NEW YORK – Sedo, the worlds real estate listing service for digital assets, has released a new section dedicated to helping both novice and expert users find and acquire expiring domain names. The new section is hosted at the following URL: https://expiringdomains.sedo.com The tool provides multiple ways to filter, sort and search through domains and includes information about a domain names indexed pages in Google while using the popular Majestic backlink checker to … [Read more...]
Google Say’s Don’t Buy Domains for Past Rankings; Knows When They Change Hands
NEW YORK, NY – In an article that came out in Search Engine Roundtable the other day, long-time search marketing expert Barry Schwartz points out that a Google employee named Aaseesh, tasked with monitoring Google’s Webmaster Central Help Forum, posted a comment which suggests that Google zaps a domains ranking juice, not only when the domain expires (which most have already suspected), but also when the domain merely changes hands or is sold. This adds a new layer of … [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...]
Pay-One-Price Domain Names? Imagine Registering Your Domain Name “Forever”
NEW YORK, NY - During the 63rd International Public Meeting of global domain industry regulator, ICANN (between October 20-25, 2018) in Barcelona, Epik’s Rob Monster discusses “Forever Domains”, a registration service made available by Seattle-based Epik which allows a domain registrant to not 'lease' a domain by the year, or the generally available maximum of 10 years, but to "own" a domain name, indefinitely. The interview was conducted by Filip Borcov of Website Builder … [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...]
After 18 Years of UDRP, ICA Says, Time for Discussion, Re-evaluation, Improvements
NEW YORK – Back in 1999, ICANN adopted the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) and its related Rules (the "UDRP Rules") for the resolution of certain limited kinds of domain name disputes between registrants and third parties, i.e. abusive registration of domain names, otherwise known as “cybersquatting”, which is the practice of registering a domain name in bad faith. The ICA, (“The Internet Commerce Association”) believes that although the UDRP process has largely … [Read more...]
Be Prepared for Clever Scams & Tactics
I often write about security, privacy and other important personal safety issues such as being and keeping aware of security vulnerabilities, email threats and phishing scams..... It is often very simple precautions you can take which will save you a lifetime of headaches. With this type of material in mind, I received the following tips by email over the weekend from a family member and they are seem like they are worth sharing (rather than just deleting) as they will keep … [Read more...]
10 Years Later: A Look at ALL (96) Recorded .ASIA Domain Sales Over Past 5 Years
NEW YORK, NY – According to NameBio, there were a total of 96 "reported" .ASIA domain sales over the last 5 year period. These top 96 total $148,019.00 in sales. The highest reported sales on this list were the domains “Mobile.asia” for $10,000.00 with the second as “L.asia” for $6,374.00 (Neither of which are developed). .asia is not a country code top-level domain (ccTLD). It is a (sTLD) that is 'intended' for those who have a 'connection' to the region but an actual … [Read more...]
Making Their Mark: “Big Brands” Invest Hundreds of Millions on .Dot Alternatives
NEW YORK, NY - Regardless of what your position is on new gTLD domains "Big Brands" are buying in hook, line and sinker while ICANN is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars on new gTLD fees. Each new application cost its applicant $185,000.00 and with it, an annual maintenance fee of $24,000.00 (yearly recurring). This doesn't include potentially hundreds of generic domains that were applied for and went to auction (I didn't count each one [Full statistics here] … [Read more...]
New gTLD Success Will Be Measured Only by Use; Not Sales, Not Registrations
NEW YORK, NY - This week a new gTLD sale made the news, not because of its great keyword, but due to its high price and its ending extension. The domain name casino.online recently sold for over $200,000.00 at SEDO. This might seem like a domainers dream-sale turning a lucky registrant into an instant success, but it was far from a general availability registration; it was actually a domain name reserved by the registry. So basically, it was, for the most part, a planned … [Read more...]
Verisign Still Pushing Hard on .Net Domains; Sales Remain Active; New IDN for Korea
NEW YORK, NY - While at NamesCon, I noticed a television commercial for the .net domain extension pushing it as a leading “trusted extension” and touting its long standing history in the domain space; the .net domain name was created on the same day as the .com in January 1985. (I’m pretty sure the video was part of Verisign’s “Uncommonly Timeless” collection of .net marketing pieces - it looked like one of these on YouTube [one is below].) According to Verisign, the … [Read more...]
Domain Suspension – Registrant Information Verification Failure; It Could Happen to You
REMINDER: If you change either the first name, last name or email address on one of your domain registrations, you’ll need to verify the new information via email within 15 calendar days or you will be met with a page similar to this one in the below screenshot. This new policy took effect back in January of 2014 but this is how long it took for me to actually see one of these pages in action; it happened today. Not paying attention to those email verification … [Read more...]
Comment Period Closing on .US Premium Domain Name and Privacy Plan Proposals
Now could be a very good time to pick up a few solid .US domain names just in case, or in preparation for, what could become a landslide increase in the use and demand for the domain extension ending in “.us” for the United States. NEW YORK, NY – Neustar, the registry which manages the .us domain name extension, is seeking public comment on a recommendation that it should release one and two character domain names (previously held) as well as consider certain domains as … [Read more...]