Top 10 Domain Name Wire Stories of 2008

As the year crawls to a close, here’s a look back at the most viewed stories of 2008.

Good riddance.

That’s what most people are saying to 2008. After losing half their retirement savings, seeing the value of their homes plummet, and fearing for their futures, most people want to forget 2008 ever happened.

But the domain name world survived. Here are the top 10 stories on Domain Name Wire for the year ranked by number of views.

1. Standard Tactics, LLC: How GoDaddy Profits from Expired Domains – This expose on Go Daddy resulted in a phone conversation with the company’s CEO…and the closure of a questionable subsidiary.

2. Seinfeld Isn’t Laughing about JerrySeinfeld.com – Not a huge story to domainers, but apparently entertainment buffs got a big kick out of it over at Fark.

3. Expired Domain Services Let Employees Bid Against Customers – Another story that got results. Go Daddy instituted a new rule forbidding employees from bidding on its expired domain auctions. Most other company’s have strict rules against this.

4. Network Solutions Faces PR Nightmare Over Domain FrontRunning – Go Daddy wasn’t the only registrar to face controversy this year. Network Solutions’ ill advised “customer protection measure” didn’t sit well with the internet community.

5. Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, Others – A number of people quit their jobs after they discovered domain parking arbitrage. Yahoo sent them back to work in February.

6. Dell: “We’re F’d” – Computer maker Dell registered some unsavory names this year. Call it brand protection.

7. Google Lets Advertisers Opt Out of Domain Parking Sites – After lots of pressure, Google began letting advertisers opt-out of having their ads show up on parked pages. A lot of advertisers report that such ads don’t work well for them; I’ve found the opposite to be true.

8. Domain Scam: US Copyright Registry – another scam targeting domain name owners.

9. Editorial: Where Network Solutions Went Wrong – my commentary on Network Solutions’ “customer service protection measure”.

10. Google Offers Domain Parking Direct to Publishers – just this month Google turned the domain industry on its head by offering domain parking services directly to Google Adsense clients.