Companies provide innovative twists on domain selling.

Which company is most innovative when it comes to selling domain names in the aftermarket?

The results show a handful of newer companies are innovating in the selling process — and attracting attention from domainers.

The top response in this year’s Domain Name Wire survey (by a long shot) this year was Sedo. After that are three companies, two of which are smaller upstarts: Rick Latona and Bido.

Rick Latona is perhaps most known for his daily domain sales newsletter, the first “major” sales newsletter in the industry. He also runs an auction arm, Latonas.com, that is the exclusive live auctioneer at TRAFFIC conferences. Latona has a licensing agreement to run TRAFFIC conferences, and just held the first one under the new licensing agreement last month in Las Vegas.

Bido is also making waves with innovative auction techniques. It is bringing crowdsourcing to picking the best domain names for auction — and rewarding its customers when they pick domains that sell. It is also adding social aspects to auctions.

GoDaddy makes the list as well, thanks in part to a number of new initiatives to help domain owners sell domains to retail customers. It allows domainers to sell their domain names when someone searches for the exact domain they are selling, and also provides data on the popularity of domain names registered at GoDaddy. The company has a new VP of Aftermarket, Chris Kennedy, who will take a fresh look at the platform this year.

Rounding out the list is NameMedia, which sells domains through BuyDomains, Afternic, and syndication deals with top registrars.

Here are the top 5 results:

1. Sedo/GreatDomains 26%
2. Rick Latona 16%
3. Bido 15%
3. GoDaddy 15%
5. NameMedia 13%

Here are some domains to keep an eye on in the waning moments of this month’s Great Domains auction.

By the time you read this, you have less than two hours before the end of this month’s Great Domains auction at Sedo. Auctions will close at noon EST, unless they are extended due to last minute bidding.

But there are some good deals to be had. Here are a few.

Obnoxious.com – the reserve is met and it’s under $1,000…for now. Update: domain sold for $3,600.

BGM.com – as far as three letter acronyms go, this one has a lot of possible matches. The reserve is met with a current price of $10,099. Update: domain sold for $12,501.

Hiding.com – this is one of those brandable generics. Lots of uses, but I’m not sure how much more than the current $1,550 I’d pay. The reserve has been met. Update: domain sold for $2,055.

CardCollection.com – perhaps I’m just reminiscing about my days collecting baseball cards. That was before I collected domain names. $575 with the reserve met…although there are seven bids. Update: domain sold for $1,850.

Court documents show how imposter allegedly duped Register.com into handing over access to Baidu.com.

Last month visitors to Baidu.com were redirected to a page stating that the site had been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army.

Baidu later sued Register.com for allegedly allowing a security intrusion that enabled the hackers to change the name servers for Baidu.com. But the original lawsuit redacted the essential facts about how the hackers got control of Baidu’s account at Register.com. Now an unredacted copy of the lawsuit is available (pdf).

What it alleges is stunning. Here’s how Baidu alleges the hacker got access to one of the world’s most popular web sites domain name account in under an hour:

1. Hacker starts online chat session with Register.com representative, claiming to be an agent of Baidu.

2. Register.com representative asks hacker to provide verification information. Hacker provides invalid information, but Register.com goes ahead and e-mails a security code to the email address it has on file for Baidu anyway.

3. The hacker doesn’t have access to that e-mail address, so he/she relays a bogus security code to the Register.com representative via chat. Baidu claims the representative didn’t bother to compare the code to the actual one.

4. Hacker asks Register.com representative to change email address on file to antiwahabi2008@gmail.com, and representative does.

5. Hacker now uses “forgot password” link at Register.com to request the username and password to the account. Hacker can then log in and change the name servers.

This isn’t the first time a major corporation has had its nameservers changed thanks to a compromised domain account. But the details in how the account was allegedly compromised are stunning. It’s also unfortunate that, had Baidu used added security such as that offered by Moniker or Fabulous, this entire event could have been avoided.

My predictions about what happens to aftermarket values of domain names when new TLDs are released.

In general, domainers are opposed to new TLDs. I don’t think this has anything to do with the concept of new top level domain names. After all, many domainers have embraced each new TLD as it comes to the market (much to the detriment of our pocket books). It has more to do with the baggage (e.g. new trademark rules) that are coming along with new TLDs.

That said, I do believe that new TLDs will have an affect on the domain name aftermarket. There are many categories that will be affected, including IDNs, country code domains, etc. But for today let’s just focus on .com, .net/.org, and newer TLDs such as .info, .mobi, et al.

.Com – In the short run, new TLDs will cause .com values to increase or stay the same. There will be massive customer confusion, just as there is today if you tell someone to go to anything other than a com/net/org address. This will result in more traffic to .com domains, especially those with a corresponding new TLD (e.g. Vegas.com, Eco.com). In the very long run, if consumers become accustomed to the idea of paying attention to what’s to the right of the dot, there could be some erosion of .com’s value. But that’s so far off I can’t even imagine when it will be.

.Net/.Org – What about some of the other original TLDs, such as .net and .org? .Net has always been a middle ground; a second choice to .com. .Org has a good brand, and it could be enhanced if .org registry PIR gets .org equivalents in IDNs. This is a tough call overall. I don’t think .net values will be helped by new TLDs, but I don’t see them plummeting, either. What will be interesting for .org is if a similar, but more specific domain, is released. Consider .charity, restricted only to non-profits. That might steal some attention from .org, which can be registered by anyone.

Newish TLDs – I see no possible way for newer TLDs, such as .info and .biz, to hold their secondary market value as new TLDs come to market. Most end users will consider buying a .biz or .info domain name if they can’t get a .com, .net, or possibly even .org. But what if they now can register a .web or .’vertical’ domain name for $10? They’re more likely to do that than plunk down $500 or $1,000 for an already registered .info. Yes, it’s true that web users will begin to warm up to the idea of something other than .com, but that still doesn’t give the edge to these existing TLDs compared to newer ones. (I write this as someone who does own some .biz and .info domains.)

Many domain name companies are in growth mode — here are some who want to talk to you.

While many businesses are cutting jobs, domain businesses are in hiring mode. This is the first in a series of posts featuring domain name companies that are looking to connect with the right people.

Directi – One of the domain industry’s biggest employers is always hiring. Co-founder Divyank Turakhia told me the company has just concluded campus recruitment for the year, hiring 50+ people. Directi places a lot of emphasis on recruiting, and even holds India’s largest online programming contest, in part to find qualified applicants.

But there are still more positions to fill. Most of the openings are in India, although there are positions around the world and in its many offices. There’s also a compelling expat program for people interested in moving to India.

You can see most of the positions on Directi’s careers web site.

EuroDNS – Europeans should take a look at domain name registrar EuroDNS. The company currently has several openings including technical and customer care positions.

Demand Media (eNom) – Looking for a gig stateside? Demand Media has a number of job openings. For domain name related jobs, look for those in Bellevue, WA, such as Associate Account Manager (optimization and monetization of domain names).

Parked – domain monetization company Parked just hired a couple people this past week, but it’s looking for more, primarily on the development side. See more details here.

A number of other domain name companies are pulling together details of their job opportunities for me, so there will be more to come. And if you work for a domain company that’s hiring and you haven’t communicated about it with me, drop a note to editor (at) domainnamewire.com.