Brand yourself with customized URL shortener.

It has always bothered me that URL shorteners are taking over the web. As many people have pointed out, your entire linking history is subject to the lifeline of a third party service. And with many URL shorteners operating on questionable country code domain names, the risks are prevalent.

This weekend I set out to get my own URL shortener. After all, I plunked down five figures for my short domain name DNW.com, so I may as well get as much value out of it as I can. I came across Your Own URL Shortener (YOURLS), and it does the trick.

There are a couple steps to using YOURLS. First, you install it on your web server. This process is painless, assuming you have PHP 4.3 or better, MYSQL 4.1, and mod_rewrite enabled.

Once installed, you can manually create short links. You can also link it to WordPress to automatically create short URLs for your new blog posts using the WordPress plugin.

The WordPress plugin automatically shortens URLs for each of your posts and posts them to Twitter. Like most shorteners, YOURLS also keeps stats to help you understand how much traffic each short URL or tweet delivers. For example, the short URL to this post is dnw.com/6.

You can also open up your shortening service to friends, but that presents plenty of risk.

If you follow Domain Name Wire on Twitter @DomainNameWire, you’ll see YOURLS in action. Here are the benefits:

1. Not reliant on third party service
2. Sends link juice to your domain, not a service provider
3. Customize your short links
4. Build your brand (showing your URL)

Tags: your own URL shortener, yourls

A look at selling points for domain name registrars.

Price and security are the most important characteristics customers consider when choosing a domain name registrar, according to a survey of over 500 people in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.

171 respondents selected the security of their domain names at the registrar as the most important factor, while 153 said price was the primary concern. However, when the weighted average of all factors shows that price is the top concern.

The third most important factor was customer service, with account management tools coming in at number four. The ease of transferring domain names between accounts, which is important when selling domain names, ranked fifth.

Of relative little importance is what the domain name registrar does with its domain names when they expire. Some registrars auction off expired domain names, others keep the domains themselves, while still others have a hybrid model. The availability of value added services such as web hosting and domain privacy were also of relatively little importance. However, these value added services are where registrars make most of their profits.

Weighted results:
1. Price
2. Security
3. Customer service
4. Account management tools
5. Domain push/transfer
6. Expired domain handling
7. Value added services

When you consider the opinion of only owners of 1,000 or more domain names, security is clearly the most important factor, with 52% of people selecting security as most important. Account management tools also weigh more heavily for registrants with more than 1,000 domain names to manage.

See more survey results at DomainNameWire.com/survey.

News network wants Spanish domain name.

Cable News Network, aka CNN, wants to get its hands on the CNN.es domain name. There’s just one problem: it was registered back in 2005. So the company has filed a domain dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization to try to get the domain name.

At the time of writing CNN.es doesn’t resolve to a web site. But the domain’s owner appears to be based in the United Kingdom if his email address is any any indication. (.Es is the country code for Spain.)

This isn’t the first time CNN has challenged domain names through domain arbitration. It filed 8 cases last decade, winning all 8 of them. However, this appears to be the first challenge the company has made for a second level domain name merely containing “CNN” in a country code domain.

CNN knows the value of a good domain name, even if belatedly. In 2008 the company ponied up $700,000 for the domain name iReport.com. CNN had made the iReport brand valuable thanks to its crowdsourced news program by the same name.

Tags: cnn, udrp, wipo

Go Daddy pulls in top honors in this year’s Domain Name Wire survey.

Getting buzz from Super Bowl commercials isn’t the only thing domain name registrar Go Daddy does well.

For the fifth year in a row, the registrar has been rated best registrar in Domain Name Wire’s annual survey. This year 41% of those survey said Go Daddy was the best domain name registrar.

Here are the top five vote-getters:

1. GoDaddy 41%
2. Moniker 16%
3. Fabulous 11%
4. eNom 5%
5. Name.com 4%

The rankings remain mostly unchanged from last year, with one major addition: Name.com. Making the top five is especially surprising given that it isn’t a top 20 registrar in terms of registrations. That means it wasn’t even an option on the survey, and all votes it received were write-ins. The registrar is popular amongst domainers and has a presence at most domain shows.

Just off the list is another write-in registrar: DynaDot.

Although the selection list is limited to top 20 registrars, next year we’ll add Name.com and DynaDot given their positive showing as write-in candidates.

When looking only at domain owners with 1,000 or more domains, GoDaddy still takes top honors. Moniker and Fabulous swap places.

To rate and review domain name registrars, visit RegistrarJudge.com.

Tags: GoDaddy

Communications company settles lawsuit over typosquatting.

Verizon has reached a tentative settlement with 2Cool Guys, LLC, Warren Weitzman, and Arnold Trebach over alleged trademark infringement from domain name typos.

The communications company filed the complaint in October, alleging that the defendants parked typos of its popular Verizon trademark in order to earn pay-per-click revenue. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but two of the three domain names in question have been transferred to Verizon as of this morning. Verizon was asking for $100,000 per domain name plus fees and recovery of pay-per-click revenue earned.

Typo domain names involved in the case included varizon.com, vierzon.com, and virazon.com.

Verizon has frequently sued entities that allegedly register and monetize typos of its trademarks. In 2008 it won a default judgment of $33 million in one such case. However, Verizon happens to be one of the biggest typosquatters in the world itself.

Tags: Typosquatting, verizon