Deal will create competition, not destroy it.

Dear Department of Justice:

After a long courtship, Yahoo and Microsoft have agreed to a long term search and advertising deal. The deal is going to end up in your lap early next year, and a number of lobbyists will be screaming that the deal is anti-competitive. Don’t buy it.

This deal creates a competitor. It takes two also-rans in the search business and turns them into a true (although still relatively weak) competitor to Google.

As a small web site publisher, I’m convinced that having at least two viable advertising providers in the search space is critical to keep each one in check. Right now we have a growing ad provider in Google and a faltering one in Yahoo. Everyone else is a tackling dummy. By Yahoo and Microsoft joining forces, their scale will be enough to entice more advertisers to pay attention. This, in turn, will benefit web entrepreneurs.

I realize you need to look like you have a heavy hand. But this isn’t a case to worry about or slow down. Don’t listen to the Google-funded army; do what’s right for millions of advertisers and web site publishers. Give this deal the green light.

Domain name appraisal scam moves to a new domain name.

I’m getting tired of writing these articles. But every time I do, a number of people searching for this stumble upon it, so I figure it saves some people from falling for the scam.

The latest incarnation of the domain name appraisal has moved to a new domain name – Fleos.com.

A scammer sends and email to you offering to buy your domain name for a percentage of the appraisal price. He explains that they accept appraisals from Sedo (a well known and reputable appraisal provider) and a no-name service (in this case Fleos.com). The no-name service costs less, so people that receive the email buy an appraisal from it. The no-name service is actually owned of the scammer, who has no intention of buying your domain name.

Previous web sites used in the scam include Pozde.com, NameOrange.com, TropicalNames.com, and FlyAppraisals.com.

A copy of the scam e-mail is below:

from Kevin Hill 2kevinhill@gmail.com
subject Offer for CARGRANTS.COM

We are interested to buy your domain name CARGRANTS.COM and offer to buy it from you for 80% of the appraised market value.

As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:

- fleos.com
- sedo.com

If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.

As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.

We appreciate your business,

Yours truly,

Kevin Hill

National Car Rental loses case over domain name.

Roy Messer, perhaps most famous for selling Vodka.com for $3M, has successfully defended the domain name NationalRentaCar.com through UDRP.

The majority of the panel found that the domain name was confusingly similar to Vanguard Trademark Holdings’ trademark “National Car Rental”, but that the domain name was not registered in bad faith for several reasons. Among them, Messer provided a sworn declaration under penalty of law stating that the domain was not registered with the trademark in mind. The panel also found no evidence to the complainant’s inference that Messer’s company registered the domain with the trademark in mind.

What makes this case particularly interesting is the timeline. Messer registered the domain name in 2000. In 2003 the complainant sent a cease and desist letter to Messer. He responded, and didn’t hear back until 2004 when the complainant sent the exact same letter. He hadn’t heard from them since then until receiving the UDRP. The majority of the panel wrote:

In reaching this decision this Panel accepts that the doctrine of laches does not apply in the UDRP, but in the present case there appears to be some merit in Respondent’s argument that if Complainant were confident in its allegation of bad faith registration of the domain name it would not have delayed so long in bringing this Complaint.

Panelist The Honourable Neil Anthony Brown QC included additional commentary about the long delay, writing:

Standing by and allowing Respondent to use the domain name in the allegedly improper manner during these lengthy periods of time, without any explanation for how the delays came about, leaves Complainant open to the conclusion that it did not believe the claim and also that it had waived its complaint and induced or allowed Respondent to continue with its use of the domain name in that manner.

Attorney Ari Goldberger of ESQwire.com represented Messer.

According to Compete.com, the domain name receives over 4,000 uniques each month.

At the Domain Roundtable conference in Washington, D.C. last month, I noticed a lot of new faces with the Sedo team. As I started talking to them, I realized what was going on. Sedo had hired a number of people experienced selling to businesses. The company was making a focused effort selling to end users, and was hiring the right people to do it. These new employees are not domain industry veterans; they’re B-2-B salespeople.

As part of its push for end user sales, Sedo recently launched monthly themed promotions that it will promote to end users. The current one is for real estate, and future themes include gambling and pharmacy. These themes allow the company to aggregate good domain names and focus marketing to one vertical.

“We’re always trying to reach end users,” said Kathy Nielson, Director of North American Brokerage & Acquisitions at Sedo. “With auctions and themed verticals on a monthly basis it ties it all together. It makes our clients happy, but marketing-wise it’s so much easier to target one vertical and get end users to come to the table and buy domains.”

It has proven successful already. Prior to the current effort, Sedo has marketed a father’s day theme and to the adult industry. The adult industry push included ads in trade publications.

“Our end user sales have just skyrocketed this summer,” said Nielson. “It’s fun to see some of these companies coming in [and buying domains].”

The monthly themes feature fixed price domain names. Sedo (and its competitors) have found that domains with prices or price expectations are much more likely to sell than those without prices. Nielson explains that when buyers come in and see no price indication, the negotiations take longer and are less likely to result in a sale.

Sedo seems to be making all the right moves to sell domains to end users, and the results are starting to prove it.

NameMedia has a sky-high week thanks to SkyHarbor.com.

NameMedia, which operates BuyDomains.com and Afternic, sold over $600,000 in domain names over the past week. The standout sale was SkyHarbor.com at $35,000. SkyHarbor.com has yet to change hands, but a possible buyer is the Phoenix airport, called Sky Harbor.

Other notable .com domain sales include:

militarylawyers.com $7,500.00
trademarkets.com $6,400.00
adhelper.com $6,400.00
recipex.com $5,800.00
piketon.com $5,188.00
worldtech.com $5,000.00
guitarrista.com $5,000.00
groundcoffee.com $4,500.00
eduall.com $3,900.00
petsavvy.com $3,788.00
vetit.com $3,588.00
idlv.com $3,500.00
centralwholesale.com $3,500.00
westonranch.com $3,388.00
Nafx.com $3,300.00
sharethespirit.com $3,088.00
therelationshipguide.com $2,888.00
foryourheart.com $2,888.00
puremedical.com $2,800.00
peruvianfood.com $2,800.00
interest-rates.com $2,800.00
macroeconomy.com $2,700.00
eappointments.com $2,695.00

The company also sold MCAT.info for $4,250. MCAT is the acronym for the test people take to get into medical school. Other non-.com sales include:

vein.net $3,500.00
1mail.net $2,959.00
emailarchiving.net $2,788.00
gargano.org $2,691.00
tronix.net $2,588.00
frogdesign.net $2,588.00
collegeonline.org $2,525.00
getaways.net $2,500.00
sauce.org $2,088.00
beachhouses.net $2,000.00
recurve.net $2,000.00
biblical.org $2,000.00

Note that Biblical.com sold for $17,000 at NameJet this past week.