Verisign contest hits its goal in first round.
Verisign has announced the first five winners in its Internet Official contest, a promotion designed to show that good .com domain names are still available. The domain names selected have interesting histories.
The first five winners, who will each pick up $5,000, are:
1. ChooseYourTattoo.com: Registered by Tom H. of Niles, Mich.
2. ElectricMotorcycleClub.com: Registered by Adam Y. H. of Pine Bluffs, Wyo.
3. PerfectHairstylist.com: Registered by Zvi A. of Rego Park, N.Y.
4. SecretSnitch.com: Registered by Nancy K. of Port Charlotte, Fla.
5. StressDetector.com: Registered by Jeffrey H. of Baton Rouge, La.
The winners are picked by a panel of judges, including fellow blogger Michael Berkens.
Verisign has really pulled this one off. In addition to showing that good .com domains are still available, they’ve managed to get two in the first batch that “match” new top level domain names: .tattoo and .club. “See, internet! You don’t need new TLDs. Your first choice is available in .com.”
These five domains (well, several of them) are pretty good. As you can imagine, this isn’t the first time they’ve been registered, either. Here’s a look at the history of these five domain names:
- ChooseYourTattoo.com – originally registered in 2006, expired at the end of 2014 and re-registered in January 2015
- ElectricMotorcycleClub.com – registered in 2010, expired the next year, and then sat unregistered until February 2015
- PerfectHairstylist.com – DomainTools doesn’t have any registration records prior to the current owner, who registered the domain on February 2.
- SecretSnitch.com – I’m scratching my head on this one, but it’s been registered a few times. Once from 2003-2007, then again from 2009-2012, then another owner picked it up for about a year at the end of 2012.
- StressDetector.com – One owner had this from 2006-2009, then HugeDomains picked it up. Believe it or not, they let it drop last year and the winner registered it in February.
Spike says
Can we still submit domains?
Jeannie says
Hi Spike. Yes, Verisign is still accepting entries. Visit http://www.VerisignInternetOfficial.com for more details and to enter.
Snoopy says
Find this quite poor that only entries from US states are accepted, doesn’t send quite the right message about .com.
yyzyyc says
why is it .com restricted to the US, eh ??
Natali McKee says
Where are the sites? If you win, is the site temporarily taken down and redirected to the contest?
Electric Motorcycle says
I put some content immediately and I’m writing articles for ElectricMotorcycleClub.com now. I’m definitely planning on building the site Natali. 🙂
I imagine some of the first prize winners are waiting until they get the $5k to start building theirs sites. Of course I can’t speak for the other contestants in the contest.
Natali McKee says
Yeah I noticed you were the only one with an actual site. I read the rules SO wrong and was very confused.
Electric Motorcycle says
How were you confused? Legalese can be difficult to read to and understand.
Henry says
If this contest is restricted to US only, it sends the wrong message about “.com” as a global TLD and its global viability and usage. VeriSign needs to do something about that, and quick.
Electric Motorcycle says
Appreciate the mention here Andrew. Some nice names on the list and it’s interesting a lot of them were registered before. I guess people always want to be a motorcycle club.
What are “new top level domain names?” I don’t understand! 🙂
melpitchjd says
still waiting for the third month first place prize winners to be announced, does anyone have any details on that yet, I have my dot com in the ring.
al says
It is not hard to understand. I had just purchased my domain name. I am in process of building it. I entered the name only. I won. Now the work on making a working site, is under way. Thanks for your votes for soldiersonly.com