Domain-Guides

The race is on to get your own Internet domain International Herald Tribune, France - 1 hour ago A "generic top-level domain" is essentially the label for the letters that come after the dot in an Internet name. Dot-com is the most celebrated, .

When Internet regulators started gathering in the French capital last week for a global conference that starts here Monday, the marquee event was a quirky catwalk for cities and regions competing for domain names like .berlin, .paris, .quebec and even .cat - for Catalonia. The mighty dot, New York City boosters said, could transform the metropolis into "the master of its future," with a .nyc label helping to build "trust, justice and civic pride." Berlin supporters insisted that a super-dot would establish the city's global reputation. Super or not, officials at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - the main oversight agency for the underpinnings of the Internet - said they were poised to bring the most dramatic change to the Internet in four decades by opening up domain names to endless variations. "We're talking about introducing potentially thousands more names," said Paul Levins, executive officer of Icann, the California-based nonprofit company that is the host of the Paris conference, which has drawn more than 1,300 delegates from 130 countries. "The addressing system hasn't fundamentally changed since its invention. These changes have the potential to have a huge impact on the way we express ourselves on the Net." A "generic top-level domain" is essentially the label for the letters that come after the dot in an Internet name. Dot-com is the most celebrated, but the handful of existing domains range from .asia and .travel to .biz, .info and .mobi. After debating the system for years, Icann's board is poised to vote on whether to set up the broad criteria for approving new domain names with limitless possibilities. It would allow companies to turn their own brands into domains or to create broad product groups such as .car, .sports or .bank - all candidates for dots. Ebay is already a contender to use its name, according to Levins, who added, "You can imagine the branding opportunities." If, as expected, the 21-member international board adopts a new system, the vote would set in motion a process that eventually would start to open up the Internet to hundreds of new names by the beginning of next year. With the current system, some inventive cities and companies have already maneuvered to virtually seize their own domains. Many Los Angeles companies adopted the .la label for Laos while Bavarian government agencies in Germany registered .by from Belarus, part of the former Soviet Republic. The tiny nations of Tuvalu (.tv) and the federated states of Micronesia (.fm) have also ceded their domains to media companies, reaping millions of dollars in licensing fees from third-party registrars that are not connected to the countries. But other cities do not want to borrow from obscure republics. The city of New York has been angling for its own dot since 2001, but most domain candidates agree that Berlin appears to be moving the furthest. A separate company, called dot-Berlin, was formed to campaign for a domain, and it has signed up nearly a dozen corporate sponsors, from the Grand Hyatt hotel to Lotto Berlin and the local yellow pages publisher. "We saw there was a growing need in countries like Germany with very dense and complicated names," said Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek, a spokesman for the company, which has three employees. "There is a need for significant and easy-to-remember and intuitive addresses." The pressure to open up the system to allow more choices comes at a time when the Internet's addresses are rapidly being depleted with the explosion of computers and devices that connect to it. By last autumn, Icann estimated that only 17 percent of an available pool of 4 billion network addresses remained, and they are expected to run out in the next five years. While passage of the plan is expected, some opponents say the new system would create bureaucratic headaches for companies fending off people seeking to create new domains that infringe on their trademarks. At its meeting this week, Icann is also promoting an additional, number-based address system, IPv6, which could add trillions of new addresses. But international adoption of the new standards has been slow, in part because of the costs of switching and concerns that the new technical standard will make it easier for governments or companies to track what individuals are doing on the Internet. In preparation to dazzle Internet regulators, a number of the city and regional candidates for domain names met together on Friday for what was billed as the "2008 Top Level Domain Catwalk" to try to persuade any doubters about the benefits of opening up the naming system. "It's better to have a community," said Sébastien Bachollet, who is leading the .paris campaign, which started last May. "If you have a dedicated population for .paris, it will help people to understand what they're using and how to use it." The Paris project is in its infancy and trying to enlist financial backers, while the Berlin project has raised almost €1 million from sponsors. Many other cities estimate that they will need about that amount to negotiate through the bureaucratic process. Other organizers in New York and Hamburg have created nonprofit groups in a bid to build community support for the names. The application fee for a domain name under the proposed system has not been set, but candidates estimate that it could range from €25,000 to €250,000, or about $39,000 to $390,000. Icann is also prepared to set up an auction system if competing groups bid for the same name. Private companies would reap their profit by selling the domain names to registrars, which would then sell them to individual customers. Icann is also setting up standards that would allow the regulator to reject applications from people who try to grab trademarked names or to rebuff proposals on moral grounds or because of community objections. "They've discussed scenarios where someone wants to have .football and how to cope with it if it means soccer or football. And they've also talked about what happens if someone proposes .jihad," said Lenz-Hawliczek, from the Berlin project. "It's a really complex issue, and we've been discussing it for the past three years. It's not easy." The Berlin company has learned that lesson through hard experience. Last year, some politicians raised questions about protecting their own site, Berlin.de, because they did not want to compete with a .berlin portal. Those are some of the same delicate issues that organizers are facing in other cities when they approach officials for their blessings.

Tags: Domain Industry by domain - Google News
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One Word Domain Name Sales Reach Record Levels PR.com (press release), NY - 42 minutes ago Due to outrageous prices being fetched by 1 word domain names, a new market has emerged surrounding 2 and 3 word .com extensions. Phoenix, AZ, June 11, ...

In April, pizza.com sold for 2.6 million, not to be outdone by fund.com fetching a record $10 million in May by broker Clek Media. Due to record prices being fetched for these 1 word domain names, a new market is emerging for multiple word extensions. Industry giants ArrowBranding.com & HugeDomains.com are seeing record sales for their 2 and 3 word domains. Analysts believe that most decent 2 word domains will be gobbled up by the end of the decade. Clek believes that the nearly $10 million purchase price for fund.com represents the highest price ever paid for an Internet domain. The purchase price tops what the Guinness World Records books report as the highest previous price, the memorable business.com purchase. Ex-Disney executive, Jake Winebaum of eCompanies Ventures, acquired business.com for $7.5 million in 1999, which created some public media controversy at that time for the seemingly high price. However, in July 2007 business.com was sold to yellow pages publisher, RH Donnelly, for $345 million, 47 times the purchase price of the domain. Business and Wall Street investors continue to assign higher values to internet domains. According to MSNBC, the domain creditcards.com was acquired for $2.75 million all-cash and SEC filings reveal that the $20 billion hedge fund, American Capital Strategies, and Austin Ventures invested $135 million in creditcards.com. Regarding the creditcards.com sale, MSNBC quoted ClickSuccess CEO Dan Smith, “It’s like prime real estate, there’s only so much of this real estate to go around. I feel like we bought a slice of Park Avenue.” Have a 2 or 3 word domain you've been holding onto? Now may be the time to cash in.

Tags: Domain Industry, News by domain - Google News
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Good Evening Folks,

A year ago I decided to write a book. 75 posts later, that book is done. It resides right here. 75 posts (Chapters) most of which are aimed at the corporate and investment world along with the domain industry as well as other trailblazers. Free for the reading. I hope someday it is read by folks on Main Street to Wall Street who can TRANSFORM their businesses if they can figure out just how EASY it is to harness the power of the Internet. The posts are aimed at folks at every level. As I have said for many years, there are countless ways to climb this mountain, this was my path and this is my vision based on my path. A 20 year plan. A plan based on timing. That success or failure has a lot to do with timing. Sometimes timing is everything. So with that in mind, it is TIME to do other things. Whatever I can say has been said. It is here. It is on eRealEstate.com and it is on TargetedTraffic.com. Now the time that I have always shared has to be devoted to other challenges and other projects. The first of which opens today at Property.com. Others will soon follow. Time to allocate my time in a new way. The industry is maturing and splintering and becoming more serious and becoming more desperate. So the dynamics of the cottage industry that gave birth to what we do is no more. The orbit has gone to higher levels. Those in other orbits have to work hard to escape the gravity of whatever orbit they are currently in to move to the next level. The safety of mediocrity has to be overcome by the challenge of what the future promises.

Have a GREAT spring and hope to see everyone in Orlando at the next TRAFFIC this May and in New York City in September. For any further thoughts, just read my previous post..

Rick Schwartz.

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Tags: Domain Industry by admin
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Inspired by last year’s $20,000 success, Domain Roundtable is back at it again! So, get ready to press your luck Saturday, April 19 as you are invited to Gamble for Good at the Domain Roundtable Conference.

For the event, DRT has teamed up with TrafficZ and Grassroots.org to give attendees exclusive access to Club 443, San Francisco’s hottest nighttime spot. With a full open bar, craps, cards, roulette, and music by San Francisco’s favorite DJ Matteo, guests can get down to some risky business without chancing a loss.

No, at Gamble for Good, you can’t lose. We’re proud to say that all proceeds from the evening go directly to Grassroots.org, the tech industry’s leading charity organization. Grassroots.org is a national nonprofit campaign which seeks to empower charity organizations, and help them reach their financial and philanthropic goals, via current technology, savvy web-based marketing innovation, and a focused network of similar supportive web sites and organizations.

Casino games and raffles will be provided. Prize packages, totaling nearly $10,000 so far, include:

• One year of VO1000 Phone.com Subscriptions ($39.88 per month value)

• 20 hours of SEO consulting from SEO.com (value of $5000)

• One-year DomainTools.com Gold Membership (valued at $292)

• Domain Roundtable Future Conference registration (valued at $1000)

• 20 hours of web design by Graphics.net ($2000 value)

• Black Sabbath autographed CD ($150 value)
  

• Shania Twain autographed lyrics (value of $100)

• Rick Reilly autographed books ($60 each, $200 for collection)

Also, any attendees who register on or before Friday, April 17th will be recognized on the Grassroots.org website with a text-based link!

Domain Roundtable and Grassroots.org offer special thanks go to TrafficZ for sponsoring this event. Founded in 2001, TrafficZ is one of the oldest and most experienced domain parking and traffic monetization services in business today. Since its inception, TrafficZ has remained at the forefront of the domain industry, driven by an unyielding dedication to provide innovative products, cutting-edge technology, unparalleled service and best-in-class monetization. Widely regarded as a pioneering force, TrafficZ continually strives to maximize the potential of each and every domain asset by identifying its highest and best use and extracting maximum value for its clients. TrafficZ partners enjoy unsurpassed customer service, a renowned templating system, near-limitless customization options, dynamic and flexible content management solutions, SEO functionality, advanced auto-optimization technology, a comprehensive suite of domain analytics and, last but not least, industry-leading payouts.

So, play cards, place some bets, win prizes, make a difference in the world!

Interested in donating prizes or funds? Please contact support@grassroots.org for details.

For more information on registration or donations, please visit: http://www.domainroundtable.com/2008/gambleforgood

Betting on change,

The Domain Roundtable Team

Tags: Domain Industry by admin
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Tags: Domain Industry by admin
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