It’s easily confused.
There was a bit of a ruckus yesterday over a typo. NameJet promoted Investor.com for sale, but it turns out the domain was actually Lnvestor.com with an L. As you can see, the font NameJet uses makes a lowercase L look a lot like an uppercase I.
Before I throw stones, I should note that I made the same mistake a few years ago. I backordered Lnternational.com thinking it was International.com.
And that fake domain broker that was trying to sell domains at too-good-to-be-true prices? They used the same L vs. I trick
If you think this is confusing, imagine people who aren’t aware of internationalized domain names who buy something that appears to be a valuable domain, only to find out some of the characters in it aren’t from the Roman alphabet.
NameJet has an option to ‘view upper case’ next to the domains. I realize this is an edge case, but perhaps they should put both cases next to each other by default.
Oh, and be on the lookout. I don’t think I ever renewed Lnternational.com but it has remained in my Enom count anyway. It expires later this month and will make its way through the drops.
Alan Built says
Worthy of pointing out. We’ll see if NameJet responds to your valid suggestion. I bet there will be a few battling it out for Lnvestor.com come drop-day.
Andrew Allemann says
The domain has a high bid of $6,211, so hopefully NameJet cancels those bids.
Dave Tyrer says
Actually, if you look at the screenshot posted at DomainInvesting.com, NameJet did initially promote the sale as “investor” with a lower case “i”.
Maybe Andrew saw it after NJ corrected it?
So it was originally advertised as:
“investor.com (view Uppercase)”
https://domaininvesting.com/namejet-makes-a-typo/
In a comment, Scott Pruitt from NJ said they inadvertently published “…the name INVESTOR.COM. The actual name is LNVESTOR.COM.”
What seems strange is that someone at NJ may have manually typed in the listing instead of copying and pasting it as with authcodes.
Any bids placed before the correction should be cancelled and the auction restarted.
Andrew Allemann says
You’re looking at a couple of things. NameJet promoted it as Investor.com; they misread it like I did in the past with Lnternational.com.
Elliot took a screen grab of the actual domain Investor.com on NameJet to show that it wasn’t actually in pre-release. It’s set to wishlist which means it’s not available.
Mark Thorpe says
We’ve all come close to buying or have bought a L/l or I/i domain by mistake.
C.S. Watch says
Namejet has been around for 11 years and this ‘just never came up’? These are people who force you to keep your cash deposits on account, and won’t return that money, ever, should you choose not to bid. Where is that legal? Venezuela?
Notice that Sedo already has a default serif font in place which defines the lower-case L. Stay classy, Namejet.
LK says
One thing that bothers me about ‘typo’ domains and Namejet is that sometimes when they end-up in public auctions they are with reserve prices. I feel like that might encourage bids from people who end up thinking that as it is with reserve price it has to be correctly spelled… maybe this is something they should look into.
PageHowe.com says
well i think we are still in a buyer beware environment, and the responsibilty is on the buyer side to know what your buying… if the name was actually advertised as investor, thats a idfferent story.. but we only learn by buying the wrong thing. i dont think we allow do-overs, unless your a registry or registrar of course..
another on the lookout, “vv” looking a lot like “w” at godaddy
Page
Laina says
You bring up an interesting point. Internationalized domain names can indeed be confusing for those who may not be aware of them, especially when certain characters are not from the Roman alphabet. Having an option to ‘view upper case’ next to the domains is a helpful feature by NameJet. While it may be an edge case, it could be beneficial to have both cases displayed side by side by default for user convenience.
Also, thank you for the heads up regarding your domain. It’s surprising that it has remained in Enom count despite not being renewed. It’s good to be vigilant, especially as it approaches its expiration date later this month, as you mentioned it might go through the drop process.