Voting is now open for the first annual Domainers Choice Awards that will be presented at the DOMAINfest Global conference in Hollywood, California January 21-23. Anyone can 

nominate anyone they wish in 15 different industry categories. When you visit the DCA site you can vote for one of the names already on the nominated list or add a new name by writing in the person's name that you wish to vote for. The top three vote-getters in each category will advance to the final round of voting that will begin Dec. 16. That is just a couple of weeks away, so visit the DCA voting page now and vote to make sure your choices get the recognition they deserve.

Dell Computer has lowered the boom on three obscure registrars who have been slapped with lawsuits charging them with using serial domain tasting tactics to register and profit from 

domains that Dell says are clear infringements of their trademark. The complaint names BelgiumDomains, CapitolDomains and DomainDoorman, along with nearly a dozen Caribbean "shell companies" that allegedly served as the entities registering the domains. The suit also names Juan Pablo "JP" Vazquez, a Miami resident who is alleged to be connected to those companies. 

As I have said in the past, I would like to see the practice of domain tasting disappear as I believe it has been extremely harmful to this industry's image and tarred hundreds of honest domain investors with the cybersquatter brush, even though they've never engaged in the practice and do not condone it. Dell's action  

could drive a nail or two in the domain tasting coffin, which would be fine by me, but at the same time I think Dell has gone off course in trying to bring "counterfeiting" charges against the miscreants in this case. Dell did that because the penalties for counterfeiting are far higher than for trademark infringement - up to $1 million per name instead of $100,000 - but it seems to be an exceptionally flimsy application of the counterfeiting law. Allowing misuse of the law to stand where it is not applicable would set a very dangerous precedent. Frank Schilling has some exceptionally insightful analysis of this story (the kind you will never get from the mainstream press), on his SevenMile blog today that shows there are bad actors on all sides in this case, including some that are not named in the suit. 

Charleston, South Carolina real estate agent Stephen Webb took a lot of ribbing when he suddenly turned up on the domain scene a few months ago after registering thousands of domain names beginning with the words "I Am" or "We Are". Webb has been making the rounds at 

Stephen Webb 
IAmDomainNames.com
(at Domain Roundtable - August 2007)

recent domain conferences, including Domain Roundtable in Seattle, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East in Hollywood, Florida and last week's GeoDomain Expo in San Francisco, to promote his sales site, IAmDomainNames.com. 

The conventional wisdom has been that sticking random prefixes on keywords is a non starter (it has been tried many times in the past with little or no success, other than the ubiquitous "e" prefix). It's too early to say whether or not Webb will beat the odds but at least he's not getting shut out. Yesterday his company, We Are, LLC announced they had sold WeAreSanDiego.com to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper who will use the name for their existing entertainment guide. 

Webb had previously struck a leasing deal with the operators of the Seattle Space Needle for another one of his names, IAmSeattle.com.  

Webb explained how it all started, saying "I was looking for a domain name for my business located in Charleston. I wanted to give the impression of ownership so I typed in IamCharleston.com and it was available; so was IamSeattle.com, WeAreSantaMonica.com, WeAreWomen.com, WeAreComputers.com and WeAreMusic.com. Now 13,000 domain names later we launched a new business. It has opened up a new generation of .com names for individuals and companies that have been shut out of the market place. Our domain names imply ownership and controlling the lion's share of your market. What is easier to remember than a sentence beginning with I am or We are? How many times a day do we say these words?" 

Well, I am not sure how many times I say it (oops, there's one!) - but it will be interesting to see if Webb's expensive bet pays off in the long run. He knows he's going against the grain but says "the criticism is water off a duck's back." We do know that domain prices keep going higher and .com options keep getting slimmer, but is that trend enough to make previously unprofitable naming strategies work now? Sooner or later, Webb's enterprise will provide the answer to that question.
(Posted Nov. 28, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-28-07.htm

Live domain auctions have become so popular you need a scorecard to keep track of them now. Moniker.com, who paved the way for them with their popular T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference

auctions, will be doing another one next Wednesday (Dec. 5) at the PubCon conference in Las Vegas. In conjunction with the Casino Affiliate Convention in Macau today and tomorrow (Nov. 28-29) they also just opened an online-only Casino, Gaming & Affiliate Auction that will continue through December 6. NameBuyers.com is also piggybacking off the Casino Affiliate Convention to run an auction on Ebay Live tomorrow (Nov. 29) that will start at 5am U.S. Eastern time. Meanwhile, Sedo.com opened its third and final .mobi premium name auction today with that event scheduled to close on December 5. Their first two .mobi 

premium name auctions generated more than $1.6 million in sales. The latest auction features games.mobi, sports.mobi, photos.mobi, movies.mobi, and videos.mobi among others. Sedo's combined November/December GreatDomains Auction also begins tomorrow. Asia.net, hangover.com and coed.com are among the names on the block. You can view the full list at GreatDomains.com.
(Posted Nov. 28, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-28b-07.htm

As a conduit for advertising, either on PPC pages, through affiliate arrangements or direct sales to advertisers, domain owners are in the media business. That fact makes increasing

forecasts that U.S. media operations will face tougher times in 2008 something worth keeping an eye on. Reuters reporter Michele Gershberg wrote about this in a new article released yesterday headlined U.S. Media Face Troubling 2008. However if a downturn does arrive, Gershberg's article indicates that those who operate online will have much easier sledding than traditional media outlets. She wrote "Experts say advertisers need to remain competitive in a tightening market while keeping costs down, making them likely to boost spending in areas more directly linked to commerce, such as Web search queries."  

She quoted Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay as saying “We see continued strength in paid search and continued strength in retail e-commerce, and possibly an acceleration of online video."

Web search leader Google remains confident it  will remain unscathed. “We feel that we're not too sensitive to those macroeconomic fluctuations,” Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, said in an interview. “If there is a macroeconomic downturn, people will be a little pinched. We think that would be to the benefit of online sales.”
(Posted Nov. 27, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-27-07.htm

Nominet, the organization responsible for running the .uk domain registry, has issued their first ever Domain Name Industry Report. The report said "The global market has seen increasing 

growth rates over the last five years with the total number of domain names now growing at a rate in excess of 30% per annum ( compared to  just 10% in 2002). Amongst the key reasons for this rise will be increased recognition of the importance of an online presence, coupled with an increased global uptake of Internet access and Broadband technology. This upward trend is set to continue, at least in the short term, with growth in the first half of 2007 standing at more than 35%." 

The report noted that growth of .uk registrations (led by .co.uk) was humming along at a rate of close to 20% annually. It also said "Research carried out earlier this year illustrates that British Internet users are six times more likely to choose a .uk rather than .com address when looking for information via an Internet search engine. The online survey of 2,324 Internet users, which was carried out by YouGov, also found that 62% believe a .uk address suggests a company is local or more relevant than a .com, and a third (32%) believe that it is important for international companies to have local domain names in order to attract local customers."
(Posted Nov. 26, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-26-07.htm

Today I did something I swore I would never do and, as I expected, it proved to be a complete waste of time (on the plus side, the experience once again showed me that those of us who make our livelihoods on the web are sitting in the mother of all catbird seats). So what did I do against my better judgment and all that history has taught me to studiously avoid?

Black Friday campers

I went shopping on Black Friday! For those outside the U.S., Black Friday is the day after one of America's most cherished holidays - Thanksgiving Day. It is the official start of the Christmas shopping season and is called Black Friday because conventional wisdom says it is on this day that the sheer volume of business pushes most merchants into the black for the year. 

Store owners run huge newspaper ads touting great Black Friday discounts to fuel the fire. Local big box stores and malls opened as early as 4am to accommodate the rush and some people with far too much spare time on their hands actually camped out on the sidewalk in front of these stores for two days to be first in line. They started Wednesday night and actually had their Thanksgiving dinner on a folding table

Thursday afternoon. Then, after spending a second night on the sidewalk and going through this whole crazy ordeal they then got first crack at saving $10 this morning - go figure! 

Despite this, people pack themselves into stores like sardines and it is not uncommon for fist fights to break out among patrons grabbing for the same merchandise. I try to behave like

a gentleman in such instances, so when confronted by an old lady this morning, I applied only a loose headlock. My mistake, as she quickly took me down with a leg sweep that legendary Olympic champion Dan Gable would admire. I have always assumed only a mental defective would willingly wade into such a mess. I did it once a couple of decades ago and that should have provided a lifetime cure. But today I got suckered in like millions of others. I've been planning to pick up a second high def TV to put in my library and four or five stores offered

some great deals on name brand sets in their flyers. Though in my heart of hearts I knew none of them would have more than one of two TV's available at the advertised price for the 

thousands who would come clamoring for them, I reasoned that at least one of the stores would still have what they advertised if I got there before sunrise. Of course, none of them did and I merely subjected myself to a dozen futile bait and switch sales attempts from every electronics salesman in town!

After five stops and a couple of hours of wasted time I went home and did what I should have done in the first place - ordered a TV online. It will be delivered to my door - no fuss, no muss - and for a cost that is just a tad more than the come-on prices the local stores tout - "bargains" that virtually no one actually receives. Maybe I'll venture out to the brick 

and  mortar world on Black Friday in another couple of decades just to see if things have changed, but the retail game may well be over for them long before my next appointment rolls around. With gas over $3 a gallon and spare time a thing of the past, more and more people are concluding that shopping online is the only way to go and no event creates more converts than Black Friday. If you don't believe that, just ask me :-)
(Posted Nov. 23, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-23-07.htm

America celebrates one of its favorite holidays tomorrow - Thanksgiving Day. Over the years it has morphed into a four-day weekend for a lot of people, especially since Thanksgiving is now seen as the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Like most folks in the U.S. I'll be 

spending the day feasting with family and friends (and yes, observing another Thanksgiving tradition - watching some football on TV) so there won't be a Lowdown post Thursday. Before I take off for that welcome respite I wanted to put together a "cornucopia" post covering a variety of tidbits that came in while I was away for the 2007 GeoDomain Expo that concluded in San Francisco over the weekend (we'll have a wrap-up article on that conference posted no later than Monday).

Let's start with AOL's $350 million purchase of online advertising company Quigo.com last week. That one caught my eye because we talked about Quigo in our very first Cover Story in 2003 about Igal Lichtman's DomainSpa.com parking service - one of the first to add graphic elements to parking pages. Igal, who also holds a major league domain portfolio, was one of the early angel investors in Quigo and predicted back then that they would be a major success. He was certainly right about that and it is nice to see his bet pay off.

The Domain Development Corp. also announced a key hire last week, bringing Sean P. Moriarty in from Yahoo! to serve as the company's president. Moriarty was was in charge of managing Yahoo’s off-network domain monetization business. California-based DDC says it offers a comprehensive monetization and full-scale domain development service. Moriarty said, "I am excited to be back in a small company environment, working with an intelligent and passionate team that is nimble and focused on execution. Our mission is to enhance the experience of parked sites for visitors, owners and advertisers. In addition, we plan to continue to build on our comprehensive development efforts as we evolve suitable domain names into internet businesses.”

Sedo.com announced the results from its second .mobi "premium name" online auction November 7th, reporting that proceeds totaled $760,000. With bidders from 32 countries participating, the top sales included were taxi.mobi ($75,111), dating.mobi ($73,000), homes.mobi ($53,700), motels.mobi ($47,000), hotel.mobi ($46,000), date.mobi ($40,000) and adult.mobi ($30,000). Sedo’s third and final dotMobi auction will run November 28 through December 5. Details on that auction are available at Sedo.com/dotmobi. 

Oversee.net today announced that Internet visionary and best selling author John Battelle and world-class adventurer Peter Hillary (son of Sir Edmond Hillary) will be keynote speakers

at the second annual DOMAINfest™ Global conference January 21-23, 2008 at the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood, California. 

John Battelle is the author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture and is a co-founding editor of Wired Magazine. He is also a founder and Executive Producer of the Web 2.0 and Foursquare conferences. Most recently, Battelle founded and serves as CEO for Federated Media.

Peter Hillary has reached the summit of Mount Everest twice and has more than 25 years of experience in extreme risk environments. Carrying on his father’s spirit of adventure, he has completed 36 other mountaineering expeditions, was involved in the development of a new route across Antarctica to the South Pole, and was the first to have traversed the length of the Himalayas. 

In commenting on DOMAINfest’s keynote speakers, Lawrence Ng, CEO and Co-founder of Oversee.net said, “We want our publisher clients to have the best context for the search industry and there is no one better than John Battelle to provide that. When it comes to risk taking and the entrepreneurial spirit that defines our day-to-day accomplishments, only a Peter Hillary could give us that perspective. We are excited and honored to have both of them join us.” 

DOMAINfest will also feature Frank Schilling, one of the world’s most famous domainers, to host the conference's first Domainer Town Hall. In addition, two SnapNames Live™ auctions are scheduled for DOMAINfest Global. This will mark the debut of SnapNames Live™, a live auction system for premium

John Batelle

Peter Hillary

domains recently announced by SnapNames. Domain submissions are being accepted until December 11, 2007. To submit domains or sign up to participate in the auctions, visit SnapNames.com/Live. To register or to get more information about DOMAINfest Global visit DOMAINfest.com or e-mail info@domainfest.com. Hotel reservations can be booked at here. 
(Posted Nov. 20, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-20-07.htm

The 2007 GeoDomain Expo ended at the W Hotel in San Francisco Saturday afternoon with Moniker.com's live auction of geo domains. A total of 32 names were sold at an average cost of $14,232. Total sales came in at just under $480,000. That total will increase when final results are in from an accompanying silent auction that will continue through Nov. 28. The closing day of the Expo also featured three morning seminars. 

I'll have all of the conference highlights for you in an article we will publish later this week after we sift 

Moniker.com CEO Monte Cahn (left) and auctioneer Joel Langbaum run the live domain auction at the 2007 GeoDomain Expo Saturday (Nov. 17) in San Francisco

through our notes and dozens of photos from the event. We just got back to our Florida office this morning, ending a short bout of Web Withdrawal Syndrome. We were unable to post from the Expo before leaving San Francisco Sunday because the W Hotel lost its Internet access Saturday afternoon and it was still out when we left. You never know how much you rely on the web until you can't get online. 

A lot of other interesting domain news and information came in while I was away for the conference. I'll put together a "catch up" post highlighting those items within the next day or two. Right now I have about 500 emails to answer!
(Posted Nov. 19, 2007)

I'm traveling to San Francisco today so won't be able to make a detailed post. Headed for the 2007 GeoDomain Expo at the W Hotel where I will be giving the keynote address Friday 

afternoon. Moniker.com will also be running another one of their popular live auctions there Saturday afternoon. This will be my first trip to this event and I am really looking forward to meeting the guys and gals who hold some of the greatest geo domains on earth. I'll post from the conference as time allows and tell you more when I return. Hope to see some of you there!
(Posted Nov. 14, 2007)

On a much more positive note than our last couple of posts, The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers have announced that U.S. Internet advertising 

revenue rose 25% in the third quarter to about $5.2 billion. That represents yet another historic high for a quarter and a $1.1 billion increase over Q3 2006. The results are nearly 3% higher than Q2 2007, the last record-setting quarter. "The continued robust growth of the industry indicates that marketers increasingly understand and appreciate the benefits of interactive advertising," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy."

All three quarters in 2007 have set new highs—Q1 at $4.9 billion, Q2 at $5.1 billion, and now Q3 at $5.2 billon. Revenues for the first nine months of 2007 totaled $15.2 billion, up nearly 26% over the $12.1 billion recorded during the first nine months of 2006. Of course, the immediate question that comes to many domain owner's minds is "Where is our share of all of that increased revenue?" I wrote about this disconnect in our Nov. 5 post last week (scroll down to read).
(Posted Nov. 13, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-13-07b.htm

When it rain its pours. Following on the heels of his fall out with Moniker.com and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference co-founder Rick Schwartz (detailed in a post in this column yesterday), Name Intelligence Inc. CEO Jay Westerdal was hit with a new complaint today 

Jay Westerdal (left) and Stephen Douglas
teamed up to produce the 2007 Domain 
Roundtable conference last August in Seattle

filed by Stephen Douglas, the Executive Producer of Westerdal's 2007 Domain Roundtable conference. Douglas posted on his SuccessClick.com blog that he had filed a breach of contract suit against Westerdal. Douglas wrote "I want to make it clear to everyone who knows me, or who has met me, either through business or the Domain Roundtable Conference: I NO LONGER WORK FOR JAY WESTERDAL AND NAME INTELLIGENCE. I currently have a lawsuit filed against him for breach of contract and gross underpayment for my commission as accorded me by my contract. I do NOT SUPPORT JAY WESTERDAL or endorse ANY of his

posts regarding his judgments of other companies in this industry, many of who he looks at as competitors." 

Douglas further stirred the pot with a post at the DomainState.com forum this morning, saying "I was the executive producer of the Domain Roundtable Conference 2007 and had a five-year contract with Name Intelligence. However, I no longer have a relationship with Jay Westerdal and his company. This resulted from breaches of this contract by Jay and non-payment of my fair commission of revenue from designing, administrating and coordinating the event, and the outrageous padding by Jay of the expenses to produce the event which lessened my percentage of revenue after costs. I would like to state that I have no longer have any connection whatsoever with Jay or Name Intelligence, and do NOT endorse any of his outrageous comments and accusations towards Marchex, Enom, Moniker, Rick Schwartz, TRAFFIC, Snapnames, and other companies who Jay has felt the need to "judge", as if he has "clean hands."

Three major domain industry players got into a serious dust up Sunday that will likely reverberate for some time to come. It started when Jay Westerdal posted an item on his DomainTools.com blog calling into question the legitimacy of some .mobi sales at 

Details of the donnybrook are too lengthy to recount here but you can review what has been said on all sides through these links; Jay’s original post (since revised) that started the 

question was closed, but he took a video crew to the firm's building, stood in front of a door with attorney's names emblazoned on it and proceeded to tick off a list of crimes the people in that office were accused of. It wasn’t until after he aired the video that evening that he found out he had shot his on-location expose in front of the wrong attorney’s office! That did not go over well. He and the station apologized profusely on the air and somehow managed to avoid a law suit but my colleague was finished there.  

Whether this will have a long term impact on Westerdal and his many domain business interests remains to be seen. I personally think he will weather the storm because he is smart and will learn from this mistake, knows the industry inside out and wants to see it continue to flourish just as Cahn and Schwartz do. As the injured parties my sympathies in this instance lie primarily with the latter two men who have both done a Herculean job in helping build this industry into what it is today. However knowing how Westerdal must feel this morning I can’t help but feel a sense of regret on his behalf as well (that kind of mistake is a journalist's worst nightmare).

For many people who get their news from the Internet, bloggers like Westerdal  and Schwartz are starting to replace traditional media outlets. Since even trained journalists from the old school can make this kind of mistake, its not surprising that the new wave of untrained 

This business has undergone some dramatic changes over the past five years. When I came in it was mostly composed of a small, tight-knit group of individual entrepreneurs that just about all got along well. Competitors hung out together, shared drinks and stories and worked together to expand the industry for everyone’s benefit. Over the last couple of years, with far more money at stake and new win-at-all-cost players entering the space, I am seeing more flare ups between competitors. It is not a welcome change and, at this stage of the game, I don’t think it does anyone any good. Fortunately there is still more of what Cahn calls “coopetition” (competitors co-operating to advance the entire industry) in this business than corporate world knife-in-the-back tactics and I hope that philosophy remains in place for at least a little while longer. 
(Posted Nov. 12, 2007)  To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/2007/dailyposts/11-12-07.htm