WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Saw.com Founder and CEO Jeffrey Gabriel’s recent interview with Domain Name Journal is not just another industry status update. Read closely, it is a window into how fundamentally the domain market has changed, why it is still strong, and why success today looks very different than it did a decade ago. The core theme running through his comments is simple: the market has matured. Hype has given way to discipline, and potential has given way to … [Read more...]
Apache-Level WordPress Hardening: Why Smart Site Owners Block Attack Endpoints
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Most WordPress security advice focuses on plugins, dashboards, and application settings. That is useful, but it is not where the strongest protection begins. Real security, and real performance protection, starts one layer earlier: at the web server itself. Today I implemented a set of Apache configuration rules that block common WordPress attack endpoints before WordPress executes, before PHP runs, and before server resources are consumed. This is … [Read more...]
Legacy Newspapers Are Pricing Themselves Out of the Conversation With Paywalls
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - For more than a decade, paywalls have been positioned as the financial lifeline of legacy journalism; a necessary barrier designed to preserve revenue as print advertising collapsed. But as online conversation increasingly migrates to open, community-driven platforms, that same strategy is now quietly undermining the very visibility and relevance news organizations depend on to survive. Across the internet, large public discussions about local news … [Read more...]
AI Domains Flood the DNJournal Top 20 – What Happened to the King of Domains?
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - For more than two decades, DNJournal’s weekly Top 20 domain sales chart has served as a conservative barometer of the aftermarket’s highest end. The list is built on verified, reported transactions and has historically been dominated, often overwhelmingly, by .com domain names. That pattern has now been disrupted. A review of recent DNJournal Top 20 sales reveals an unexpected shift: .ai domain names now make up the majority of the list, eclipsing … [Read more...]
When Independent Analyses Converge: How AI Is Rewriting the Value of Domains
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - For years, debates about domain value have largely revolved around traffic mechanics - rankings, keywords, backlinks, and click-through rates. But artificial intelligence is quietly changing the foundation beneath all of that. What’s emerging now isn’t just a new search interface, but a fundamentally different way digital property is evaluated, referenced, and trusted. Recently, two independent articles - published on entirely different platforms and … [Read more...]
Regulation Doesn’t Weaken App Stores – It Gives Them Even More Control
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Today, Google sent developers an update about age verification laws in the United States. On its face, the message looked narrow and procedural - a paused rollout in Texas, upcoming compliance in Utah and Louisiana, and a reminder that Google Play would handle verification at the store level. But beneath the legal footnotes and API references sits a much larger story - one that has little to do with age verification itself and everything to do with … [Read more...]
Why the SERP.com Acquisition Makes Sense for a Subscription-Based Business
The recent acquisition of SERP.com for $210,000 may look, at first glance, like just another six-figure domain sale. In reality, the transaction highlights how premium domains can function as practical growth assets for subscription-based software companies rather than vanity purchases. The buyer, SerpAPI, operates a paid API service that provides structured search engine results data to developers, agencies, and enterprises. Its business model depends on recurring … [Read more...]
Why the Rams.com UDRP Loss Matters More Than Most Panel Decisions
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - For more than two decades, domain-name disputes have been guided by a widely accepted principle: when a domain registrant attempts to sell a domain to a trademark owner for a substantial sum, that offer is often treated as evidence of bad-faith registration. The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) expressly identifies this type of conduct as a hallmark of cybersquatting. Yet a recent decision involving Los Angeles Rams and the … [Read more...]
The Domain Nissan Motor Couldn’t Buy, Couldn’t Win, and Still Doesn’t Control
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - If you type Nissan.com today, December 2025, you still won’t end up on Nissan Motor’s website. After 25+ years of lawsuits, filings, injunctions, offers, counters, bad press, and global brand confusion, the automaker continues to operate from NissanUSA.com while Nissan.com remains in the hands of the estate of one man: Uzi Nissan. And remarkably, the story is still evolving. Even after Uzi passed away in 2020, even after hackers tried to steal the … [Read more...]
AI Search Engines: A Look at Today’s Leading Models and Providers
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Artificial intelligence is transforming how people search for information online. Instead of relying strictly on traditional search engines that return lists of links, new AI-powered systems generate direct answers, summaries, insights, and even reasoning steps in real time. These tools are built on large language models (LLMs) that can understand questions, synthesize information, and respond conversationally. Below is an alphabetical breakdown of … [Read more...]
From Defense to War: U.S. Government Deploys Bold New “WAR.gov” Domain
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States government has begun directing Internet traffic from the long useed Defense.gov - the primary digital home of the Department of Defense for more than two decades - to a newly activated domain: WAR.gov. The change, now visible to the public, marks a major shift in federal branding and domain strategy, coinciding with the administration’s 2025 initiative to reintroduce the historical title “Department of War” into official … [Read more...]
Prime Loyalty Rebrands as URLs.com; Smartest Rebrand in Recent Memory
NEW YORK, NY – The domain industry saw a notable identity shift recently with the announcement that Prime Loyalty has officially rebranded to URLs.com, a move that, in my view, represents one of the clearest examples in years of a company adopting a brand that truly reflects what it does. The change was revealed by owner Jeff Garbutt, whom I’ve met at several domain conferences over the years. Garbutt announced the shift with the line: “We said loyalty must be … [Read more...]
Report: ID Verification Service for Auto Dealers Breach Exposed Millions of Records
SOUTHFIELD, MI - A newly surfaced dark-web listing claims that 700Credit, a provider of credit-reporting and identity-verification services for auto dealers, suffered a substantial data breach in late October 2025 - potentially exposing more than eight million customer records. What the Listing Claims According to the listing, the compromised database includes highly sensitive consumer information commonly handled by credit-reporting services - full names, Social … [Read more...]
Google’s New Confirmed Click Reporting Reveals Major Shift in AdSense Strategy
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - Google has introduced a brand new reporting feature in AdSense that finally uncovers when (or if) Google decides your ad layout is generating accidental clicks. The addition of “Confirmed Click” reporting, along with Google’s new Policy Ad Serving Status breakdowns, signals a deeper shift in how Google views monetization, layout strategy, and publisher behavior. This update does not just provide data. It confirms that Google’s internal philosophy has … [Read more...]
AI Search May Be Biggest Shift in Domain Industry Since Fall of Exact-Match Boom
WEST PALM BEACH, FL - For more than two decades, the domain-name market has largely moved in step with Google’s search systems. Investors based valuations on keyword demand, search volume, and the longstanding assumption that visibility in Google ultimately dictated what made a digital asset valuable. But the rapid rise of AI-driven “answer engines” - including ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Claude (just saw first referral from it today), and others is creating a new reality. … [Read more...]