Domain Name Wire

Half of small business owners not satisfied with their domain name

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:35:45 +0000

…and half believe they’ve lost business as a result.

.Co released some new research this morning regarding small businesses and domain names.

The research was carried out by Wakefield Research and asked questions about domain names to companies with 100 or fewer employees. Here are some of the interesting take-aways:

- 45% of small business owners don’t have a website or blog for their company. (That spells opportunity, my friends.)
- 49% of those with a site or blog are not completely satisfied with their domain name
- 55% of the small businesses with a site or blog believe they have lost business as a result of not getting their first choice of domain
- 52% would change their domain name if they had the opportunity to
- 63% of small business owners fail to consider the top level domain when selecting a second level domain
- 29% of small business owners says they don’t know what a “domain extension” is, and about 2 in 5 of those that say they know are actually incorrect. (If they asked about “top level domains”, I assume the number that would know what they are would be much lower.)
- 63% fail to consider the length when choosing a domain
- 57% said choosing a domain for their business was harder than naming their baby

Here’s the results presentation.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

XBoxOne.com domain name was registered in 2002

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:47:59 +0000

XBoxOne.com, the matching domain for Microsoft’s new video game system, was originally registered more than 10 years ago.

Microsoft today unveiled its new XBox video game system called XBox One.

Microsoft does not own the domain name XBoxOne.com, which currently resolves to a GoDaddy “coming soon” page.

The domain name was registered in 2002 by Xbox Rodents and was used for a site called XBox1. It then expired in 2011 and was registered by someone in London. XBox Rodents also owned XBox1.com and let it expire in 2011 as well.

So the big question: how important is it that Microsoft owns the domain name?

The main web site for all generations of the XBox is XBox.com, so you could argue that XBoxOne.com isn’t that important. On the other hand, XBoxOne.com could be use by someone for nefarious purposes or to “hijack” the sales channel.

I suspect Microsoft will own the domain name soon. I just don’t know which approach they’ll take to acquiring the domain.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

How your blog posts and blog comments affect the patent process

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:49:59 +0000

If you comment on a post, it might affect the outcome of a patent application.

Whenever I post about a recently granted patent, comments inevitably turn to “that invention is nothing new” or “that’s a junk patent”.

I’m sure that at some point today there will be comments to that effect on my post about GoDaddy getting two appraisals for domain appraisals.

When an inventor applies for a patent, they make a bunch of claims. Some of these claims will surely be thrown out during the process, but it’s a starting point. The patent examiner pushes back and challenges some of the claims. What you often see published was not what the inventor originally submitted.

That’s where you come in.

Your comments on blog posts, your forum posts, your articles — they are often considered by patent examiners and shape the final form of a patent.

Consider the two GoDaddy patents I wrote about earlier today.

The patent examiner pushed back on some of the claims and cited Domain Name Wire (pdf) in doing so.

Alas, it was not my superior domain intelligence and knowledge that caught the eye of the examiner. Instead, it was a single comment that Stephen Douglas posted on my 2009 article “Why the Live Domain Auction Bombed (and Why I’m Not Surprised)”. Douglas commented about parts of speech and the value of domain names.

Remember Chef Patrick? He’s long gone from the domain name industry, but his 2008 post “What Makes A Premium Domain Name” was cited by the examiner. The patent examiner also referred to the Estibot.com user guide.

Your opinion carries weight and can even determine the outcome of a patent application. That’s pretty cool.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

GoDaddy gets two patents for domain appraisal

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:28:43 +0000

Paul Nicks’ inventions related to name spinning and appraisals get patent protection.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today issued two patents to GoDaddy related to name spinning and appraisal.

U.S. Patent number 8,447,701 is titled “Appraising domain names using comparative data” and 8,447,702 (pdf) is “Domain appraisal algorithm”.

The patents have lots of overlapping material. They cover name spinning to create permutations of domain names as well as multiple aspects of automatically generating a domain name appraisal.

Here’s a summary of some of the aspects of domain valuation that the patent describes:

The appraisal may be accomplished by breaking the valuation of the domain into five logical groupings, possibly including evaluation of “5 P’s” related to the domain name. Evaluation of “precision” may include the number of distinct keywords found, the length of the name and the number of keywords found in the dictionary. Evaluation of “popularity” may include various search engine search result metrics and tracking of words searched per month. Evaluation of “presence” may include the age of the domain, and the rank of the web site according to web ranking services or software. Evaluation of “pattern” may include the number of premium characters, the part of speech (such as noun, plural noun, verb, adjective, etc., possibly considering if the domain is a one word domain), the relationship of vowels and consonants etc. (possibly considering if the domain is a 4-5 character word). Evaluation of Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, may include the maximum number of pay-per-click bids from various advertising tracking services or software, and the number of ads returned within search engine searches. A dynamic multiplier based on registration statistics for each of several top level domains (TLDs) may then be applied to the domain evaluation. This multiplier may be used to give a very accurate measure of domain scarcity to let a user or evaluator know how rare a domain name is.

Paul Nicks, Director of Product Development GoDaddy.com’s Aftermarket, is listed as inventor on both patents.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

You decide: which of these should be Domain Name Wire’s new logo?

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:19:14 +0000

Help pick the next logo for Domain Name Wire.

Click the image to see the full size version.

I ran a logo contest on 99Designs and now need to select which logos go on to the final round.

I’ve learned a lot with this logo contest, and I’ll share some of my insight later.

But for now, I’d like your help. Please take a moment to look at these 13 logo designs and let me know which ones you like best (or hate the most).

“They all suck” isn’t quite as helpful, but I’ll take all feedback.

Keep in mind that I’m in the process of redesigning Domain Name Wire, so you don’t need to worry about how well the logos fit with the current color scheme. Also, if you really like a logo but not one small thing about it, I can still get it tweaked.

Thanks.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

ETM.com bid to over $15,000 at Hilco auction

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:52:59 +0000

ETM.com sees early bidding action, but Bargain.com is the headline domain.

ETM.com has attracted three bidders and 12 bids at the Hilco Streambank auction that ends tomorrow. As of now the domain has been bid up to $15,058.

So far the more expensive domain names haven’t received any bids, but I’d expect interested parties to wait until closer to the end of the auction on Wednesday.

The best name in the auction is Bargain.com, which is being sold along with the typo Bargin.com. The minimum bid is $166,000 with no reserve.

The domain has been offered previously by Sedo and Moniker, but with a much higher price tag. Its reserve in a Moniker auction last year was over $750,000.

At $166,000, it’s possible that a buyer will think Bargain.com is a bargain.

The package of domain names from bankrupt electronics company Tweeter, including Tweeter.com and TWTR.com, has an opening bid of $150,000.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.

An article that will help you close more domain sales

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:15:02 +0000

Article on Forbes.com about domain names and startups is worth bookmarking to refer potential domain buyers to as a reference.

David Teten, a partner with ff Venture Capital, has published the second part of a story on Forbes.com about startups and domain names.

It’s a good primer on how companies can get creative when acquiring domain names.

It explains how one of ff Venture Capital’s portfolio companies, Plated, worked out a lease with an option to buy Plated.com:

Buying a domain name is like buying real estate – capital-intensive and risky. The last thing a startup needs is MORE risk. That’s why our portfolio company Plated.com decided to structure a lease option – they offered the prior owner a small monthly lease fee for 1 year, with an option to buy at the end of the year. This way, if the business was thriving and Plated had managed to attract capital, they’d be able to purchase the domain outright. If not, the current owner would earn a healthy rent for his (as of then unused) domain and would still retain ownership.

Plated ended up exercising the option to buy the domain.

Teten also discusses the option to give equity as part of payment for a domain name.

The article extensively quotes domain investor Braden Pollock and refers to a number of well known domain brokers.

This is a good article to send to a startup that reaches out to you about a domain name but balks at the price.

Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.