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.UK grandfathering ends in 3 months

by — Uncategorized 2 Comments

Time is running out to register matching domain names.

.UK domain logoPeople and companies that want to secure the second-level .UK equivalent of their third-level .uk domain have three months left to do so.

That’s when the clock runs out on a grandfathering plan. People with .co.uk domains registered as of October 28, 2013, were given five years to register the matching .uk domain once they became available. That ends July 25, 2019.

At that point these domains will be opened up to all registrants on a first-come, first-served basis.

Will there be a run on second level .uk domains? Despite the availability of example.UK names, only about 10% of new .uk registrations are at the second level. Most people still opt for third level domains.

About 10 million domains had grandfathering rights but many of those domains expired. There are currently 2.3 million second-level .uk domains registered.

Godaddy Investor app gets new filters

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Filters let you sort auctions and select which ones you see.

Screenshot of GoDaddy Investor app filter toolGoDaddy has added a new filter tool to its domain investor app. It is now live on the iOS app and coming soon to Android.

With the filter, users can sort listings by price, alphabetically, or by time. They can also choose to show just the expiry auctions or also member listings.

GoDaddy added the filter because it recently added support for public listings (make offer) in the app. This coincides with changes GoDaddy made to the offer/counter offer pages earlier this month as covered by DomainInvesting.

The sort and filter tool doesn’t quite show up right on my iPhone 6 screen but it is usable.

Meanwhile, over at NameJet, I believe the company has added fixing the bug in its app where you don’t get alerts on its roadmap to fix by 2025.

Efty adds live chat to marketplace

by — Services 1 Comment

Domain owners can chat with potential domain buyers in real time.

When someone wants to buy a domain name they want a quick response from the domain owner. The faster you respond, the better your chances of closing the sale.

Domain sales platform Efty is taking fast response to the next level by integrating Tawk.to live chat on users’ marketplace sites.

Live chat won’t appear on each individual domain name, but many Efty users forward their domain names to a landing page in the marketplace. If they do this, the landing page has SSL and can use the live chat feature.

Efty dashboard image

Efty users can forward their domains to their marketplace URLs, which have live chat.

Tawk.to also lets domain owners monitor visitor behavior on their sites.

Efty also announced an integration with Mailchimp.

Pardon my French, but WTF DJ Snake?

by — Policy & Law 2 Comments

DJ Snake and Pardon My French tried to get PardonMyFrench.com through a domain dispute.

Logo for Pardon My French DJ CollecxtiveA World Intellectual Property Organization panelist has found against William Samy Etienne Grigahcine, aka DJ Snake, in a dispute over the domain name PardonMyFrench.com.

DJ Snake is part of a collective of French DJs called Pardon My French.

PardonMyFrench.com was registered in 2002. The owner of the domain didn’t respond to the cybersquatting dispute so we don’t know for sure when he obtained the domain name.

Nevertheless, the collective would have needed to show that the registrant of the domain was specifically targeted it with its registration and use of the domain name because it’s a common phrase.

The record doesn’t show any infringement, such as pay-per-click links related to the Complainant. The domain has been used as a personal blog and currently resolves to a blank WordPress installation.

Even without a response, the panelist should have considered reverse domain name hijacking in this case.

.Scot dumps GBP over Brexit

by — Services 2 Comments

Currency fluctuations force DotScot to reprice its services in the Euro.

It’s fascinating to watch the upheaval Brexit is having across the economy and then with domain names. You’ve probably already heard that UK residents might have to surrender their .EU domain names after Brexit, although that’s still up in the air.

Here’s another example: DotScot Registry Ltd, the small non-profit that runs the .Scot top level domain name, is switching its fees from Sterling (GBP) to the Euro (EUR). The currency switchover happens on March 29.

DotScot director Gavin McCutcheon explained to Domain Name Wire that currency fluctuations with the pound sterling are impacting its business. In an email he wrote:

…by far and away our largest overheads are denominated in USD (ICANN fees and escrow fees) and EUR (back-end services, etc), whereas our income has up until now been denominated in Sterling. Because of this we are hugely exposed to volatility in the exchange rate between Sterling vs. the Euro/ US Dollar and the best guidance we have is that there is expected to be a high degree of volatility in Sterling following Brexit…

Indeed, Sterling is still down about 17% since the Brexit vote even though it has rebounded from its lows.

McCutcheon notes that registries have to give six months’ notice of any price change, so should the GBP fall substantially, it would be stuck in limbo for a long time.

He wrote:

Ultimately our registrants need price stability and what we are doing has the aim of ensuring that we can maintain a stable base-price moving forwards, which will also make life easier for our registrars who benefit from – and require us to provide – stable pricing too.