PALM BEACH, FL - Two very notable sales which took place this year (2019) include Voice.com, for a record-breaking $30 million (largest domain sale in history) and GEO domain name California.com, which sold for $3 million, the largest U.S. GEO domain sale in history. Here is how the rest of the batch looked for the first three quarters. The domains sales are those listed at NameBio.com, a site which keeps track of, and records publicly reported sales. Keep in mind that … [Read more...]
VeriSign Quarterly Reports Indicate Legacy “.net” and “.org” Future Not So Wonderful
PALM BEACH, FL – Each quarter, VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN), releases its “THE DOMAIN NAME INDUSTRY BRIEF” market report, highlighting the growth of the domain name system as well as the individual growth of name registration, in numbers, for various extensions including their own “.com”, and “.net” domain names. These reports also include other legacy extensions such as Public Interest Registry's “.org” and leading country-code “ccTLDs.” Not surprisingly, ccTLDs continue to grow … [Read more...]
Surprise, Surprise: ICANN Renews “.Org” Registry Agreement, “Price Caps” Removed
PALM BEACH - On June 30, 2019, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that it had renewed its Registry Agreement with Public Interest Registry which operates the .org top-level domain. At major issue was whether the agreement would be renewed “as-is” with long-standing price caps removed. After public outcry a comment period was held with just six (“6”) [about 0.18%] out of 3,252 comments being in favor of removing the price caps; … [Read more...]
Might Be Good Time to Revisit That .Org Portfolio; Which to Hold, Which to Grab
NEW YORK, NY – According to industry news website DNJournal.com, the registry behind .org domain names, Public Interest Registry, or otherwise known as PIR, has got itself a new CEO. Although personally I had never come across the name before, DNJournal describes incoming Chief Executive Officer Jon Nevett as a well-known and widely respected domain industry veteran - and this domain enthusiast has no reason to doubt it, especially since Nevett is one of the founders of … [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...]
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...]
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...]
gTLD Madness: Five Years Later and Where Are We Now? T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Panel Debate
NEW YORK - By the time I started visiting domain conferences in person, unfortunately, what I feel was the greatest domain conference of all time, Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C., had seen its last days. I wish it weren’t so. I think the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences were the best respected domain conferences in history; I can only wish that Howard and Rick, for whatever reason, will team up again and bring it back one day, because everything else, in my opinion, … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 05/01/2018 – 05/07/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Much like the previous list, this one is also a little late due to the holiday weekend. 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 EasternUnion.com at $18,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Weltkirche.de at 7,999 EUR ($9,575.11 US) and the top other as Jiami.org at 4,999 EUR ($5,984.00 US). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 05/01/2018 - … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 04/09/2018 – 04/15/2018
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 Stelline.com at $20,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Ilmiotappeto.it at 5,450 EUR and the top other as Penta.org at 5,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 04/09/2018 - 04/15/2018. Domain … [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...]
Super Great Week for Liquid Domains Worthy of Very – Very Close Inspection!
NEW YORK, NY – The year seems off to a good - no - great start, with lots of single word .com domain names and one .org topping the charts, thanks in part to NameJet, ROTD, and the NamesCon Auction which has led to several of these closed transactions as of late. Also worth mentioning is the ‘out of the ordinary’ colossal .org sale of Star.org, at SEDO for $225,000.00 (the highest sale through SedoMLS channel to date according to SEDO’s PR and marketing team), Wow! .COM … [Read more...]
CBS News Offers Readers ‘Bad Advice’ in 6 Best Practices for Choosing a Domain
NEW YORK, NY – Usually when you read an article in Google News, you expect it to give you some good advice, especially when it is a reputable news website. That’s not what happened today when Google News led me to question whether or not I was even on a real news website. Rather than focusing so much on cleaning up Facebook and Twitter, maybe Google should check their own inclusion practices. The article is on CBS News Detroit and it is called “6 Best Practices for Choosing … [Read more...]
If I Had Just Started With Domain Names Today, I Don’t Think I Would Make It
NEW YORK, NY – When I started in this industry it was the year 2000. The Internet looked very different than it does today, and people were just starting to get acquainted with Google. Search engine optimization was a lot easier to do with most people not having even heard of the term “SEO”. Back then, as a website owner, you were able to take advantage of certain techniques which could easily put you ahead of the majority. Compared to today, there was little competition … [Read more...]
Will People Use Alternative Domain Names Like They Do Toll Free Phone Numbers?
NEW YORK - Much like .com domain names, 1-800 toll free phone numbers with meaning in their letters such as 1-800-FLOWERS, are hard to come by these days – or even impossible to obtain, based on limited supply. Although it is indeed possible to get a 1-800 phone number today, if you’re looking for a vanity number, such as one with clear meaning in its letters, you’re much more likely to get it using an alternative such as 888. This is very much what we are seeing today … [Read more...]