Domain Sales

On April 28-30, 2010, geodomain owners from across the world will get together in New Orleans, Louisiana to network and discuss their unique trade at Geodomain Expo 2010. Often confused with ccTLDs, geodomains are domains of any extension that refer to a particular geographic area. Examples include England.co.uk and NewYork.com. …

The lesson here is: never mess with people who can build anything they want out of tiny little colored blocks. The respondent, Giocchino Zerbo of Italy now knows that all too well. He registered two domain names: legogames.com and wwwlegos.com. Surely he knew this would cause him trouble, but maybe …

For years Cameroon’s government leased out the .cm domain to Agoga.com. Because .cm is a common typo of .com, the company set up a system where if you entered any address ending with .cm, it took you to a webpage filled with ads. Agoga made millions from this deal, profiting …

Yahoo recently launched a new service called Search Pad, a free tool designed for researchers that lets you track and organize sites found on Yahoo Search. In a blunder similar to when Pizza Hut launched a new brand and failed to acquire the relevant domains, Yahoo launched its new product …

Sex sells, but apparently religion does, too. In a stark constrast to all the gambling and adult domain auctions that make the news, rosary.com sold for £48,388 ($78,088 USD yesterday). The seller is thought to be Adam Dicker, who owns a number of high-profile domains, including download.net. sm.com, and planets.com. …

In an apparent effort to preempt cybersquatters, the Australian state of Queensland has registered 38 domain names containing various government references. Among the stranger ones is queensland-the-dumb-state.com. Other domains include government programs like the state’s 150th anniversary celebration and the Liberal National Party. This raises some interesting questions. On some …

A number of domain auctions took place this week. While no records were set, two names- horseracing.co.uk and onlinecasino.co.uk- sold for £100,000. Gambling-related names are always big hits on the auction block. Other sales include: GetARoom.com- £18,442 ($30,000 USD) black-jack.com- £15,369 ($25,000 USD) headboards.co.uk- £5,865 ($9,541 USD) tax.eu- £7,702 ($12,530 …

With the economy at rock-bottom, stock prices have fallen dramatically over the last year. One might expect domains to follow a similar trend, however, the average auction price for a name has increased– from £1,282 last year to £1,757! This year has also seen quite a few high-price domain sales, …

When registering a domain, it is often best to keep the name as short and simple as possible. For the residents of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a village on an island in Wales, this wasn’t an option. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com is Welsh for “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees …

ICANN is no newcomer to criticism and flak. Today, it had to defend itself from another attack: excess travel spending. This year, ICANN has budgeted £7.68 ($12.48 million USD) out of its £33.46 ($54.37 million USD) budget for travel. For an organization that holds only three international meetings a year, …