NEW YORK – With another ‘out of the ordinary’ new Generic Domain Name sale publicly announced by Donuts Inc. for Vacation.Rentals (reportedly acquired for $500,300.00 in an all-cash deal) this becomes their second earth-shattering alternative-dot transaction in the last twelve months of which many will agree, appears to be sent straight from the heavens above. In fact, all of their employees should vacate the Kirkland, Washington premises immediately and purchase lottery … [Read more...]
The Birth of ICANN: “The Green Paper”
NEW YORK - In 1997, the United States government under then President Clinton began processes to remove its control over the Domain Name System by creating research and dialog on how control of domain names and IP addresses should be handled in the future - by a non-profit organization in the private sector. This resulted in a document which has become known as "The Green Paper" originally named "A Proposal to Improve the Technical Management of Internet Names and … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 04/02/2018 – 04/08/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Just released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as Closers.com at $50,000 US, the top ccTLD as Network.co.uk at 9,800 GBP and the top other as Live.casino at 24,500 GBP. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 04/02/2018 – 04/08/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
The Politics of Facebook: Zuckerberg to Testify Before Congressional Lawmakers
NEW YORK – You have to admit that it an amazing time in history when a computer programming entrepreneur must face the United States Government due to his innovative social network becoming one of the most powerful influencer tools in the World. Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday April 10, 2018, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc Zuckerberg will testify before lawmakers in what is expected to be a two-day heavy-hitter grilling on the very serious privacy and … [Read more...]
Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK - According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS. The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined … [Read more...]
Battle to Take-down Backpage.com Ends in Seizure, Criminal Indictments of Ownership
NEW YORK – A long-time battle to remove Backpage.com from the Internet has ended with the indictments of ownership and government seizure of its domain Backpage.com, which hosted a popular online classifieds site similar to Craigslist which allegedly was used heavily by escorts and massage providers far-bending the envelope between casual encounters, prostitution and human trafficking, according to investigators. Since 2010, Backpage.com has come under fire for its alleged … [Read more...]
Clever: Radix Bolsters New gTLD Adoption Through Sponsored Startups, Buzz, Goodies
NEW YORK - They say that 'money talks and bullshit walks' (at least that is what my father used to say) and no-one likely knows this better than domain registry Radix, who maintains and operates several new catchy gTLD domain endings such as .tech and .online. Since 2016, Radix has been helping startup companies by putting a little money where their mouth is and providing new startups sponsorship covering sometimes as much as 100% of their expenses for exhibit booth fees and … [Read more...]
Drupal Content Management System’s ‘Highly Critical’ Vulnerability Warning
NEW YORK - If you're running the Drupal Content Management System on any of your websites its time to ensure you've updated its core as soon as possible. On March 28, 2018, an announcement from Drupal detailing a severe core vulnerability was released. The vulnerability allows an attacker to potentially compromise an entire site running most older and many newer versions of the CMS such as releases within versions 6, 7 and 8. There are a list upgrades and patches available … [Read more...]
Another 150,000,000 Users’ Data Breached via Free Smartphone App ‘MyFitnessPal’
NEW YORK - On March 29, 2018, athletic wear company Under Armour® has announced that an unauthorized party gained access to the data tied to its free smartphone app, MyFitnessPal. The data breach, which took place late February 2018, affected approximately 150 million user accounts. Account data which is related to the breach includes users: Usernames Email addresses Hashed passwords The company is urging its users to update and change passwords for any other … [Read more...]
An Unbiased New gTLD Case Study is Coming; Not Sponsored, Supported or in Anyway Influenced by Any Registry
NEW YORK - I'll have an interesting new gTLD case study coming in the next few days to a week or so. It’s going to be great, because I think it’s going to work. I think the position of the website in Google is going to improve greatly by doing nothing else but changing the URL to a new keyword rich gTLD. If I'm wrong I will have wasted another $150 on gTLDs, but either way I will learn and so will you. Now if you follow my updates you will be aware that I am usually more of … [Read more...]
Ad Revenue Down? Here’s the Latest Things That Could Be Affecting Your Revenue
NEW YORK – You might say that declining ad revenue is becoming a typical part of the business; if you feel like you are constantly trying to find new ways to build both revenue and traffic on your domains while increasing the number of channels and ad networks you rely on, you’re far from alone. Publisher revenues are being squeezed across the board, and while sometimes you might even feel that the more web traffic you build, the less it pays out – you’re probably correct in … [Read more...]
Removing WhoIs Data from Public View Only Removes Transparency from the Net
NEW YORK – There has been no shortage of Data Privacy Leaks in the world; it almost seems like there is a new one every day. However, removing the public registration data behind all domain name registrations makes no-one any safer, and only adds more obscurity and complications to the business for those who buy, sell and trade online, and not just in domains. It’s more a solution that’s looking far-and-wide for its problem. For instance, when someone registers a domain … [Read more...]
The Question Is Not “If” You’ve Been Compromised; It’s How Many Times?
NEW YORK - If you haven't done business with one of the companies in this extensive list, you probably do not live on planet Earth with the rest of us. In other words, if you are reading this article, more than likely, despite all of the precautions you might take, your personal information has already been compromised. Below is a list of 245 instances of data breaches all over the world; those that have been reported. Keep in mind that many data breaches are never … [Read more...]
15 Minute Hot Seat with Mark Zuckerberg on Cambridge Analytica Data Privacy Breach
NEW YORK – Yesterday, March 21, 2018, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, sat with CNN Money’s Laurie Segall in a candid, and what appeared to be a difficult interview to answer tough questions on Facebook’s position in regard not only to the recent leaks related to the user privacy breach caused by Cambridge Analytica, but also its position on whether or not it’s platform has been used to influence past elections and what the company is doing to avoid this type of … [Read more...]
Orbitz, AmexTravel; Victims of Latest Data Breach Effecting 880,000 Customers
NEW YORK - If you travel and like to use third party travel sites to find discounts you may be one of the latest co-victims of a data breach by hackers which compromised near a million customers who use online booking services. According to Norton Internet Security, Orbitz, which has been owned by Expedia since 2015, released information regarding two separate data breaches tied to an older web site platform that effected partner bookings including AmexTravel.com; the … [Read more...]