Domain Name Wire » Andrew Allemann

Hundreds of Whitney Houston domains registered after death

Andrew Allemann — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:55:07 +0000

Singer’s death prompts speculators to register Whitney Houston related domain names.

Speculators have registered a flurry of domain names related to Whitney Houston since the singer’s death yesterday.

According to domain registrar GoDaddy, 325 Whitney Houston related domain names were registered in fewer than 24 hours after her death.

You’ll find a lot of Houston domain names on eBay. And most of them are worthless.

You can pick up WhitneyHoustonDiedAt48.COM for $500.

Looking for something even more speculative than a domain to take advantage of her death? Try WhitneyHoustonHeartAttack.com for $21 million. My guess on this one is the seller just wants attention to the site they link to in their eBay listing.

For a starting bid of 99 cents you can have a shot at what the seller describes as an “Authentic Whitney Houston Domain”. What’s an authentic domain? I don’t know, but the seller is trying to offload Whitney-Houston-Legacy.com.

A search for “Whitney Houston Domain” returns 41 hits on eBay right now.

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GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domains last month including Go.Pro for $40k

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:34:35 +0000

A phenomenal .pro sale among domain sales on GoDaddy Auctions.

GoDaddy Auctions sold 38,366 domain names last month, about 1,000 fewer than it sold in December.

That includes the eye popping sale of Go.Pro for $40,000.

That’s not a typo. The domain was purchased by a doctor in Maryland.

Other top sales for the month include:

diy.org $60,000
bestrecipes.com $45,000
uros.com $30,000
quod.com $30,000
10-4.com $16,000
eventguru.com $15,925
retireme.com $15,495
definedbenefitplan.com $15,000
gamebreak.com $12,650

About half of the domains were sold via auction and the other half via “buy now” listings.

The top word included in domains sold was “online”, followed by “best”, “blog”, and home. Other popular keywords include:

news
music
free
casino
business
insurance
design
home
video
shop
health
site
club
your
world
auto
life

“Online” is almost always the most often included keyword you’ll find in GoDaddy’s domain sales report. Domainers should take note.

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Top Level Domain Holdings raises $14.2 million

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:21:17 +0000

Company has more money to apply for top level domains.

Publicly traded Top Level Domain Holdings Limited has added £9,031,139 (US $14.2 million) to to its war chest to go after the top level domain market, the company announced today.

Top Level Domain Holdings owns Minds + Machines.

The placement will be used for working capital including slotting and application fees for applying for new top level domain names. The company is applying for top level domains for itself as well as on behalf of clients.

Top Level Domain Holdings is led by CEO Antony Van Couvering. Its chairman is former ICANN Chairman of the Board Peter Dengate Thrush, who joined the company shortly after leaving his post with ICANN.

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ICANN reaffirms second round of new gTLDs

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:53:54 +0000

Board instructs CEO to outline plan and steps for opening a second round.

ICANN’s board of directors has passed a resolution reaffirming that it plans to open another round of new top level domain applications as “expeditiously as possible”.

The resolution instructs the CEO to create a work plan that outlines the steps necessary to initiate a second round of applications. This includes addressing Governmental Advisory Committee concerns over trademark protection and root zone scaling.

The current version of the new top level domain applicant guidebook states that the goal is to open a second round within one year of the current application period ending. The current application window closes April 12, 2012.

However, it is improbable that this can occur given commitments ICANN has made to review how the first round goes before proceeding to a second round. Industry observers have suggested that 2015 is a likely date based on the existing plan.

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DOMAINfest attendance was down, but still strong

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:38:39 +0000

Fewer people turn out to this year’s event but it remains the industry’s biggest conference.

About 600 people attended last week’s DOMAINfest conference in Santa Monica. While down from previous years’ 700 attendees, it still makes it the largest conference in the domain name industry.

Here’s why I think attendance was down by about a hundred…

1. Still sick from last year.

Hey, the memories of last year’s sickness that afflicted 100+ people is still strong. Even though it could have happened at any event, I’m sure it left a sour taste in some people’s mouths.

Attendance effect: -20

2. Wait…no Playboy party?

Some people just can’t get enough of the Playboy Mansion. Although this year’s conference still had Playmates, it may not have been enough to make up for not getting to puke into a portable toilet at Hugh’s house.

Attendance effect: -25

3. Where’s Monte?

OK, I’ll bring it up because other people have. And because it certainly had some effect.

Attendance effect: -15

4. Domain parking still falling (despite some new faces here)

There are some new faces at the conference. In fact, a lot of them. But falling revenues certainly takes out a chunk of would-be attendees.

Attendance effect: -39

5. Some blogger from New York thought it would be OK to leave his 8-month-pregnant wife to go to DOMAINfest in California. He was mistaken.

Attendance affect: -1

OK, in all seriousness, the one observation I heard over and over at the conference was: man, there are a lot of new faces here. One person told me “while I usually don’t know about a third of the people at a domain conference, this year I don’t know 70% of them”.

This is a good thing. More people are being brought into the fold.

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8 observations about domainers

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:58:29 +0000

Sound familiar?

They say there is a hint of truth in every stereotype. With that in mind, I present eight observations about domainers. Sure, they may be about the stereotypical domainer, but I’m sure you’ll nod your head to at least a few of them.

1. While companies think domain names are less important than they really are, Domainers think domains are more important than they really are.

2. Domainers always assume the worst about actions their service providers (e.g. parking companies, registrars) take.

3. Domainers think everyone is trying to screw them.

4. Domainers find it difficult to let a domain they registered long ago expire, even if they realize it’s never going to be worth something. Letting go of sunk costs is difficult.

5. Domainers think trademark holders are always in the wrong.

6. Domainers all have at least one domain in their portfolio that they now realize they overpaid for.

7. Domainers also have one offer to buy that they rejected and now wish they could accept.

8. Domainers think that just because they own a good domain they can create a great web site.

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Orphaned domain listings still mucking up domain sales process

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:22:00 +0000

When domains change hands or expire, “for sale” listings remain.

[Update: I received a message from GoDaddy saying a solution is in the works and should be complete within a couple weeks.] In October I wrote about how domain name marketplaces still struggle with “orphan listings”. These are domains listed for sale that have either expired or were listed by their previous owner.

A couple people have recently relayed to me issues related to orphan listings and how this has become a bigger issue with listings being syndicated to GoDaddy.

In one case exactly like the one I described in October, a customer tried to hand register a domain on GoDaddy.com that had already expired. The domain was still listed on GoDaddy Auctions, though. GoDaddy.com said the domain wasn’t available for registration but could be purchased on GoDaddy Auctions. The user ended up having to use the GoDaddy app to register the domain. (GoDaddy doesn’t show auction listings in the registration path to mobile users.)

I discovered another person on NamePros who won an expired domain backorder and promptly listed the domain for sale on GoDaddy Premium Listings. He was surprised what he saw when he searched for the domain on GoDaddy. Instead of showing his Premium listing, the site showed an old Sedo “buy now” listing from the previous owner.

I know there are domains I own that still show up for sale on Sedo that were listed by previous owners. This can cause a whole slew of problems. I keep waiting for the day that someone files a UDRP on one and claims I listed it for sale on Sedo…when it was really someone else.

There are solutions, at least when it comes to fixed priced domains. Both Afternic and Sedo have mechanisms in place to monitor domains listed with instant transfer capabilities. But that doesn’t cover all domains, as was the case here.

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