eNom Helps Industry Pioneer Warren Weitzman Regain All of the Domain Names Stolen From His Account Last Month

Last month we told you about a major domain hijacking incident  in which more than a dozen names were stolen from industry pioneer Warren Weitzman's account at eNom. At the time Weitzman said he thought there might have been a security breach as high as the registry level at Verisign - but the cause turned out to be the same one that is the culprit in most such 

incidents. "Using a weak password and user name appear to be the blame," Weitzman told us after eNom succeeded in recovering all of the names the thief had transferred out to other registrars after gaining access to Weitzman's account.

Weitzman said, "eNom security is as stable as it always was and I will continue to use their services. There was no evidence of an insider hack at eNom or leak. All in all, the hijacking was more a matter of a weak password and some clever work by a thief with lots of time on his 
hands.  Once DN Journal’s article was published executives at eNom jumped in, support was there and it appeared that as word got out, all of the receiving registrars cooperated with eNom towards the domain’s safe return."

Weitzman added, "The domain community came directly 

Warren Weitzman

to me in support and offered assistance from around the world. I never realized how connected we all were and am extremely grateful for all the aid and advice from everyone. To all my domainer friends out there and my attorney Stevan Lieberman, THANK YOU for your help and support."

Based on his harrowing experience Lieberman also wanted to pass on one critically important piece of advice. "Don’t forget to change your passwords frequently and avoid using the same password at more than one registrar or website,” Weitzman said.

Big Week for DevHub as They Celebrate a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Award Nomination, New Partnerships With Meebo & Priceline and Passing 1 Million Visitors on Their Network

DevHub, who is one of only two companies that were nominated this week for a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Award for "Best New Monetizing Solution," tells us they reached a couple of special milestones this month (the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Award winners will be announced at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C New York conference coming up October 26-29. Trellian's Above.com was also nominated in this category). DevHub was also one of the five companies we profiled in our March 2009 Cover Story called "The Next Big Thing in Domain Monetization?: New Companies Are  Making the Dream of Affordable Mass Development a Reality". 

Company co-founder Mark Michael told us the company reached profitability August 8 and hit a new high water mark for traffic with over 1.1 million visitors across their network. "Within six months of launching, we have struck a number of exclusive partnerships and integrated a slew of monetization tools including: job listings, local business listings, property listings, all 8 of the major affiliate product networks and premium text ads," Michael said. 

On Wednesday the company launched their most recent partnership with Meebo which enables site creators on the DevHub platform to 

Mark Michael
DevHub Co-Founder and Senior VP

instantly drag-and-drop chat functionality on their sites. The same day they also launched a partnership with Priceline enabling travel-related sites created on DevHub to easily incorporate hotel, airline and car rental offers.  

Michael said more new features will be coming in the next few weeks including their DevHub Community. "It will enable ‘DevHeads,’ to communicate and share tips with one another," Michael said. "We designed DevHub to be a dynamic platform so that as our publishers demand more we have a platform they can scale with."

Michael added, "As opposed to site building tools for a community, a small business, or vanity-personal website (already addressed by the likes of a Weebly or Yola), the DevHub platform is optimized for publishers who want to create sites that attract commercial intent-based users.  These type of users are much more valuable than the casual Internet surfer as they are looking for information on or are ready to purchase a service or product, resulting in a higher likelihood of revenue-generation activity (think revenue per user difference between Facebook versus Google)."

The First Domain Name Ever Registered (In 1985) Changes Hands For the First Time With XF.com Investments Acquiring the Historic Domain

Symbolics.com, the first domain name ever registered, has changed hands for the first time since its original registration on March 15, 1985.  Missouri-based XF.com Investments purchased the historic Internet address from the Symbolics company for an undisclosed price.  Symbolics sold the domain even though the company is still in operation nearly 25 years after they made history by registering the name. Since that initial .com registration a quarter of a century ago 180 million domains names have been registered. 

Aron Meystedt, the 29-year-old CEO of XF.com Investments, said "We are extremely excited to own the Symbolics.com domain name. Since our core business is Internet investments, we really pursued the purchase of the original domain name, Symbolics.com.  For us to own the first domain is very special to our company, and we feel blessed for having the ability to obtain this unique property.”

Meystedt said XF.com has plans for the domain name, and are creating something special for the 25th anniversary of this URL.  “On March 15, 2010, Symbolics.com will celebrate its 25th year,” Meystedt noted.  “This is a special milestone for all of us. The Internet has changed the face of business and entertainment, and to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the domain that started it all is very special.”

Aron Meystedt
CEO, XF.com Investments

Original Symbolic Logo

XF's new Symbolics.com logo

The original Symbolics company pioneered computer development.  Symbolics designed and manufactured a line of Lisp machines, single-user computers optimized to run the Lisp  programming language. The Lisp Machine was the first commercially available "workstation" (although that word had not yet been coined).  Symbolics also made significant advances in software technology, and offered one of the premier software development environments of the 1980s and 1990s.

XF.com is a real estate and domain investment company that owns many premium web properties including iBlog.com, HY.com, March.com, Copies.com, TrafficEstimate.com and ImageSharing.com. 

As a historical note - the first domain name ever created (as opposed to registered) was Nordu.net, a name that was created by the registry on opening day (Jan. 1, 1985) for use as the first ever root server (nic.nordu.net). While it was was technically the first domain name in the current domain name system it was created for a special purpose before domains were allowed to be registered. Once that process was put in place, Symbolics.com was the first name taken. 

Rumble in the Domain Jungle - 2010 Conference Schedule To Kick Off With Three Major Shows In a Span of Less Than Four Weeks

Hot on the heels of Parked.com's announcement  yesterday that their Domainer Mardi Gras conference will return to New Orleans February 11-13, 2010 came word today that 

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is going back to Las Vegas (after a one year absence) for a big show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino January 21-23. Last month Oversee became the first to declare their 2010 intentions when they announced their popular DOMAINfest Global event in Los Angeles would move across town from Hollywood to the Santa Monica waterfront for a conference running January 26-28. 

Math has never been my strong suit, but I'm pretty sure that adds up to 3 big shows packed into a stretch of just 23 days! When the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. news came out today, assuring a conference battle royale to start the New Year, one our readers (referring to all of the show promoters) dropped us a note listing the three sets of adjacent dates and asked "are these guys nuts!?" 

No, they are not nuts but they are all pretty darn competitive and you know who wins when companies compete for your business - you do. You are going to have more options than ever in 2010, so check out what these events have to offer and pick one (or more) that look the most attractive to you and attend (I'll be at all three). Each of these shows will pull out all of the stops to make you happy and create the word of mouth buzz that keeps people coming back to their events.

Top Level Domain Holdings Merges With Minds + Machines: Combined Entity Plans to Acquire and Operate New ICANN Top-Level Domains

Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd. (AIM: TLDH.L) today announced that it has completed a merger with Minds + Machines, a leading registry services provider for top-level domains. TLDH previously owned a significant minority share in Minds + Machines. The merger follows TLDH’s announcement that it has raised 2.5M pounds (approximately $4.1 million) in a private placement. 

TLDH is the only public company focused exclusively on acquiring and operating the new top-level domains authorized by ICANN which has announced its intention to allow any qualified organization or business to create its own web address - though at a very stiff price (well into six figures per domain). ICANN plans to start rolling out the new TLDs early next year.

TLDH said it now has roughly $7 million on hand to invest in new top-level domains, and as a reserve fund for eventual auctions at ICANN in the event of competing applications. 

Fred Krueger, Chairman of TLDH, said “Bringing Minds + Machines and TLDH under the same ownership makes total sense for our companies and  

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for our shareholders. We were extremely pleased with our previous investment in Minds + Machines and we are delighted now to take the next step. With Minds + Machines backing our portfolio investments in new top-level domains with world-class registry services, we are extremely cost-efficient and scalable.”

Antony Van Couvering, CEO of Minds + Machines, said, “This merger is a natural evolution. Minds + Machines and TLDH have grown up together, and joining up fully was the logical next step. With TLDH as our investment arm, and Minds + Machines providing the operational capabilities, we are extremely well positioned to participate in the new top-level domains.”

TLDH is already a major investor in several high-profile new applications for web addresses, all of which will be contracting with Minds + Machines for registry services. They include:

• .ECO backed by former Vice President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection, which if approved will devote a majority of profits to fighting climate change. 

• .NYC backed by former Mayor Ed Koch, which if approved will return a substantial portion of profits to New York City. www.dotnyc.net.

Richard Gabriel Sells DropShippers.com for $1.5 Million - His Second 7-Figure Sale in Five Months

Richard Gabriel has just closed the $1.5 million sale  of DropShippers.com to Tom Hashem of Scranton, Pennyslvania. You may recall that Gabriel is the man who sold Auction.com to

REDC for $1.7 million in March, so he has now racked up $3.2 million in just two transactions over the past five months. 

Gabriel said that Hashem was originally planning 

to buy a different name but the seller backed out before that deal was closed so he decided to go after the category killing name that Gabriel held. Gabriel has been running his own ecommerce software on the domain in recent years. He said Hashem bought the name only but Gabriel also gave Hashem the software because Gabriel will have no use for it after signing a 10-year non-compete agreement as part of the deal.

(Update Sept. 2, 2009) - For those wondering why this sale does not appear on our 2009 Year-To-Date Top 100 Sales Chart, the inclusion of a software platform in this transaction made it more than a domain only sale (a requirement to be charted). Also, $500,000 of the $1.5 million purchase price was financed and will be paid off over 10 years. Until the full amount has been received it can't be ranked on a chart as a completed sale at $1.5 million (according to the sales contract, $1 million was paid upfront). More details on this transaction are in the weekly sales report we published Sept. 2, 2009.

ICANN Gives .Pro Green Light to Offer 1, 2 and 3-Character Domains and .Mobi Launches a New "Resource Center" Website

RegistryPro, the operator of the .pro TLD,  says it has reached an agreement with ICANN that will allow them to release and allocate of one, two and three-character domain names

starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The registry said availability of names like i.pro, pr.pro and 777.pro is expected to generate significant interest from registrants. The extension could certainly use a boost as it has struggled to find an audience since it was introduced in 2005. 

Catherine Sigmar, the general manager of RegistryPro, said “We’re excited to make these unique .PRO domains available to business and service professionals worldwide. We’ve received over 4,000 emails about 1, 2 and 3-character .PRO names. This contract amendment allows RegistryPro to answer this tremendous demand in the coming months.”

Domains with fewer than four characters have been available in other gTLDs for several years. No information has been released yet on how the new one to three character domains will be allocated. The registry said details will be made public soon. A complete list of .pro registrars is available at http://registry.pro/professionals/find.shtml. 

The AfternicDLS Expands Its Global Aftermarket Network & RickLatona.com Releases the Initial Catalog for an Online Domain Auction That Starts Friday

The AfternicDLS continues to expand  its global distribution network. Today parent company NameMedia announced it has formed a strategic partnership with www.freshdrop.net to 

provide premium domains for purchase through FreshDrop’s Domain Marketplace. Domains owned by sellers who choose the Expanded or Premium Promotion levels at the AfternicDLS will now be available for sale at FreshDrop (along with the many other sites the AfternicDLS has partnered with). Domains from NameMedia's BuyDomains platform are also accessible from FreshDrop.net now.

Visitors to the FreshDrop homepage can search NameMedia’s inventory of more than two million domains by clicking dedicated tabs for NameMedia's BuyDomains and the AfternicDLS. Pete Lamson, senior 

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vice-president and general manager of NameMedia’s domain marketplace, said "NameMedia is pleased to partner with FreshDrop. FreshDrop’s innovative approach to domain sales further benefits AfternicDLS members looking to sell names, as well as benefiting FreshDrop’s customer base through expanded quality inventory.” 

Marriages Made in Heaven? Industry Exec Craig Snyder Exchanges Vows With Oversee.net While Real Wedding Bells Ring for IDN Investor Dave Wrixon

While I was away on vacation last week  the domain business, as it always does, marched on with a variety of news items and events. In the next couple of Lowdown posts I'll put that information on the record. I always try to put people first, so I'll start with those items, then tomorrow we'll recap some events and company news from the past week.  

In a key addition to the management team at Oversee.net® (the parent company of DomainSponsor.com, Moniker.com and SnapNames.com), Craig Snyder came on board as the General Manager of Oversee's Registrar and Aftermarket division. Snyder is now responsible for management and growth of the SnapNames and Moniker businesses. He will work closely with Monte Cahn whose duties remain unchanged (Monte also has responsibilities at DomainSponsor).  

Snyder comes to Oversee after three years as CEO of Internet REIT, where he successfully rebuilt the company's senior management ranks and closed a $30 million round of equity financing.  Prior to Internet REIT, he was Executive Vice President of Marchex, where he led its Enhance Interactive, goClick and TrafficLeader business units.  

Craig Snyder
General Manager
Registrar & Aftermarket Divisions
Oversee.net

Snyder will report to Peter Celeste, Oversee’s Senior Vice President for Domain Services, who said "Craig has the right blend of experience and knowledge to assume leadership of SnapNames and Moniker. Not only does he understand the industry deeply, he has extensive experience in managing multiple lines of business.  Craig is a very strong fit for this role."

Snyder is excited about his new assignment. He said, "SnapNames and Moniker are two of the most trusted names in the industry. The division's technology, sales, marketing and operations teams are outstanding, and I'm looking forward to helping the businesses grow and extend the ir client bases." 

My Supernatural Vacation: A Remote Beach, A Victorian Mansion & A Ghostly Encounter

Diana and I are back from a vacation trip  to St. George Island, a pristine barrier island that sits between the Gulf of Mexico and Apalachicola Bay in the Florida Panhandle. As you can see in the photos below, the first morning we hit the secluded 9-mile long beach (that has been permanently  preserved as a state park), there wasn't another person within sight. This remote stretch of the Florida coastline is known as the Forgotten Coast because it is far removed from the state's population centers and the major highway systems. 

St. George Island, Florida. Above and below: Diana catches some sun while I snap photos.

We have some very nice beaches where we live in the Tampa Bay area but almost all of those have condominium towers as a backdrop rather than the unspoiled sand dunes you see at St. George Island. Though we have lived in Florida since 1972, this was our first visit to the isolated area. We had to be in the state capital, Tallahassee, on Friday for our daughter Brittany's "white coat" ceremony at the Florida State University College of Medicine where she just finished her first semester. So, we decided to turn the trip into a summer break by visiting the island and historic Apalachicola for a few days before moving on to Tallahassee which sits about 80 miles inland from St. George Island.

Diana catches up on some reading in the Coombs Suite at the Coombs House Inn.

The final night of our stay in the Coombs suite yielded an unexpected "ghost story." For Diana and I, this trip was also part of a 25th wedding anniversary tour of Florida bed and breakfasts (I wrote about one of our other stops in Mount Dora last month). Thursday evening we picked up a bottle of champagne and enjoyed it while sitting on the rear porch at the Coombs Inn. While we were talking, I picked up an article about the Coombs family and read that James and his wife were buried in the centuries old Chestnut Street Cemetery, located immediately across the street from the house.

In the middle of the night I immediately woke up when I heard the sound of a water bottle hitting the floor next to the bed. I knew I had left a plastic bottle of spring water sitting on a compact refrigerator that sat on the floor about three feet from my side of the bed. At first I thought Diana must have gotten up and accidentally knocked it over but I glanced across the bed and saw she was still sound asleep. Then, with faint moonlight through the window barely illuminating the room, I looked back toward the refrigerator where I could make out the outline of the bottle still in the place I had left it sitting at room temperature when I went to bed. I slipped out of bed and picked up the bottle. The hair on my arms immediately stood straight up because, not only was the bottle that I heard hit the floor still standing where I left it, the bottle and water was now ice cold!  

On Friday morning we made the 90-minute drive north to Tallahassee where the first year med school students who had just completed their first terms were welcomed to the medical profession in a white coat ceremony that night. This is a ritual that I understand is now performed at 90% of U.S. medical schools.

On Saturday we all headed back home to Tampa. Brittany has just a one-week break before going back for the fall term, but it beats the one day she had between graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in May and arriving in Tallahassee to start med school. This week is her first real respite from studying since spring break last March. She has been using it to go the beach, the movies (District 9) and to get in a little tennis.

After a refreshing break, I'm ready to dive back into the domain business. Now that I've brought you up to speed on where I disappeared to over the past week, I'll begin assembling some comments and photos from industry news and events that occurred while I was away. That information will be posted in this column over the next couple of days. 

To bring everyone up to date on recently reported domain sales I will also be producing a double length report for publication on our Domain Sales page Wednesday afternoon. That will cover every sale reported to us since our last sales column August 5th.

Above: An FSU College of Medicine faculty member helps Brittany Jackson (far left) put on her white coat for the first time while other students wait for their turn. 

Below: Brittany (a semester closer to her M.D. degree and fulfilling her dream of becoming a pediatrician), after the white coat ceremony Friday night.

Sedo Says Despite Recession Demand for Premium Generic Domain Names Remained Strong in the Second Quarter of 2009   

Sedo has issued a detailed report breaking down domain sales at the popular aftermarket site for the recently completed 2nd quarter of 2009. The company said they booked $15.6 million in sales from 9,403 transactions over that 90-day period. 

.Coms accounted for 76% of all sales at Sedo, but the report said the average sales price for .com domains dipped a bit, while average prices for .nets and ccTLDS rose. The average sales price regardless of extension was $1,467. 

The average price for .com sales dropped $759 from 

Q1-2009, falling from $2,527 to $1,768. In an unusual anomaly, the .nets, at $1,775, wound up with a higher average sales price than the .coms. That is up from a $1,307 average in 1Q-2009 and .nets' share of all sales at Sedo also rose from 7% to 11% in the latest quarter. 

Germany's popular .de continued to dominate the country code action at Sedo (who is based in Germany), accounting for 60% of all ccTLD sales there. Great Britain's .co.uk was a distant second at 13%. However, the co.uk extension saw its average sale price soar from $1,444 to $2,556, far above the average price for all ccTLDs which was $1,503. .de on the other hand saw its average sales price slip from $1,175 to $897.

There will be a lot of stuff going on online as well. The monthly Moniker/SnapNames Showcase Auction runs tomorrow through Thursday (August 11-13) with several dozen no and low reserve domains highlighting the catalog. 

The preceding activities are just the week's scheduled events. A week in this business never goes by without a few surprises so I'm sure we'll have some of those to talk about next week too. In the meantime I'm going to do my best to try and concentrate on sun, sand and seafood at St. George Island. Of course I'm only human and the new surroundings could prompt a few ideas for domain registrations, but Diana has already warned me that had better be it as far as business goes!