Occupy.com domain name sells Domain has new owner but identity is unknown. Occupy.com, which was pitched for sale to the Occupy Movement last year, has sold. It’s not clear who purchased the domain name since its whois record is protected by whois. But the buyer definitely wants to capitalize on the movement. It started a logo design contest on
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - 20:1
How Twitter was named and bought Twitter.com for $7,500 Biz Stone discusses the naming of his company. Today at DOMAINfest in Santa Monica, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone talked about how they named the company and bought the domain for $7,500. Stone and his co-founders wanted a name that showed “urgency”. They came up with Jitter, but thought that sounded negative. One of his p...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - 14:47
Tucows launches Ting mobile phone service Tucows branches out, enters mobile phone business. Tucows, which owns one of the world’s largest domain registrars, officially launched mobile phone service Ting today. In a press release, Tucows CEO Elliot Noss said: “What people are forced to put up with from mobile service providers just doesn’t make sense. It...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - 14:28
James Brown estate doesn’t “feel good” after domain dispute Godfather of Soul’s domain name can stay with management company. The estate of James Brown has lost a domain arbitration case for the domain name JamesBrown.com. The domain is owned by LAC Management, Inc., which manages “RJ & The James Brown Band”. LAC argued that James Brown gave at least his tacit consent for it
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 17:35
KeyDrive acquires Moniker and SnapNames Oversee.net sells off domain marketplace, expiring domain, and registrar companies. KeyDrive, which owns domain name registrar Key-Systems as well as NameDrive, has acquired SnapNames and Moniker from Oversee.net. Combined, KeyDrive says it is now the sixth largest ICANN accredited registrar. Rumors about the acquisition have been sw...
Domain Name Wire - Wednesday, February 1, 2012 - 12:15
National Car Rental sues over National.com typo – a domain it doesn’t even own Car rental company demands typo of National.com, a domain it doesn’t even own. Vanguard Trademark Holdings, which owns the National car rental brand, has filed a cybersquatting lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name Natiional.com. The company filed a UDRP against the domain name already. It lost that case in June. On the same da...
Domain Name Wire - Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 18:44
Last chance to take 2012 Domain Name Wire survey 12 hours left to take this year’s domain industry survey. Time is running out to take the seventh annual Domain Name Wire survey. The survey, which asks users to answer questions about domain name registrars, domain parking, and expired domains, concludes January 31. Results will be published in February. Participants from 47 c...
Domain Name Wire - Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 13:37
Another new TLD application round within one year? ICANN wants to open another new TLD application round early next year. Is this plausible? A lot of companies are applying for dot brand top level domains not because they want to right now, but because they think it might be their only chance. At least for the foreseeable future. But is this the case?
Domain Name Wire - Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 11:44
6 questions to be answered at DOMAINFest this week A preview of the week ahead in Santa Monica. The largest domain name conference, DOMAINfest, takes place in Santa Monica this week. There’s a lot to look for in the 2012 edition. Here are six questions that will be answered before the end of the week. 1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself? Oversee.net
Domain Name Wire - Monday, January 30, 2012 - 11:58
Shuzi seller loses battle for Shuzi.com A Shuzi bracelet is supposed to work miracles, but it doesn’t have powers to “steal” domain names. ShuziQi, which sells “Shuzi” bracelets, has lost a domain dispute over the domain Shuzi.com. The details of the case aren’t as entertaining as what Shuzi is, so I’ll be brief on the case. Basica...
Domain Name Wire - Monday, January 30, 2012 - 10:14
GoDaddy joins SedoMLS network Sedo gets a big win with GoDaddy partnership. The world’s largest domain name registrar has joined the SedoMLS network, giving more exposure to domain owners selling their domains through Sedo. Domains that are listed on Sedo with a fixed price will automatically show up when a GoDaddy customer searches for the exact domain nam...
Domain Name Wire - Monday, January 30, 2012 - 9:34
BowlingBalls.com domain name sells for $225,000 Chernoff hits a strike with latest domain sale. Garry Chernoff has completed another big domain name sale, this time selling BowlingBalls.com for $225,000. The buyer knows a thing or two about bowling balls. Nick Melnikoff has bowled in PBA tours and owns Bowlers Paradise, a web site that sells bowling balls and accessories. Chernoff...
Domain Name Wire - Sunday, January 29, 2012 - 19:13
Moniker publishes final DOMAINfest auction list Two more valuable domain names added to auction. Moniker has published the final list of domains for next week’s live domain auction during DOMAINfest, as well as the online auction to follow. Bargain.com and Democracy.com have been added to the auction. Bargain.com’s reserve is north of $750,000 while Democracy.com is av...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, January 27, 2012 - 11:37
Amazon.com’s Quidsi about to launch home decor shop Casa.com Casa.com is next online store from Amazon.com’s Quidsi unit. Mi casa su casa… Earlier this month I scooped that Quidsi, the company behind Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, and YoYo.com, was working on a new store called Casa.com. Quidsi has now published a “coming soon” page to Casa.com and launched a Facebook ...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, January 27, 2012 - 11:22
USPTO to Karsten: not so fast with .PING Trademark office sends office action to PING Golf brand owner. On Wednesday I posted a list of 115 trademark applications that could be related to new top level domains, along with their current status. The USPTO has a policy of not granting trademarks on top level domains, and the number of “speculative” trademark applic...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, January 27, 2012 - 11:10
DOMAINfest “Dine with an expert” slots filling up quickly Opportunity to dine with DOMAINfest speakers quickly disappearing. Want some quality time with Brook Schaaf, John Morris, Lisa Box, Jay Weintraub, or Paul Nicks during DOMAINfest next week? Your easiest opportunity is no longer available. These are among the people who already have full tables for their “Dine with an ExpertR...
Domain Name Wire - Friday, January 27, 2012 - 10:42
VeriSign plans to apply for about 12 new top level domain names Company will apply for about a dozen TLDs, mostly transliterations of .com. VeriSign plans to apply for “about 12″ top level domain names this year, Pat Kane, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VeriSign Naming Services, said on VeriSign’s investor conference call this evening. Most of these will be transli...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 21:57
2011 was record breaking year for .com and .net domain registrations Over 32 million new domain registrations in .com and .net last year. 2011 set a record for new .com/.net domain registrations with over 32 million registration, VeriSign announced on its investor conference call this afternoon: In the fourth quarter, we added 1.9 million net names to the domain name base, and we processed 7.9 million
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 21:49
GoDaddy reveals Super Bowl commercial featuring the Pussycat Dolls You won’t have to wait until the Super Bowl to see this year’s commercials. It’s likely you’ve already seen GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercial featuring .co. GoDaddy has linked to it from its home page for about a week. Now the company is releasing its second half commercial on the web, too. The spot, dubbe...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 21:26
VeriSign likely to announce 100M .com milestone today DomainTools claims milestone reached; VeriSign earnings call on tap for today. At the end of October VeriSign was very, very close to hitting the 100 million .com domain name milestone. Now, according to DomainTools, there are officially 100 million .com domain names registered, not including those going through the redemption proces...
Domain Name Wire - Thursday, January 26, 2012 - 14:35
