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...]
Two Very Real and Recent Reasons to NOT Use A Country Code Domain Name (ccTLD)
PALM BEACH, FL - If you were looking for a reason to not move to a ccTLD, or country code domain name, and stick with your super-duper .com domain, no matter how weak you feel it might be, you’ve just been handed two good reasons to do so, within the last two months. In January, I wrote about tens of thousands of websites that went out of service due to the Brexit situation where the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union. As part of the transition process, over … [Read more...]
Somebody Bought The Entire Country of Portugal And It Only Cost $350,000
PALM BEACH, FL – According to a recent report that popped up in my LinkedIn feed, the domain name Portugal.com recently sold through SEDO brokerage and domain sales platform. For those wondering, Portugal is a European country on the Iberian Peninsula, bordering Spain. It’s population, according to the World Bank, is over 10 million. Many geographic domain names sell based on their overall popularity as travel destinations and largely on population size which helps in … [Read more...]
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Affected Country List; May 25 2018
NEW YORK - On May 25 2018, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires a change to Domain Name Whois services. When a Whois search is conducted on a domain registered in the European Economic Area (EEA), the results will only show domain technical information, Registrant Country and State/Province. This impacts customers in the EEA as well as customers in countries that mirror languages and currencies of GDPR impacted regions. The countries which are affected by GDPR … [Read more...]
Shortcut to GDPR Preparation for Sites and Services That Do Not Target EU Users
NEW YORK - As you are probably well aware due to the number of emails you are receiving, by next Friday, May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will go into full effect. You should be preparing to update your Privacy Policy even if your site does not target EU users. I wanted to share what I have learned so far as I prepare to update some of my United States websites. I urge you to seek out your own advice and council on what to do to bring your … [Read more...]
Insane: France Seizes Geographic Domain Name France.com with Help from Web.com
NEW YORK - An unprecedented theft has occurred in the domain space as the European Country of France has stolen the Internet domain name France.com from its owner, who according to a lawsuit filed this month in California "has lawfully owned and used the domain name in commerce since 1994." Although Networks Solutions (Web.com) is not party to the lawsuit, it seems they would be guilty of gross misconduct in my opinion and should also be sued for transferring the … [Read more...]
New gTLD Domain Sales from Major Marketplaces; What’s Developed?
NEW YORK, NY – Another list is being published today; this one is for new gTLD domain names which have been recorded at NameBio. All off these transactions have taken place over the last five years and this list ONLY contains the sales which are listed at NameBio - there are many hand registered and private or unrecorded domain sales which will not be here. Note: I only examined 100 domains max from each extension, highest dollar amounts first. Here is what I looked … [Read more...]
22 Years Later: A Look at the Top 100 .WS Domain Sales Over Past 5 Years
NEW YORK, NY – According to NameBio, there were a total of 336 reported .WS domain sales over the last 5 year period. These top 100 total $82,059.00 in sales. The highest reported sales on this list were the domains “MovieTube.ws” for $3,650.00 with the second place name as “Skaau.ws” for $2,676.00. The .ws domains' official use is a Country code top-level domain for the Country of Samoa which was originally known as Western Samoa (WS). Samoa is an island nation located in … [Read more...]
21 Years Later: Look at the Top 100 .TV Domain Sales Over Past 5 Years
NEW YORK, NY – According to NameBio, there were a total of 859 reported .TV domain sales over the last 5 year period. These top 100 total $1,461,847.00 in sales. The highest reported sales on this list were the domains “USA.TV” for $125,000.00 with the second place name as “SC.TV” for $40,000.00. USA.tv is parked at Uniregistry, while SC.TV is redirected to www.SmithsonianChannel.com. The domain is popular because it is an abbreviation of the word television, but its … [Read more...]
List of 650 Accredited Domain Name Registrars Operating in the United States
Below is a list of accredited ICANN domain name registrars who operate within the United States. Registrar Name Country/Territory ! #1 Host Australia, Inc. United States ! #1 Host Canada, Inc. United States ! #1 Host China, Inc. United States ! #1 Host Germany, Inc. United States ! #1 Host Japan, Inc. United States ! #1 Host Korea, Inc. United States $$$ Private Label Internet Service Kiosk, Inc. (dba "PLISK.com") United … [Read more...]