Before the 2011 Super Bowl Godaddy had been making a big push in the aftermarket with their premium listings. Unfortunately, for various reasons Godaddy did not include their Premium Listings in search results during the 2011 Super Bowl ad drive.   This meant that a user that was driven to the Godaddy site from the Super Bowl ad would not be able to see any of the Premium Listings in their search results, even for the exact-match domain.  Normally with a Premium Listing, an exact-match search for that domain displays the domain name as for sale and the price (see image at bottom)

DNN talked with Paul Nicks, head of Godaddy’s aftermarket, during the recent DomainFest in Santa Monica.  Nicks confirmed with us that the technical issues that prevented these aftermarket domain names from being listed last year had been addressed and that they are prepared for that traffic surge.

It’s exciting to think that the exposure Godaddy receives from their Super Bowl ads could actually lead to an individual making a sale through the aftermarket. If you like the possibilities of being able to say “I sold my domain during the Super Bowl”, you’ve got about 24 hours to put your listings in to the Premium Listings before tomorrow’s big game.

(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (5)

Courtesy of Brian Beckham from the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in Geneva, here are a few important links with information that may be helpful for rights holders with ICANN's New gTLD program now launched and accepting applications:

• First, is a helpful FAQ that explains plainly the Legal Rights objection process. It's important that rights owners are very familiar with this process and are ready to respond if in the unlikely but potentially problematic situation that another entity applies for a gTLD that includes their intellectual property.

• Next, comes a summary explanation of the post gTLD delegation (beginning late 2012 or early 2013) rights protection mechanisms included in the program and provided for the defense of intellectual property rights.

• Lastly, WIPO has provided a set of links to analysis and other resources about the New gTLD dispute resolutions mechanisms.

With the May First "reveal date" — the day that ICANN will announce all of the applicants and the strings that have been applied for — approaching quickly, rights owners should be ready to respond. Reading the first article is a great place to start. Thanks to WIPO for sharing these links and this information.

Written by Frederick Felman, Chief Marketing Officer at MarkMonitor

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More under: Domain Names, ICANN, Top-Level Domains

2011 was an interesting year for IPv4: in February 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) handed out their last free IPv4 address blocks to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

In April 2011, the APNIC (the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific region) started allocating from its last /8. At the RIPE NCC we did not see a big jump in IPv4 address allocations in 2011, as anticipated by some observers.

The image below shows the total amount of IPv4 address space allocated each year (calculated as /16s on the y axis). You can see that in 2011 there was a drop in the amount of IPv4 address space from the previous year, bringing it down to the level of 2008 and 2009. There was no big run on the remaining IPv4 addresses.

Note that this does not correspond with the number of requests. Especially the number of requests for /21s increased in 2011 (you can find more on this in the background article on RIPE Labs).

IPv4 is certainly running out, but there is no great rush for the last addresses as feared by some. It was all pretty much "business as usual". As we've said in the past, predicting exactly when the RIPE NCC will run out of IPv4 address space is difficult. We cannot anticipate the size of requests we'll receive.

For more information and more statistics, please refer to IPv4 Allocation Statistics in 2011 on RIPE Labs.

Written by Daniel Karrenberg, Chief Scientist at the RIPE NCC

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More under: IP Addressing, Regional Registries

Peter Vergote has been elected chair of CENTR.

Mr Vergote works in the legal and policy team with the .be registry.

The election took place at the organisation’s meeting earlier today in Salzburg.

The previous chair was Mathieu Wiell, AFNIC’s CEO.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Peter Vergote New Chair of CENTR is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

As first reported by DNN, Keydrive bough Monikter and Snapnames from Oversee.net. The official Press Release was published today and can be found after the jump.

KeyDrive S.A. Acquires Moniker and SnapNames from Oversee.net

Luxembourg and Los Angeles, Calif. (February 1, 2012). KeyDrive S.A., an internet solutions holding company with subsidiaries providing domain registration, monetization and aftermarket services, announced today that it has acquired the Moniker and SnapNames business units of Oversee.net, a leader in online performance marketing.

Moniker® and SnapNames® offer businesses and individuals an array of services for domain name registration, acquisition, brokerage and sales. Moniker introduced the live domain name auction concept. SnapNames operates the largest online auction of expired and deleting domain names, giving its customers access to valuable names.

“The purchase of these two leaders in the domain aftermarket perfectly fits our global growth strategy”, said Alexander Siffrin, Chairman of the KeyDrive S.A., and CEO and founder of Key-Systems®. “We now have the opportunity to extend our global outreach, target a broader customer base and cross-sell our services. Furthermore, our European clients will gain access to US buyers and sellers of domain names. We’re delighted to welcome the Moniker and SnapNames teams to KeyDrive S.A.”

“The sale of these assets allows us to focus more on our core monetization and vertical markets divisions which are the fundamental building blocks of our global performance marketing network,” noted Debra Domeyer, Co-CEO of Oversee. “As the domain industry landscape changes, it is essential that we invest in new technologies that leverage our existing platform and unlock the potential of domain traffic. Our focus is on developing new monetization alternatives for both publishers and advertisers. We also want to thank Craig Snyder and the Moniker and SnapNames teams for their years of dedicated service. ”

Oversee was advised in the sale process by Petsky Prunier LLC.

(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (4)

Last week we hosted an event loftily titled “The Future of the Mobile Web” at the Dublin Convention Centre.

We had a small but heavy-hitting guest list in the shape of the Riegers from Yiibu @stephanierieger, @ bryanrieger, Jason Grigsby @grigs and Lyza Danger @lyzadanger from Cloud Four, Nokia’s Andrea Trasatti @andreatrasatti, Dave Evans from Amobee, Ernesto Jimenez from Vodafone @ernesto_jimenez and Adobe’s Roger Wood @rogerjwoods.

The genesis of the event was admittedly self-serving – we spend far too much of our time debating the finer points of mobile web in here and felt there was a lot of noise in the debate that we wanted to cut through with the help of a broader, expert forum. But we also had a nobler motive: we wanted to see if we could establish some common ground/consensus on things like HTML 5.0, web versus native apps, responsive design, standards, fragmentation, the long tail of devices that are in use out there and other issues.

We managed to cover this and more in a frenzied day and half at the Dublin Convention Centre last week. I think we made good progress. There was plenty of common ground but there were certainly more nuances than at least I would was expecting.  Bottom line? This stuff is not easy. It’s a complex landscape not just for developers but also for those whose job it is to formulate strategy. But we think we made some inroads into sorting out the myths from the realities and have enough to go on to provide some idea of the direction of travel. We are planning to get all these topics down and documented in a whitepaper that we will publish openly soon. So watch out for that. In the meantime, our sincere thanks to all the above who attended (and tweetstreaming on#fomw) the event last week and I look forward to next time.

ICANN’s Address Supporting Organization has kicked off an election for one of its two official representatives on the ICANN board of directors.

Director Ray Plzak sees his three-year term come to an end in June. He’s standing for reelection, but has competition from three other candidates.

The ASO represents the oft-overlooked IP address side of the ICANN house. Its members belong to the five Regional Internet Registries that are responsible for doling out IP space.

In this election, all four candidates are from ARIN, the North American RIR community: Plzak, Eric Brunner-Williams, Martin Levy and William Manning.

The winner will be selected by the ASO’s ruling Address Council in May. Until April 19, the ASO wants public comments on the candidates.

Related posts:

1. Two-horse race for ICANN board seat
2. Graham beats Doria to ICANN board
3. IP address privacy policy killed

Verisign today reiterated that the recently revealed 2010 security breaches on its corporate network did not affect its production domain name system services.

In a statement, Verisign said:

After a thorough analysis of the attacks, Verisign stated in 2011, and reaffirms, that we do not believe that the operational integrity of the Domain Name System (DNS) was compromised.

We have a number of security mechanisms deployed in our network to ensure the integrity of the zone files we publish. In 2005, Verisign engineered real-time validation systems that were designed to detect and mitigate both internal and external attacks that might attempt to compromise the integrity of the DNS.

The statement followed several news reports that covered the hacks and speculated about the mayhem that could ensue if Verisign’s root or .com zone systems were ever breached.

The information the company has released so far suggests that the attacks were probably against back-office targets, such as user desktops, rather than its sensitive network operations centers.

Related posts:

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2. VeriSign to deploy DNSSEC in .com next March
3. VeriSign takes over .gov

The trade press is abuzz today with reports about a security breach at Verisign. While a security breach at the company that runs .COM, .NET, and does the mechanical parts of managing the DNS root is interesting, this shouldn't be news, at least, not now.

Since Verisign is a public company, they file a financial report called a 10-Q with the SEC every quarter. According to the SEC's web site, Verisign filed their 10-Q for June through September 2011 on October 28th. where it's been available to the public ever since.
Like every other 10-Q, it has a Risk Factors section which lists all the reasons that the company might fail, so don't sue us. Normally those sections are pretty routine, key employees might quit, customers might desert us, key contracts might not be renewed, that sort of stuff. But this 10-Q contained this bit:

We experienced security breaches in the corporate network in 2010 which were not sufficiently reported to Management.

In 2010, the Company faced several successful attacks against its corporate network in which access was gained to information on a small portion of our computers and servers. We have investigated and do not believe these attacks breached the servers that support our Domain Name System ("DNS") network. Information stored on the compromised corporate systems was exfiltrated. The Company's information security group was aware of the attacks shortly after the time of their occurrence and the group implemented remedial measures designed to mitigate the attacks and to detect and thwart similar additional attacks. However, given the nature of such attacks, we cannot assure that our remedial actions will be sufficient to thwart future attacks or prevent the future loss of information. In addition, although the Company is unaware of any situation in which possibly exfiltrated information has been used, we are unable to assure that such information was not or could not be used in the future. The occurrences of the attacks were not sufficiently reported to the Company's management at the time they occurred for the purpose of assessing any disclosure requirements. Management was informed of the incident in September 2011 and, following the review, the Company's management concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures are effective. However, the Company has implemented reporting line and escalation organization changes, procedures and processes to strengthen the Company's disclosure controls and procedures in this area.

Apparently nobody got around to reading it until today, at least nobody who understands the business well enough to know what it means.

All the press reports I've seen just regurgitate that paragraph, adding a few quotes from people close to Verisign who all said they didn't know about it either, and security types who told us that it's an enormous big deal. (Now that you've read the paragraph, you're as qualified to pontificate as anyone.)

Personally, I don't know if it's an enormous big deal or not. Risk factor sections tend to be written as pessimistically as possible, so you can skip over the parts about they cannot assure you and so forth. One thing I do know is that it happened over a year ago, so if anything significant happened as a result, and Verisign knew about it, they'd have told us about that, too, on the principle that you release all your bad news at once. So this means that either it really was just a minor network breach, or the evil consequences are so deep and subtle that we may not know about them for years and years, if ever. I'd tend toward the former, but then, I'm not a Verisign stockholder.

Written by John Levine, Author, Consultant & Speaker

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More under: Cyberattack, DNS, Security

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 privacy.

But the buyer definitely wants to capitalize on the movement.

It started a logo design contest on 99designs that states:

This logo will live on occupy.com and @occupy on twitter. It will go on billboards, on TV, in magazines, on sidewalks, street walls, T-shirts, hats, postcards, on everything you can imagine — all over the world.

We are challenging designers to think beyond the iconic Clenched Fist and create a new iconic symbol for resistance, solidarity and empowerment in the 21st century. It should appeal to a broad base and reflect the diversity of the 99%, while encompassing the values of the Occupy Movement – among them, integrity, justice, freedom, equality, compassion, community and true democracy.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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We were are remotely live blogging the auction results of the DomainFest 2012 SnapNames Moniker Auction.  One domain name has sold before the auction began, Marriages.com for $36,000.  Out of 60 domain names, 10 names had already met their reserve at the start of the auction. Please note that while we do our best to provide accurate results, we do not guarantee that these are the official results. Unsold names will remain in the silent auction until Feb 16th, 2012 at 12:15pm PT (3:15pm ET).

The total of sales according to our own tally was $393,450 USD for 23 sold domains out of 61 domains. The sale of qr.com will most likely not go, since the bidder was apparently thinking they were bidding on another name.

The top 10 sales were:

See the full results after the jump.

Explanation of the Auction Stati:

• SOLD: Domain was sold to highest bidder
• SOLD * pending seller approval: Domain was pronounced sold by the auctioneer since bidding was close to the reserve price. However since the reserve price was not reached, the sale needs to be approved by the seller.
• Pass: The domain name was not sold since there were no bids or bidding did not reach the reserve. In some cases we’ll still list the last amount bid.

(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (3)

A web address for great ideas. What a great idea.

.CO is for creators. For the people and businesses who make the world turn.
From products and stories to brands and beliefs, .CO is the web address that makes “making your idea a reality” a reality.

Find your .CO today

"Facebook reported in its SEC filing that it owns 'network equipment' valued at $1.016 billion at the close of 2011," reports Rich Miller of Data Center Knowledge. "The number reflects the expense of rapidly building a massive Internet infrastructure, including Facebook's shift from buying vendor gear and leasing data centers to building its own servers, racks and custom data centers."

Facebook Constructing New Data Center - Located 62 miles south of the Arctic Cicle, Lulea. Facility consists of three 300,000 square feet server buildings; scheduled for completion by 2014.

Photo above shows Facebook's first outside the U.S. data center currently being built on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The northern Swedish city of Lulea chosen for the data center is partly because of the cold climate — crucial for keeping the servers cool — and access to renewable energy from nearby hydropower facilities, according to the company.

Image below is a visualization of Facebook's social graph of 500 million back in 2010 created by intern Paul Butler.

Facebook 'Friendship Visualisation' shows pairs of friends between the world's cities based on company's 500 million user base in 2010. Facebook's current user base at the time of its SEC filing is reported to be over 800 million.(Click to Enlarge)

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More under: Data Center

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 partners was paging through a dictionary and found Twitter. Since Stone’s wife worked with animals, he immediately liked the name and knew its connotation.

Since Twitter.com was taken, the company started with Twttr.com.

When Twitter started to take off they contacted the owner of Twitter.com, who was a bird enthusiast.

“We offered him $7500 or something and he was like ‘holy crap, payday!’”

Stone said, in his defense for offering what now seems like a small amount, they had no idea how big it was going to get. At the time he said $7,500 was a lot of money for them.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

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3. .Co Gets Big .Coup with Twitter

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’s too complicated, too opaque, too adversarial, too expensive and frankly too inhuman.”

Ting offers simplified phone plans where you can purchase talk, text, and mobile allotments. If you use less of your allotment during the month you get a credit. If you go over you pay for the extra usage but not at a penalty rate.

The simplified service reminds me a lot of what Tucows did with Hover, a simple domain registration service.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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A software glitch in ICANN’s TLD Application System was apparently to blame for a number of “disappearing” new generic top-level domain applications today.

At about 4pm UTC today, two Neustar executives tweeted that some applications, among them the company’s own .neustar dot-brand application, had vanished from their TAS accounts.

TAS is the web-based application, presented as a series of questions, which applicants must use to file and pay for their new gTLD applications.

Several other applicants were also believed to be affected.

It took about two hours for ICANN to sort the problem out.

A spokesperson later said: “A display issue occurred in TAS, it has been corrected. All data is now visible & no information was lost.”

It’s the second technical problem to be reported in TAS this week.

On Tuesday, consultant Fairwinds Partners reported that some applicants had problems filling out their TAS profiles, preventing them from completing their applications.

Frankly, I’d be more surprised if this kind of thing didn’t happen.

TAS is brand new custom-built software, and as anyone who’s ever written software will tell you, no amount of testing can substitute for production use when it comes to finding bugs.

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3. How many brands will lie in their gTLD applications?

"More than two months after authorities shut down a massive Internet traffic hijacking scheme (link), the malicious software that powered the criminal network is still running on computers at half of the Fortune 500 companies, and on PCs at nearly 50 percent of all federal government agencies, new research shows," reports Brian Krebs. ... "Internet Identity, a Tacoma, Wash. company that sells security services, found evidence of at least one DNSChanger infection in computers at half of all Fortune 500 firms, and 27 out of 55 major government entities."

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More under: Cybercrime, DNS, Malware, Security

Scandinavian Airlines System Group is to apply to ICANN for a generic top-level domain, .sas, in what could turn out to be the first example of a contested dot-brand.

The company has agreed to explain its thinking during The Top Level, a conference happening in London later this month.

The agenda for the meeting states that SAS will deliver a presentation entitled: “SAS: Why we made the strategic decision to apply”.

Linn Drivdal Mellbye of conference organizer CloudNames, the Norwegian registry services provider, confirmed in a tweet minutes ago that the sought-after gTLD is .sas.

The string “SAS” has multiple meanings.

Indeed, for about three minutes this post originally stated — wrongly — that the applicant giving the presentation was the North Carolina software giant SAS Institute.

If the American SAS also applies for .sas, it may have to fight it out with the airline at an auction.

SAS — the Scandinavian one — becomes the second dot-brand applicant to come out in as many days, following StarHub’s news yesterday.

The company is based in Stockholm and employs about 25,000 people.

Related posts:

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Verisign’s .com registry passed the 100 million domains under management milestone in October, the company’s monthly ICANN registry report revealed today.

The exact number of domains under management in .com on October 31 was 100,540,971, having increased by a net 690,243 registrations over the course of the month.

That’s a pretty big deal, but for some reason Verisign didn’t make any announcements about it at the time.

ICANN registry reports, which all contracted gTLDs must submit, are filed three months after the fact, for competitive reasons.

The number of domains in the .com zone file – which is what most people track to follow the fortunes of TLD operators — differs from the total number in the registry.

Domains which do not have name servers or are in special registry status codes such as Pending Delete do not show up in the zone file.

Today, RegistrarStats reports 100,052,046 domains in the .com zone, while HosterStats’ count yesterday was 100,045,666. The registry is likely to have about 1.5 million more, however.

Related posts:

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Startup America, an initiative to encourage entrepreneurship in the US, has relocated to S.co and will offer a free one-year .co domain registration to registered members.

For .CO Internet, the .co registry, this is a pretty sweet marketing coup.

The Startup America Partnership is a private initiative created a year ago in response to White House calls for grassroots economic stimulus.

It’s chaired by former AOL chief Steve Case, and has over a billion dollars in support commitments from tech heavyweights such as IBM, Intel and HP.

Signing up to the program grants entrepreneurs resources such as discounted accounting software and access to workshops. Now, they’ll also get a free .co domain for a year, if they want one.

As part of the deal, Startup America, which was located at startupamericapartnership.org, can now be found at s.co.

While .CO has been commanding prices for single-letter .co domains of, anecdotally, over a million dollars, I’d be surprised if any significant money has changed hands here.

For a Colombian TLD to become part of a flag-waving American initiative such as this, giving it access to its core target customer base… well, let’s just say that even if it gave away s.co for free, which I think it probably did, it would still be a very smart deal from .CO’s end.

Related posts:

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Hackers broke into Verisign’s corporate network and made out with sensitive data, it emerged today.

The attacks happened in 2010 and the company does not believe its all-important domain name infrastructure – which supports .com and several other top-level domains – was compromised.

Reuters broke the news today, but the attack was actually revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last October. The filing said:

In 2010, the Company faced several successful attacks against its corporate network in which access was gained to information on a small portion of our computers and servers. We have investigated and do not believe these attacks breached the servers that support our Domain Name System (“DNS”) network. Information stored on the compromised corporate systems was exfiltrated.

The filing, which was required under recent SEC disclosure rules, goes on to say that the attacks were “not sufficiently reported to the Company’s management” until September 2011.

It adds that Verisign does not know whether the “exfilitrated” – ie, stolen – data was used by the attackers. The filing does not say what was taken.

Back in 2010, Verisign was still a security company. It did not sell off its SSL business to Symantec until August that year. The filing does not say whether SSL data was breached.

As one of the logical single points of failure on the internet, Verisign is of course the subject of regular attacks, mainly of the performance-degrading distributed denial of service variety.

The bigger worry, as Reuters rather breathlessly notes, is that if hackers could compromise the integrity of the DNS root or .com/.net zones, it could lead to mayhem.

In unrelated news, the domain name registrar Blacknight today revealed that it got hacked on Tuesday.

The attackers may have got away with contact information – including email addresses and telephone numbers – for up to 40,000 customers, the company said.

Financial information such as credit card numbers was not compromised, Blacknight said.

The company has contacted Irish data protection regulators and will also inform the police. Customers are advised to change their passwords.

If you’re a Blacknight customer you’ll also want to be on the lookout for “spear-phishing” attacks in the near future. When the bad guys know your name, it can lead to a more convincing phish.

Related posts:

1. Verisign: our DNS was not hacked
2. Go Daddy plays down “massive” attack claim
3. Will VeriSign change its name?

Ting Promises “Mobile That Makes Sense”

TORONTO, Feb. 2, 2012 – Tucows Inc. (NYSE AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC), a global Internet services company dedicated to making simple useful services that unlock the power of the Internet, today announced the launch of Ting, a mobile phone service dedicated to bringing clarity and control to US mobile phone customers.

Small businesses and families in the US are overpaying for mobile service and underserved by their mobile service providers. With Ting, Tucows seeks to offer a fresh alternative by emphasizing clarity, usability, a sincere commitment to customer support and significant monthly savings.

“What people are forced to put up with from mobile service providers just doesn’t make sense. It’s too complicated, too opaque, too adversarial, too expensive and frankly too inhuman,” said Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows. “We’re changing that. Ting is a mobile service that makes sense.”

Ting has a very different approach to pricing than the major providers. Minutes, messages and megabytes are each billed separately. If customers use less of any than they anticipated, they are credited at the end of the month. If they use more, they are simply billed the appropriate additional amount, without onerous penalties or premiums. Businesses and families can pool an unlimited number of phones and data devices on one Ting account, offering even greater savings over other providers’ more limited sharing options.

People considering Ting are encouraged to instantly calculate how much they’ll save with Ting by entering past bills from their current provider into the Ting Phone Savings Calculator on the Ting site.

The site offers customers clear, visual snapshots of their usage throughout the month and a great deal of administrative control over usage and device features.

The customer support team boasts a “no hold policy” from 8am-8pm ET Monday through Friday and “geek support” from smart, passionate people that are empowered to solve problems.

Ting is now available to US businesses and families at Ting.com.

About Tucows

Tucows is a global Internet services company. OpenSRS manages over eleven million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 12,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. Ting.com is a mobile phone service provider dedicated to bringing clarity and control to US mobile phone users. YummyNames owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale. More information can be found on Tucows’ corporate website.

Tucows, OpenSRS, Hover, and YummyNames are registered trademarks of Tucows Inc. or its subsidiaries.

For further information:

Lawrence Chamberlain

TMX Equicom for Tucows Inc.
(416) 815-0700 ext. 257
lchamberlain@equicomgroup.com

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 to register the domain name. In its pleadings, the estate even admitted that Brown may have consented to the domain registration while he was alive.

The estate made a number of legal arguments that aren’t typically considered by a UDRP panel and the panel decided to ignore them.

That makes sense. Even if the estate does have a legal argument to get this domain name, it’s certainly too complex to be handled by the UDRP mechanism.

LAC Management was represented by Ari Goldberger of ESQwire.com.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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ICANN has started its historic and controversial program to expand the number of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). This essay outlines the factors needed for the program to create economic value, warns against a cognitive trap that complicates selection of a new gTLD and considers the value contribution of the registries. I will not go into relevant macro measures, but I examine the problems associated with the popular measure of simply counting the number of registrations.

The key to understanding the program's economic impact is to follow the theories of economist Paul Romer and look at how the rearrangement of resources creates value. ICANN's program increases the supply of resources that registries have for creating value. Value creation by registries can come from: (1) introducing new TLD signals for things like location, community, and social responsibility (for example, .nyc for New York City, .music to signal community, and .green to signal environmental corporate responsibility); (2) combining information, such as in the .tel model, which provides contact information for the companies using the gTLD; and (3) introducing a gTLD that competes with .com.

Given the new resources provided by ICANN, the burden now lies on the registries to innovate. But they have to be careful of cognitive biases in choosing among the gTLDs. For example, a registry that chooses the proposed .music should ask itself, "Is there value in .music?" The temptation is to ask the far easier "Do we love music?" Not the same thing, but studies show that we often answer an easier question instead of a harder and more relevant one, and that we'll do so without noticing the swap. (For details on cognitive error traps, see Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow. I have warned against cognitive biases in gTLD value estimation and in domain name appraisals.) Another trap is reliance on the popularity of key words in social media, an approach that flopped with the recent failure to predict the success of presidential candidates.

Remember, there is no easy way to measure new gTLD value creation. The domain name industry has focused on registrations, but that's because they are easily measured and the information is publicly available. Number of registrations does provide a viable measure of a registry's profits, but the registrations may be defensive by brand owners rather than value creating. (For a discussion of alternative measures, see "The Economics of Well-Being” by Justin Fox, HBR January-February 2012.)

New signals and combinations of information, á la .tel, can be value adding for established companies as well as new ones. But switching costs will probably keep most com-branded companies from making the jump. So new companies may converge on a new gTLD that competes with .com while existing companies will more than likely register their brands under a large number of the new gTLDs as a defensive measure. Put all the registrations together and there will be enough revenues for the com-alternative gTLD to be viable.

One reason for gravitating to a com-alternative gTLD is that new companies might feel constrained by the unavailability of desired .com names and thus have a motive to find reasonable alternatives. (See Why Dominant Companies Are Vulnerable by Kyle B. Murray and Gerald Häubl, Sloan Management Review December 2011.) This is especially true because emerging brand owners don't have to acquire any new skills in order to adopt a new gTLD.

Written by Alex Tajirian, CEO at DomainMart

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More under: Domain Names, ICANN, Top-Level Domains

The .co top-level domain may have more registrations, but more tech start-ups are opting for .me domain names, according to an informal study.

Doctoral student Thomas Park compiled a list of 1,000 start-ups added to TechCrunch’s CrunchBase database last year and found that entrepreneurs chose .co 1% of the time, versus 1.7% for .me.

As caveats, the difference between the two TLDs only works out to seven companies and .me, which launched in 2008, does of course have a two-year head start over .co.

I’m also guessing that CrunchBase has an English-language bias, which could skew the results. While .co has meaning in more countries it lacks the call-to-action punch of .me in English.

Nevertheless, I think the results are interesting because .CO Internet heavily targets start-ups in its marketing and currently has twice as many domains under management (over 1.1 million) as doMEn, the Afilias/Go Daddy joint-venture .me registry.

Park’s results show that .me had a 0.50% share in 2010 and a 0.80% share in 2009 while .co managed to get one company (0.10%) on the list during the half of 2010 it was live.

The survey found that .com is the runaway first choice for entrepreneurs, with about 85% of the start-up market, but you knew that already.

Related posts:

1. Go Daddy launches paid YouTube clone
2. WordPress.com’s registrar service: Slow cookin’ makes good eatin’
3. Tiny start-up secures .bank gTLD trademark

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 swirling around DOMAINfest this week. KeyDrive has now updated its web site to confirm the acquisition.

Both SnapNames and Moniker were challenging acquisitions for Oversee.net. SnapNames lost its most important domain registrar, Network Solutions, shortly after the acquisition in 2007. It then dealt with the so-called “halvarez” scandal where a SnapNames employee was found shill bidding in auctions.

Moniker was also a challenge, primarily because it was purchased at the peak in early 2008. Oversee.net paid about $24 million for the domain registrar. Although the sale price hasn’t been disclosed, you can bet it took a sizable loss on the sale.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Moniker To Make Listing Domains on SnapNames a Snap
2. Moniker Sends Silent Auctions to SnapNames
3. Moniker Should Use Marketplace Pro Instead of SnapNames

KeyDrive has acquired rival registrar Moniker and rival aftermarket player SnapNames from Oversee.net, according to a statement on the company’s web site.

The deal, which closed in January, would make the combined company the sixth-largest ICANN-accredited registrar, with over 5.4 million domains under management, KeyDrive said.

KeyDrive formed with the merger of German registrar Key-Systems and aftermarket services provider NameDrive last July. It’s based in NameDrive’s native Luxembourg.

The deal gives the primarily European company an additional footprint in the US market. Moniker is based in Florida, SnapNames in Oregon.

It’s a not-too-soon exit for Moniker, which had a disappointing 2011 largely defined by the super-fast churning of domains under management and the regular canning of staff.

I’ve been hearing rumors that the two Oversee units were on the auction block for months.

It’s the fifth significant piece of M&A in the registrar market in the last six months, following the sale of Go Daddy and Group NBT to private investors, Tucows’ acquisition of EPAG and NetSol’s move to Web.com

Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Indeed, there does not appear to have been an official announcement yet, beyond the KeyDrive home page.

The deal was first reported by DomainNameNews.

More details as they come in.

Related posts:

1. SnapNames lawsuit: “halvarez” was chasing $1.5 million bonus
2. SnapNames settles shill-bidder class action
3. Key-Systems sued over brand protection trademark

According to industry sources, Keydrive S.A. will announce this morning that they have purchased Moniker & Snapnames from Oversee.net. Information about the sale has already been posted on the companies website and was also added to ICANNWiki yesterday.

KeyDrive S.A./Luxembourg includes the Key-Systems Group in St. Ingbert/Saarland (Germany), the NameDrive Group (Luxembourg/USA) as well as Moniker and SnapNames (Florida and Oregon/USA) with more than 160 employees.

After the takeover of Moniker in January 2012 the group ranks among the TOP 10 biggest ICANN registrars in 6th place; the group currently administers a total of more than 5.4 million domains.

Rumors about a potential sale of Moniker & Snapnames had been circulating for  a while. DNN expects an official announcement to be published shortly and will update this post accordingly. Keydrive was created by merging KeySystems and Namedrive.

(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (2)

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Singapore telecommunications firm StarHub will become the fifth company to publicly reveal plans for a “dot-brand” generic top-level domain.

The company, which offers broadband internet, cable TV and mobile telephony and has annual revenue of about $2 billion, is set to announce tomorrow that it will apply to ICANN for .starhub.

It’s the first confirmed dot-brand applicant since ICANN opened the application window January 12. It’s also the first since Neustar announced its own plans last June.

StarHub plans to use the gTLD to enable domain names such as tv.starhub and broadband.starhub.

ARI Registry Services has the contract to run its registry back-end and Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services is its application consultant.

Oliver Chong, assistant vice president of brand and marketing communications at StarHub, said:

We believe the ‘.starhub’ Top-Level Domain will deliver clear marketing and advertising benefits to StarHub, such as improved online brand recall and a more intuitive consumer experience with easy to remember domain names such as ‘mobile.starhub’. We also anticipate potential Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) benefits by operating a more targeted and relevant naming system that is clearly matched with our website content.

To date, only Deloitte, Canon and Hitachi have publicly confirmed corporate dot-brand applications.

Registry services provider Neustar also wants .neustar, but its announcement was a little self-serving so I’m not sure that it “counts”.

We’re also aware of some other likely candidates, such as IBM and Unicef, but most companies are playing their cards pretty close to their chests.

ARI CEO Adrian Kinderis said he hopes the announcement of .starhub will “open the floodgates” for other Asian companies to apply for their own new dot-brand gTLDs.

While it’s a significant revelation – at least likely to drive StarHub’s competitors into action if they’re not already – similar predictions were made when Canon announced its dot-brand bid almost two years ago.

Many registry operators are already predicting as many as 1,000 dot-brand applicants.

I’m not ready to predict a slew of similar announcements just yet, but a confirmed dot-brand bidder will certainly do no harm to registries currently trying to persuade clients to sign on the dotted line.

Related posts:

1. NeuStar wins UrbanBrain .brand contract
2. .sas could be the first contested dot-brand gTLD
3. Neustar eats own dog food, plans .neustar bid

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 day it won a similar case for another typo, Nationnal.com.

Part of the reason it lost the Natiional.com case is because the panel ruled it’s OK to own a typo of a generic word.

But what I find most interesting is that the company doesn’t even own National.com. It’s owned by National Semiconductor. So Vanguard is asking a court to hand over a typo of a domain it doesn’t even own!

I also get a kick out of the convoluted way Vanguard found links to car rentals on Natiional.com, basically saying that if you go a few pages into the directory-like parked page you can find links to car rental companies, including National.

Vanguard says that Natiional.com, although protected with a whois privacy service, actually belongs to Kevin Ham’s Vertical Axis.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. National Car Rental Fails to Show Rights in National.com Typo
2. For National Car Rental, Green Means Stop Using Your Domain Name
3. Nationnal.com and Natiional.com – One is a Trademark Typo, the Other Isn’t

John Stankey, President and CEO, AT&T: "Data consumption right now is growing 40% a year."40%, not 92%-120%. "Data consumption right now is growing 40% a year," John Stankey of AT&T told investors and his CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed on the investor call. That's far less than the 92% predicted by Cisco's VNI model or the FCC's 120% to 2012 and 90% to 2013 figure in the "spectrum crunch" analysis. AT&T is easily a third of the U.S. mobile Internet and growing market share; there's no reason to think the result will be very different when we have data from others.

With growth rates less than half of the predictions, a data-driven FCC and Congress has no reason to rush to bad policy. Wireless technology is rapidly moving to sharing spectrum, whether in-building small cells, WiFi, White Spaces, Shared RAN or tools of what the engineers are calling hetnets — heterogenous networks. The last thing policymakers should do is tie up more spectrum for exclusive use; shared spectrum often yields three to ten times as much capacity.

Bad compromises on the video spectrum are unnecessary because plenty of spectrum is unused. That includes the 20 MHz that M2Z would be building out today if Julius hadn't blocked them; the 20 MHz the cable companies are sitting on and want to sell to Verizon; and the 30 MHz or so Stankey identifies as fallow at AT&T.

40% growth is still substantial, but wireless technology is improving at a breathtaking pace. LTE has about 10x the capacity of 2.5G and 4x the capacity of 3G. LTE Advanced, deploying beginning 2013 at Verizon, is designed for 10x the capacity of LTE. Putting more spectrum to use would be great, but let's do it right.

Wireless speeds are actually going up dramatically, with AT&T delivering 2-5 megabits to most of the country and Verizon's LTE delivering 5-12 megabits to 2/3rds of the population. Verizon is ahead of schedule to bring 5 megabits+ to 92% of the country in 2013 and 96-98% in 2015-2016. AT&T and Sprint have raised capex to catch up. 80%+ of the U.S. will have a 5 megabit offering in 2013-2014, 90%+ by 2015 or sooner. That's without any additional spectrum.

Today's wireless networks are designed to be shared: towers, WiFi, White Spaces, DAS and small cells all working together. The best engineers in the world are working on RAN sharing, SON, hetnets, 8x8 MIMO and techniques I'm writing about in my next book, Gigabit Wireless. AT&T in fact is one of the world leaders in DAS, WiFi and femtos and behind the scenes a key thought leader. There's wonderfully exciting stuff I'll be doing my best to translate for non-engineers.

Takeaway: The future is sharing the airwaves so let's get the policy right.

Written by Dave Burstein, Editor, DSL Prime

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More under: Access Providers, Broadband, Mobile, Policy & Regulation, Telecom, White Space, Wireless

"Internet protocols simply aren't adequate for the changes in hardware and network use that will come up in a decade or so," says Professor Dave Farber who was recently interviewed by Andy Oram.

"Dave predicts that computers will be equipped with optical connections instead of pins for networking, and the volume of data transmitted will overwhelm routers, which at best have mixed optical/electrical switching," writes Oram. "Sensor networks, smart electrical grids, and medical applications with genetic information could all increase network loads to terabits per second. When routers evolve to handle terabit-per-second rates, packet-switching protocols will become obsolete. The speed of light is constant, so we'll have to rethink the fundamentals of digital networking."

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More under: Broadband, Internet Protocol, Web

A consortium of companies including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Paypal have announced that they were collaborating and coming up with a new protocol known as DMARC — the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.

What is DMARC?

This is very much a summary of DMARC in a nutshell (I will probably write an article about this in the future), but from the website:

A DMARC policy allows a sender to indicate that their emails are protected by SPF and/or DKIM, and tells a receiver what to do if neither of those authentication methods passes — such as junk or reject the message. DMARC removes guesswork from the receiver's handling of these failed messages, limiting or eliminating the user's exposure to potentially fraudulent & harmful messages. DMARC also provides a way for the email receiver to report back to the sender about messages that pass and/or fail DMARC evaluation.

When I first heard about DMARC, I said to myself "Self, why do we need another email authentication protocol?" The answer is that DMARC is not another protocol but instead leverages existing email authentication protocols and provides feedback to the spoofed domain.

SPF already provides a way to say: "If this message fails an SPF check, discard the message." It's called a Hard Fail. However, not all hard fails are illegitimate (there are significant false positives with SPF). DKIM, in itself, doesn't provide a way to discard a message if it fails an authentication check. This makes it less useful in securing the Internet (i.e., it is a barrier to adoption).

Besides which, what happens if an SPF check asses but a DKIM check doesn't? And if one of them fails, who should you tell? DMARC provides a mechanism that says: "If one of these checks fails, discard the message." But furthermore, it also provides a way to tell the responsible party that the message failed a check. For example, if security@paypal.com fails a DMARC check (either through SPF or DKIM), the email receiver can send the message to an email address that says "Hey, this message failed an SPF check. Was it legitimate or not?" If it is a false positive (perhaps a new server brought online), Paypal can add it to its SPF check. If it's a phishing message, Paypal can investigate to have the website taken down.

The strength of DMARC is that it is a stronger way to protect a brand from being abused; receivers can discard spoofed messages and senders can figure out just who, exactly, is sending mail as them.

The weak point of DMARC is, unfortunately, the weak point of SPF and DKIM — spammers and phishers don't need to spoof a domain in order to fool users into taking action. If a spammer sends mail from security@paypal.com.yakzas.com (a fictitious domain), many users just see that first part (paypal.com) without being more aware that there is more to the message.

And if a phisher signs up for a cloud service that issues temporary credentials, they can create the account paypale.onmicrosoft.com and send spam from there to avoid IP reputation blocking (and to the spammer that is abusing our Office 365 service, we know what you're doing, you jackass) while hijacking the reputation of another brand in the From address.

The strength of DMARC is not so much that it combats phishing but that if a good domain is authenticated, mail user agents (like Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, etc) can highlight that the sender is a trusted sender and highlight it in blue or put a little icon beside it. Since users use visual clues to make heuristic decisions, the lack of a trusted symbol can train people to be suspicious.

Anyhow, it's nice to see that the authentication/validation protocols are consolidating.

Written by Terry Zink, Program Manager

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More under: Email, Spam

Wout de Natris writes: At a speech during the Security and Defense Agenda meeting on 30 January Vice-President of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, showed how the Commission envisions public-private cooperation on cyber security.

Remarks by Kroes:

"The Internet does not belong to any one group, but attacks on it affect every group. So let's work together, all sectors, all levels, public and private, national, international and European. So that we can safeguard the security of the systems that increasingly underpin our lives, today and in the future."

"In tomorrow's world, if the Internet is not secured, nothing will be."

Full statement published here.

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More under: Cyberattack, Cybercrime, Internet Governance, Malware, Policy & Regulation, Security

In the past three years, Akamai has seen 2,000% increase in the number of DDoS attack incidents investigated on behalf of its customers. The latest State of the Internet report released today by Akamai also identifies top countries from which this observed attack traffic originates, as well as the top ports targeted by these attacks.

From the report: During the third quarter of 2011, Akamai observed attack traffic originating from 195 unique countries/regions, up from 192 in the second quarter. After making its first appearance in the top 10 list in recent memory in the second quarter, Indonesia vaulted to the top of the list this quarter, generating 14% of observed attack traffic. Myanmar, which had suddenly appeared at the top of the list in the prior two quarters, disappeared from the list just as suddenly in the third quarter, potentially indicating that the attack traffic that had been observed originating from the country has either been shut down, or is now coming from other places. With Myanmar dropping out of the top 10 list, South korea moved into it, more than tripling its observed level of attack traffic, responsible for 3.8% in the third quarter. In addition to South korea and Indonesia, Taiwan, China, India, and Egypt were all responsible for higher percentages of attack traffic as compared to the prior quarter.

Attack Traffic – Top Originating Countries

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More under: Cyberattack, Security

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 countries have already completed the survey. It takes about five minutes and is anonymous. You may opt to provide your name and email address at the end of the survey if you wish to be entered to win a copy of David Kesmodel’s “The Domain Game” book.

Based on results to date, it looks like there might be some shakeup in the domain registrar rankings as well as domain parking.

If you want your voice heard, complete the survey today.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. 2012 Domain Name Wire Survey now open
2. Accepting nominations for 2012 Domain Name Wire Survey
3. Domain Name Wire Survey Results

Danny Sullivan has been the go-to guy for understanding the world of search for over 15 years. This week he published a really good story on Google Plus Your World. A group of engineers have launched a site called Focus on the User that shows exactly how the new Google service could be including other social media content listings besides only Google Plus, but is not.

Google Plus is of course Google's entry into the social network battle, and the service recently announced over 90 million users. Just this month Google has started inserting social media content from Google Plus listings (when available) into the search engine response pages (SERPs) on Google. However, other major sources of social media content — Facebook, Twitter — are not included.

Danny does a great job of laying out why this is overly preferential, and doesn't deliver the best search result. The engineers from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace behind Focus on the User have developed a bookmarklet called, "Don't Be Evil, get it?" that you can add to your browser to pull more comprehensive social media listings into your personalized search results.

Danny makes a strong case this improves current search results. He provides lots of screenshots like the one below. It's important to note that the bookmarklet is using Google's own algorithmic rankings for these revised SERPs.

Danny also includes the other side of the story. Sites like Facebook and Twitter do not license their content to be crawled, so why should Google include this content?

"Google, in particular its executive chairman Eric Schmidt, has argued that it doesn't have all the data it needs to include other social services in the way it does for Google Plus. The failure to reach a deal with Facebook; the failure to renew a deal with Twitter, these have prevented the social signals it needs from being used, Google has said."

What the Focus on the User group has done is clearly demonstrated that Google could have included other content if it wanted. And to my read Danny has made a convincing argument that Google SHOULD do this, because it delivers the highest quality search results back to the user.

If legal concerns are really what is holding Google back, the company should challenge Facebook and Twitter to allow them to use the same inputs Focus on the User has accessed via the bookmarklet. If those companies refuse, then publicize that decision.

I've installed the Focus on the User tool and I'm doing my own comparisons. If anyone out there is already using it, please drop a comment with your impressions.

Written by Christopher Parente, High Tech Public Relations

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More under: Policy & Regulation, Web

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?

The applicant guidebook states:

ICANN’s goal is to launch subsequent gTLD application rounds as quickly as possible. The exact timing will be based on experiences gained and changes required after this round is completed. The goal is for the next application round to begin within one year of the close of the application submission period for the initial round.

ICANN has committed to reviewing the effects of the New gTLD Program on the operations of the root zone system
after the first application round, and will defer the delegations in a second application round until it is
determined that the delegations resulting from the first round did not jeopardize root zone system security or
stability.

It is the policy of ICANN that there be subsequent application rounds, and that a systemized manner of
applying for gTLDs be developed in the long term.

ICANN may be a little too optimistic here. As Kevin Murphy points out, ICANN has made a lot of commitments to review its program before proceeding with more top level domains.

But the guidebook clearly states a goal of one year after the current application submission period ends. That would be only about 14 months from today.

Why is this important? A number of brands are waiting until the last minute with hopes of getting clarification.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Afilias: Could be 10 years before another new TLD application round opens
2. GAC to ICANN: Limit Next Round of New Top Level Domain Names
3. What in the World Will ICANN Do with $100 Million Cash Next Year?

Recently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) published a report on inaccurate registration data in her own databases. Now the question is presented to the world how can we mitigate this problem? There seems to be a very easy solution.

Why register?

The question to this answer seems simple. To know who has registered with an organisation. This makes it possible to contact the registered person or organisation, to send bills and to discuss policy with the members.

The rationale of unreachable registrations

This one completely goes by me. ICANN distributes IP resources at the highest level that are on principle scarce: domain names and IP addresses and sets policy around the distribution of these resources. So it seems to be in the utmost interest of ICANN to have an accurate database. Over the past years it has been shown over and over again, that accuracy was not a priority of ICANN, even against her existing policies.

There does not seem to be a rationale for this lapses in registration measures. ICANN in the end loses money as she provides a service, but is most likely not paid for this service. Next to that it is not good for ICANN's image, as government and LEA reactions have shown over the past years. It could even become a threat to ICANN's very existence.

Cyber crime and enforcement

With the coming of cyber crime, spam and botnets, law enforcement agencies of different back ground became interested in Whois data and were very much frustrated when they found data not to be accurate. (And vetting and revocation mechanisms not being in place.) Whois data is a primary source at the start of investigations. So if these are false this makes investigations harder, not impossible.

Inaccurate data

What can be reasons that data is inaccurate? There can be several reasons. To give a few examples. Someone forgot to change the data after a move of the office, contact person, a merger, bank account, a company stopped its activities, etc. In the meantime the IP resources are still used as they were meant to, but from an unknown address.

A second reason could be that free speech advocates want to have a chance to hide their identity behind a so called proxy registration. This way they are safe from prosecution in their home country. Usually this is supported by western governments.

A third reason can be criminal intent. A person or group of persons uses the IP resources for personal gain through illegal activities. They never intended to provide accurate data. From a society point of view this is an activity that preferably is stopped as fast as possible.

What to do about it?

We are discussing unreachable registered companies. It looks quite simple to me. ICANN has many ways to reach out to these companies and does so. Everyone concerned gets one year to alter the data. As soon as someone complies, the data is submitted to the Whois database, after being vetted by ICANN.

All that have not updated their registration on time -and one year is a very lenient time frame- are de-registered by ICANN and where possible their IP resources taken away.

Legit after claims

If ICANN makes sure there's a good procedure to follow for legit claims after the de-registration that come in anyway, I'm sure this procedure will work. Criminals usually do not show up and try to find new ways to proceed their business.

Vetting of all new registrations

When ICANN makes sure new applicants are vetted before being admitted and an ongoing checking procedure of existing members is put in place, I'm convinced that the Internet will become a safer place for all concerned. Also, she becomes an example for policy at lower level IP resource organisations by setting a standard. It makes one avenue on the Internet harder to reach for criminals.

Written by Wout de Natris, Consultant international cooperation cyber crime + trainer spam enforcement

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More under: Cybercrime, Domain Names, ICANN, Internet Governance, IP Addressing, Policy & Regulation, Whois

Image via CrunchBase

I haven’t logged into my Bebo account much over the last couple of years. I did login earlier this year almost by accident. I logged back out again within a couple of minutes.

Last night, however, the site seemed to go offline completely. Looking into it further it’s pretty clear that either something is wrong or they’ve pulled the plug:

dig +trace bebo.com

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> +trace bebo.com
;; global options: +cmd
.            2953    IN    NS    j.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    d.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    m.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    i.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    g.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    c.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    a.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    b.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    k.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    e.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    l.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    f.root-servers.net.
.            2953    IN    NS    h.root-servers.net.
;; Received 436 bytes from 81.17.240.194#53(81.17.240.194) in 3 ms

com.            172800    IN    NS    a.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    c.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    i.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    d.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    b.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    j.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    m.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    f.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    h.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    g.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    l.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    k.gtld-servers.net.
com.            172800    IN    NS    e.gtld-servers.net.
;; Received 486 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 56 ms

bebo.com.        172800    IN    NS    ns1.beboinc.com.
bebo.com.        172800    IN    NS    ns2.beboinc.com.
;; Received 102 bytes from 192.26.92.30#53(c.gtld-servers.net) in 82 ms

;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

The above output is from the “dig” command, which is a simple utility to check DNS.

Running it against this domain (michele.me) gives a different and more useful result:

dig +trace michele.me

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> +trace michele.me
;; global options: +cmd
.            2819    IN    NS    l.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    m.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    i.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    b.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    a.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    g.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    k.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    h.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    d.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    c.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    f.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    j.root-servers.net.
.            2819    IN    NS    e.root-servers.net.
;; Received 436 bytes from 81.17.240.194#53(81.17.240.194) in 3 ms

me.            172800    IN    NS    d0.cctld.afilias-nst.org.
me.            172800    IN    NS    a2.me.afilias-nst.info.
me.            172800    IN    NS    ns.nic.me.
me.            172800    IN    NS    c0.cctld.afilias-nst.info.
me.            172800    IN    NS    a0.cctld.afilias-nst.info.
me.            172800    IN    NS    b2.me.afilias-nst.org.
me.            172800    IN    NS    b0.cctld.afilias-nst.org.
me.            172800    IN    NS    ns2.nic.me.
;; Received 486 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 55 ms

michele.me.        86400    IN    NS    ns.blacknightsolutions.com.
michele.me.        86400    IN    NS    ns2.blacknightsolutions.com.
;; Received 86 bytes from 2001:500:27::1#53(c0.cctld.afilias-nst.info) in 102 ms

michele.me.        900    IN    A    78.153.202.220
michele.me.        900    IN    NS    ns2.blacknightsolutions.com.
michele.me.        900    IN    NS    ns.blacknightsolutions.com.
;; Received 190 bytes from 2a01:a8:fe00::2#53(ns.blacknightsolutions.com) in 307 ms

So basically Bebo.com is not returning any A records which means it could not display no matter how hard it tried. Of course there could be all sorts of crazy going on with other DNS records, but it doesn’t look likely.

Checking the whois records for the domain the only thing that sticks out is that the nameservers changed back in December. They were using Akamai’s DNS, then switched to using their own nameservers. Akamai’s services are used by a lot of big content providers and aren’t cheap, so this switch would suggest a scaling back of Bebo in terms of their traffic levels etc.,

Is Bebo gone for good?

No idea. I’m not aware of any official statements from them as yet though I haven’t been following that closely either because I honestly don’t care

Does it matter?

Probably not, though the complete lack of any notification to any of the social network’s users is worrying and proves yet again why you shouldn’t rely on a social network to store anything important.

Is Bebo Gone? is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Cover via Amazon

I’ll be doing several longhaul flights over the next few months, which was one of the reasons why I got a Kindle. I like reading on planes (when I’m not sleeping), but there isn’t much space in the seat pockets for anything more than a Penguin paperback. Lugging the Steve Jobs biography back and forth across the Atlantic in December was “fun”.

Next month I’m heading to Orlando via a rather circuitous route, so I’d love to have a couple of good books to read on my way.

So what would people suggest or recommend?

Good Reads For Long Flights? is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

Openreach, the lead deployment arm of BT, has issued an announcement asking residents and landlords of apartment blocks to join a pilot project that will eventually bring broadband download speeds of up to 300Mbps to residents.

"Participants will gain access to Openreach’s Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology which delivers super-fast broadband speeds," says Openreach. "End users will initially have access to downstream speeds of up to 100Mb/s but these will rise to give users the option of up to 300Mb/s in the spring of this year, the fastest commercially available speeds in the UK for a residential connection. Upstream speeds will also be the fastest in the UK."

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More under: Access Providers, Broadband

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 branded itself largely with former CEO Jeff Kupietzky. Now Oversee.net has new leadership with co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow. Domeyer attended TRAFFIC last Fall, but for most people this conference will be the first introduction to the pair.

2. Will Oversee.net address Moniker?

It’s one of the industry’s worst kept secrets that Oversee.net has been shopping around Moniker. Also this month we saw the departure of some of Moniker’s longtime account managers. As a Moniker customer, I received no notice of the account manager changes.

Will Oversee continue to be silent about Moniker? Or will it address the changes head on to instill confidence. Confidence, after all, is one of the most important things people consider when selecting a registrar.

3. Will the new parties make up for the (lack of) Playboy Mansion?

There’s no trip to the Playboy Mansion this year. After over 100 people got sick last year I think that’s probably OK with most people.

But there will still be a Playboy element. .Co is sponsoring a party at Petersen Automotive Museum that will include some playmates as well as the star of the GoDaddy .co Super Bowl commercial Natalia Velez.

The final night party will be at House of Blue and includes “edgy, sexy and interactive entertainment”. It will be interesting.

4. How many people will be there?

DOMAINfest has attracted 700 people in recent years. That’s about the peak I could imagine if it’s mostly domainers. But the show is shifting — just like the company — and is attracting more from the lead gen, affiliate, and SEO spaces.

5. Can DOMAINfest successfully include topics outside the typical domainer realm?

This year you’ll hear a lot more about lead gen, SEO, and affiliate marketing at the show. It will be interesting to see how this shift is managed.

6. What big company announcements will be made?

Domain companies tend to make big announcements during domain conferences. Already this morning Sedo announced a deal with GoDaddy. What big deals and announcements will we hear this week?

There you have it. Six big questions that we’ll know the answer to by the end of the week.

See you in Santa Monica.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. 5 Questions to be Answered at DOMAINfest
2. 5 Questions To Be Answered at Next Week’s TRAFFIC Conference
3. 5 Questions Answered at TRAFFIC

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. Basically, the owner of the domain registered it four years before ShuziQi existed, and Shuzi’s English transliteration can mean “digital”. The domain owner registered several other domains that had generic transliterations. The panel ruled in favor of the respondent.

OK, now on to Shuzi.

ShuziQi offers bracelets you wear that apparently have awesome powers. Here’s how they describe them:

Programmed using our own proprietary process to resonate with your cells’ natural frequency to improve your bio-system balance. Reinforces your cells’ natural frequency energy level which reduces erratic cell behavior, allowing your body to work more efficiently.

Hmm. I was a little skeptical until I read the reviews on the web site. The first doctor’s review:

Earlier today I received a Shuzi bracelet to try out. I support the philosophy behind the Shuzi and would recommend it to anyone who is looking to improve their overall quality of life.

Sweet. If a doctor hasn’t tried it yet but just got one in the mail, I’m all for it. I think I should get one for my dog, too, after reading this testimonial:

I wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t for my daughters little dog Tammy. The kids jumped on the bed and didn’t see little Tammy. She spent a week in the vets with a very severe back injury. They gave her anti inflammatory shots and sent her home with pills. A week at home and she still had difficulty walking. My daughter put the PHD tag on the Tammy on Monday night and on Tuesday the she was scampering down the driveway. Dogs can’t lie, I’m sold. I’ve ordered a ring and can’t wait to put it on.

If you start using a ShuziQi bracelet and experience dizziness for the first few days, don’t be alarmed. Apparently this is caused by “a “detox” in which your body is flushing out toxins in your blood stream.”

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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In November 2011, a group of "friends of ICANN" from various countries sent a letter to the Chair of ICANN's Board, expressing concern about the process used previously, and suggesting improvements.

Towards the end of 2011, the ICANN Board set up a Search Committee, chaired by George Sadowsky, and some significant improvements have been integrated into the selection process:

• In the previous round, in 2008-09, some members of the Board had self-appointed themselves to form a Search Committee, which began consultations many weeks before a Board resolution even established it. This time, proper process has been respected.

• In its previous incarnation, the Search Committee had chosen an external consultant without any semblance of a competitive bid, which was odd at a time when the whole of ICANN was gearing up to reaffirm its commitments, including being able to escape "capture" resulting from any conflict of interest. This time, the firm was selected through a call for tenders.

• In 2008-09, responsibilities were blurred between the Search Committee and the consulting firm, each doing a bit of the other's job. This time, applications from candidates are received solely by the consulting firm, which does all the vetting, due process and pre-selection, in (we are told) an independent fashion.

• Transparency has improved; for example, the profile of the CEO job was posted, and the ICANN community invited to review it.

• Previously, the job of CEO had not been advertised other than on the ICANN website, in spite of strong demands by some Board members who remarked that a lack of adequate international publicity weakened the corporation's transparency and reputation. This time, an ad was placed in a world-class weekly, attracting much attention.

In the 2nd letter to the Chair of the Board, 2 questions were raised about the way the ad was run in The Economist:

• Why was ICANN not referred to, simply, as a "not-for-profit" organization?

• Why was the usual "multi-stakeholder organization" description dropped?

Do these two notable departures from long-standing and widely accepted definitions imply that ICANN is considering a change in its identity? In his reply, the Chair of the Board answers these points.

The 2nd letter from these "friends of ICANN", and the reply from the Chair of the Board, can be viewed in full here.

Written by Jean-Jacques Subrenat, Ambassador (ret.)

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More under: ICANN

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 name. This will be possible because the domains are listed on GoDaddy auctions, and GoDaddy now shows auction listings when someone searches on its main web site.

Much like the similar deal GoDaddy has with AfternicDLS, customers will have to go through the GoDaddy Auctions shopping cart rather than the main GoDaddy checkout process in order to buy a domain name.

Also, the process does not allow for instant transfer, so domains will have to go through the standard escrow process. However, this means that you don’t have to have your domains at a SedoMLS participating registrar in order to list your domains.

Sedo will charge a 20% commission on any sale through the GoDaddy partnership.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Sedo Launches SedoMLS
2. SedoMLS Opens to All, But Limited Registrar Partners
3. GoDaddy topples Network Solutions

Sedo, today announced a new partnership with Go Daddy. Domains that are listed at Sedo with Buy Now prices are now available to Go Daddy customers through the SedoMLS Network. This partnership between two industry-leading companies gives domain investors the ability to distribute their domains at Go Daddy, and end users the chance to purchase premium names directly at Go Daddy, via the only global domain distribution network, SedoMLS.

“Go Daddy wants to help small businesses grow larger, and finding the right domain name is the place to start,” said Paul Nicks, Go Daddy’s Director of Product Development for the Aftermarket. “Giving customers access to many premium domain names, including Sedo’s Buy Now domain names, Go Daddy can ensure our customers get the best domain name for their website or business.”

Listing domains in the SedoMLS Network already gives sellers access to both Sedo’s global audience of buyers and distribution across its partner network. With the addition of Go Daddy to the SedoMLS Network, domain investors now benefit from millions of additional end users who search for names at GoDaddy.com. In addition to receiving the widest available distribution, domain buyers can also purchase any name via an uninterrupted sales process directly at Go Daddy’s site, meaning increased sales conversion for domain name sellers. For more information, go to Sedo.com/PowerUp

“Our new partnership with Go Daddy speaks to the strength of both Go Daddy’s and Sedo’s reputations worldwide,” said Tim Schumacher, CEO of Sedo. “The SedoMLS Network provides registrar partners like Go Daddy with access to premium domains that are listed at Sedo, which in turn provides their customers with more purchase choices than ever. For any domain seller, we provide the reach that connects their domain listings to the greatest number of potential buyers across the globe.”

[via Press Release]

Disclaimer: Managing DNN Editor Frank Michlick is currently working as a consultant for SedoMLS through his company DomainCocoon.

(c) 2011 DomainNameNews.com (1)

Cybersquatting is about to be criminalized in the Philippines, and you’re not going to believe the penalties.

Squatters could face six to 12 years in jail if found guilty under Senate Bill 2796, which has reportedly just been approved by the country’s Senate.

Six years is the minimum term, but the bill does allow for an alternative punishment of a 500,000 peso fine, which works out to about $12,000.

That’s 300,000 pesos more than the fine for hacking, newly criminalized by the same bill, which also carries a six-to-12-year prison sentence.

Here’s the definition of “cyber-squatting” from the bill, courtesy of BlogWatch.tv:

The acquisition of a domain name over the internet in bad faith to profit, mislead, destroy reputation, and deprive others from registering the same, if such a domain name is:

i. Similar, identical, or confusingly similar to an existing trademark registered with the appropriate government agency at the time of the domain name registration

ii. Identical or in any way similar with the name of a person other than the registrant, in case of a personal name; and

iii. Acquired without right or with intellectual property interests in it

The bill also provides prison sentences for what the local media is calling “cyber sex”, but which appears to cover internet pornography in general.

A companion bill in the House has to be approved before the law hits the statute books.

Related posts:

1. RapidShare chases cybersquatters
2. .brand TLDs still face barriers
3. Domainers get love, but no refunds for .co cybersquatters

Kevin tweeted a link to this decision earlier today and it scared me. It really did.

What’s so scary?

This part of the UDRP decision:

Complainant asserts that Respondent has failed to make an active use of the disputed domain name, constituting bad faith registration and use.  Complainant submits a printout verifying its assertion that the website is essentially inactive.  The only content included on the website is the phrase “Coming Soon” and the prominent display of Complainant’s mark.  Therefore, the Panel finds that Respondent has failed to make an active use of the disputed domain name, which is a clear example of bad faith registration and use under Policy ¶ 4(a)(iii).  See Disney Enters. Inc. v. Meyers, FA 697818 (Nat. Arb. Forum June 26, 2006) (holding that the non-use of a disputed domain name for several years constitutes bad faith registration and use under Policy ¶ 4(a)(iii); see also Am. Broad. Cos., Inc. v. Sech, FA 893427 (Nat. Arb. Forum Feb. 28, 2007) (concluding that the respondent’s failure to make active use of its domain name in the three months after its registration indicated that the respondent registered the disputed domain name in bad faith).

That sounds a lot like saying that an unused domain is being “used” in bad faith. Of course the addition of the complainant’s “mark” on the holding page might have been persuasive, but I wonder would other arbiters view the decision in the same way?

Use It Or Lose It? UDRP Hits New Low is an article from Domain Industry & Internet News - Domain Name Industry News

ICANN has really ramped up the social marketing of its new generic top-level domain program for the last few weeks, and today it started plugging new gTLDs with some Twitter advertising.

It’s bought some “Promoted Tweets”, which means some Twitter users will see a designated ICANN tweet even if they don’t already follow ICANN.

Here’s an example captured by @andrewhennigan.

The Promoted Tweets ad service is bid-based and priced on a cost-per-engagement basis, so advertisers only pay when they get a reply, retweet, follow, etc. Reportedly, there’s a $15,000 minimum commitment.

Judging by Twitter noise today, I’m guessing that today ICANN is promoting its new gTLDs Twitter chat, which is happening at 1600 UTC tomorrow with the hashtag #newgtlds.

Related posts:

1. Five amusing Twitter accounts to follow
2. Twitter registers t.co for URL shortener
3. Did Twitter pay $47,000 for Twitter.co.uk?

ARI Registry Services says it signed up 21 new generic top-level domain clients in the first week after ICANN opened the program earlier this month.

The majority were dot-brand applicants, ARI said in a press release today. It has found that dot-brands represent about 60% of all the companies expressing interest in a new gTLD.

They all signed contracts between January 12, when ICANN starting taking applications, and January 19, the registry services provider said.

A spokesperson said that ARI expects to name some of its clients “in a matter of weeks”, but it’s not clear whether this will happen before March 29 – the deadline for making your first down-payment with ICANN – when it would be of most marketing use.

In the absence of this specific positive reinforcement of its message, the company today tried some FUD instead.

CEO Adrian Kinderis is quoted:

We have clients that are still undecided about whether they should apply. They have been put off by the negativity that has been surrounding the program. There have been delays and speculation. There is also a misguided perception amongst some that they can wait until the next round to secure their brand or generic category name. My message to those clients is that there is no certainty about when there will be another round. Potential applicants need to understand that if they take a ‘wait and see’ approach, they may miss out all together.

I’m not keen on this kind of fear-based marketing, but Kinderis has a point: the timing of the second-round is currently uncertain. Based on current evidence, I think an optimistic view is 2015.

I cover the subject in some depth on DomainIncite PRO (which you simply must subscribe to, otherwise your house will burn down with all of your cats inside… oh, look, I’m doing it now.)

Related posts:

1. Exclusive: StarHub confirms dot-brand gTLD bid
2. Neustar prices .brands at $10k
3. NetNames puts gTLD.com domain to good use

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 told me the deal was brokered by Andrew Hunovice.

I can’t find any notable price comps for domain names about bowling, but this is definitely a premium domain name worthy of a six figure price.

There aren’t many premium bowling domains that aren’t in use, either. Bowling.com and BowlingBall.com already exist as e-commerce stores. Bowler.com is owned by Scott Day’s Digimedia and Bowlers.com is a parked page.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Garry Chernoff Sells MoneyLender.com for $75,000
2. Garry Chernoff Scores Again with 2 More Domain Sales
3. Gary Chernoff Sells AdNet.com for $60,000

One of the good things about Twitter is that there’s no Whois (yet), which makes it fertile ground for pseudonymous humor.

Here are the five bogus domain humor tweeters I find amusing.

No, before you ask, none of these are me. I’ve only written one thing under a fake identity since I launched DI.

@BobRecstrum

Bob tweets in-character as a “heightened” version of ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom.

He’s basically a globe-trotting narcissist hippy with delusions of grandeur and an obsessive penchant for taking panoramic iPhone photos of himself shaking hands with world leaders.

His avatar, inexplicably, is Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox.

@thereforeICANN

This account, which usually offers a satirical view of ICANN proceedings, typically peaks during its thrice-yearly public meetings.

Whoever is responsible for this account has clearly been around ICANN for a while – s/he goes to the meetings, reads the web site, and knows what’s coming before it happens.

@dns_borat

This one’s for the geeks. Imagine everyone’s favorite Kazakhstani roving reporter, but he’s a DNS administrator.

That’s pretty much it really.

@DotSucks

This account was only created in the last few days. I’d hazard a guess that it has links to the adult entertainment industry, due to the obvious anti-.xxx sentiment on display.

The premise, of course, is that new gTLDs are basically a massive shakedown. Shows promise.

(I’ll note that the first time I heard of .sucks back in 2000 when it was floated by then-chair of ICANN Esther Dyson, ironically now one of the new gTLD program’s highest-profile critics.)

@domainhumor

This one is slightly different for two reasons: 1) I know who it is. 2) He/she has not tweeted much funny stuff lately.

I follow it in the hope that this might change one day.

Related posts:

1. Twitter registers t.co for URL shortener
2. ICANN accused of Twitter faux pas over Arabic domains
3. ICANN advertises new gTLDs on Twitter

I posted a few weeks ago about how I was going to go on a diet and change my lifestyle.

Yesterday marked 3 weeks on the diet, so I posted a “status report” / “progress report” (I work in IT – you’ll have to excuse the IT-esque terminology!).

What I didn’t go into were some of metrics related to my weight loss / diet blogging.

On the technology.ie podcast Conn and I are going to be talking more and more about sharing tips and tricks with people to help improve their websites. So one of the things we thought we’d talk about was “breathing life into an old blog”. My dieting and weight loss blog isn’t the case study, but it’s still quite interesting to see how traffic etc., on there has developed over the last few weeks.

So a bit of background first.

The site had been left idle for quite some time – there hadn’t been a single update since November 2009. It was also running MovableType. Much as I love MT I’ve been moving all my blogs over to WordPress due to the phasing out of MT development and also it’s a lot easier to get a WP based site tweaked quickly and easily.

So I migrated the existing content over to a fresh WP install and gave it a “new coat of paint” with a relatively simple theme from Woothemes. James had done a logo for the old site a couple of years ago, but it had never been used, so he updated it slightly and that gave the site a slightly more “professional” look.

I’ve had Google Analytics tracking set up since the beginning, so it was simply a matter of adding the correct code into the theme’s options (it supports it “out of the box”).

I hadn’t had Feedburner configured for the RSS feed for some odd reason, so that was rectified.

In terms of RSS traffic the numbers aren’t exactly stellar, but they’re growing:

NB: feedburner wasn't setup before January 2012

What about web traffic?

fat.ie Google analytics stats January 2012

You can click to enlarge the graphic, but the basic metric to note is that since I started posting on there more regularly ie. practically every day, since the beginning of the month the traffic has been going up. I’m cross-posting and sharing the posts on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, which is driving some of the visitors, but there’s also a few that are following it via RSS, or simply following it without subscribing.

I’m tracking the site’s “progress” using multiple tools, but the obvious “take away” is that the more fresh content you produce the more traffic you’ll get.

Another one of my sites, for example, has been left on “auto pilot” for the last couple of months and the traffic has dropped quite a bit as a result. There is “fresh” content on there practically every single day, but it’s not original, so the search engines aren’t giving it much “weight”, which makes sense.

Captain Obvious Says Blogging Regularly Gets Traffic is an article from Michele Neylon :: Pensieri - Technology, Marketing, Domains, Thoughts

My mail server has a lot of spamtraps. They come from various sources, but one of the most prolific is bad addresses in personal domains. Several of my users have their own domains, such as my own johnlevine.com, in which they use a handful of addresses. Those addresses tend either to be people's first names, for individual mailboxes, or else the names of companies. If I did business with Verizon (which I do not) I might give them an address like verizon@johnlevine.com. All those domains get mail to lots of other addresses, which is 100% spam.

The made up addresses are largely dictionary attacks, which is obvious when I see sequential spam to barry@, betsy@, and bruno@. Some of them are company addresses that leaked to spammers before the companies went out of business years ago. And some are just mysteries.

My friend Bob Frankston has had his own vanity domain since 1992, which gets a lot of spam to spamtrap addresses. I automatically diagnose and send off abuse reports for a lot of it. Today I got a hand written response to one of them from a database marketing company in Florida. It said, in part:

This email resolves to a master record for [a name and address of a guy in Pennsylvania].

The recorded was added to the client's file on 11/12/2002 per a trip preference card that was sent to the postal address listed above. The trip preference card asks where someone would like to travel, and for their email address to be sent notifications.

If [that address] had changed their mind about receiving emails, we diligently suppress/remove opt outs. However, I do not see that email in our suppression, opt out, or feedback loops.

That wasn't too surprising, I've gotten other mail to that spamtrap from other spammers who gave me the same guy in Pennsylvania, who has no relation to Bob, and it's barely possible that someone could have scribbled something on a postcard that might have been mistranscribed as the spamtrap address, although the name of the alleged subscriber has no visible connection to the spamtrap address either. It's certainly plausible that once someone had the bad info, they sold it to lots of other marketers.

But two things jumped out at me. The first is the date, 2002. They've been spamming this address for ten years. Since it is a spamtrap, it has never responded, never ordered anything, never "opened" a message (ESP-speak for fetching the URLs in the message.) But they keep pumping out the mail anyway. The competent ESPs I know all purge their lists of dead addresses eventually, certainly in a lot less than ten years.

The other is the inability to imagine that every address in their crummy database isn't a live potential customer. This address never "changed their mind" because it doesn't have a mind. It's a spamtrap. It sends no mail, and it won't opt out because it never opted in.

I wish this situation were atypical, but it's not. If the putatively legitimate e-mail marketing industry wanted to understand why they've earned such a poor reputation, it wouldn't be hard to figure out.

Fun fact: Bob's last name happens to be the name of a town in Australia. Someone there has misconfigured one of their systems to send status reports with personal information about their clients to yet another made up address in Bob's domain, which I expect is totally illegal under Australian privacy law. I haven't been able to stop that, either.

Written by John Levine, Author, Consultant & Speaker

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More under: Spam

In a blog post today, Michael Geist writes: "The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. and elsewhere (mounting Canadian concern that Bill C-11 could be amended to adopt SOPA-like rules), but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia). This has generated a flurry of furious protest..."

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More under: Access Providers, Censorship, Internet Governance, Law, Policy & Regulation

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 available for somewhere between $100,000 and $250,000.

Bargain.com is owned by FYI Direct, the company behind credit score monitoring site FreeScore.com.

Democracy.com should be interesting given the elections this year. It’s probably best for a think tank.

A number of the other high dollar domains are owned by CA.

Moniker’s last big auction resulted in the multi-million dollar sales of Social.com and Data.com, although neither were sold during the main auction. Salesforce.com paid $4.5 million for Data.com, which it uses for its Jigsaw.com product.

The live auction takes place Thursday, February 2 from 4:30 to 6:00 pm PST. The follow on internet auction at SnapNames will go through February 16. The extended online auction includes 250 domain names in addition to any names that don’t sell in the live auction.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Moniker Trims Silent Auction List for TRAFFIC Auction
2. Moniker Releases Partial Domain Name Auction List
3. Moniker Releases Initial TRAFFIC Domain Name Auction List

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 page.

The site will offer “everything for your home”, including kitchenware, bedding, home decor, bathroom accessories, etc. Keeping with Quidsi’s tradition, it will offer 1-2 day free delivery. It will also have a 365 day return policy including free return shipping.

Quidsi quickly grew its Diapers.com business into an ecommerce giant, scaring Amazon.com into buying it for $545 million in 2010.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Amazon’s Quidsi appears to be working on Casa.com
2. Amazon.com Company Quidsi Launches YoYo.com
3. Diapers.com Parent Ready to Launch Soap.com

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 applications has ballooned as ICANN gets ready to expand the TLD universe. I discovered that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was doing a good job catching these applications.

One application that the USPTO may have missed was Karsten Manufacturing’s application for .PING. Karsten manufacturers the PING Golf brand of merchandise.

The USPTO approved the mark for publication on January 17. But today it sent an office action to Karsten because of the top level domain issue.

Karsten can certainly apply for a .ping top level domain — but it can’t try to trademark it under current rules. I can also think of other uses for a .ping TLD, so don’t be shocked if you see more than one application for this domain.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Ping Golf Considers .Ping Top Level Domain Name
2. USPTO wising up to new TLD frontrunning
3. 115 Top level domain trademarks and their current status

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 Expert” session during the conference.

Although I’m sure there will be other opportunities to chat with these experts, there are still a number of good options available under the program. Both Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow, co-presidents of Oversee.net, still have space available at their tables.

The dining options take place primarily during lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, although there are also some available breakfast slots.

© DomainNameWire.com 2011.

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Related posts:

1. Dine With an Expert at DOMAINfest, But Frank Schilling is Booked
2. DOMAINfest Brings Back “Dine with an Expert”
3. DOMAINfest brings back “Dine With an Expert”