NEW YORK, NY – Back in April of 1996, Dane Madsen registered YellowPages.com, an idea that popped into his mind after being demanded to come up with ad-copy for one of his firms clients, Sprint, who was rushing to be included in the next issue of the print Yellow Pages book; back then if you missed the deadline, you needed to wait an entire year for your business to seemingly exist. At about the same time, Dan was told about a company called “Network Solutions”, which … [Read more...]
Domain Name ‘Bill of Rights’ Proposed by Global Domain Name Registrar Uniregistry
NEW YORK, NY – This past week, the man who virtually created the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, spoke about his “Contract for the Web” initiative; something he believes is fundamental to ensure a protected, free and open Internet for all of society. Early backers of the initiative, which can be viewed at ContractForTheWeb.org, include notable support from some of the webs largest innovators such as Google.com, Facebook.com, Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist.org), the W3C … [Read more...]
“Global Internet Crash” Diverted As ICANN Implements DNS Security Enhancements
NEW YORK, NY – Early last month, The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names and IP addresses, was preparing to implement the very first change to the “cryptographic keys” which help protect the Domain Name System (DNS) - the Internet's address book. The change had been delayed for over a year as ICANN reviewed last-minute data about the change and accessed any potential risk to the … [Read more...]
Verisign Receives Regulatory Approval to Raise .COM Prices; Restrictions Deleted
NEW YORK, NY – Although many had hoped it wouldn’t happen, Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN), the company behind the registration and creation of .COM domain names, has been given the virtual green light by the US Government to raise the price of .com domain names by 7% in each of the last four years of a six-year incremental contract. Late Thursday, news broke that the “Cooperative Agreement”, an agreement between the National Telecommunications and Information Administration … [Read more...]
Alphabet Releases App to Prevent DNS Manipulation, Deter Online Censorship
NEW YORK, - Google’s Alphabet has released a new Android app called “Intra” which prevents “DNS manipulation”, a process used often by ISPs to redirect invalid domain name resolution to their own version of branded search results, usually accompanied by search engine ads – when used nefariously, it is also a tactic of hackers who steal and redirect users to phishing sites or to otherwise dupe them into downloading viruses and spyware. The app is made available by a company … [Read more...]
Two New Alternative URLs Hit Superhighway
NEW YORK, NY – If you’re looking around for a few good ways to confuse new prospective customers, you’ve got two new great opportunities to completely derail even your best marketing efforts; .LUXE and .PAGE new gTLDs have just worked their way into the mix. Minds + Machines, the company behind .LUXE domain names, which are intended to serve the Ethereum, blockchain and security industry, has released the .LUXE domain which opens for general availability on November 6, … [Read more...]
Attorney Suggests UDRP Process as “Clear Cut”, “Quick” and “Relatively Inexpensive”
NEW YORK, NY – If you’ve been keeping a watchful eye on UDRP cases lately, you’ve likely noticed some real over-reaching land grabs in action, especially those based on three character acronyms, and like me, have been watching is disappointment. I’ve always said that one of the greatest challenges in the domain space in coming years will be growing regulation and corporate theft by those who seek to own the assets of others; assets they did not have foresight to acquire … [Read more...]
Radio Host with Estimated 6.5M Listeners Talks Buying and Selling Domain Names
NEW YORK, NY - Kim Komando, a syndicated radio host to over 435 radio stations in the United States and heard internationally in 177 different countries, is dubbed “America’s Digital Goddess”. Her weekly three-hour call-in show covers anything and everything ‘digital’ from tech-gadgets, websites, smartphone apps, and internet security. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office her company Komando Corporation and associated owned and operated radio network, … [Read more...]
Gargiulo Reiterates Necessity for .COM in New Forbes Domain and Branding Article
NEW YORK, NY - Michael Gargiulo, owner of VPN.com, a group of virtual private network consultants, is also part of what Forbes Magazine calls its “Forbes Technology Council”, an invitation only community for senior technology executives. Gargiulo, who I have begun to follow for his ‘straight-shooter’ domain advice, writes periodically for Forbes Magazine and certainly believes in the value of a great domain name, indicated by his decision in 2017 to purchase VPN.com for … [Read more...]
Will .COM Domains Get More Expensive with Expiration of “Cooperative Agreement”?
LONG ISLAND, NY – The “Cooperative Agreement” between NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ) and Verisign includes a price-cap on .com domain names, however, this agreement must be renewed by November 30, 2018. This means that sometime very soon the price you pay for all of your .com domain registrations and their renewals may be raised, and there is no telling how much this increase might be. The NTIA, an agency of the U.S. Department … [Read more...]
Premium .Green Domain Names Acquired by YELLOW PAGES GOES GREEN®
Innovator in digital telephone directory listings and advocate for staunch environmentalism, announces acquisition of new gTld Internet domain names. NEW YORK - Yellow Pages Directory Inc., which operates its Yellow Pages Goes Green ("YPGG"), an environmentally-conscious "Green" telephone directory, has announced the acquisition of Internet domain names "YellowPages.green" and "WhitePages.green" as a part of their ongoing effort to support "a greener Internet", and build … [Read more...]
California.com Puts GEO Domains Back on the Map with “Mid-Seven Figure” Sale
NEW YORK, NY – According to Industry news site DNW.com, and a press release, the Iconic US State Name, California.com has been acquired, along with a group of related domain names, in the mid seven figure range. Not bad for a parked domain name. What is truly amazing about this sale, and near-every business broker will spin their head around about, is that the sale is for an asset by itself, a possible business at a great address, with NO BUILT IN REVENUE OR … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Recently 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 BTCExchange.com at $55,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Park.co.us at 22,500 GBP ($29,508.19 US) and the top other as KYG.org at $8,800 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Moves NBX.com at $130K, Reward.net at $10K in Latest Sales Report
NEW YORK, NY – Recently 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 nbx.com at $130,000 USD, the top ccTLD as feel-the-flow.de at 12,500 EUR ($14,654.16 US) and the top other as Reward.net at $10,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/02/2018 – 07/08/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
The 472 Domain Names That Couldn’t Stop The Inevitable Collapse of ‘Toys R Us’
NEW YORK, NY - Toys R Us is a brand we’ve all grown up with. The company was originally founded by Charles P. Lazarus (October 5, 1923 - March 22, 2018), the son of a local entrepreneur who wished to someday mimic his father’s work with his own enterprise. Those dreams became a reality in 1948 when young Charles, 25, opened his first children’s furniture store called “Children’s Bargain Town” in Washington, D.C. After years of early success, Lazarus added toys and changed … [Read more...]
It’s a Miracle: Straight-Shooter on Forbes Gives Real Advice on Exact Match Domains
NEW YORK, NY – Nowadays, I read some much down-right bad advice and marketing hype spun-off as news that I actually feel it necessary when someone knows what in-the-world they’re talking about and actually offers ‘real’ advice to business owners. For instance, I came across an article in Forbes by columnist Michael Gargiulo, someone who obviously knows what he is talking about and is looking to give small business owners not just real advice, but real good advice. What a … [Read more...]
Single Word nGTLD Domain Names That Have Expired Within Last 24 Hours
NEW YORK, NY - Here is a list of single word English dictionary nGTLD domain names that have dropped (expired) within the last 24 hours (according to ExpiredDomains.net). One thing I do not understand is why a new domain registry would charge premium fees on domains that someone has already decided to let expire. For instance, love.xyz is $1,299.00 at Godaddy. If registries want to off-set their registry losses as much as possible, they would allow buyers to register these … [Read more...]
Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales of 2016 Verses 2017 Suggests Market Stabilization
NEW YORK, NY - Last year about this time (June) I compared the highest valued .com sales of 2015 to 2016 which were publicly available at that time via NameBio.com (the list changed slightly today effectively creating a $2M difference and 30% decline rather than 35% indicated at that time[provided that 2015 remained unchanged]). It's also important to note that 2015 contained two blockbuster sales for $8M each. Today, comparing numbers for 2016 to 2017, from what data is … [Read more...]
Donuts Acquisition of BudURL Makes Good Use of New Top Level Domain Names
NEW YORK, NY – Donuts Inc, the company behind hundreds of new domain name extensions has acquired a link shortening service formally known as BudURL, and rebranded it as BL.INK. The service had been around for ten years and was founded by Andy Meadows. The acquisition took place sometime in 2017 according to a company press release, yet Donuts had been operating it in “stealth mode” quietly building in key features which will enhance the services ability to customize URLs … [Read more...]
Sass illustrates Significant Disadvantage; Match Game: Brandable Vs Keywords
NEW YORK, NY - .CLUB Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass gave a keynote speech at NamesCon Europe 2018 and did what appeared to be a fantastic job of illustrating, through various different examples, just how bad it is when coming up with your own word (one which has no meaning) when choosing your domain name. Sass accomplished this by showing domain names made up of unknown words on screen and had attendees guess, by multiple choice, what they believed the businesses did that … [Read more...]
Uh Oh: 400,000 Less gTLD Registrations First Quarter of 2018, Vs Previous Quarter
NEW YORK – New gTLD proponents will be less than excited to learn that according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, new gTLD domain registrations, despite there being more awareness :) and more names available for registration, such extensions experienced a decline of 400,000 registrations or loss of 2% within the first Quarter of 2018 (Q1) when compared to the last Quarter of 2017 (Q4). Verisign creates these industry briefs to include quarter-over-quarter … [Read more...]
Rand Fishkin: If I Could Go Back to 1991 and Get Any Name, I Would Grab Porn.com
NEW YORK – Rand Fiskin, the original founder of Moz.com, has gone out on his own new venture called “Spark Toro”, using the domain name, SparkToro.com. Lucky him, he’s fairly accurate when he said it is a decent name you can easily remember, proven to me by the fact that I did not need to go look it up (again); I did in fact remember it a day later as I write this article, but in full disclosure, I typed it in Google’s search box yesterday while watching the video and I … [Read more...]
