MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -For anyone who wants to add an element of silliness to their website address, Google Registry is giving them the opportunity to do so with the release of the new top-level domain “.meme.” While a meme is classically defined as “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” in recent years popular culture has put a slightly different spin on the phrase, using it more to identify an amusing or interesting … [Read more...]
Q3 Domain Report: Slight “.COM” Reg Decline, New GTLDs Enjoy 10% Increase
RESTON, VA - Verisign, the company that is the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains (TLDs) and the .cc country-code top-level domain, released their 3rd quarter 2023 Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB) this week that reveals by the end of the latest quarter, total domain registrations across all TLDs worldwide have reached 359.3 million. That number represents a 2.4 percent increase year over year, amounting to an … [Read more...]
Report: Domain Squatting, Brand Hijacking Presenting Increased Threat Across Internet
PALM BEACH, FL - “Domain squatting” – AKA cybersquatting – and “brand hijacking” are two internet-based threats that present unique dangers to both businesses and end users, opening up some to cybersecurity threats and brand/trademark damage including potential phishing and malware attacks. Domain squatting is registering or using a domain name to profit from a trademark belonging to a well-known brand, typically by registering a misspelled version of their URL to … [Read more...]
80% Of Top 10 “.Net” Domain Name Sales of All Time Going to Waste, Not Being Used
PALM BEACH, FL - .net domains, what probably should be the number two domain name extension right after .org for organizations, seem not too attractive these days. Being the -owner of a couple of good .net domains, I like to check in on them occasionally and see what people are doing with them. Unfortunately, Estibot appraisals on .net domains have not seemed to change over the last five or so years; I'm still seeing the same numbers. I also wanted to look at the top … [Read more...]
Ticket Marketplace Announces Acquisition of Vegas.com Travel Company for $240M
CHICAGO, IL - Vivid Seats Inc., a ticket exchange and resale company, announced during an earnings call with investors on Tuesday the acquisition of the Vegas.com internet domain in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $240 million. In a press release, Vivid noted that the Vegas.com domain provides the “most comprehensive event inventory of shows, attractions, and tours in Las Vegas, one of the world's most desirable destinations for leisure and … [Read more...]
“Prolific Puma” Created 75k Unique Domain Names Since April 2022 Used for Scams
SANTA CLARA, CA - Researchers from security vendor Infoblox have uncovered an actor known as “Prolific Puma” that has been revealed as having provided link shortening services for countless cyber criminals for a span of time of at least four years or longer, an act that has likely been responsible for an immense number of scams targeting innocent people. As an example of how Prolific Puma lives up to the "prolific” part of their name, the actor reportedly … [Read more...]
Casino gTLD Domain Owners Continue to Cash In As “Betting.online” Sold at $400,000
SCOTTSDALE, AZ - As verified by domain registry operator Radix, Casino.online, a casino review website, has announced they have purchased the “betting.online” domain for the price of $400,000. The price is record-setting for domain transactions within the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) category and currently ranks as the joint fifth-highest domain sale across all top-level domains (TLDs) for 2023. Casino.online’s CEO, Patrick Gerhard, issued a statement … [Read more...]
FEDs Seize 17 Domains Suspected of Being Used for Fraud in U.S. by North Korea
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Wednesday, the United States Justice Department announced it has seized 17 website domains utilized by North Korean information technology (IT) workers to purportedly evade government sanctions, conduct cyberattacks and defraud U.S. businesses, with the millions of dollars in illicit proceeds generated from such activities being used to fund North Korea's weapon development program. The Justice Department confirmed in a statement that the … [Read more...]
Domain History As Google Ranking Factor Highlighted Again in Search Engine Journal
BOCA RATON, FL - The history of domain name can have a decisively significant factor in terms of its Google ranking. If a user owns a domain that is new and has never been used before then they essentially have a clean slate, but if the domain name was previously owned and has changed hands – perhaps even more than once – how it was utilized by its previous owner and/or owners could absolutely have an impact on your ranking going forward. Most people don't pay much … [Read more...]
Early Access to Google’s New Domain Will Require Overwhelm “.ing” Investment
Later this month, Google will be launching a new top level domain name that is sure to attract attention. Known as a “domain hack,” the new “.ing” domain name can be used to spell out clever takes of common phrases to create memorable website names; examples include “Fish.ing,” “Out.ing,” “Engineer.ing,” and “Breed.ing,” among countless others. As with many new gTLDs, there will be A) a sunrise period for trademark holders and then B) an auction-style initial … [Read more...]
Google Ceases Selling New Domains as Transition to Squarespace Continues
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Back in July of this year, Google abruptly announced that it would be ending its Google Domains service after nearly 10 years and would be selling the business and all of its assets to Squarespace, a New York-based website building and hosting company. This month, as the transition from one company to another continues, the soon-to-be-shuttered Google Domains quietly revealed that it has ceased the sale of any new domains going … [Read more...]
Scammers Sending Emails from Spoofed Authoritative Domains Via Forwarding Flaws
LA JOLLA, CA - According to research conducted by the University of California San Diego, due to flaws inherent in the process of forwarding emails, the ability for scammers and attackers to send unsuspecting victims e-mails from the spoofed addresses of top-level government or corporate domains is actually much easier than many experts were initially suspecting, opening up disturbingly new and effective avenues for online fraud. The integrity of emails sent from … [Read more...]
Seven Years Later, New gTLD “.Cars” Still Driving Long & Winding Road to Nowhere
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – I recently wanted to see what was going on with the “. Cars” domain name, so I tried visiting a site I thought would probably be one of the best names; “used.cars”…. Not much is going on there; the page just fails to load. Same thing with “used.car”, “new.car” and “new.cars”. A “.cars” domain name costs $2,499 per year to register, renew, or transfer at Dynadot, one of the largest domain name registrars in the world. Same thing with ".Car" which was … [Read more...]
VeriSign Says “.COM” Registrations Up, “NGTLDS” Up, Legacy “.NET” Down
RESTON, VA - VeriSign Inc., a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, announced that their total number of Top-Level Domain (TLD) registrations worldwide have reached 356.6 million as of the end of the second quarter of 2023, as per the company’s latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief (DNIB). Verisign, based out of Reston, Virginia, operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen … [Read more...]
GEO Domain Names, Newspaper & Media Companies, Sales Prices, and Usage
PALM BEACH, FL - The purchase of big city, state and/or regional domain names have always been a strategic move for media companies to control their presence and brand in a particular market. For example, The Boston Globe acquired the domain name “Boston.com” in 1995, The Philadelphia Inquirer acquired the domain name “Philly.com” in 2004, and the McClatchy newspaper chain acquired the domain name "Miami.com" in 2005. Additionally, the Tallahassee Democrat, the only … [Read more...]