WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government launched a new website in January to help distribute free at-home COVID-19 test kits to U.S. citizens; no sooner did this website go live, so did numerous copycat websites, none of which were legitimate, but many sporting very similar URLs in an attempt to run a scam on unsuspecting visitors. In mid-January, the Biden Administration announced a free COVID-19 test kit program, with the kits being distributed via the U.S. Postal … [Read more...]
NYT: “Dot-org Symbolizes Neither Quality Nor Trust; False Association with Credibility”
PALM BEACH, NY - Wow, the New York Times has taken a firm and unique approach to the news and industry buzz surrounding the sale of the .ORG registry to private equity firm, Ethos Capital. Bash the domain in a hitpiece to level the playing-field in what it calls the domains' opportunity to be used by a host of bad actors, all whom reap the benefits of dot-org’s "false association with credibility." In an opinion piece published yesterday by Sam Wineburg and Nadav Ziv, an … [Read more...]
With Price Caps Removed, Dot Org Domain Name Registry Acquired by Ethos Capital
PALM BEACH, FL – In a move that surprises few industry experts, Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the “.org” top-level domain name has been acquired by private equity management firm Ethos Capital. The acquisition comes shortly after ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, permitted the removal of price caps on “.org” domain name registrations on June 30, … [Read more...]
Numbers Reported for “.CLUB” Decline Due to Registry Quality Compliance & Cleanup
PALM BEACH, FL – The following is a correction to previously published work which included an embedded Tweet which has been called into question and said, by the registry, to be incorrect; a reader from the “.Club” registry contacted me with a correction request yesterday including some supporting explanations for certain numbers seen on nTLDStats.com and numbers from a Tweet which were embedded and published on StrategicRevenue.com on October 17, 2019. Upon reading the … [Read more...]
Lawyer Says Domain Name Investors Are “Hijacking and Ransoming Domains”
PALM BEACH, FL – This is an interesting topic by itself, although I covered something very much like it just the other day in "Panels Consistently Find That 'Domain Investing' Is Legitimate Bona Fide Offering". A lawyer named Tamara Kurtzman wrote an article that appeared on the website of the American Bar Association which details her opinion that “Domain Name Investing” should really be considered “Domain Name Hoarding” and labeled as “Anticipatory … [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...]
Web Address Sells for $30 Million in Cash; Represents ‘Extraordinary’ Investment
PALM BEACH – A company which many ordinary people (non-industry) have probably never heard of called “MicroStrategy Incorporated” has announced it has sold an Internet web address, Voice.com for $30,000,000.00 in cash. As you can see, that’s a lot of zero’s in that number and represents what many who invest and trade in Internet domain names likely find so exhilarating about it. For those who are not that savvy when it comes to Internet domain names, this a “website … [Read more...]
.Inc Domain Set to Be Next New gTLD ‘Flop’ Accompanied by Ridiculous Price Tag
NEW YORK, NY – If you have been waiting to get your hands on a new .inc domain name, you might as well just keep waiting; that is, until the price comes down somewhere between ‘reason-ability’ and ‘reality’. I’ve been interested in one of these domain names for quite some time now, however, checking the availability of a specific name, I’ve noticed that it will cost a whopping $3,500.00 to secure it during the early registration period. When the name becomes available for … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Inside Look at New Expired Domain Search Functions
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...]