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...]
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...]
Website Company Squarespace Enters Agreement to Purchase Google Domains
NEW YORK, NY - New York City-based website building and hosting company Squarespace announced this week that they will be entering into an agreement to purchase Google Domains – a domain name registrar operated by Google that offers domain registration, DNS hosting, dynamic DNS, domain forwarding, and email forwarding – in a deal that includes all of the company's assets, which includes approximately 10 million domains that are owned by millions of … [Read more...]
GoDaddy Makes Two Recent Acquisitions of Leading Domainer Tools and Services
TEMPE, AZ - GoDaddy, the well-known domain registrar and hosting company, announced last week they will be acquiring competing domain sales company Dan.com, a move that GoDaddy stated would enable them to “reach more potential buyers.” Previously launching under the name Undeveloped, Dan.com made a name for themselves by attempting to undercut the competition by reducing their initial industry-standard commission fee of 15 percent to just 9 percent, which led to several … [Read more...]
Domain Name Registrar Epik Feels It’s Being Deplatformed After PayPal Cuts Ties
SAMMAMISH, WA - After online payments system PayPal stopped offering services to Epik, the domain name registrar company says it’s being targeted on political grounds and not what Paypal has said to be a financial basis. A number of open letters have been posted by Epik responding to the issue, and the company cited that 'service risk' was the reason PayPal gave over the withdrawal of Epik’s support. While PayPal says it regrets the decision and the inconvenience caused … [Read more...]
Epik Domain Name Registrar and Hosting Company Creates “Domain Marketplace”
PALM BEACH, FL - Epik Inc., an ICANN-accredited domain name registrar and web hosting company with its headquarters in Washington, has created what appears to be another reason for domain enthusiasts to register and manage their domain name portfolio with them; a “domain name marketplace”. Currently, domain name investors and enthusiasts have plenty of places to buy and sell domains (too many really) such as large forums, SEDO, Flippa, NameJet, just to name a few. … [Read more...]
Will Internet Remain Safe Place to Invest and Conduct Business in Years to Come?
NEW YORK – Back in 2016, the ICA, (The Internet Commerce Association) asked me a very important question; they asked what I thought would be some of the biggest challenges the domain industry would face in the coming years. While some might answer that question with suggestions about the difficulties new gTLDs may bring toward branding, or monetization strategies with domain parking from declining CPCs, my answer was likely very - very different than most domainers. This … [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...]
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...]
Sedo Announces Management Change: Matthias Meyer-Schönherr Appointed CSO
GERMANY - June 8, 2017 – Sedo, the world’s largest domain marketplace and monetization provider is pleased to announce a shift within the Sedo management team. The role of Chief Sales Officer (CSO) Global has been assumed by Sedo and industry veteran, Matthias Meyer-Schönherr. Dima Beitzke, will be stepping down to pursue a new opportunity outside of the domain industry. The management of both the North American and International sales teams will continue from Sedo’s … [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...]
SedoMLS Network to Bring up to 18M Premium Domains to 16M+ Customers of Top Registrar 1&1 Internet
March 2nd, 2017 – Sedo, the world’s largest domain marketplace and monetization provider, and 1&1 Internet, the most trusted partner for digital success for small businesses, today announced a partnership that enables 1&1 to offer up to 18 million premium domain names from Sedo’s domain marketplace to its customer base of 16.75 million. The distribution of these premium domain names is made possible by the web’s largest domain distribution network, SedoMLS. 1&1 … [Read more...]
Measuring New gTLD Growth and Market Share via The DNS Zone File System
NEW YORK, NY - As should be no surprise, new gTLD growth and usage is on the rise exponentially. There are several tools available for measuring gTLD growth and market share which are ‘fairly accurate’ as they use the DNS Zone File system which maps domain names and IP addresses. One such tool which I originally thought was new is ntldstats.com, although the owner Stefan Meinecke was interviewed back in 2014 by TheDomains.com - so it is far from … [Read more...]
Could Domain Investing Industry End with Legal Provision for Domain “Hoarding”
NEW YORK, NY - What if you had to have a legitimate use for each and every domain name you have registered in your domain account? What if every single domain name you owned had to be associated with a business website which served its own purpose? It’s not happening yet, but it could happen. Every once in a while people ask me what I think are coming challenges for domain owners and I always have the same answer; regulation. If you follow what happened in the 1-800 Toll … [Read more...]