Organizers of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
domain conferences have announced the date and
location for their fall show in Florida.
It will be held October 24-27 at a new venue, the
luxurious Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywoood,
Florida (just north of Miami and south of Ft.
Lauderdale). Before that event, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West
will be held May 1-5 at the Venetian Hotel in Las
Vegas. The
.eu land rush starts April 7 and German
domain investors will apparently lead the charge. A quick
check of the .eu sunrise status
report shows 305,433 applications of which 28.8%
are from Germans. The Netherlands is second with 16.5%
followed by France at 11%. The
National Arbitration Forum administered 25% more
domain dispute cases in 2005 than in 2004. In 2005, 1,369
domain dispute cases were filed with the NAF, the highest
number of cases handled in one year since the NAF was
appointed as an approved provider of the Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999 by ICANN. A NAF
spokesman said some of the increase in cases can be attributed
to more people using the Internet. We suspect the rapidly
increasing value of domains has also been a major factor in
the higher case load. CentralNic.com
has formed a new partnership with Sedo.com
that will help buyers acquire CentralNic domains (with
extensions such as .us.com, uk.com, eu.com)
directly from their owners. Visitors to the CentralNic site
will be promped to either follow a link to the offer page at
Sedo where the domain is for sale, or use Sedo’s domain
brokerage service where an experienced broker will work to
acquire the domain for them. In
a move to help prevent fraudulent domain sales on
public forums, DNForum.com
has introduced a DNF Verified Member program. For a $5
processing fee, members can have their address verified by
FAXing in a recent utility bill. Once they have done that, a
Verified Member seal will appear on their forum posts so
others know their identity and location has been confirmed.
The
Dot
TV Corp
is running a special auction to benefit the HRTS
(Hollywood Radio and Television Society) and their
charity partner the L.A. Free Clinic. Four
premium .tv domains will be auctioned off from now
until April 27,2006. The four domains are Watch.tv,
Comedy.tv, Kids.tv and Broadcast.tv. The
premium .tv domain name will be registered at the winning bid
price for one year and will then renew at only $50 a year.
This is a special condition only for this project. Dot tv
names usually renew at the same price as their intitial
registration. The
new DN Journal Newsletter is now available.
You can sign up here to
receive the free monthly newsletter and email updates to let
you know when new articles and sales reports have been posted
on our site. The newsletters will also be available online.
The debut March 2006 edition is here.
To have future editions delivered directly to your email
inbox, use the signup link above. BuyDomains.com
announced the purchase of 32,000 .com domains
from Exclusive Domains, Inc., swelling the BuyDomains
porfolio to more than 600,000 domains (the largest
group held by any single entity). The
acquired one and two-word domains are concentrated in the
lucrative advertising verticals of finance, travel, education,
and recruitment. Popular
aftermarket domain sales venue Afternic.com
has added Dotster.com, one of the
world's largest ICANN-accredited registrars in the world with
over 3 million registrations, to its growing stable of
registrar partners. Afternic President and CEO Roger
Collins said the new partnership allows Dotster visitors
to find the Afternic-listed name they want through a search on
Dotster. The arrangement is expected to increase the customer
base for both companies. Collins said Dotster is employing Afternic’s application program interface
(API) that allows them to show Afternic listings on results pages of Dotster
searches, making it quick and easy for Dotster customers to obtain Afternic names and
prices. In
another Afternic related note, CentralNic
(provider of extensions
such as .us.com, uk.com, eu.com and 17
other country specific domains) said that Afternic.com
now accepts listings for all CentralNic domains. Joe Alagna,
CentralNic's U.S. Marketing Manager, said "We've
recently seen registrants list and sell some of our domains
for several thousand dollars.
It's been a nice development that validates how consumers feel
about our domains." CentralNic domains are available at
many major registars, including Enom.com, Dotster.com
and Name.com. Armstrong,
a popular moderator
at the NamePros.com
domain forum, has issued an urgent appeal for help in locating
potential bone marrow donors of Filipino descent. His
cousin Christine is battling cancer and her life
literally depends on finding a donor soon. Details on her
situation and the procedure for registering as a marrow donor
are available in this
thread at NamePros. The
Domain Roundtable Conference will convene again April
19-21 at the new Westin Bellvue Hotel in Bellvue,
Washington. The domain conference returns after a successful
debut in May 2005 in Seattle. This time out, Internet
REIT President Mark Ostrofsky (also widely
known as the seller of Business.com) will be the
featured speaker. Details about the conference, which is
hosted by Name Intelligence, Inc., are available on the
Domain
Roundtable web site. Sex.com
had changed hands in the highest domain sale ever reported.
Multiple reports indicate that original owner Gary Kremen
received at least $12
million for the domain from Boston-based Escom LLC.
Kremen would not release details about the deal. Sedo.com,
the world's largest
after market domain sales venue, announced that the company
started 2006 with 3 million domains listed for sale on
their site. Sedo said that inventory is three times larger
than their nearest competitor. The rapidly growing venue said
they expect to hit 10 million listings in the next 2-3
years. Well-known
domain aftermarket sales venue Afternic.com
has become an ICANN accredited registrar. Afternic will
not be offering public registration services but their new
status will give them a stronger hand in the evolution of the
industry. Afternic President Roger Collins said, "the
new designation formalizes our relationship with this
all-important governing organization and will enable the
company to participate actively—and at the highest
levels—in key issues and oversight matters regarding the
future of domain names". |
