Archive for the ‘Domainnamewire’ Category
XBoxOne.com, the matching domain for Microsoft’s new video game system, was originally registered more than 10 years ago.
Microsoft today unveiled its new XBox video game system called XBox One.
Microsoft does not own the domain name XBoxOne.com, which currently resolves to a GoDaddy “coming soon” page.
The domain name was registered in 2002 by Xbox Rodents and was used for a site called XBox1. It then expired in 2011 and was registered by someone in London. XBox Rodents also owned XBox1.com and let it expire in 2011 as well.
So the big question: how important is it that Microsoft owns the domain name?
The main web site for all generations of the XBox is XBox.com, so you could argue that XBoxOne.com isn’t that important. On the other hand, XBoxOne.com could be use by someone for nefarious purposes or to “hijack” the sales channel.
I suspect Microsoft will own the domain name soon. I just don’t know which approach they’ll take to acquiring the domain.
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If you comment on a post, it might affect the outcome of a patent application.
Whenever I post about a recently granted patent, comments inevitably turn to “that invention is nothing new” or “that’s a junk patent”.
I’m sure that at some point today there will be comments to that effect on my post about GoDaddy getting two appraisals for domain appraisals.
When an inventor applies for a patent, they make a bunch of claims. Some of these claims will surely be thrown out during the process, but it’s a starting point. The patent examiner pushes back and challenges some of the claims. What you often see published was not what the inventor originally submitted.
That’s where you come in.
Your comments on blog posts, your forum posts, your articles — they are often considered by patent examiners and shape the final form of a patent.
Consider the two GoDaddy patents I wrote about earlier today.
The patent examiner pushed back on some of the claims and cited Domain Name Wire (pdf) in doing so.
Alas, it was not my superior domain intelligence and knowledge that caught the eye of the examiner. Instead, it was a single comment that Stephen Douglas posted on my 2009 article “Why the Live Domain Auction Bombed (and Why I’m Not Surprised)”. Douglas commented about parts of speech and the value of domain names.
Remember Chef Patrick? He’s long gone from the domain name industry, but his 2008 post “What Makes A Premium Domain Name” was cited by the examiner. The patent examiner also referred to the Estibot.com user guide.
Your opinion carries weight and can even determine the outcome of a patent application. That’s pretty cool.
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Paul Nicks’ inventions related to name spinning and appraisals get patent protection.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today issued two patents to GoDaddy related to name spinning and appraisal.
U.S. Patent number 8,447,701 is titled “Appraising domain names using comparative data” and 8,447,702 (pdf) is “Domain appraisal algorithm”.
The patents have lots of overlapping material. They cover name spinning to create permutations of domain names as well as multiple aspects of automatically generating a domain name appraisal.
Here’s a summary of some of the aspects of domain valuation that the patent describes:
The appraisal may be accomplished by breaking the valuation of the domain into five logical groupings, possibly including evaluation of “5 P’s” related to the domain name. Evaluation of “precision” may include the number of distinct keywords found, the length of the name and the number of keywords found in the dictionary. Evaluation of “popularity” may include various search engine search result metrics and tracking of words searched per month. Evaluation of “presence” may include the age of the domain, and the rank of the web site according to web ranking services or software. Evaluation of “pattern” may include the number of premium characters, the part of speech (such as noun, plural noun, verb, adjective, etc., possibly considering if the domain is a one word domain), the relationship of vowels and consonants etc. (possibly considering if the domain is a 4-5 character word). Evaluation of Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, may include the maximum number of pay-per-click bids from various advertising tracking services or software, and the number of ads returned within search engine searches. A dynamic multiplier based on registration statistics for each of several top level domains (TLDs) may then be applied to the domain evaluation. This multiplier may be used to give a very accurate measure of domain scarcity to let a user or evaluator know how rare a domain name is.
Paul Nicks, Director of Product Development GoDaddy.com’s Aftermarket, is listed as inventor on both patents.
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Help pick the next logo for Domain Name Wire.
Click the image to see the full size version.
I ran a logo contest on 99Designs and now need to select which logos go on to the final round.
I’ve learned a lot with this logo contest, and I’ll share some of my insight later.
But for now, I’d like your help. Please take a moment to look at these 13 logo designs and let me know which ones you like best (or hate the most).
“They all suck” isn’t quite as helpful, but I’ll take all feedback.
Keep in mind that I’m in the process of redesigning Domain Name Wire, so you don’t need to worry about how well the logos fit with the current color scheme. Also, if you really like a logo but not one small thing about it, I can still get it tweaked.
Thanks.
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ETM.com sees early bidding action, but Bargain.com is the headline domain.
ETM.com has attracted three bidders and 12 bids at the Hilco Streambank auction that ends tomorrow. As of now the domain has been bid up to $15,058.
So far the more expensive domain names haven’t received any bids, but I’d expect interested parties to wait until closer to the end of the auction on Wednesday.
The best name in the auction is Bargain.com, which is being sold along with the typo Bargin.com. The minimum bid is $166,000 with no reserve.
The domain has been offered previously by Sedo and Moniker, but with a much higher price tag. Its reserve in a Moniker auction last year was over $750,000.
At $166,000, it’s possible that a buyer will think Bargain.com is a bargain.
The package of domain names from bankrupt electronics company Tweeter, including Tweeter.com and TWTR.com, has an opening bid of $150,000.
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Article on Forbes.com about domain names and startups is worth bookmarking to refer potential domain buyers to as a reference.
David Teten, a partner with ff Venture Capital, has published the second part of a story on Forbes.com about startups and domain names.
It’s a good primer on how companies can get creative when acquiring domain names.
It explains how one of ff Venture Capital’s portfolio companies, Plated, worked out a lease with an option to buy Plated.com:
Buying a domain name is like buying real estate – capital-intensive and risky. The last thing a startup needs is MORE risk. That’s why our portfolio company Plated.com decided to structure a lease option – they offered the prior owner a small monthly lease fee for 1 year, with an option to buy at the end of the year. This way, if the business was thriving and Plated had managed to attract capital, they’d be able to purchase the domain outright. If not, the current owner would earn a healthy rent for his (as of then unused) domain and would still retain ownership.
Plated ended up exercising the option to buy the domain.
Teten also discusses the option to give equity as part of payment for a domain name.
The article extensively quotes domain investor Braden Pollock and refers to a number of well known domain brokers.
This is a good article to send to a startup that reaches out to you about a domain name but balks at the price.
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Company suggests ICANN is only posting letters that “will advance its positions”.
Verisign has sent a letter to ICANN questioning why it isn’t publishing certain correspondence on the ICANN.org web site.
ICANN has a section on its web site where it publishes many letters it receives and sends.
But Verisign says ICANN hasn’t published three prior letters the company sent regarding the proposed new domain registry agreement. The company says it is aware of other letters sent to ICANN regarding the registry contract that have not been published.
Verisign’s latest letter has been “published” because the company submitted it to the comment board about the contract.
The new letter includes three previous letters the company sent to Verisign’s general counsel dated February 20, February 15, and January 30. Verisign did not receive a response to the letters, nor were they published.
The February 20th letter criticizes ICANN for what it says is a lack of transparency and selective disclosure of correspondence related to the new TLD program. Verisign points out that ICANN published the Verisigns’s January 8 letter declining to participate in ICANN’s contractual compliance audit (which was negative for Verisign) but hasn’t published Verisign’s recent letters about the registry agreement.
“Because ICANN has published no criteria on how it decides to make letters public, we are left to conclude that ICANN posts only those letters it believes will advance its positions and withholds those thought to be critical,” the company wrote.
A quick look at the correspondence page shows that ICANN does publish critical letters, but it’s also true that none of Verisign’s letters included in the post have been published.
I have reached out to ICANN for clarification on what its rules are (if any) for publishing correspondence on its web site.
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One letter Isle of Man domain may sell for $20,000 at Sedo.
The domain name K.im has a $20,000 offer at Sedo, and an “auction” for the domain name ends tomorrow.
.IM is the country code top level domain for Isle of Man.
According to DNSalePrice, a handful of .im domain names have sold over the years, with the top reported sale being Mobile.im for $7,000 back in 2008. If that’s the case, then this would be the largest public .im sale of all time.
That assumes it goes through. The current bidder had to complete “Premium Certification” in order to bid, which means sending in a bank statement or utility bill from within the last 60 days and a
government issued photo ID (passport, drivers license, etc). So it’s likely the bidder is legit, although sometimes accidental bids are placed.
Who would want to buy k.im? Perhaps a wealthy person or celebrity, such as Mega founder Kim Dotcom. Or maybe Kim Kardashian learned a thing or two about domain names at Webfest?
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A mobile friendly website for restaurants that doesn’t have any of my pet peeves.
On Friday I received a press release from GoDaddy about how its website builder had new functionality and specific templates for restaurants.
It was Friday afternoon and I generally don’t care much about small business website builders. The combination of these two led me to click the “delete” button. But then I quickly hit “undo”.
Wait? Did that say specialized websites for restaurants? Did it also mention mobile?
You see, one thing that annoys me to no end is restaurant websites. As a whole, they are horrible.
The key problem is that they aren’t design for mobile. Yet restaurant websites are the one category I primarily browse from a mobile device. You know the experience — you’re out somewhere, want to get something to eat, and start looking for something online. Or you know where you want to eat but would like to call ahead to get your name on the waitlist.
So you search for the restaurant’s website. It comes up.
Then you try to click the phone number on the site to call the restaurant and it doesn’t work. You tap your finger several times before you realize they made the phone number a graphic rather than text, so the phone doesn’t recognize that it’s a phone number. You then have to remember the number, switch to your dialer, and type it in.
Or you find an interesting restaurant in the area and want to see the menu. You click the menu link…and it’s a PDF.
Yes, a PDF. I’d bet 9 our of 10 restaurants have a pdf for their online menu. That’s very annoying when you’re on a mobile device.
OK, now back to the GoDaddy product. I figured I’d check it out and see if it “solved” the problem of restaurant web pages.
The example GoDaddy provided in its press release is Malee’s Thai Bistro in Scottsdale. I visited the site from my Droid, and the screenshot in this post is what I saw.
It was darn near perfect. A button to call. A button to pull up the map. A button to view the menu…and it’s not a PDF. (The menu’s are actually managed by a third party service that let’s restaurants update them easily.)
The site was mobile optimized. A quick scroll and you can see the hours.
The only thing missing was a link to OpenTable to make a reservation, although I don’t know if Malee’s uses OpenTable.
I’m not going to opine on the desktop version. But from a mobile standpoint, I love it.
I’m sure there are other good website builders for restaurants. In fact, if you search for Malee’s you’ll find a website that I assume is an older one they created with another company. It’s not bad, either.
Regardless of which builder a restaurant uses, I wish more would get on the bandwagon.
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Subdomains are great, but beware the typos.
Want to calculate the “full value of mobile” for your business? Google has a microsite at FVM.withgoogle.com. It also protected itself by registering FVMwithgoogle.com.
Have you ever come across a Google information page that’s a subdomain of WithGoogle.com?
If you just go to Withgoogle.com you’ll be forwarded to Google.com. But type in certain third level domains, often referred to as subdomains, of WithGoogle.com and you’ll find specialized product pages.
brasilfreewifi.withgoogle.com shows you how to get free Google Wifi in Brazil.
globalimpactchallenge.withgoogle.com is the site for the company’s recently announced Global Impact Challenge for UK non-profits.
getinstantbuy.withgoogle.com let’s you fill out a form to learn more about about Google Wallet Instant Buy.
It’s quick and easy for Google to set up these subdomain sites. But we all know that people often forget the dot in a subdomain, and apparently Google is aware of this.
It just registered a number of second level .com domains that are equivalent to these third level domains minus the dot that separates the second and third level:
creatoracademywithgoogle.com
eventswithgoogle.com
fvmwithgoogle.com
getinstantbuywithgoogle.com
globalimpactchallengewithgoogle.com
mappingwithgoogle.com
onetodaywithgoogle.com
tourbuilderwithgoogle.com
It seems that a number of these are related to recent product announcements. It registered second level domains for “older” product pages previously. For example, it registered brasilfreewifiwithgoogle.com last year.
Now if Google would just forward these to their respective websites.
Companies that have a number of subdomains should take note.
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