Domain buyers didn’t let the holidays slow them down, according to the latest sales figures from DNJournal.

The biggest sale of the week was consummated at Sedo, which sold ASB.com for $50,000. That’s a solid number for a three character .com.

Expired domains continued to sell for 5 figures. SnapNames sold the following domains:

-TravelPlans.com $35,472
-AutoShippers.com $28,251
-CocktailDress.com $17,750

Enom’s Club Drop has been absent from the sales list for a while, but managed to sell MattressPad.com for $14,100.

Sedo also sold a three word .us domain, BuyAndSell.us, for $5,500. Manhattan.info sold for $4,500 at DNForum. Keep in mind that NewYork.info was the highest reported new TLD sale of 2004 at $28,086.

Wired Magazine just released an article “Worst Tech Moments 2005″, and a domain name issue is in the top 10.

Wired claims the US Commerce Department blocked passage of the .xxx domain name. (Although it is a bold claim that this was the reason for the delay, it is no doubt that pressure from interest groups helped table the domain).

Wired author Kevin Poulson writes:

“when ICANN decided to carve out a new [domain] for adult content, a Christian group called the Family Research Council saw red, predicting the move would double the amount of smut available online, and, in the words of council attorney Patrick Trueman, ‘the porn industry would become twice the menace it is today’…

“Prompted by a flood of mail from the Republican base, Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the U.S. Commerce Department, drafted a letter to ICANN chairman Vint Cerf asking for the new domain to be delayed. It was; and in that moment any illusion that the internet’s critical domain-name system was immune from U.S. political whims evaporated.”

Should .xxx move forward in 2006? This is just one of the questions in Domain Name Wire’s 2006 Domain Name Survey. Over 300 people have participated in the survey. So far, those surveyed are in favor of .xxx becoming a new domain extension, but not by an overwhelming margin. You can participate in the survey here.

Christmas has passed, but consumer web traffic isn’t slowing down.

Everyone knows the web is packed with people looking for Christmas presents before December 25. But it doesn’t stop then. In fact, my affiliate sales on December 25 were the highest of the year!

Why? People that just received new toys for Christmas – be it a new computer or MP3 player – are on the web looking for accessories and downloads.

I saw a surge in domain traffic throughout the day on December 25. Most of my revenue came from product add-ons and software. It’s been a great way to finish 2005 and launch into 2006.

Happy holidays!

People who think they have to divulge too much information to ICANN in the Whois directory should consider what China requires of web site owners.

China’s government started shutting down web sites days before Christmas if the site owner failed to register with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Big deal, right? Well the government is asking for more than site owner’s names and contact information. You are also required to provide your citizen identification number and your employer name.

Let’s put that in perspective for US citizens. Say you work for IBM during the day but maintain a blog about model race cars on the side. If the US had a policy like China, you would be required to register your social security number and that you work for IBM.

An article says: “The MII said in March that these new directories would help authorities shut down Web sites with pornographic, gambling, and other illegal content.”

Funny how MII left out that this will help them shut down web sites with political views contrary to the government.

It’s been a great year for domain name owners, and it’s not over yet!

Owners of consumer-related domain names that use parking services have seen lots of traffic in December. More and more consumers are going to the web to buy holiday gifts and are landing on parked pages. But the shipping deadlines for most consumer web sites have now passed and traffic to consumer domains is slowing to a drip in the last couple days leading up to Christmas. (The exception is people trying to find information about a product before buying it at the store.)

But domain name owners can expect a spike on December 26 for a couple reasons:

1. After Christmas sales – I just received an e-mail from BrooksBrothers.com about an after Christmas sale. Web retailers are beginning to jump into the “after Christmas” frenzy much like bricks-n-mortar retailers.

2. Researching new goodies – people that receive new computers, MP3 players, video game consoles, etc. flock to the web to look for accessories and downloads. You will probably start seeing this traffic starting Christmas afternoon. As an affiliate of one related site last year, I found that the two weeks after Christmas were as good as the two weeks prior. With the number of iPods and XBOX 360s flying off the shelf this year you can expect the same this time around.