Sedo and Parked.com selected as top domain parking companies.

For the third year in a row, Sedo has topped Domain Name Wire’s survey for best domain name parking company. Here are the top 7 vote getters including percentage of the vote:

1. Sedo/SedoPro 33%
2. Parked.com 17%
3. NameDrive 11%
4. Fabulous 6%
5. GoDaddy 5%
6. Google Adsense for Domains 4%
7. DomainSponsor 4%

Compared to last year, Parked and NameDrive switched places, Fabulous jumped up a spot, and GoDaddy and Google made their entrance on the chart.

The rankings shake up a bit if you control for the number of people who have used each service. Is Sedo #1 just because more people are familiar with it than other services? To find out, I took the top 5 and calculated the percentage of votes as the top parking service divided by the percentage of respondents who said they had used that parking service:

1. Parked.com 58%
2. Sedo/SedoPro 51%
3. GoDaddy 40%
4. NameDrive 35%
5. Fabulous 34%

So the answer is no, it’s not just that Sedo is more well known. But it also shows that, controlling for how many people have used the service, Parked.com comes out on top.

Yesterday Sedo acquired RevenueDirect, a primarily U.S. domain parking company. The goal was to bolster its U.S. presence as Sedo is generally known as strong in Europe. As it turns out, Parked.com is voted the top domain parking company among U.S. respondents:

1. Parked.com 28%
2. Sedo 22%
3. Fabulous 8%

For more survey results, visit domainnamewire.com/survey.

To read reviews of domain parking services, visit Parking Judge.

A look back at last week’s top sales on Sedo and SnapNames.

Domain Name Wire will now publish newsworthy information about sales from SnapNames in addition to its coverage of Sedo sales.

But before discussing expired domain sales, there is a big .com sale to report from Sedo: Forums.com has sold for $399,990. The seller was DNForum owner and GoDaddy VP Adam Dicker.

Other noteworthy sales at Sedo from the past week include:

primus.com 33,000 USD
enterprisegroup.com 17,500 USD
delamaison.com 15,000 USD
tai.com 13,000 EUR
parisfrance.com 12,100 EUR
cheetahs.com (GreatDomains) 10,099 USD
afq.com 8,000 EUR
ofb.com 7,550 USD
veristat.com 5,000 USD
flylink.com 5,000 USD
statoil.ru 23,400 EUR
mama.es 15,000 USD
frey.fr 10,000 EUR
lastminutes.co.uk 5,770 GBP
automobile.cz 5,560 EUR
moviestelugu.tk 5,500 USD
hotelbarcelona.es 5,200 USD
convena.de 5,000 EUR
spot.in 4,600 EUR
onlinepokergames.us 4,500 EUR
play-blackjack.us 4,500 EUR
online-videopoker.us 4,500 EUR
roulettestrategy.us 4,500 EUR
rap.org 5,900 USD
cirruscasino.info 4,500 EUR
glucksspiel.net 4,500 EUR
sportsbookreview.net 4,500 EUR

The current Great Domains auction at Sedo ends tomorrow.

Here’s a look at last week’s top expired domain sales on the SnapNames platform:

cristina.com 25890
crafters.com 14120
minihotels.com 9420
photoclub.com 8240
verdi.com 5009
letteropener.com 2901
ferriswheel.com 2700
gudi.com 2600
bestcoloncleanser.com 2349
denverairport.com 2229
kaxin.com 2100
gardening.info 1770
rebeccasgarden.com 1659
mimi.net 1550
creditcardsnow.com 1450
penguingames.com 1450
vendingmachine.net 1400
dogdiarrhea.com 1399
maxuploader.com 1260
thismonth.com 1250
customizedbobbleheads.com 1250
lasllebank.com 1250
subprimeloan.com 1180
snowcrabs.com 1180
datemaker.com 1180
palmislands.com 1161
larochelle.net 1062
emedstoday.com 1050
iccidirect.com 1050
medivet.com 1000

Overall, I think FerrisWheel.com and SubprimeLoan.com look like the winners. It may seem hard to monetize FerrisWheel.com, but it could be used as a “branded” domain for a company.

In recent SnapNames auctions I’ve picked up WeeklyPlanner.com, MonthlyPlanner.com, and CelebrityProfile.com. I also picked up eCents.com, which has tons of potential, and YouthSummerCamp.com. I purchased SeattleHealthcare.com through the platform from a SnapNames seller (non-expired) too.

Please let me know if you find this sales information useful and if you have any suggestions.

Sam Nunez explains the RevenueDirect acquisition and the potential for future acquisitions.

Sam Nunez, VP of Product Management for Sedo, answers some questions about the companies acquisition of RevenueDirect.

Domain Name Wire: When did Sedo first enter into discussions with RevenueDirect/Dotster about acquiring the parking company?

Nunez: The successful round of negotiations started last December. We had some on-off discussions with Dotster for more than a year though.

DNW: Sedo had a listing agreement with Dotster already in place, correct? I mean where Sedo listings were shown as alternatives on domain searches at Dotster.

Nunez: Yes. The current relationship is akin to an affiliate program for our aftermarket services. As part of the new strategic partnership, we intend to take it to the next level.

DNW: Your press release on the deal mentions monetizing Dotster’s large portfolio of domains. Does this refer to its registrar-owned domains, customers’ domains, or both?

Nunez: Registrar owned. Dotster’s customers that are using the RD platform are considered as RD customers and are included in the acquisition.

DNW: Will Sedo parking pages be used as default “coming soon” landers on Dotster customers’ pages?

Nunez: Yes.

DNW: Will Sedo, with its newly added domains, be able to offer a higher revenue share to customers?

Nunez: In the short term, there will be no change for RD customers. As we take the best of both products, we expect to be able to pass through even better monetization levels to RD customers, as well as to Sedo existing customers.

DNW: Is Sedo looking for other acquisitions in the domain parking space?

Nunez: Yes. Obviously we are not going to acquire for the sake of acquiring, but challenging times always offer better buying opportunities for the stronger players. Our industry is maturing, so this is bound to happen.

Japanese find ways to navigate web even before IDNs.

In an article titled “Domain names? We don’t need no domain names”, IDG News Service writer Martyn Williams explains how the Japanese use the search box in lieu of domain names.

Instead of typing Google.com into their browsers, they search for Google at Yahoo.

On the Yahoo site they type in “Google” to get taken to the home page, bypassing the address bar in their browsers and registering another search for Google in Yahoo’s rankings. In 2008 so many surfers used Yahoo to get to the Google home page that it placed as the fourth most searched term of the year — a position it also held in 2007.

Advertisers in Japan often don’t include a domain name and instead show a picture of a search box with the desired search term in it in Japanese. (I think I’ve seen a picture of this on a domain blog before but can’t find it.)

Apparently this originated because of lack of internationalized domain names where Japanese characters could be used. It was a pain for broadcasters to spell out every letter of an English-language, latin-character domain name.

And it’s infinitely easier than typing out the URLs read out of TV and radio broadcasts, which sound like something from mission control. Imagine if you were watching the sports news and instead of hearing “You can get more at ESPN dot com” hearing “You can get more at “eitch-tee-tee-pee-colon-slash-slash-w-w-w-dot-e-s-p-n-dot-com.” It just isn’t easy on the ears.

Second level IDNs are now available, and soon we’ll see top level IDNs. Will this change Japanese web surfers’ habits?

Update: Here’s a photo from a reader:

Clever ad pokes fun at single serving sites.

Those guys at Woot, the one-a-day product showcase, sure are clever. Consider this advertisement on downforeveryoneorjustme.com:

Woot is poking fun at so-called Single Serving web sites that do just one thing. Part of the irony is that this ad is on the single serving web site downforeveryoneorjustme.com, which let’s you know if a web site isn’t loading.

Now I know what you’re thinking, you should rush out and register ifyouwanttoseewhatsonwoottodayitwouldbeeasiertojusttypewoot.com. Too late. Woot actually registered this domain name last month before starting the ad campaign.

Today’s woot, by the way, is a 2 pack of Garrity LED Touch ‘N Lite LED Lights for $7.99.