sets the bar too high.
Website Owner Pushes Back Against Righthaven With Counterclaim – 20-Jan-11
Another website owner is fighting back against newspaper copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC, counter-suing the Las Vegas firm and charging it sues first and asks questions later. A motion for dismissal and a counterclaim was filed against Righthaven on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Nevada by Azkar Choudhry and his Pak.Org website, which were sued by Righthaven on Dec. 13. Righthaven, the copyright enforcement partner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, accused Choudhry and the Pak.Org website of copyright infringement after a Review-Journal graphic illustrating the Vdara hotel “death ray” showed up on the Pak.Org site.
Austin.com Goes Up for Sale – 19-Jan-11
Big geo domain is looking for a new owner. The domain name and web site Austin.com is now officially for sale at Sedo. I caught wind a few months ago that the site was up for sale, which didn’t surprise me much. I met with one of Austin.com’s key employees a year or two ago and left feeling that the site owners were taking it in the wrong…
Report Suspicious Go Daddy Phishing Emails – 19-Jan-11
Like every other domain registrar, Go Daddy is required to send domain name owners an annual email for each domain registration per ICANN regulations. These emails ensure that the registrant’s Whois information is accurate. Some nefarious individuals take advantage of this, and they spoof Go Daddy’s emails, in the hopes that a domain registrant will click one of the fraudulent links and type in their Go Daddy account and password, giving account access away to the thief. This is one way domain names are stolen.
Frank Michlick Joins Left of The Dot Media Inc. As Chief Technology Officer – 19-Jan-11
Left of the Dot is pleased to announce that Frank Michlick has joined the company’s executive team to help build and grow the technology behind the new domain name monetization service that enhances premium, multi-million dollar domain names. Left of the Dot has developed a platform to enable premium domain name holders to lease sub-domain inventory to small businesses, creating significant new, recurring, revenue streams for the domain holder.
Domain Name Ay.com Up for Auction On Flippa.com Now at $100k, Buy It Now $2mm – 19-Jan-11
2-letter (LL.com) domain names rarely ever go up for sale, let alone on auction websites with ‘No Reserve’ bid. However, the domain name, ‘AY.com‘ was recently put up for auction with a minimum bid of only $79,999, no reserve, and a ‘buy it now’ price of $1,999,999. This comes after a recent sale of the FB.com domain name to Facebook for $8.5 million. While there are only 676 LL.com domain names in existence, there seem to be very few that ever go up for public sale. Historic 2-letter dot.com domain names have sold for prices ranging from $XXX,XXX to the latest $8.5 million that FB.com fetched only months ago.
Us Official Defends Domain Seizures for Copyright Violations – Networkworld.com – 18-Jan-11
The November seizures of more than 80 domain names by two U.S. government agencies were justified and necessary to project U.S. copyright holders, said the director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Nationalmagazinecompany.com On The Market for $350,000 – 18-Jan-11
Domain Names Traffic owner, Karl Jackson, has placed the domain name, National Magazine Company (Subsidiary of Hearst Corporation) on the market for sale. ‘It is extremely rare when a domain name of this magnitude, NationalMagazineCompany.com becomes available, and we are delighted to be involved in this historic event. To our knowledge, this offering represents a first time in history of the internet that domain names of this caliber have been made available,’ said Karl Jackson, owner, Domain Names Traffic.
Wipo Panel Takes Away Demand Media’s Pep.mobi Domain Name – 18-Jan-11
World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Warwick A. Rothnie has awarded Demand Media‚Äôs PEP.mobi domain name to South African retailer Pepkor. Rothnie determined that the three letter generic domain name was registered in bad faith to target Pepkor‚Äôs ‘pep’ mark because some of the ads on the parked pep.mobi page lead to ads targeted to South Africa ‚Äî not necessarily because of the keywords on the landing page themselves.
9 Mutable Suggestions of Startup Naming – 18-Jan-11
Naming a startup is hard. Very hard. You shouldn’t obssess about your name. But, you also shouldn’t dismiss it as unimportant. Part of the startup game is to try and remove unnecessary friction to your growth. Sure, you could build a spectacularly successful company despite having a lousy name — but why not stack the odds in your favor?
Universalbusinesslisting.org and Telnic Partner to Integrate .tel Domains in Ubl’s Commercial Offerings – 18-Jan-11
UniversalBusinessListing.org (UBL) (http://www.UBL.org), the business identity management service of Name Dynamics Inc, and Telnic Limited (http://telnic.tel), the registry operator for the award-winning communications-focused .tel top level domain, today announced a partnership to integrate .tel domains into UBL’s commercial offerings. UBL provides a single entry point for enhanced business profiles which it distributes to all major search engines, Yellow Pages, social networks, mobile phones, 411 directory assistance, map sites and GPS devices. By integrating .tel domains within the UBL service, businesses will now have a distributed and centralized online presence for their contact information, increasing their discoverability online.
Wipo Panel Hands Over Vax.com Domain Name – 17-Jan-11
Three letter domain won through UDRP. World Intellectual Property Organization panelist J. Nelson Landry has ordered the VAX.com domain name be transferred to floor care products company Vax Limited. Landry noted that the term VAX was a coined term and didn’t consider the potential that it was a generic acronym.
What’s in a Name? is a Hip Startup Name Important? – 17-Jan-11
Wisdom says you should pick a name that’s memorable, that’s easy-to-read, spell and pronounce, and that’s got an available .com. (Hipster is certainly memorable for a certain population, but it’s worth noting that the domain name in question here is Usehipster.com.)
North Korean Domain Names Blocked By South Korea – 17-Jan-11
The citizens of South Korea have been blocked from looking at websites that have a North Korean extension. The domain names that were blocked contained the extension (.kp). This extension is strictly for North Korea which the South Koreans believe they are abusing for their own purposes.
New Domain Name Acquisitions By Asap Ventures Expand Range of Sites – 17-Jan-11
One of the UK’s most prominent consumer website networks, ASAP Ventures Ltd, has acquired new Internet domain names on which to host its latest raft of information websites. The company has purchased Fly.org.uk, Hottub.org.uk and InsurancePolicies.org.uk for unreported sums to launch new sites on.
Initial Registration for .emarat Domains Extended – 17-Jan-11
The introductory period for the registration of .emarat domain names, called the Sunrise period, has been extended by six months by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA).
Go Daddy Ready to Launch .CO Marketing Blitz – 16-Jan-11
While the .net, .org, .gov Internet domains are growing in popularity among those launching new websites, none have come close to threatening the decades-long reign of .com. But the .co domain may be the hottest new Web address, one that could be the first real .com competitor, according to some inside the domain-name industry. Scottsdale-based Go Daddy was one of a few domain providers authorized to sell that domain suffix when it when it was launched in July. Now with about 250,000 .co registrations under its cap so far, the Internet-domain registrar will use its annual Super Bowl commercial next month to draw attention to it before television’s biggest annual audience.
Another .TV Empire is Born – 16-Jan-11
Prime.TV a company located in Oslo Norway seems to be building out a small empire of excellent .TV sites in various languages including English, German, and Norwegian and the company was just founded last year.
Pre-register for Sedo’s Premium .co Auction – 15-Jan-11
I think Go Daddy’s Super Bowl commercial is going to be big for .CO domain names. It’s still speculation at this point, but I imagine it will inform a massive…
.ORG The Public Interest Registry Names Brian Cute As Chief Executive Officer – 14-Jan-11
.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) — manager of the world’s third largest generic top-level domain¬†– today appointed Mr. Brian Cute as chief executive officer.¬†With more than 12 years of experience in the Internet and communications industry, Mr. Cute will assume his leadership position on February 1, 2011.
Escondido: Ballpark Fever Prompts Man to Buy More Than 100 Related Domain Names – 09-Jan-11
They might be called the North County Friars. They could also be known as the Escondido Swingers. But no matter what Escondido’s minor league baseball team ends up being called, local resident Allen Pope is ready to cash in.
888.com Purchases Poker.com.au Domain for $100k – 08-Jan-11
Poker domain names continue to be a hot item around the world. Just this week, gambling company 888.com purchased the domain poker.com.au for $100,000, a significant price considering the current ban on gambling advertisements in Australia.