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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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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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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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Grocery chain wins first .XXX UDRP case

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:55:34 +0000

HEB gets HEB.xxx.

HEB Grocery Company, headquartered in San Antonio, is the first complainant to win a uniform domain name dispute resolution (UDRP) case for a .xxx domain name.

Atlanta resident Eric Gonzales registered the domain name after he claims to have contacted the grocery chain to see if they were going to register it.

Gonzales’ approach is certainly interesting. Here’s how the World Intellectual Property Forum panel summed it up:

Respondent is an individual, located in the U.S. state of Georgia, who indicates that he was doing “extensive research for a TV news report on businesses that have not registered .XXX domains with possible variations close to their names.” Respondent states that he contacted several businesses that bought .XXX domains after he brought the matter to their attention but that Complainant was not one of them so he bought the disputed domain because of Complainant’s failure to exhibit a proactive approach. Respondent states that he was later contacted by counsel for Complainant “DEMANDING” he relinquish control over the disputed domain but that Complainant never asked. Respondent states “Everything would have been avoided if they would have asked.”, because then he “would have gladly GIVEN” them the domain. Respondent noted several policies involving the .XXX gTLD which cause him to question the general availability of domain sites if they are allowed to be taken away by companies that fail to block the initial purchase. Respondent stated that he could have avoided dealing with this legal issue and consulting legal advice if Complainant had taken steps to block his purchase.

Another strike against Gonzales: he admitted he’s not part of the sponsored community (adult sites).

I have a feeling Mr. Gonzales flushed a lot of money down the drain with his .xxx purchases.

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2012 Domain Name Wire Survey…the results are in

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:34:18 +0000

A look at who took this year’s survey.

Domain Name Wire’s 7th annual domain name industry survey has concluded with over 1,500 participants.

I’m busy collating and analyzing the results, which will be posted on Domain Name Wire throughout the month of February.

Here are data about the participants in this year’s survey:

1,593 survey takers

25.8% of people who took the survey own more than 1,000 domain names. 27 participants own more than 10,000 domain names.

The domain name industry is global. People from 79 different countries participated in the survey. The largest percentage were from the United States, but that still represents less than 1/3 of all participants. Other countries with a large number of participants are Canada, India, and Brazil.

73.6% of respondents consider themselves domain investors.

Stay tuned for the results…

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.Kyoto top level domain in the works

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:20:58 +0000

.Kyoto may join .Tokyo as top level domain.

It appears that .kyoto may be one of the location specific top level domains that will hit the web in coming years.

The announcement is in Japanese and all translations I’ve seen are rather jumbled, but it appears that GMO Registry is behind the effort. [Update: I've heard that DOTKYOTO COMPANY LIMITED is behind the effort and has government approval. It is seeking a registry back end provider, and GMO is one of the candidates.]

The company is already planning a .tokyo top level domain and says it has the support of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for that effort.

It’s also aiming for the .shop top level domain.

Kyoto has a population of about 1.5 million. Although that’s smaller than most cities you’ll see get their own TLD, it’s part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan region of over 18 million people.

Any readers that know Japanese? Please chime in.

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Best Buy promotes “phone freedom” in Super Bowl, but not new domain name

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:33:06 +0000

Company protected brand with domain purchase but doesn’t use it yet.

Best Buy’s Super Bowl commercial yesterday promotes what Best Buy calls “Phone Freedom”, although it doesn’t call it that by name in the ad.

But it helps explain why the company paid $2,588 to buy PhoneFreedom.com last month.

I received an email promotion from the company today that touts phone freedom:

At the bottom of the email is a link to BestBuy.com/phonefreedom.

Paying such a small price for PhoneFreedom.com certainly makes sense, even if the company doesn’t plan to push traffic to PhoneFreedom.com. It’s good for brand protection.

That said, I’m baffled by the decision to not at least forward PhoneFreedom.com to the Best Buy site. I think someone dropped the ball here.

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